rian and Russian delegates, who, of course, felt a keen
interest in the company's proceedings, took a magnetic double-ender car
to Bering Strait. It was eighteen feet high, one hundred and fifty
feet long, and had two stories. The upper, with a toughened glass dome
running the entire length, descended to within three feet of the floor,
and afforded an unobstructed view of the rushing scenery. The rails on
which it ran were ten feet apart, the wheels being beyond the sides,
like those of a carriage, and fitted with ball bearings to ridged
axles. The car's flexibility allowed it to follow slight
irregularities in the track, while the free, independent wheels gave it
a great advantage in rounding curves over cars with wheels and axle in
one casting, in which one must slip while traversing a greater or
smaller arc than the other, except when the slope of the tread and the
centrifugal force happen to correspond exactly. The fact of having its
supports outside instead of underneath, while increasing its stability,
also enabled the lower floor to come much nearer the ground, while
still the wheels were large. Arriving in just twenty hours, they ran
across on an electric ferry-boat, capable of carrying several dozen
cars, to East Cape, Siberia, and then, by running as far north as
possible, had a short cut to Europe.

The Patagonians went by the all-rail Intercontinental Line, without
change of cars, making the run of ten thousand miles in forty hours.
The Australians entered a flying machine, and were soon out of sight;
while the Central Americans and members from other States of the Union
returned for the most part in their mechanical phaetons.

"A prospective improvement in travelling," said Bearwarden, as he and
his friends watched the crowd disperse, "will be when we can rise
beyond the limits of the atmosphere, wait till the earth revolves
beneath us, and descend in twelve hours on the other side."

"True," said Cortlandt, "but then we can travel westward only, and
shall have to make a complete circuit when we wish to go east."

A few days later there was a knock at President Bearwarden's door,
while he was seated at his desk looking over some papers and other
matters. Taking his foot from a partly opened desk drawer where it had
been resting, he placed it upon the handle of a handsome brass-mounted
bellows, which proved to be articulating, for, as he pressed, it called
lustily, "Come in!" The door opened, and i