Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/228

190 then his umbrella: lastly, what I suppose he prized most, his hand-bag: but the game was up: the spherical Principal ofof"

"Of which College?" I said.

"of one of the Colleges," he resumed, "had put into operation the Theoryhis own discoveryof Accelerated Velocity, and captured him just opposite to where I stood. I shall never forget that wild breathless struggle! But it was soon over. Once in those great bony hands, escape was impossible!"

"May I ask why you speak of him as the spherical Principal?" I said.

"The epithet referred to his shape, which was a perfect sphere. You are aware that a bullet, another instance of a perfect sphere, when falling in a perfectly straight line, moves with Accelerated Velocity?"

I bowed assent.

"Well, my spherical friend (as I am proud to call him) set himself to investigate the causes of this. He found them to be three. One; that it is a perfect sphere. Two; that it moves in a straight line. Three; that its direction is not upwards. When these three