has spoken due reflection. The cable runs along the
solid foundation of the bed of the sea. It is a simple matter,
comparatively, but a trolley-wire stretched across the ocean by the
simplest rules of gravitation could not be made to stay up."

"No doubt you are correct," said Mr. Whitechoker, meekly. "I did not
mean that I expected ever to see a trolley-road across the sea, but I
did mean to say that man has made such wonderful advances in the past
hundred years that we cannot really state the limit of his
possibilities. It is manifest that no one to-day can devise a plan by
means of which such a wire could be carried, but--"

"I fear you gentlemen would starve as inventors," said the Idiot.
"What's the matter with balloons?"

"Balloons for what?" retorted Mr. Pedagog.

"For holding up the trolley-wires," replied the Idiot. "It is perfectly
feasible. Fasten the ends of your wire in London and New York, and from
coast to coast station two lines of sufficient strength to keep the wire
raised as far above the level of the sea as you require. That's simple
enough."

"And what, pray, in this frenzy of the elements, this raging storm of
which you have spoken," said Mr. Pedagog, impatiently--"what would then
keep your balloons from blowing away?"

"The trolley-wire, of course," said the Idiot. Mr. Pedagog lapsed into a
hopelessly wrathful silence for a moment, and then he said:

"Well, I sincerely hope your plan is adopted, and that the promoters
will make you superintendent, with an office in the mid-ocean balloon."

"Thanks for your good wishes, Mr. Pedagog," the Idiot answered. "If they
are realized I shall remember them, and show my gratitude to you by
using my influence to have you put in charge of the gas service.
Meantime, however, it seems to me that our ocean steamships could be
developed along logical lines so that the trip from New York to
Liverpool could be made in a very much shorter period of time than is
now required."

"We are getting back to the common-sense again," said the Bibliomaniac.
"That is a proposition to which I agree. Ten years ago eight days was
considered a good trip. With the development of the twin-screw steamer
the time has been reduced to approximately six days."

"Or a saving, really, of two days because of the extra screw," said the
Idiot.

"Precisely," observed the Bibliomaniac.

"So that, provided there are extra screws enough, there isn't any reason
why the trip should not