was then that Mr. Statis Ticks, realizing, whether from calculation
or from sympathy, that Miss Magnet could make no such forced march, and
seeing that the girl only held herself together under the tension of the
great excitement, gallantly proposed to remain by her and join the rest
of the party that evening by the first team that could be chartered.

But the young lady unexpectedly refused the proposition. Her whole
nature shrank from spending another minute in that blasted spot. It was
therefore arranged, much to Mr. Ticks' disappointment (for he had hoped
to add to his copious stock of mental notes by further investigation on
the ground), that the girl should accompany them, as far as she was
able, down the railroad, away from the lost city.

After a drink of lake water they started off, Swift supporting Miss
Magnet on the one side and Mr. Ticks on the other, the professor
stalking ahead.

"Even the lake tastes of it," said Swift. "Ugh!"

"Pass a current of electricity through a tumbler of water and there will
be detected the same flavor, though not so strong," answered Mr. Ticks.

The party made two miles slowly. Despite all her Western courage and
energy, Insula Magnet tottered by the way. To divert her attention, Mr.
Ticks led her on to talk about the electrical wonders of the extinct
city. The girl enlarged in a sad way upon its many and its curious uses.
The baby carriages, she said, took their helpless occupants on an
unaided turn around a large oval track in the park. They went by storage
battery. One electrician could take the place of twenty nurses and
control the power. Once in a while a baby died suddenly. The doctors
invariably pronounced it a case of heart failure. Washing was now
entirely done by electrical apparatus, likewise ironing and cooking. The
great American problem of the "hired girl," Russell considered herself
to have solved.

An ingenious arrangement had been recently devised to have the
electricity supply the place of valet-de-chambre, but only a few had
used it. One or two thought it a hardship to be aroused from bed
whether one would or no, to be washed and summarily dressed by an
implacable power that performed its set tasks stolidly in spite of
anathemas and threats. Can a man abuse his electrical valet? Let him try
it if he dare.

The phonograph was in universal use. _The Phonograph Daily_ was a
rival--one cannot call it sheet, rather wax cylinder--just started, and
the din ma