? May not that
peaceful slumberer be morally sure that he has that argosy afloat in his
own head, which amply justifies his use of the "Saracen's"? If his plan
should fail? He will tell you that is impossible! But if it should fail,
you say. Listen; there runs a story-I don't vouch for its truth: I tell
it as it was told to me--there runs a storv that in the late Russian war
a certain naval veteran, renowned for professional daring and scientific
invention, was examined before some great officials as to the chances
of taking Cronstadt. "If you send me," said the admiral, "with so many
ships of the line, and so many gunboats, Cronstadt of course will be
taken." "But," said a prudent lord, "suppose it should not be taken?"
"That is impossible: it must be taken!" "Yes," persisted my lord, "you
think so, no doubt; but still, if it should not be taken,--what then?"
"What then?--why, there's an end of the British fleet!" The great men
took alarm, and that admiral was not sent. But they misconstrued the
meaning of his answer. He meant not to imply any considerable danger to
the British fleet. He meant to prove that one hypothesis was impossible
by the suggestion of a counter-impossibility more self-evident. "It is
impossible but what I shall take Cronstadt!" "But if you don't take
it!" "It is impossible but what I shall take it; for if I don't take it,
there's an end of the British fleet; and as it is impossible that there
should be an end of the British fleet, it is impossible that I should
not take Cronstadt!"--Q.E.D.

CHAPTER XII.

In which everything depends on Sir Isaac's success in discovering
the law of attraction.

On the appointed evening, at eight o'clock, the great room of the
Gatesboro' Athenaeum was unusually well filled. Not only had the Mayor
exerted himself to the utmost for that object, but the hand-bill itself
promised a rare relief from the prosiness of abstract enlightenment and
elevated knowledge. Moreover, the stranger himself had begun to
excite speculation and curiosity. He was an amateur, not a cut-and-dry
professor. The Mayor and Mr. Williams had both spread the report
that there was more in him than appeared on the surface; prodigiously
learned, but extremely agreeable, fine manners, too!--Who could he be?
Was Chapman his real name? etc.

The Comedian had obtained permission to arrange the room beforehand. He
had the raised portion of it for his stage, and he had been fortunate
enoug