FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   >>  
it fell far behind, just by the cab containing Gogol; and in faint hope of a clue or for some impulse unexplainable, he stopped his cab so as to pick it up. It was addressed to himself, and was quite a bulky parcel. On examination, however, its bulk was found to consist of thirty-three pieces of paper of no value wrapped one round the other. When the last covering was torn away it reduced itself to a small slip of paper, on which was written:-- "The word, I fancy, should be 'pink'." The man once known as Gogol said nothing, but the movements of his hands and feet were like those of a man urging a horse to renewed efforts. Through street after street, through district after district, went the prodigy of the flying elephant, calling crowds to every window, and driving the traffic left and right. And still through all this insane publicity the three cabs toiled after it, until they came to be regarded as part of a procession, and perhaps the advertisement of a circus. They went at such a rate that distances were shortened beyond belief, and Syme saw the Albert Hall in Kensington when he thought that he was still in Paddington. The animal's pace was even more fast and free through the empty, aristocratic streets of South Kensington, and he finally headed towards that part of the sky-line where the enormous Wheel of Earl's Court stood up in the sky. The wheel grew larger and larger, till it filled heaven like the wheel of stars. The beast outstripped the cabs. They lost him round several corners, and when they came to one of the gates of the Earl's Court Exhibition they found themselves finally blocked. In front of them was an enormous crowd; in the midst of it was an enormous elephant, heaving and shuddering as such shapeless creatures do. But the President had disappeared. "Where has he gone to?" asked Syme, slipping to the ground. "Gentleman rushed into the Exhibition, sir!" said an official in a dazed manner. Then he added in an injured voice: "Funny gentleman, sir. Asked me to hold his horse, and gave me this." He held out with distaste a piece of folded paper, addressed: "To the Secretary of the Central Anarchist Council." The Secretary, raging, rent it open, and found written inside it:-- "When the herring runs a mile, Let the Secretary smile; When the herring tries to fly, Let the Secretary die. Rustic Proverb." "Why the eternal crikey," began the Secretary,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139  
140   >>  



Top keywords:
Secretary
 

enormous

 

street

 

written

 

larger

 
district
 
finally
 

herring

 
Kensington
 

addressed


Exhibition

 

elephant

 
blocked
 

heaving

 
headed
 

aristocratic

 
streets
 
filled
 

corners

 

outstripped


heaven

 

slipping

 

Central

 

Anarchist

 

Council

 

raging

 

folded

 

distaste

 

inside

 

Proverb


eternal

 
crikey
 

Rustic

 

disappeared

 

creatures

 
shapeless
 

President

 
ground
 

Gentleman

 
injured

gentleman
 

rushed

 
official
 
manner
 

shuddering

 

circus

 
wrapped
 

covering

 
pieces
 

consist