“Perfectly!” cried Rob, taking the machine from the Demon with unfeigned delight. “This is really wonderful, and I’m awfully obliged to you!”
“Don’t mention it,” returned the Demon, dryly. “These three gifts you may amuse yourself with for the next week. It seems hard to entrust such great scientific discoveries to the discretion of a mere boy; but they are quite harmless, so if you exercise proper care you can not get into trouble through their possession. And who knows what benefits to humanity may result? One week from to-day, at this hour, I will again appear to you, at which time you shall receive the second series of electrical gifts.”
“I’m not sure,” said Rob, “that I shall be able again to make the connections that will strike the Master Key.”
“Probably not,” answered the Demon. “Could you accomplish that, you might command my services forever. But, having once succeeded, you are entitled to the nine gifts — three each week for three weeks — so you have no need to call me to do my duty. I shall appear of my own accord.”
“Thank you,” murmured the boy.
The Demon bowed and spread his hands in the form of a semi-circle. An instant later there was a blinding flash, and when Rob recovered from it and opened his eyes the Demon of Electricity had disappeared.
4. Testing the Instruments
There is little doubt that this strange experience befallen a grown man he would have been stricken with a fit of trembling or a sense of apprehension, or even fear, at the thought of having faced the terrible Demon of Electricity, of having struck the Master Key of the world’s greatest natural forces, and finding himself possessed of three such wonderful and useful gifts. But a boy takes everything as a matter of course. As the tree of knowledge sprouts and expands within him, shooting out leaf after leaf of practical experience, the succession of surprises dulls his faculty of wonderment. It takes a great deal to startle a boy.
Rob was full of delight at his unexpected good fortune; but he did not stop to consider that there was anything remarkably queer or uncanny in the manner in which it had come to him. His chief sensation was one of pride. He would now be able to surprise those who had made fun of his electrical craze and force them to respect his marvelous powers. He decided to say nothing about the Demon or the accidental striking of the Master Key. In exhibiting to his friends the electrical devices he had acquired it would be “no end of fun” to mark their amazement and leave them to guess how he performed his feats.
So he put his treasures into his pocket, locked his workshop and went downstairs to his room to prepare for dinner.
While brushing his hair he remembered it was no longer necessary for him to eat ordinary food. He was feeling quite hungry at that moment, for he had a boy’s ravenous appetite; but, taking the silver box from his pocket, he swallowed a tablet and at once felt his hunger as fully satisfied as if he had partaken of a hearty meal, while at the same time he experienced an exhilarating glow throughout his body and a clearness of brain and gaiety of spirits which filled him with intense gratification.
Still, he entered the dining-room when the bell rang and found his father and mother and sisters already assembled there.
“Where have you been all day, Robert?” inquired his mother.
“No need to ask,” said Mr. Joslyn, with a laugh. “Fussing over electricity, I’ll bet a cookie!”
“I do wish,” said the mother, fretfully, “that he would get over that mania. It unfits him for anything else.”
“Precisely,” returned her husband, dishing the soup; “but it fits him for a great career when he becomes a man. Why shouldn’t he spend his summer vacation in pursuit of useful knowledge instead of romping around like ordinary boys?”
“No soup, thank you,” said Rob.
“What!” exclaimed his father, looking at him in surprise, “it’s your favorite soup.”
“I know,” said Rob, quietly, “but I don’t want any.”
“Are you ill, Robert?” asked his mother.
“Never felt better in my life,” answered Rob, truthfully.
Yet Mrs. Joslyn looked worried, and when Rob refused the roast, she was really shocked.
“Let me feel your pulse, my poor boy!” she commanded, and wondered to find it so regular.
In fact, Rob’s action surprised them all. He sat calmly throughout the meal, eating nothing, but apparently in good health and spirits, while even his sisters regarded him with troubled countenances.
“He’s worked too hard, I guess,” said Mr. Joslyn, shaking his head sadly.
“Oh, no; I haven’t,” protested Rob; “but I’ve decided not to eat anything, hereafter. It’s a bad habit, and does more harm than good.”
“Wait till breakfast,” said sister Helen, with a laugh; “you’ll be hungry enough by that time.”
However, the boy had no desire for food at breakfast time, either, as the tablet sufficed for an entire day. So he renewed the anxiety of the family by refusing to join them at the table.
“If this goes on,” Mr Joslyn said to his son, when breakfast was finished, “I shall be obliged to send you away for your health.”
“I think of making a trip this morning,” said Rob, carelessly.
“Where to?”
“Oh, I may go to Boston, or take a run over to Cuba or Jamaica,” replied the boy.
“But you can not go so far by yourself,” declared his father; “and there is no one to go with you, just now. Nor can I spare the money at present for so expensive a trip.”
“Oh, it won’t cost anything,” replied Rob, with a smile.
Mr. Joslyn looked upon him gravely and sighed. Mrs. Joslyn bent over her son with tears in her eyes and said:
“This electrical nonsense has affected your mind, dear. You must promise me to keep away from that horrid workshop for a time.”
“I won’t enter it for a week,” he answered. “But you needn’t worry about me. I haven’t been experimenting with electricity all this time for nothing, I can tell you. As for my health, I’m as well and strong as any boy need be, and there’s nothing wrong with my head, either. Common folks always think great men are crazy, but Edison and Tesla and I don’t pay any attention to that. We’ve got our discoveries to look after. Now, as I said, I’m going for a little trip in the interests of science. I may be back to-night, or I may be gone several days. Anyhow, I’ll be back in a week, and you mustn’t worry about me a single minute.”
“How are you going?” inquired his father, in the gentle, soothing tone persons use in addressing maniacs.
“Through the air,” said Rob.
His father groaned.
“Where’s your balloon?” inquired sister Mabel, sarcastically.
“I don’t need a balloon,” returned the boy. “That’s a clumsy way of traveling, at best. I shall go by electric propulsion.”
“Good gracious!” cried Mr. Joslyn, and the mother murmured: “My poor boy! my poor boy!”
“As you are my nearest relatives,” continued Rob, not noticing these exclamations, “I will allow you to come into the back yard and see me start. You will then understand something of my electrical powers.”
They followed him at once, although with unbelieving faces, and on the way Rob clasped the little machine to his left wrist, so that his coat sleeve nearly hid it.
When they reached the lawn at the back of the house Rob kissed them all good-by, much to his sisters’ amusement, and turned the indicator of the little instrument to the word “up.”
Immediately he began to rise into the air.
“Don’t worry about me!” he called down to them. “Good-by!”
Mrs. Joslyn, with a scream of terror, hid her face in her hands.
“He’ll break his neck!” cried the astounded father, tipping back his head to look after his departing son.
“Come back! Come back!” shouted the girls to the soaring adventurer.
“I will — some day!” was the far-away answer.
Having ri
sen high enough to pass over the tallest tree or steeple, Rob put the indicator to the east of the compass-dial and at once began moving rapidly in that direction.
The sensation was delightful. He rode as gently as a feather floats, without any exertion at all on his own part; yet he moved so swiftly that he easily distanced a railway train that was speeding in the same direction.
“This is great!” reflected the youth. “Here I am, traveling in fine style, without a penny to pay any one! And I’ve enough food to last me a month in my coat pocket. This electricity is the proper stuff, after all! And the Demon’s a trump, and no mistake. Whee-ee! How small everything looks down below there. The people are bugs, and the houses are soap-boxes, and the trees are like clumps of grass. I seem to be passing over a town. Guess I’ll drop down a bit, and take in the sights.”
He pointed the indicator to the word “down,” and at once began dropping through the air. He experienced the sensation one feels while descending in an elevator. When he reached a point just above the town he put the indicator to the zero mark and remained stationary, while he examined the place. But there was nothing to interest him, particularly; so after a brief survey he once more ascended and continued his journey toward the east.
At about two o’clock in the afternoon he reached the city of Boston, and alighting unobserved in a quiet street he walked around for several hours enjoying the sights and wondering what people would think of him if they but knew his remarkable powers. But as he looked just like any other boy no one noticed him in any way.
It was nearly evening, and Rob had wandered down by the wharves to look at the shipping, when his attention was called to an ugly looking bull dog, which ran toward him and began barking ferociously.
“Get out!” said the boy, carelessly, and made a kick at the brute.
The dog uttered a fierce growl and sprang upon him with bared teeth and flashing red eyes. Instantly Rob drew the electric tube from his pocket, pointed it at the dog and pressed the button. Almost at the same moment the dog gave a yelp, rolled over once or twice and lay still.
“I guess that’ll settle him,” laughed the boy; but just then he heard an angry shout, and looking around saw a policeman running toward him.
“Kill me dog, will ye — eh?” yelled the officer; “well, I’ll just run ye in for that same, an’ ye’ll spend the night in the lockup!” And on he came, with drawn club in one hand and a big revolver in the other.
“You’ll have to catch me first,” said Rob, still laughing, and to the amazement of the policeman he began rising straight into the air.
“Come down here! Come down, or I’ll shoot!” shouted the fellow, flourishing his revolver.
Rob was afraid he would; so, to avoid accidents, he pointed the tube at him and pressed the button. The red-whiskered policeman keeled over quite gracefully and fell across the body of the dog, while Rob continued to mount upward until he was out of sight of those in the streets.
“That was a narrow escape,” he thought, breathing more freely. “I hated to paralyze that policeman, but he might have sent a bullet after me. Anyhow, he’ll be all right again in an hour, so I needn’t worry.”
It was beginning to grow dark, and he wondered what he should do next. Had he possessed any money he would have descended to the town and taken a bed at a hotel, but he had left home without a single penny. Fortunately the nights were warm at this season, so he determined to travel all night, that he might reach by morning some place he had never before visited.
Cuba had always interested him, and he judged it ought to lie in a southeasterly direction from Boston. So he set the indicator to that point and began gliding swiftly toward the southeast.
He now remembered that it was twenty-four hours since he had eaten the first electrical tablet. As he rode through the air he consumed another. All hunger at once left him, while he felt the same invigorating sensations as before.
After a time the moon came out, and Rob amused himself gazing at the countless stars in the sky and wondering if the Demon was right when he said the world was the most important of all the planets.
But presently he grew sleepy, and before he realized what was happening he had fallen into a sound and peaceful slumber, while the indicator still pointed to the southeast and he continued to move rapidly through the cool night air.
5. The Cannibal Island
Doubtless the adventures of the day had tired Rob, for he slept throughout the night as comfortably as if he had been within his own room, lying upon his own bed. When, at last, he opened his eyes and gazed sleepily about him, he found himself over a great body of water, moving along with considerable speed.
“It’s the ocean, of course,” he said to himself. “I haven’t reached Cuba yet.”
It is to be regretted that Rob’s knowledge of geography was so superficial; for, as he had intended to reach Cuba, he should have taken a course almost southwest from Boston, instead of southeast. The sad result of his ignorance you will presently learn, for during the entire day he continued to travel over a boundless waste of ocean, without the sight of even an island to cheer him.
The sun shone so hot that he regretted he had not brought an umbrella. But he wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, which protected him somewhat, and he finally discovered that by rising to a considerable distance above the ocean he avoided the reflection of the sun upon the water and also came with the current of good breeze.
Of course he dared no stop, for there was no place to land; so he calmly continued his journey.
“It may be I’ve missed Cuba,” he thought; “but I can not change my course now, for if I did I might get lost, and never be able to find land again. If I keep on as I am I shall be sure to reach land of some sort, in time, and when I wish to return home I can set the indicator to the northwest and that will take me directly back to Boston.”
This was good reasoning, but the rash youth had no idea he was speeding over the ocean, or that he was destined to arrive shortly at the barbarous island of Brava, off the coast of Africa. Yet such was the case; just as the sun sank over the edge of the waves he saw, to his great relief, a large island directly in his path.
He dropped to a lower position in the air, and when he judged himself to be over the center of the island he turned the indicator to zero and stopped short.
The country was beautifully wooded, while pretty brooks sparkled through the rich green foliage of the trees. The island sloped upwards from the sea-coast in all directions, rising to a hill that was almost a mountain in the center. There were two open spaces, one on each side of the island, and Rob saw that these spaces were occupied by queer-looking huts built from brushwood and branches of trees. This showed that the island was inhabited, but as Rob had no idea what island it was he wisely determined not to meet the natives until he had discovered what they were like and whether they were disposed to be friendly.
So he moved over the hill, the top of which proved to be a flat, grass-covered plateau about fifty feet in diameter. Finding it could not be easily reached from below, on account of its steep sides, and contained neither men nor animals, he alighted on the hill-top and touched his feet to the earth for the first time in twenty-four hours.
The ride through the air had not tired him in the least; in fact, he felt as fresh and vigorous as if he had been resting throughout the journey. As he walked upon the soft grass of the plateau he felt elated, and compared himself to the explorers of ancient days; for it was evident that civilization had not yet reached this delightful spot.
There was scarcely any twilight in this tropical climate and it grew dark quickly. Within a few minutes the entire island, save where he stood, became dim and indistinct. He ate his daily tablet, and after watching the red glow fade in the western sky and the gray shadows of night settle around him he stretched himself comfortably upon the grass and went to sleep.
The events of the day must have deepened his slumber, for when he awoke the sun was shining almost directly over h
im, showing that the day was well advanced. He stood up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes and decided he would like a drink of water. From where he stood he could see several little brooks following winding paths through the forest, so he settled upon one that seemed farthest from the brushwood villages, and turning his indicator in that direction soon floated through the air to a sheltered spot upon the bank.
Kneeling down, he enjoyed a long, refreshing drink of the clear water, but as he started to regain his feet a coil of rope was suddenly thrown about him, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering him absolutely helpless.
At the same time his ears were saluted with a wild chattering in an unknown tongue, and he found himself surrounded by a group of natives of hideous appearance. They were nearly naked, and bore spears and heavy clubs as their only weapons. Their hair was long, curly, and thick as bushes, and through their noses and ears were stuck the teeth of sharks and curious metal ornaments.
These creatures had stolen upon Rob so quietly that he had not heard a sound, but now they jabbered loudly, as if much excited.
Finally one fat and somewhat aged native, who seemed to be a chief, came close to Rob and said, in broken English:
“How get here?”
“I flew,” said the boy, with a grin.
The chief shook his head, saying:
“No boat come. How white man come?”
“Through the air,” replied Rob, who was rather flattered at being called a “man.”
The chief looked into the air with a puzzled expression and shook his head again.
“White man lie,” he said calmly.
Then he held further conversation with his fellows, after which he turned to Rob and announced:
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 244
