ify to
their accuracy in the appendix I have added."

So they sat and chatted about the enterprise that interested Cortlandt
and Ayrault almost as much as Bearwarden himself. As the clock struck
eleven, the president of the company put on his hat, and, saying au
revoir to his friends, crossed the street to the Opera House, in which
he was to read a report that would be copied in all the great journals
and heard over thousands of miles of wire in every part of the globe.
When he arrived, the vast building was already filled with a
distinguished company, representing the greatest intelligence, wealth,
and powers of the world. Bearwarden went in by the stage entrance,
exchanging greetings as he did so with officers of the company and
directors who had come to hear him. Cortlandt and Ayrault entered by
the regular door, the former going to the Government representatives'
box, the latter to join his fiancee, Sylvia Preston, who was there with
her mother. Bearwarden had a roll of manuscript at hand, but so well
did he know his speech that he scarcely glanced at it. After being
introduced by the chairman of the meeting, and seeing that his audience
was all attention, he began, holding himself erect, his clear, powerful
voice making every part of the building ring.

CHAPTER III.

PRESIDENT BEARWARDEN'S SPEECH.

"To the Bondholders and Stockholders of the Terrestrial Axis
Straightening Company and Representatives of Earthly Governments.

"GENTLEMEN: You know that the objects of this company are, to
straighten the axis of the earth, to combine the extreme heat of summer
with the intense cold of winter and produce a uniform temperature for
each degree of latitude the year round. At present the earth's
axis--that is, the line passing through its centre and the two
poles--is inclined to the ecliptic about twenty-three and a half
degrees. Our summer is produced by the northern hemisphere's leaning
at that angle towards the sun, and our winter by its turning that much
from it. In one case the sun's rays are caused to shine more
perpendicularly, and in the other more obliquely. This wabbling, like
that of a top, is the sole cause of the seasons; since, owing to the
eccentricity of our orbit, the earth is actually fifteen hundred
thousand miles nearer the sun during our winter, in the northern
hemisphere, than in summer. That there is no limit to a planet's
inclination, and