dropped soft!"

He rubbed his chin with his hand and meditated. "Blowed if I don't
think I'm a rather lucky fellow!" he said, surveying the pleasant
sun-bespattered ground under the trees. Then he became aware of
a violent tumult at his side. "Lord!" he said, "You must be 'arf
smothered," and extracted the kitten from his pocket-handkerchief and
pocket. She was twisted and crumpled and extremely glad to see the light
again. Her little tongue peeped between her teeth. He put her down, and
she ran a dozen paces and shook herself and stretched and sat up and
began to wash.

"Nex'?" he said, looking about him, and then with a gesture of vexation,
"Desh it! I ought to 'ave brought that gun!"

He had rested it against a tree when he had seated himself in the
flying-machine saddle.

He was puzzled for a time by the immense peacefulness in the quality of
the world, and then he perceived that the roar of the cataract was no
longer in his ears.

2

He had no very clear idea of what sort of people he might come upon
in this country. It was, he knew, America. Americans he had always
understood were the citizens of a great and powerful nation, dry and
humorous in their manner, addicted to the use of the bowie-knife
and revolver, and in the habit of talking through the nose like
Norfolkshire, and saying "allow" and "reckon" and "calculate," after the
manner of the people who live on the New Forest side of Hampshire. Also
they were very rich, had rocking-chairs, and put their feet at unusual
altitudes, and they chewed tobacco, gum, and other substances, with
untiring industry. Commingled with them were cowboys, Red Indians, and
comic, respectful niggers. This he had learnt from the fiction in
his public library. Beyond that he had learnt very little. He was not
surprised therefore when he met armed men.

He decided to abandon the shattered flying-machine. He wandered through
the trees for some time, and then struck a road that seemed to his urban
English eyes to be remarkably wide but not properly "made." Neither
hedge nor ditch nor curbed distinctive footpath separated it from the
woods, and it went in that long easy curve which distinguishes the
tracks of an open continent. Ahead he saw a man carrying a gun under his
arm, a man in a soft black hat, a blue blouse, and black trousers,
and with a broad round-fat face quite innocent of goatee. This person
regarded him askance and heard him speak with a start.

"Can you tell