Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/40

20 forward in the tube. Moreover, as the air would create a certain resistance to the passage of the body, it would make a shorter journey each time, until finally it came to a complete rest at the center of the earth."

"So it would, if we allowed it to fall back; but you must remember that before it can fall back it must come to a complete stop; and what prevents us from having suitable catches in the tube to hold the body fast and prevent its return! If it stopped short of its destination, as it probably would, it could be hauled up the last part of its journey by any convenient device—say, for example, an electrically actuated cable."

Mr. Curtis was silenced. One by one the objections which had seemed to him so vital vanished into thin air before the doctor's ready answers. He did not for an instant admit the possibility of the scheme, but he was silenced for a moment, and during that moment a third actor appeared upon the scene. This third personage was no other than Mr. Curtis's daughter Flora, a pretty girl of ten, who, curiously enough, far from inheriting her father's pessimism, possessed, on the contrary, the happy faculty of always looking at the bright side of things.