ch in the
distance, and the stones of the churchyard on the green hill-slope
beyond. The architecture was not entirely unfamiliar. He had seen such
in books, he felt sure, but he could not positively identify it. Was it
Russian, Japanese, or Italian?

Suddenly a distant cry came to his ears.

"Hi--Lizzie--Lizzie, wench! Come, drive the pig out o' the cabbages!"

He stopped short and slapped his thigh.

"English!" he exclaimed. "'Tain't America, that's dead sure. Then it's
England. England in 1598," he continued, scratching his head. "Let's
see. Who in Sam Hill was runnin' things in 1598? Richard Coor de
Lion--Henry Eight--no--or was it Joan of Arc? Be darned ef I know!"

He looked about him again and selected a neighboring house which he
thought promised information.

He went to the front door and knocked. There was no reply, despite many
attempts to arouse the inmates.

"Might ha' known," he muttered, and started around the house, where he
found a side door half hidden beneath the projection of an upper story.

Here his efforts were rewarded at last by the appearance of a very old
woman in a peaked hat and coif, apparently on the point of going out.

"Looks like a witch in the story-books," he thought, but his spoken
comment was more polite.

"Good-mornin', ma'am," he said. "Would you be so kind as to tell me the
name of this town?"

"This be Newington," she replied, in a high, cracked voice.

"Newington," he replied, with a nod and a smile intended to express
complete enlightenment. "Ah, yes--Newington. Quite a town!"

"Is that all you'd be askin', young man?" said the old woman, a little
suspiciously, eying his strange garb.

"Why, yes--no--that is, can you tell me how far it is to London?" This
was the only English city of which he had any knowledge, so he naturally
sought to identify his locality by reference to it.

"Lunnun," said the woman. "Oh, it'll be a matter of a mile or better!"

Droop was startled, but highly pleased. Here was luck indeed.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said. "Good-mornin'," and with a cheerful nod, he
made off.

The fact is that this information opened up a new field of enterprise
and hope. At once there leaped into his mind an improved revival of his
original plan. If he could have made a fortune with his great inventions
in 1876, what might he not accomplish by the same means in 1598! He
pictured to himself the delight of the ancient worthies when they heard
the rag-time