TUPENDOUS, MORE GIGANTIC, MORE
OVERPOWERING THAN EVER!
GLITTERING, MARVELLOUS, SOUL-COMPELLING!"

"What's 'soul-compelling'?" asked Byram.

"Anything you please, governor," I said, and read on rapidly until I
came to the paragraph concerning Jacqueline:

"THE WONDER OF EARTH AND HEAVEN!
THE UNUTTERABLY BEAUTIFUL FLYING
MERMAID! CAUGHT ON THE
COAST OF BRITTANY!
WHAT IS SHE?
FISH? BIRD? HUMAN? DIVINE?
WHO KNOWS?
THE SCIENTISTS OF FRANCE DO NOT KNOW!!
THE SCIENTISTS OF THE WORLD
ARE CONFOUNDED!
IS SHE
A LOST SOUL
FROM THE SUNKEN CITY OF KER-YS?
50,000 FRANCS REWARD FOR THE BRETON WHO CAN
PROVE THAT SHE DID NOT COME STRAIGHT FROM
PARADISE!!!"

"That's a damn good bill," said Byram, suddenly.

He was so seldom profane that I stared at him, worried lest his
misfortunes had unbalanced him. But a faint, healthy color was already
replacing the pallor in his loose cheeks, a glint of animation came
into his sunken eyes. He lifted his battered silk hat, replaced it at
an angle almost defiant, and scowled at Horan, who passed us sullenly,
driving the camel tentwards with awful profanity.

"Don't talk such langwidge in my presence, Mr. Horan," he said,
sharply; "a camuel is a camuel, but remember: 'kind hearts is more
than cornets,' an' it's easier for that there camuel to pass through
the eye of a needle than for a cussin' cuss to cuss his way into
Kingdom Come!"

Horan, who had betrayed unmistakable symptoms of insubordination that
morning, quailed under the flowing rebuke. He was a man of muscular
strength and meagre intellect; words hit him like trip-hammers.

"Certainly, governor," he stammered, and spoke to the camel politely,
guiding that enraged and squealing quadruped to his manger with a
forced smile.

With mallet, hammer, saw, and screw-driver I worked until noon,
maturing my plans all the while. These plans would take the last penny
in the treasury and leave us in debt several thousand francs. But it
was win or go to smash now, and personally I have always preferred a
tremendous smash to a slow and oozy fizzle