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260 'but hurt him not—he is my husband! And yet he has rejected me—yes, yes, avenge my insulted love!'

And at the moment when I felt the hot breath of the terrible brutes upon me, and when the paws of the lion were reared over my head, and I had given myself up for lost, the Doctor drew his hand hastily from a pocket of his doublet, and scattered a gray impalpable powder in the faces of our enemies. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, they were all transformed as they stood into statues of black marble.

'There,' said he, 'remain as you are until I come back to transform you again.'

We lost not another moment, but scrambled into the car. 'Turn on the lightning, Obeltub,' sang out the Demon. 'The rebels are coming on again!' and sure enough they were advancing upon us like a tumultuous whirlwind. Obeltub gave his wheel a turn, and the balloon snorted and puffed, and sprang up from the ground. Just then the thunder of a hundred guns, a long roll of musketry, and a rapid charge of horse broke upon them, and the distracted mob fled away in every direction.