rong, and all gyroscope patents are wrong, and if I'm right, by George,
I'm first in the field. That's so, isn't it?" he appealed to Kennedy.

Kennedy shrugged his shoulders non-committally, as if he had never
heard of the patent office or the gyroscope in his life. The men were
listening, whether or not from loyalty I could not tell.

"Let us see your gyroplane, I mean aeroscope--whatever it is you call
it," asked Kennedy.

Norton took the cue. "Now you newspaper men are the first that I've
allowed in here," he said. "Can I trust your word of honour not to
publish a line except such as I O.K. after you write it?"

We promised.

As Norton directed, the mechanicians wheeled the aeroplane out on the
field in front of the shed. No one was about.

"Now this is the gyroscope," began Norton, pointing out a thing encased
in an aluminum sheath, which weighed, all told, perhaps fourteen or
fifteen pounds. "You see, the gyroscope is really a flywheel mounted
on gimbals and can turn on any of its angles so that it can assume any
angle in space. When it's at rest like this you can turn it easily. But
when set revolving it tends to persist always in the plane in which it
was started rotating."

I took hold of it, and it did turn readily in any direction. I could
feel the heavy little flywheel inside.

"There is a pretty high vacuum in that aluminum case," went on Norton.
"There's very little friction on that account. The power to rotate the
flywheel is obtained from this little dynamo here, run by the gas-engine
which also turns the propellers of the aeroplane."

"But suppose the engine stops, how about the gyroscope?" I asked
sceptically.

"It will go right on for several minutes. You know, the Brennan monorail
car will stand up some time after the power is shut off. And I carry a
small storage-battery that will run it for some time, too. That's all
been guarded against."

Jaurette cranked the engine, a seven-cylindered affair, with the
cylinders sticking out like the spokes of a wheel without a rim. The
propellers turned so fast that I could not see the blades--turned
with that strong, steady, fierce droning buzz that can be heard a long
distance and which is a thrilling sound to hear. Norton reached over and
attached the little dynamo, at the same time setting the gyroscope at
its proper angle and starting it.

"This is the mechanical brain of my new flier," he remarked, patting the
aluminum case lovingly. "You can