Chorus One

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ZUG, Switzerland, October 31st, 2024/Chainwire/--Chorus One, a leading provider of staking infrastructure for over 60 networks, today announced the launch of TON Pool, a new staking solution designed to simplify and optimize Toncoin staking for institutions and investors. With a focus on addressing the limitations of current staking models on the TON blockchain, TON Pool offers a flexible, cost-effective, and scalable staking solution that meets the needs of custodians, exchanges, wallets, and institutional investors. A solution to Toncoin’s current staking limitations The TON blockchain is gaining traction as a powerful platform for decentralized applications, but existing Toncoin staking mechanisms—such as the Nominator Pool and Single Nominator contracts—present significant limitations for institutional players. According to the team, high minimum staking requirements, limited delegator capacity, and the operational complexity of managing multiple pools are key challenges that prevent large institutions from efficiently staking Toncoin at scale. Currently, they add, the Single Nominator contract requires a minimum of 300,000 TON, limiting accessibility for many institutions. Moreover, both staking models restrict the number of delegators and require manual management, resulting in higher transaction fees and reduced yields due to complex pool monitoring. Recognizing these limitations, Chorus One developed TON Pool, a solution specifically tailored for large-scale staking operations that eliminates inefficiencies and provides a more seamless staking experience. Key benefits of TON Pool Optimized potential yields: By consolidating stakes and reducing transaction fees, TON Pool can maximize potential yields for institutions and their clients.
Unlimited delegators: Unlike traditional staking models that limit delegator capacity, TON Pool allows institutions to stake on behalf of an unlimited number of clients.
Low minimum stake: With a minimum of just 10 TON (vs. 300,000 TON in other models), TON Pool makes staking accessible to a broader range of users.
Effortless integration: Institutions can easily integrate TON Pool into their platforms, simplifying staking management and improving user experience. A simpler staking flow with TON Pool Compared to traditional staking models, TON Pool offers a much more streamlined staking process. Instead of requiring operators to create and manage multiple pools, TON Pool consolidates all staking into a single address. Customers delegate once, pay one transaction fee, and the platform handles all the technical complexities of distributing and managing the stake. “TON Pool is our response to the challenges institutions face when staking on the TON blockchain,” said Brian Fabian Crain, CEO of Chorus One. “We built this solution to remove unnecessary steps, lower costs, and provide a scalable option for institutions that require a higher degree of flexibility. TON Pool makes staking more accessible, which we believe is essential to driving the TON ecosystem forward.” How To Contact For more details about TON Pool and to get exclusive discounted commission rates, users can reach out at staking@chorus.one, and sign up now to be among the first to experience streamlined, scalable Toncoin staking. About Chorus One Chorus One is a leading institutional staking provider, operating infrastructure for over 60 networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, Chorus One has been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001-certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, users can visit chorus.one or follow them on X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn. Contact Hari Iyer staking@chorus.one This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here ZUG, Switzerland, October 31st, 2024/Chainwire/--Chorus One, a leading provider of staking infrastructure for over 60 networks, today announced the launch of TON Pool, a new staking solution designed to simplify and optimize Toncoin staking for institutions and investors. With a focus on addressing the limitations of current staking models on the TON blockchain, TON Pool offers a flexible, cost-effective, and scalable staking solution that meets the needs of custodians, exchanges, wallets, and institutional investors. A solution to Toncoin’s current staking limitations The TON blockchain is gaining traction as a powerful platform for decentralized applications, but existing Toncoin staking mechanisms—such as the Nominator Pool and Single Nominator contracts—present significant limitations for institutional players. According to the team, high minimum staking requirements, limited delegator capacity, and the operational complexity of managing multiple pools are key challenges that prevent large institutions from efficiently staking Toncoin at scale. Currently, they add, the Single Nominator contract requires a minimum of 300,000 TON, limiting accessibility for many institutions. Moreover, both staking models restrict the number of delegators and require manual management, resulting in higher transaction fees and reduced yields due to complex pool monitoring. Recognizing these limitations, Chorus One developed TON Pool, a solution specifically tailored for large-scale staking operations that eliminates inefficiencies and provides a more seamless staking experience. Key benefits of TON Pool Optimized potential yields: By consolidating stakes and reducing transaction fees, TON Pool can maximize potential yields for institutions and their clients. Unlimited delegators: Unlike traditional staking models that limit delegator capacity, TON Pool allows institutions to stake on behalf of an unlimited number of clients. Low minimum stake: With a minimum of just 10 TON (vs. 300,000 TON in other models), TON Pool makes staking accessible to a broader range of users. Effortless integration: Institutions can easily integrate TON Pool into their platforms, simplifying staking management and improving user experience. Optimized potential yields: By consolidating stakes and reducing transaction fees, TON Pool can maximize potential yields for institutions and their clients. Unlimited delegators: Unlike traditional staking models that limit delegator capacity, TON Pool allows institutions to stake on behalf of an unlimited number of clients. Low minimum stake: With a minimum of just 10 TON (vs. 300,000 TON in other models), TON Pool makes staking accessible to a broader range of users. Effortless integration: Institutions can easily integrate TON Pool into their platforms, simplifying staking management and improving user experience. A simpler staking flow with TON Pool Compared to traditional staking models, TON Pool offers a much more streamlined staking process. Instead of requiring operators to create and manage multiple pools, TON Pool consolidates all staking into a single address. Customers delegate once, pay one transaction fee, and the platform handles all the technical complexities of distributing and managing the stake. “TON Pool is our response to the challenges institutions face when staking on the TON blockchain,” said Brian Fabian Crain, CEO of Chorus One. “We built this solution to remove unnecessary steps, lower costs, and provide a scalable option for institutions that require a higher degree of flexibility. TON Pool makes staking more accessible, which we believe is essential to driving the TON ecosystem forward.” “TON Pool is our response to the challenges institutions face when staking on the TON blockchain,” said Brian Fabian Crain, CEO of Chorus One. “We built this solution to remove unnecessary steps, lower costs, and provide a scalable option for institutions that require a higher degree of flexibility. TON Pool makes staking more accessible, which we believe is essential to driving the TON ecosystem forward.” How To Contact For more details about TON Pool and to get exclusive discounted commission rates, users can reach out at staking@chorus.one , and sign up now to be among the first to experience streamlined, scalable Toncoin staking. staking@chorus.one staking@chorus.one About Chorus One Chorus One is a leading institutional staking provider, operating infrastructure for over 60 networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Chorus One Chorus One Since 2018, Chorus One has been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001-certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, users can visit chorus.one or follow them on X (formerly Twitter) , and LinkedIn . chorus.one chorus.one X (formerly Twitter) X (formerly Twitter) LinkedIn LinkedIn Contact Hari Iyer staking@chorus.one This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here This story was distributed as a release by Chainwire under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Learn more about the program here here

Chorus One Introduces TON Pool: The First Institutional Solution For Scalable TON staking

Chorus One presenta TON Pool: la primera solución institucional para el staking escalable de TON

कोरस वन ने TON पूल पेश किया: स्केलेबल TON स्टेकिंग के लिए पहला संस्थागत समाधान

Chorus One predstavlja TON Pool: Prvo institucionalno rješenje za skalabilno TON ulaganje

Chorus OneがTONプールを導入: スケーラブルなTONステーキングのための初の機関向けソリューション

Chorus One iepazīstina ar TON Pool: pirmo institucionālo risinājumu mērogojamai TON piesaistei

Chorus One introduceert TON Pool: de eerste institutionele oplossing voor schaalbare TON-staking

Chorus One apresenta TON Pool: a primeira solução institucional para staking escalável de TON

Chorus One predstavuje TON Pool: Prvé inštitucionálne riešenie pre škálovateľné vytyčovanie TON

Chorus One introducerar TON Pool: Den första institutionella lösningen för skalbar TON-satsning

கோரஸ் ஒன் டன் பூலை அறிமுகப்படுத்துகிறது: அளவிடக்கூடிய டன் ஸ்டேக்கிங்கிற்கான முதல் நிறுவன தீர்வு

Chorus One แนะนำ TON Pool: โซลูชันสถาบันแรกสำหรับการเดิมพัน TON ที่ปรับขนาดได้

Chorus One giới thiệu TON Pool: Giải pháp đầu tiên cho việc staking TON có thể mở rộng

Introduction There are different ways to form an investment thesis in crypto. One is to reject the importance of fundamentals and subscribe to the view that token prices are driven mainly by quick-gain-100x-seeking behavior or "financial nihilism." Is all crypto simply a meme? Should your technically sophisticated, tier-1 VC-backed, and community-vetted utility/governance "meme" coin be valued more than mine? Which narrative will be picked up by the KOLs next and pumped up by the crowd? What are we aping into? These views and strategies have merit but don't work at scale and across market cycles. Disciplined investors and researchers must carefully examine the facts and start seeing the forest for the trees. Let's stick to the first principles and dive into the concept of re-staking. Is it another backed by token emission or a new sustainable economy? As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding; let's look for it! yield-generating bubble Cosmos Interchain Security Eigen Layer has popularised the idea of restaking (renting ETH economic security); however, it was initially proposed and implemented within the Cosmos ecosystem (renting ATOM economic security). Chains started with the Cosmos SDK provide configurability and sovereignty. However, developers' main challenge is building their own operator set (100-150 validators based on Tendermint consensus), bootstrapping liquidity, and using a native token, which has the risk of inflation and security value loss. enables other Chains (Consumer Chains) to be secured by the Cosmos Hub's validator set and the ATOM token's total market cap. In other words, it allows Consumer Chains to rent the economic security from Cosmos Hub. Cosmos Interchain security With 248MM ATOM staked, Cosmos Hub provides 3.2Bn$ in Economic Security to Consumer Chains. This first version of CIS is called “Replicated Security.” We Can Identify the Within the CIS Model: Following Stakeholders Validators – Run Cosmos Hub nodes and additional nodes for Consumer Chains Stakers – Delegate Atom tokens to Validators Consumer Chains – Rent Security from Cosmos Hub In Q3 2023, Chorus One the actual economic data from the two Consumer Chains on Cosmos – Stride and Neutron and made the following findings: reviewed Cosmos Hub Rewards: Cosmos Hub minted 367M$ per year or 1M$ daily in ATOM tokens as rewards for Stakers. Out of which 37M$ per year went to Hub Validators. Revenue: Cosmos Hub generated 1.5k$ per day in revenue from transaction fees. Stride generated 1k$ per day, and Neutron 12$ per day for Cosmos Hub. Combined daily transaction fees (2.5k$) would need to be 400 times higher to offset daily ATOM token emission (1M$) Infrastructure Costs (Excluding DevOps Costs) It's important to note that Validators need to set up additional nodes to support Consumer Chains, i.e., the hardware cost scales linearly with the addition of new Consumer Chains: The monthly node cost per Cosmos chain or ICS is 600$ per month or 7.2k$ per year. Cosmos Hub Security infra cost – 180 validators x 7.2k$ = 1.3M$ per year. Single Consumer Chain infra cost is the same – 1.3M$ per year. With Stride generating 365k$ per year and 36.5k$ in commission going to validators, such revenue doesn't come close to offsetting the infra costs for validators (1.3M$ per year). 40% of Cosmos Hub validators are not profitable, and this percentage increases as more Consumer Chains are onboarded. The consumer Chain would need substantially more revenue to provide an to Atom stakers. For example, to generate an extra 2% APR on staked ATOM, ICS would need to distribute $65MM per year to the Cosmos Hub. additional yield Finally, the ICS model removes the utility from the Consumer Chain native token, as it can only be used as a governance token and cannot be used for staking or network operations. , while the original idea of Cosmos Interchain Security offered easier onboarding of new chains, it came with a trade-off of increased infrastructure costs, lack of utility for the Consumer Chain native tokens, slashing risk for Validators, and high cost of economic security and therefore high revenue requirements for Consumer Chains. In summary As a result, Cosmos Hub governance is unlikely to approve more projects to join CIS unless they are set to deliver meaningful revenue to Hub validators and stakers. Moreover, the Replicated Security model is being revised, and it’s proposed to use a more flexible version called “ ,” whereby Validators can decide whether to run the nodes for Consumer Chains and Consumer chains would use only the Economic Security of supporting validators. Partial Set Security Eigen Layer Like CIS, allows Ethereum node operators to opt in to validate the new software modules. Eigen Layer calls these "chains" – Actively Validated Services. Eigen Layer The key difference with the CIS model is that the operators' cost of AVS support is marginal compared to running the ETH node; adding the AVS node to the existing ETH node doesn’t increase server load. Therefore, AVSs only need to generate enough fees to provide additional yield on top of native ETH staking yield. There Are the Within the Eigen Layer Model: Following Stakeholders Operators – Run Ethereum Nodes and additional AVS modules Restakers – Delegate Eth to Operators, which in turn opt into AVSs AVSs – Rent Security from Ethereum Infrastructure Costs (Excluding DevOps Costs): It costs approximately 1k USD per year to run 1 x ETH node (32 ETH), and more ETH validator slots can be added without significantly increasing the server load. The additional cost of supporting AVS is marginal (close to zero) Eigen Layer Economic Security As seen in the CIS model, Consumer Chains need to rent the entire $3.2Bn$ of economic security from Cosmos Hub and are constrained by the number of Cosmos Hub Validators. Eigen Layer implements "elastic scaling of security" and allows AVSs to dynamically control payouts to ETH stakers. 25000 AVS nodes can provide the equivalent of Cosmos Hub 3.2bn$ economic security. Similar to CIS, it would cost 64MM$ annually for AVS to generate an extra 2% APR on staked ETH. However, the key difference is that AVS can start with a smaller operator set and run more sustainable economics. Therefore, while the Eigen Layer brings additional infra costs almost to zero, it introduces the complexity of dynamic operator set and operator payout management. Watchtower networks will play an instrumental role in this process. Other Have Been Currently Worked Out: Open Questions and Challenges AVS Selection Process Who will choose AVSs? Will it be Operators or users of restaking protocols through governance voting? Or both? Operators are motivated to implement internal risk control frameworks to choose more profitable AVSs and manage slashing risks. Restaking protocols aim to conduct similar due diligence on behalf of their users. How will these two groups match AVS strategies and dynamically support the on and off-boarding of AVSs in an automated way? Are there any potential compliance issues with Stakers or Operators supporting AVSs in certain jurisdictions? These are not trivial questions! Potential Operator Centralization As the incremental cost to support new AVSs for operators is marginal – it would be more profitable for operators to support all available AVSs (as long as slashing risk is adequate), leading to centralization. Similarly, if users choose to restake only with the major operators, it will also lead to centralization. Eigen Layer is developing incentives to promote diverse operator sets and solo staking for AVSs to resolve this. Slashing risk Stakers opt-in by granting the Eigen Layer smart contracts the ability to impose additional slashing conditions on their staked ETH. The core idea of the Eigen Layer is to use "pooled security," whereby the same staked ETH is used to support multiple AVSs simultaneously. However, if one of the AVSs has a bug that leads to slashing, it can affect the operations of other AVSs. Eigen Layer addresses this risk by ensuring the system has " "  and a veto committee can reverse the slashing resulting from non-malicious behaviors. training wheels In addition, AVSs can acquire "attributable security," which, unlike pooled security, is specific to each AVS and will only be slashable by one AVS. Business Model Eigen Layer provides more flexibility for AVSs when defining the utility of their native token. In a mode, AVSs can use the native token for staking and network operations and balance its use vs. ETH throughout the project's lifetime. dual staking Conclusion In summary, the comparison between Cosmos Interchain Security (CIS) and Eigen Layer highlights the evolution of economic security concepts within blockchain ecosystems. While CIS pioneered the concept, it revealed drawbacks such as increased infrastructure costs, a lack of utility for native tokens, and high revenue requirements for Consumer Chains. Eigen Layer represents a substantial improvement by introducing elastic security scaling and dual staking. However, this enhanced flexibility comes with added complexity in managing slashing, security scaling, and operator payouts. It's truly fascinating to observe the ongoing evolution of this space as the latest restaking ideas from Eigen Layer permeate into other ecosystems such as Bitcoin ( ), Cosmos ( ), Solana ( ), and . Babylon Ethos Composable Avalanche Thank you to for your valuable feedback and review. Kam Benbrik

Restaking Explored: The Pursuit of a Sustainable Crypto-Economic Model

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A BOLD PROPOSITION here CHAPTER XVI. A BOLD PROPOSITION On his return Servadac communicated to the count the result of his expedition, and, though perfectly silent on the subject of his personal project, did not conceal the fact that the Spaniards, without the smallest right, had sold Ceuta to the English. Having refused to quit their post, the Englishmen had virtually excluded themselves from any further consideration; they had had their warning, and must now take the consequences of their own incredulity. Although it had proved that not a single creature either at Gourbi Island, Gibraltar, Ceuta, Madalena, or Formentera had received any injury whatever at the time of the first concussion, there was nothing in the least to make it certain that a like immunity from harm would attend the second. The previous escape was doubtless owing to some slight, though unaccountable, modification in the rate of motion; but whether the inhabitants of the earth had fared so fortunately, was a question that had still to be determined. The day following Servadac’s return, he and the count and Lieutenant Procope met by agreement in the cave, formally to discuss what would be the most advisable method of proceeding under their present prospects. Ben Zoof was, as a matter of course, allowed to be present, and Professor Rosette had been asked to attend; but he declined on the plea of taking no interest in the matter. Indeed, the disappearance of his moon had utterly disconcerted him, and the probability that he should soon lose his comet also, plunged him into an excess of grief which he preferred to bear in solitude. Although the barrier of cool reserve was secretly increasing between the captain and the count, they scrupulously concealed any outward token of their inner feelings, and without any personal bias applied their best energies to the discussion of the question which was of such mutual, nay, of such universal interest. Servadac was the first to speak. “In fifty-one days, if Professor Rosette has made no error in his calculations, there is to be a recurrence of collision between this comet and the earth. The inquiry that we have now to make is whether we are prepared for the coming shock. I ask myself, and I ask you, whether it is in our power, by any means, to avert the evil consequences that are only too likely to follow?” Count Timascheff, in a voice that seemed to thrill with solemnity, said: “In such events we are at the disposal of an over-ruling Providence; human precautions cannot sway the Divine will.” “But with the most profound reverence for the will of Providence,” replied the captain, “I beg to submit that it is our duty to devise whatever means we can to escape the threatening mischief. Heaven helps them that help themselves.” “And what means have you to suggest, may I ask?” said the count, with a faint accent of satire. Servadac was forced to acknowledge that nothing tangible had hitherto presented itself to his mind. “I don’t want to intrude,” observed Ben Zoof, “but I don’t understand why such learned gentlemen as you cannot make the comet go where you want it to go.” “You are mistaken, Ben Zoof, about our learning,” said the captain; “even Professor Rosette, with all his learning, has not a shadow of power to prevent the comet and the earth from knocking against each other.” “Then I cannot see what is the use of all this learning,” the orderly replied. “One great use of learning,” said Count Timascheff with a smile, “is to make us know our own ignorance.” While this conversation had been going on, Lieutenant Procope had been sitting in thoughtful silence. Looking up, he now said, “Incident to this expected shock, there may be a variety of dangers. If, gentlemen, you will allow me, I will enumerate them; and we shall, perhaps, by taking them , be in a better position to judge whether we can successfully grapple with them, or in any way mitigate their consequences.” seriatim There was a general attitude of attention. It was surprising how calmly they proceeded to discuss the circumstances that looked so threatening and ominous. “First of all,” resumed the lieutenant, “we will specify the different ways in which the shock may happen.” “And the prime fact to be remembered,” interposed Servadac, “is that the combined velocity of the two bodies will be about 21,000 miles an hour.” “Express speed, and no mistake!” muttered Ben Zoof. “Just so,” assented Procope. “Now, the two bodies may impinge either directly or obliquely. If the impact is sufficiently oblique, Gallia may do precisely what she did before: she may graze the earth; she may, or she may not, carry off a portion of the earth’s atmosphere and substance, and so she may float away again into space; but her orbit would undoubtedly be deranged, and if we survive the shock, we shall have small chance of ever returning to the world of our fellow-creatures.” “Professor Rosette, I suppose,” Ben Zoof remarked, “would pretty soon find out all about that.” “But we will leave this hypothesis,” said the lieutenant; “our own experience has sufficiently shown us its advantages and its disadvantages. We will proceed to consider the infinitely more serious alternative of direct impact; of a shock that would hurl the comet straight on to the earth, to which it would become attached.” “A great wart upon her face!” said Ben Zoof, laughing. The captain held up his finger to his orderly, making him understand that he should hold his tongue. “It is, I presume, to be taken for granted,” continued Lieutenant Procope, “that the mass of the earth is comparatively so large that, in the event of a direct collision, her own motion would not be sensibly retarded, and that she would carry the comet along with her, as part of herself.” “Very little question of that, I should think,” said Servadac. “Well, then,” the lieutenant went on, “what part of this comet of ours will be the part to come into collision with the earth? It may be the equator, where we are; it may be at the exactly opposite point, at our antipodes; or it may be at either pole. In any case, it seems hard to foresee whence there is to come the faintest chance of deliverance.” “Is the case so desperate?” asked Servadac. “I will tell you why it seems so. If the side of the comet on which we are resident impinges on the earth, it stands to reason that we must be crushed to atoms by the violence of the concussion.” “Regular mincemeat!” said Ben Zoof, whom no admonitions could quite reduce to silence. “And if,” said the lieutenant, after a moment’s pause, and the slightest possible frown at the interruption—“and if the collision should occur at our antipodes, the sudden check to the velocity of the comet would be quite equivalent to a shock ; and, another thing, we should run the risk of being suffocated, for all our comet’s atmosphere would be assimilated with the terrestrial atmosphere, and we, supposing we were not dashed to atoms, should be left as it were upon the summit of an enormous mountain (for such to all intents and purposes Gallia would be), 450 miles above the level of the surface of the globe, without a particle of air to breathe.” in situ “But would not our chances of escape be considerably better,” asked Count Timascheff, “in the event of either of the comet’s poles being the point of contact?” “Taking the combined velocity into account,” answered the lieutenant, “I confess that I fear the violence of the shock will be too great to permit our destruction to be averted.” A general silence ensued, which was broken by the lieutenant himself. “Even if none of these contingencies occur in the way we have contemplated, I am driven to the suspicion that we shall be burnt alive.” “Burnt alive!” they all exclaimed in a chorus of horror. “Yes. If the deductions of modern science be true, the speed of the comet, when suddenly checked, will be transmuted into heat, and that heat will be so intense that the temperature of the comet will be raised to some millions of degrees.” No one having anything definite to allege in reply to Lieutenant Procope’s forebodings, they all relapsed into silence. Presently Ben Zoof asked whether it was not possible for the comet to fall into the middle of the Atlantic. Procope shook his head. “Even so, we should only be adding the fate of drowning to the list of our other perils.” “Then, as I understand,” said Captain Servadac, “in whatever way or in whatever place the concussion occurs, we must be either crushed, suffocated, roasted, or drowned. Is that your conclusion, lieutenant?” “I confess I see no other alternative,” answered Procope, calmly. “But isn’t there another thing to be done?” said Ben Zoof. “What do you mean?” his master asked. “Why, to get off the comet before the shock comes.” “How could you get off Gallia?” “That I can’t say,” replied the orderly. “I am not sure that that could not be accomplished,” said the lieutenant. All eyes in a moment were riveted upon him, as, with his head resting on his hands, he was manifestly cogitating a new idea. “Yes, I think it could be accomplished,” he repeated. “The project may appear extravagant, but I do not know why it should be impossible. Ben Zoof has hit the right nail on the head; we must try and leave Gallia before the shock.” “Leave Gallia! How?” said Count Timascheff. The lieutenant did not at once reply. He continued pondering for a time, and at last said, slowly and distinctly, “By making a balloon!” Servadac’s heart sank. “A balloon!” he exclaimed. “Out of the question! Balloons are exploded things. You hardly find them in novels. Balloon, indeed!” “Listen to me,” replied Procope. “Perhaps I can convince you that my idea is not so chimerical as you imagine.” And, knitting his brow, he proceeded to establish the feasibility of his plan. “If we can ascertain the precise moment when the shock is to happen, and can succeed in launching ourselves a sufficient time beforehand into Gallia’s atmosphere, I believe it will transpire that this atmosphere will amalgamate with that of the earth, and that a balloon whirled along by the combined velocity would glide into the mingled atmosphere and remain suspended in mid-air until the shock of the collision is overpast.” Count Timascheff reflected for a minute, and said, “I think, lieutenant, I understand your project. The scheme seems tenable; and I shall be ready to co-operate with you, to the best of my power, in putting it into execution.” “Only, remember,” continued Procope, “there are many chances to one against our success. One instant’s obstruction and stoppage in our passage, and our balloon is burnt to ashes. Still, reluctant as I am to acknowledge it, I confess that I feel our sole hope of safety rests in our getting free from this comet.” “If the chances were ten thousand to one against us,” said Servadac, “I think the attempt ought to be made.” “But have we hydrogen enough to inflate a balloon?” asked the count. “Hot air will be all that we shall require,” the lieutenant answered; “we are only contemplating about an hour’s journey.” “Ah, a fire-balloon! A montgolfier!” cried Servadac. “But what are you going to do for a casing?” “I have thought of that. We must cut it out of the sails of the ; they are both light and strong,” rejoined the lieutenant. Count Timascheff complimented the lieutenant upon his ingenuity, and Ben Zoof could not resist bringing the meeting to a conclusion by a ringing cheer. Dobryna Truly daring was the plan of which Lieutenant Procope had thus become the originator; but the very existence of them all was at stake, and the design must be executed resolutely. For the success of the enterprise it was absolutely necessary to know, almost to a minute, the precise time at which the collision would occur, and Captain Servadac undertook the task, by gentle means or by stern, of extracting the secret from the professor. To Lieutenant Procope himself was entrusted the superintendence of the construction of the montgolfier, and the work was begun at once. It was to be large enough to carry the whole of the twenty-three residents in the volcano, and, in order to provide the means of floating aloft long enough to give time for selecting a proper place for descent, the lieutenant was anxious to make it carry enough hay or straw to maintain combustion for a while, and keep up the necessary supply of heated air. The sails of the , which had all been carefully stowed away in the Hive, were of a texture unusually close, and quite capable of being made airtight by means of a varnish, the ingredients of which were rummaged out of the promiscuous stores of the tartan. The lieutenant himself traced out the pattern and cut out the strips, and all hands were employed in seaming them together. It was hardly the work for little fingers, but Nina persisted in accomplishing her own share of it. The Russians were quite at home at occupation of this sort, and having initiated the Spaniards into its mysteries, the task of joining together the casing was soon complete. Isaac Hakkabut and the professor were the only two members of the community who took no part in this somewhat tedious proceeding. Dobryna A month passed away, but Servadac found no opportunity of getting at the information he had pledged himself to gain. On the sole occasion when he had ventured to broach the subject with the astronomer, he had received for answer that as there was no hurry to get back to the earth, there need be no concern about any dangers of transit. Indeed, as time passed on, the professor seemed to become more and more inaccessible. A pleasant temperature enabled him to live entirely in his observatory, from which intruders were rigidly shut out. But Servadac bided his time. He grew more and more impressed with the importance of finding out the exact moment at which the impact would take place, but was content to wait for a promising opportunity to put any fresh questions on the subject to the too reticent astronomer. Meanwhile, the earth’s disc was daily increasing in magnitude; the comet traveled 50,000,000 leagues during the month, at the close of which it was not more than 78,000,000 leagues from the sun. A thaw had now fairly set in. The breaking up of the frozen ocean was a magnificent spectacle, and “the great voice of the sea,” as the whalers graphically describe it, was heard in all its solemnity. Little streams of water began to trickle down the declivities of the mountain and along the shelving shore, only to be transformed, as the melting of the snow continued, into torrents or cascades. Light vapors gathered on the horizon, and clouds were formed and carried rapidly along by breezes to which the Gallian atmosphere had long been unaccustomed. All these were doubtless but the prelude to atmospheric disturbances of a more startling character; but as indications of returning spring, they were greeted with a welcome which no apprehensions for the future could prevent being glad and hearty. A double disaster was the inevitable consequence of the thaw. Both the schooner and the tartan were entirely destroyed. The basement of the icy pedestal on which the ships had been upheaved was gradually undermined, like the icebergs of the Arctic Ocean, by warm currents of water, and on the night of the 12th the huge block collapsed , so that on the following morning nothing remained of the and the except the fragments scattered on the shore. en masse Dobryna Hansa Although certainly expected, the catastrophe could not fail to cause a sense of general depression. Well-nigh one of their last ties to Mother Earth had been broken; the ships were gone, and they had only a balloon to replace them! To describe Isaac Hakkabut’s rage at the destruction of the tartan would be impossible. His oaths were simply dreadful; his imprecations on the accursed race were full of wrath. He swore that Servadac and his people were responsible for his loss; he vowed that they should be sued and made to pay him damages; he asserted that he had been brought from Gourbi Island only to be plundered; in fact, he became so intolerably abusive, that Servadac threatened to put him into irons unless he conducted himself properly; whereupon the Jew, finding that the captain was in earnest, and would not hesitate to carry the threat into effect, was fain to hold his tongue, and slunk back into his dim hole. By the 14th the balloon was finished, and, carefully sewn and well varnished as it had been, it was really a very substantial structure. It was covered with a network that had been made from the light rigging of the yacht, and the car, composed of wicker-work that had formed partitions in the hold of the , was quite commodious enough to hold the twenty-three passengers it was intended to convey. No thought had been bestowed upon comfort or convenience, as the ascent was to last for so short a time, merely long enough for making the transit from atmosphere to atmosphere. Hansa The necessity was becoming more and more urgent to get at the true hour of the approaching contact, but the professor seemed to grow more obstinate than ever in his resolution to keep his secret. On the 15th the comet crossed the orbit of Mars, at the safe distance of 56,000,000 leagues; but during that night the community thought that their last hour had taken them unawares. The volcano rocked and trembled with the convulsions of internal disturbance, and Servadac and his companions, convinced that the mountain was doomed to some sudden disruption, rushed into the open air. The first object that caught their attention as they emerged upon the open rocks was the unfortunate professor, who was scrambling down the mountain-side, piteously displaying a fragment of his shattered telescope. It was no time for condolence. A new marvel arrested every eye. A fresh satellite, in the gloom of night, was shining conspicuously before them. That satellite was a part of Gallia itself! By the expansive action of the inner heat, Gallia, like Gambart’s comet, had been severed in twain; an enormous fragment had been detached and launched into space! The fragment included Ceuta and Gibraltar, with the two English garrisons! About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

A BOLD PROPOSITION

THE JELLY-BEAN

Investment and Technology Giants Join NYM, a privacy-based blockchain as validators Dokia Capital, an a16z-backed Figment, Chorus One, and Telcom behemoth Swisscom joined Nym as a validator. The validators keep the mixnet privacy system running by providing consensus on the mix node network architecture at any given moment and public history of all token transactions, certificate generation, and double-spending prevention. This general-purpose Web-Assembly smart contract blockchain provides low-cost, lightning-fast transactions and smart contract execution speed up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). The outcome is a comprehensive, general-purpose smart contract blockchain that combines  privacy features and a Web Assembly-based smart contract environment. Earlier, Nym Technologies hired Chelsea Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower who used the anonymity program Tor to disclose thousands of sensitive papers in 2011. Nym is gearing up to expedite the emergence of the private web powered by blockchain with a new $13 million capital investment, valuing the three-year-old Neuchâtel, Switzerland-based firm at roughly $270 million. To maintain track of the status of the network, Nym is employing a blockchain rather than a semi-centralized directory authority. They used the Tendermint blockchain and the Cosmos libraries to establish their network as validators. The blockchain is an open-source, decentralized, permissionless, and incentivized system that enables full-stack privacy, enabling developers to create apps that give users strong assurances against metadata snooping at both the network and authentication and payment levels. The company's staff comprises world-class researchers and developers from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, KU Leuven, and University College London. The Need for Privacy in Layer-2 Blockchain Solution Layer 2 scaling solutions are aimed to increase throughput by off-chain processing transactions. Its goal is to increase the speed of transactions on the blockchain and lower transaction costs while retaining decentralization. Layer 2 offers a lot of promise for scalability and broad adoption of blockchain applications. Transaction custody consolidates all transactions over a certain period of time and issues a cryptographic commitment (commitment) on the updated transaction balances. The commitment and proofs will be submitted concurrently to the underlying blockchain, and the data will be computed using zero-knowledge proofs. Certain crucial elements must be considered to construct a blockchain with more security, decentralization, and scalability. Layer 2 does not alter the design scheme or consensus algorithm of the underlying Layer 1 blockchain since it continues to rely on the security and consensus mechanisms provided by it. Layer 2 often processes a substantial quantity of data and computations off-chain and only verifies on-chain (e.g. the Lightning Network). Layer 2 scaling solutions use a similar method, but their off-chain data and computations are generally validated online using smart contracts. All Layer 2 solutions announced by major tech teams now use trustless transaction custody (Operator) off-chain to enable transaction packaging and batch computation. On-chain smart contracts are often incorporated with zero-knowledge proof techniques and trusted computing technologies to guarantee fraud-proof off-chain computations.

Dokia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz backed Figment and Swisscom Join NYM as Validators

10 Best AI Music Generators for Streamlined Music Generation Process

Təkmilləşdirilmiş Musiqi Yaratma Prosesi üçün 10 Ən Yaxşı AI Musiqi Generatorları

10 nejlepších hudebních generátorů AI pro zjednodušený proces generování hudby

Οι 10 καλύτερες γεννήτριες μουσικής AI για βελτιωμένη διαδικασία δημιουργίας μουσικής

Los 10 mejores generadores de música con IA para un proceso de generación de música optimizado

Os 10 mellores xeradores de música AI para un proceso de xeración de música simplificado

10 pi bon jeneratè mizik AI pou pwosesis jenerasyon mizik rasyonalize

A 10 legjobb AI zenegenerátor az egyszerűsített zenegenerálási folyamathoz

合理化された音楽生成プロセスのための 10 のベスト AI 音楽ジェネレーター

Mpamorona Mozika AI 10 tsara indrindra ho an'ny fizotry ny famoronana mozika mirindra

Imashini 10 nziza yumuziki wa AI kubikorwa byogutunganya umuziki

10 Gjeneruesit më të mirë të muzikës me AI për procesin e gjenerimit të muzikës më të thjeshtë

10 Tijeneretara ta Vuyimbeleri bya AI letinene ta Endlelo ro Endla Vuyimbeleri lebyi Olovisiweke

Dedicated to Forbidden Planet

Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter XXXV here CHAPTER THIRTY-FIFTH. What happened to Joe.—The Island of the Biddiomahs.—The Adoration shown him.—The Island that sank.—The Shores of the Lake.—The Tree of the Serpents.—The Foot-Tramp.—Terrible Suffering.—Mosquitoes and Ants.—Hunger.—The Victoria seen.—She disappears.—The Swamp.—One Last Despairing Cry. What had become of Joe, while his master was thus vainly seeking for him? When he had dashed headlong into the lake, his first movement on coming to the surface was to raise his eyes and look upward. He saw the already risen far above the water, still rapidly ascending and growing smaller and smaller. It was soon caught in a rapid current and disappeared to the northward. His master—both his friends were saved! Victoria “How lucky it was,” thought he, “that I had that idea to throw myself out into the lake! Mr. Kennedy would soon have jumped at it, and he would not have hesitated to do as I did, for nothing’s more natural than for one man to give himself up to save two others. That’s mathematics!” Satisfied on this point, Joe began to think of himself. He was in the middle of a vast lake, surrounded by tribes unknown to him, and probably ferocious. All the greater reason why he should get out of the scrape by depending only on himself. And so he gave himself no farther concern about it. Before the attack by the birds of prey, which, according to him, had behaved like real condors, he had noticed an island on the horizon, and determining to reach it, if possible, he put forth all his knowledge and skill in the art of swimming, after having relieved himself of the most troublesome part of his clothing. The idea of a stretch of five or six miles by no means disconcerted him; and therefore, so long as he was in the open lake, he thought only of striking out straight ahead and manfully. In about an hour and a half the distance between him and the island had greatly diminished. But as he approached the land, a thought, at first fleeting and then tenacious, arose in his mind. He knew that the shores of the lake were frequented by huge alligators, and was well aware of the voracity of those monsters. Now, no matter how much he was inclined to find every thing in this world quite natural, the worthy fellow was no little disturbed by this reflection. He feared greatly lest white flesh like his might be particularly acceptable to the dreaded brutes, and advanced only with extreme precaution, his eyes on the alert on both sides and all around him. At length, he was not more than one hundred yards from a bank, covered with green trees, when a puff of air strongly impregnated with a musky odor reached him. “There!” said he to himself, “just what I expected. The crocodile isn’t far off!” With this he dived swiftly, but not sufficiently so to avoid coming into contact with an enormous body, the scaly surface of which scratched him as he passed. He thought himself lost and swam with desperate energy. Then he rose again to the top of the water, took breath and dived once more. Thus passed a few minutes of unspeakable anguish, which all his philosophy could not overcome, for he thought, all the while, that he heard behind him the sound of those huge jaws ready to snap him up forever. In this state of mind he was striking out under the water as noiselessly as possible when he felt himself seized by the arm and then by the waist. Poor Joe! he gave one last thought to his master; and began to struggle with all the energy of despair, feeling himself the while drawn along, but not toward the bottom of the lake, as is the habit of the crocodile when about to devour its prey, but toward the surface. So soon as he could get breath and look around him, he saw that he was between two natives as black as ebony, who held him, with a firm gripe, and uttered strange cries. “Ha!” said Joe, “blacks instead of crocodiles! Well, I prefer it as it is; but how in the mischief dare these fellows go in bathing in such places?” Joe was not aware that the inhabitants of the islands of Lake Tchad, like many other negro tribes, plunge with impunity into sheets of water infested with crocodiles and caymans, and without troubling their heads about them. The amphibious denizens of this lake enjoy the well-deserved reputation of being quite inoffensive. But had not Joe escaped one peril only to fall into another? That was a question which he left events to decide; and, since he could not do otherwise, he allowed himself to be conducted to the shore without manifesting any alarm. “Evidently,” thought he, “these chaps saw the skimming the waters of the lake, like a monster of the air. They were the distant witnesses of my tumble, and they can’t fail to have some respect for a man that fell from the sky! Let them have their own way, then.” Victoria Joe was at this stage of his meditations, when he was landed amid a yelling crowd of both sexes, and all ages and sizes, but not of all colors. In fine, he was surrounded by a tribe of Biddiomahs as black as jet. Nor had he to blush for the scantiness of his costume, for he saw that he was in “undress” in the highest style of that country. But before he had time to form an exact idea of the situation, there was no mistaking the agitation of which he instantly became the object, and this soon enabled him to pluck up courage, although the adventure of Kazah did come back rather vividly to his memory. “I foresee that they are going to make a god of me again,” thought he, “some son of the moon most likely. Well, one trade’s as good as another when a man has no choice. The main thing is to gain time. Should the pass this way again, I’ll take advantage of my new position to treat my worshippers here to a miracle when I go sailing up into the sky!” Victoria While Joe’s thoughts were running thus, the throng pressed around him. They prostrated themselves before him; they howled; they felt him; they became even annoyingly familiar; but at the same time they had the consideration to offer him a superb banquet consisting of sour milk and rice pounded in honey. The worthy fellow, making the best of every thing, took one of the heartiest luncheons he ever ate in his life, and gave his new adorers an exalted idea of how the gods tuck away their food upon grand occasions. When evening came, the sorcerers of the island took him respectfully by the hand, and conducted him to a sort of house surrounded with talismans; but, as he was entering it, Joe cast an uneasy look at the heaps of human bones that lay scattered around this sanctuary. But he had still more time to think about them when he found himself at last shut up in the cabin. During the evening and through a part of the night, he heard festive chantings, the reverberations of a kind of drum, and a clatter of old iron, which were very sweet, no doubt, to African ears. Then there were howling choruses, accompanied by endless dances by gangs of natives who circled round and round the sacred hut with contortions and grimaces. Joe could catch the sound of this deafening orchestra, through the mud and reeds of which his cabin was built; and perhaps under other circumstances he might have been amused by these strange ceremonies; but his mind was soon disturbed by quite different and less agreeable reflections. Even looking at the bright side of things, he found it both stupid and sad to be left alone in the midst of this savage country and among these wild tribes. Few travellers who had penetrated to these regions had ever again seen their native land. Moreover, could he trust to the worship of which he saw himself the object? He had good reason to believe in the vanity of human greatness; and he asked himself whether, in this country, adoration did not sometimes go to the length of eating the object adored! But, notwithstanding this rather perplexing prospect, after some hours of meditation, fatigue got the better of his gloomy thoughts, and Joe fell into a profound slumber, which would have lasted no doubt until sunrise, had not a very unexpected sensation of dampness awakened the sleeper. Ere long this dampness became water, and that water gained so rapidly that it had soon mounted to Joe’s waist. “What can this be?” said he; “a flood! a water-spout! or a new torture invented by these blacks? Faith, though, I’m not going to wait here till it’s up to my neck!” And, so saying, he burst through the frail wall with a jog of his powerful shoulder, and found himself—where?—in the open lake! Island there was none. It had sunk during the night. In its place, the watery immensity of Lake Tchad! “A poor country for the land-owners!” said Joe, once more vigorously resorting to his skill in the art of natation. One of those phenomena, which are by no means unusual on Lake Tchad, had liberated our brave Joe. More than one island, that previously seemed to have the solidity of rock, has been submerged in this way; and the people living along the shores of the mainland have had to pick up the unfortunate survivors of these terrible catastrophes. Joe knew nothing about this peculiarity of the region, but he was none the less ready to profit by it. He caught sight of a boat drifting about, without occupants, and was soon aboard of it. He found it to be but the trunk of a tree rudely hollowed out; but there were a couple of paddles in it, and Joe, availing himself of a rapid current, allowed his craft to float along. “But let us see where we are,” he said. “The polar-star there, that does its work honorably in pointing out the direction due north to everybody else, will, most likely, do me that service.” He discovered, with satisfaction, that the current was taking him toward the northern shore of the lake, and he allowed himself to glide with it. About two o’clock in the morning he disembarked upon a promontory covered with prickly reeds, that proved very provoking and inconvenient even to a philosopher like him; but a tree grew there expressly to offer him a bed among its branches, and Joe climbed up into it for greater security, and there, without sleeping much, however, awaited the dawn of day. When morning had come with that suddenness which is peculiar to the equatorial regions, Joe cast a glance at the tree which had sheltered him during the last few hours, and beheld a sight that chilled the marrow in his bones. The branches of the tree were literally covered with snakes and chameleons! The foliage actually was hidden beneath their coils, so that the beholder might have fancied that he saw before him a new kind of tree that bore reptiles for its leaves and fruit. And all this horrible living mass writhed and twisted in the first rays of the morning sun! Joe experienced a keen sensation or terror mingled with disgust, as he looked at it, and he leaped precipitately from the tree amid the hissings of these new and unwelcome bedfellows. “Now, there’s something that I would never have believed!” said he. He was not aware that Dr. Vogel’s last letters had made known this singular feature of the shores of Lake Tchad, where reptiles are more numerous than in any other part of the world. But after what he had just seen, Joe determined to be more circumspect for the future; and, taking his bearings by the sun, he set off afoot toward the northeast, avoiding with the utmost care cabins, huts, hovels, and dens of every description, that might serve in any manner as a shelter for human beings. How often his gaze was turned upward to the sky! He hoped to catch a glimpse, each time, of the and, although he looked vainly during all that long, fatiguing day of sore foot-travel, his confident reliance on his master remained undiminished. Great energy of character was needed to enable him thus to sustain the situation with philosophy. Hunger conspired with fatigue to crush him, for a man’s system is not greatly restored and fortified by a diet of roots, the pith of plants, such as the , or the fruit of the palm-tree; and yet, according to his own calculations, Joe was enabled to push on about twenty miles to the westward. Victoria; mélé doum His body bore in scores of places the marks of the thorns with which the lake-reeds, the acacias, the mimosas, and other wild shrubbery through which he had to force his way, are thickly studded; and his torn and bleeding feet rendered walking both painful and difficult. But at length he managed to react against all these sufferings; and when evening came again, he resolved to pass the night on the shores of Lake Tchad. There he had to endure the bites of myriads of insects—gnats, mosquitoes, ants half an inch long, literally covered the ground; and, in less than two hours, Joe had not a rag remaining of the garments that had covered him, the insects having devoured them! It was a terrible night, that did not yield our exhausted traveller an hour of sleep. During all this time the wild-boars and native buffaloes, reënforced by the —a very dangerous species of —carried on their ferocious revels in the bushes and under the waters of the lake, filling the night with a hideous concert. Joe dared scarcely breathe. Even his courage and coolness had hard work to bear up against so terrible a situation. ajoub lamantine At length, day came again, and Joe sprang to his feet precipitately; but judge of the loathing he felt when he saw what species of creature had shared his couch—a toad!—but a toad five inches in length, a monstrous, repulsive specimen of vermin that sat there staring at him with huge round eyes. Joe felt his stomach revolt at the sight, and, regaining a little strength from the intensity of his repugnance, he rushed at the top of his speed and plunged into the lake. This sudden bath somewhat allayed the pangs of the itching that tortured his whole body; and, chewing a few leaves, he set forth resolutely, again feeling an obstinate resolution in the act, for which he could hardly account even to his own mind. He no longer seemed to have entire control of his own acts, and, nevertheless, he felt within him a strength superior to despair. However, he began now to suffer terribly from hunger. His stomach, less resigned than he was, rebelled, and he was obliged to fasten a tendril of wild-vine tightly about his waist. Fortunately, he could quench his thirst at any moment, and, in recalling the sufferings he had undergone in the desert, he experienced comparative relief in his exemption from that other distressing want. “What can have become of the ” he wondered. “The wind blows from the north, and she should be carried back by it toward the lake. No doubt the doctor has gone to work to right her balance, but yesterday would have given him time enough for that, so that may be to-day—but I must act just as if I was never to see him again. After all, if I only get to one of the large towns on the lake, I’ll find myself no worse off than the travellers my master used to talk about. Why shouldn’t I work my way out of the scrape as well as they did? Some of them got back home again. Come, then! the deuce! Cheer up, my boy!” Victoria? Thus talking to himself and walking on rapidly, Joe came right upon a horde of natives in the very depths of the forest, but he halted in time and was not seen by them. The negroes were busy poisoning arrows with the juice of the —a piece of work deemed a great affair among these savage tribes, and carried on with a sort of ceremonial solemnity. euphorbium Joe, entirely motionless and even holding his breath, was keeping himself concealed in a thicket, when, happening to raise his eyes, he saw through an opening in the foliage the welcome apparition of the balloon—the herself—moving toward the lake, at a height of only about one hundred feet above him. But he could not make himself heard; he dared not, could not make his friends even see him! Victoria Tears came to his eyes, not of grief but of thankfulness; his master was then seeking him; his master had not left him to perish! He would have to wait for the departure of the blacks; then he could quit his hiding-place and run toward the borders of Lake Tchad! But by this time the was disappearing in the distant sky. Joe still determined to wait for her; she would come back again, undoubtedly. She did, indeed, return, but farther to the eastward. Joe ran, gesticulated, shouted—but all in vain! A strong breeze was sweeping the balloon away with a speed that deprived him of all hope. Victoria For the first time, energy and confidence abandoned the heart of the unfortunate man. He saw that he was lost. He thought his master gone beyond all prospect of return. He dared no longer think; he would no longer reflect! Like a crazy man, his feet bleeding, his body cut and torn, he walked on during all that day and a part of the next night. He even dragged himself along, sometimes on his knees, sometimes with his hands. He saw the moment nigh when all his strength would fail, and nothing would be left to him but to sink upon the ground and die. Thus working his way along, he at length found himself close to a marsh, or what he knew would soon become a marsh, for night had set in some hours before, and he fell by a sudden misstep into a thick, clinging mire. In spite of all his efforts, in spite of his desperate struggles, he felt himself sinking gradually in the swampy ooze, and in a few minutes he was buried to his waist. “Here, then, at last, is death!” he thought, in agony, “and what a death!” He now began to struggle again, like a madman; but his efforts only served to bury him deeper in the tomb that the poor doomed lad was hollowing for himself; not a log of wood or a branch to buoy him up; not a reed to which he might cling! He felt that all was over! His eyes convulsively closed! “Master! master!—Help!” were his last words; but his voice, despairing, unaided, half stifled already by the rising mire, died away feebly on the night. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (2002). Five Weeks in a Balloon. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3526/pg3526-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

What happened to Joe

POPULAR FOLLIES IN GREAT CITIES

The Golden Road by L. M. Montgomery, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . SARA RAY HELPS OUT CHAPTER XVIII. SARA RAY HELPS OUT We all missed Aunt Olivia greatly; she had been so merry and companionable, and had possessed such a knack of understanding small fry. But youth quickly adapts itself to changed conditions; in a few weeks it seemed as if the Story Girl had always been living at Uncle Alec’s, and as if Uncle Roger had always had a fat, jolly housekeeper with a double chin and little, twinkling blue eyes. I don’t think Aunt Janet ever quite got over missing Aunt Olivia, or looked upon Mrs. Hawkins as anything but a necessary evil; but life resumed its even tenor on the King farm, broken only by the ripples of excitement over the school concert and letters from Aunt Olivia describing her trip through the land of Evangeline. We incorporated the letters in Our Magazine under the heading “From Our Special Correspondent” and were very proud of them. At the end of June our school concert came off and was a great event in our young lives. It was the first appearance of most of us on any platform, and some of us were very nervous. We all had recitations, except Dan, who had refused flatly to take any part and was consequently care-free. “I’m sure I shall die when I find myself up on that platform, facing people,” sighed Sara Ray, as we talked the affair over in Uncle Stephen’s Walk the night before the concert. “I’m afraid I’ll faint,” was Cecily’s more moderate foreboding. “I’m not one single bit nervous,” said Felicity complacently. “I’m not nervous this time,” said the Story Girl, “but the first time I recited I was.” “My Aunt Jane,” remarked Peter, “used to say that an old teacher of hers told her that when she was going to recite or speak in public she must just get it firmly into her mind that it was only a lot of cabbage heads she had before her, and she wouldn’t be nervous.” “One mightn’t be nervous, but I don’t think there would be much inspiration in reciting to cabbage heads,” said the Story Girl decidedly. “I want to recite to PEOPLE, and see them looking interested and thrilled.” “If I can only get through my piece without breaking down I don’t care whether I thrill people or not,” said Sara Ray. “I’m afraid I’ll forget mine and get stuck,” foreboded Felix. “Some of you fellows be sure and prompt me if I do—and do it quick, so’s I won’t get worse rattled.” “I know one thing,” said Cecily resolutely, “and that is, I’m going to curl my hair for to-morrow night. I’ve never curled it since Peter almost died, but I simply must tomorrow night, for all the other girls are going to have theirs in curls.” “The dew and heat will take all the curl out of yours and then you’ll look like a scarecrow,” warned Felicity. “No, I won’t. I’m going to put my hair up in paper tonight and wet it with a curling-fluid that Judy Pineau uses. Sara brought me up a bottle of it. Judy says it is great stuff—your hair will keep in curl for days, no matter how damp the weather is. I’ll leave my hair in the papers till tomorrow evening, and then I’ll have beautiful curls.” “You’d better leave your hair alone,” said Dan gruffly. “Smooth hair is better than a lot of fly-away curls.” But Cecily was not to be persuaded. Curls she craved and curls she meant to have. “I’m thankful my warts have all gone, any-way,” said Sara Ray. “So they have,” exclaimed Felicity. “Did you try Peg’s recipe?” “Yes. I didn’t believe in it but I tried it. For the first few days afterwards I kept watching my warts, but they didn’t go away, and then I gave up and forgot them. But one day last week I just happened to look at my hands and there wasn’t a wart to be seen. It was the most amazing thing.” “And yet you’ll say Peg Bowen isn’t a witch,” said Peter. “Pshaw, it was just the potato juice,” scoffed Dan. “It was a dry old potato I had, and there wasn’t much juice in it,” said Sara Ray. “One hardly knows what to believe. But one thing is certain—my warts are gone.” Cecily put her hair up in curl-papers that night, thoroughly soaked in Judy Pineau’s curling-fluid. It was a nasty job, for the fluid was very sticky, but Cecily persevered and got it done. Then she went to bed with a towel tied over her head to protect the pillow. She did not sleep well and had uncanny dreams, but she came down to breakfast with an expression of triumph. The Story Girl examined her head critically and said, “Cecily, if I were you I’d take those papers out this morning.” “Oh, no; if I do my hair will be straight again by night. I mean to leave them in till the last minute.” “I wouldn’t do that—I really wouldn’t,” persisted the Story Girl. “If you do your hair will be too curly and all bushy and fuzzy.” Cecily finally yielded and went upstairs with the Story Girl. Presently we heard a little shriek—then two little shrieks—then three. Then Felicity came flying down and called her mother. Aunt Janet went up and presently came down again with a grim mouth. She filled a large pan with warm water and carried it upstairs. We dared ask her no questions, but when Felicity came down to wash the dishes we bombarded her. “What on earth is the matter with Cecily?” demanded Dan. “Is she sick?” “No, she isn’t. I warned her not to put her hair in curls but she wouldn’t listen to me. I guess she wishes she had now. When people haven’t natural curly hair they shouldn’t try to make it curly. They get punished if they do.” “Look here, Felicity, never mind all that. Just tell us what has happened Sis.” “Well, this is what has happened her. That ninny of a Sara Ray brought up a bottle of mucilage instead of Judy’s curling-fluid, and Cecily put her hair up with THAT. It’s in an awful state.” “Good gracious!” exclaimed Dan. “Look here, will she ever get it out?” “Goodness knows. She’s got her head in soak now. Her hair is just matted together hard as a board. That’s what comes of vanity,” said Felicity, than whom no vainer girl existed. Poor Cecily paid dearly enough for HER vanity. She spent a bad forenoon, made no easier by her mother’s severe rebukes. For an hour she “soaked” her head; that is, she stood over a panful of warm water and kept dipping her head in with tightly shut eyes. Finally her hair softened sufficiently to be disentangled from the curl papers; and then Aunt Janet subjected it to a merciless shampoo. Eventually they got all the mucilage washed out of it and Cecily spent the remainder of the forenoon sitting before the open oven door in the hot kitchen drying her ill-used tresses. She felt very down-hearted; her hair was of that order which, glossy and smooth normally, is dry and harsh and lustreless for several days after being shampooed. “I’ll look like a fright tonight,” said the poor child to me with trembling voice. “The ends will be sticking out all over my head.” “Sara Ray is a perfect idiot,” I said wrathfully “Oh, don’t be hard on poor Sara. She didn’t mean to bring me mucilage. It’s really all my own fault, I know. I made a solemn vow when Peter was dying that I would never curl my hair again, and I should have kept it. It isn’t right to break solemn vows. But my hair will look like dried hay tonight.” Poor Sara Ray was quite overwhelmed when she came up and found what she had done. Felicity was very hard on her, and Aunt Janet was coldly disapproving, but sweet Cecily forgave her unreservedly, and they walked to the school that night with their arms about each other’s waists as usual. The school-room was crowded with friends and neighbours. Mr. Perkins was flying about, getting things into readiness, and Miss Reade, who was the organist of the evening, was sitting on the platform, looking her sweetest and prettiest. She wore a delightful white lace hat with a fetching little wreath of tiny forget-me-nots around the brim, a white muslin dress with sprays of blue violets scattered over it, and a black lace scarf. “Doesn’t she look angelic?” said Cecily rapturously. “Mind you,” said Sara Ray, “the Awkward Man is here—in the corner behind the door. I never remember seeing him at a concert before.” “I suppose he came to hear the Story Girl recite,” said Felicity. “He is such a friend of hers.” The concert went off very well. Dialogues, choruses and recitations followed each other in rapid succession. Felix got through his without “getting stuck,” and Peter did excellently, though he stuffed his hands in his trousers pockets—a habit of which Mr. Perkins had vainly tried to break him. Peter’s recitation was one greatly in vogue at that time, beginning, “My name is Norval; on the Grampian hills My father feeds his flocks.” At our first practice Peter had started gaily in, rushing through the first line with no thought whatever of punctuation—“My name is Norval on the Grampian Hills.” “Stop, stop, Peter,” quoth Mr. Perkins, sarcastically, “your name might be Norval if you were never on the Grampian Hills. There’s a semi-colon in that line, I wish you to remember.” Peter did remember it. Cecily neither fainted nor failed when it came her turn. She recited her little piece very well, though somewhat mechanically. I think she really did much better than if she had had her desired curls. The miserable conviction that her hair, alone among that glossy-tressed bevy, was looking badly, quite blotted out all nervousness and self-consciousness from her mind. Her hair apart, she looked very pretty. The prevailing excitement had made bright her eye and flushed her cheeks rosily—too rosily, perhaps. I heard a Carlisle woman behind me whisper that Cecily King looked consumptive, just like her Aunt Felicity; and I hated her fiercely for it. Sara Ray also managed to get through respectably, although she was pitiably nervous. Her bow was naught but a short nod—“as if her head worked on wires,” whispered Felicity uncharitably—and the wave of her lily-white hand more nearly resembled an agonized jerk than a wave. We all felt relieved when she finished. She was, in a sense, one of “our crowd,” and we had been afraid she would disgrace us by breaking down. Felicity followed her and recited her selection without haste, without rest, and absolutely without any expression whatever. But what mattered it how she recited? To look at her was sufficient. What with her splendid fleece of golden curls, her great, brilliant blue eyes, her exquisitely tinted face, her dimpled hands and arms, every member of the audience must have felt it was worth the ten cents he had paid merely to see her. The Story Girl followed. An expectant silence fell over the room, and Mr. Perkins’ face lost the look of tense anxiety it had worn all the evening. Here was a performer who could be depended on. No need to fear stage fright or forgetfulness on her part. The Story Girl was not looking her best that night. White never became her, and her face was pale, though her eyes were splendid. But nobody thought about her appearance when the power and magic of her voice caught and held her listeners spellbound. Her recitation was an old one, figuring in one of the School Readers, and we scholars all knew it off by heart. Sara Ray alone had not heard the Story Girl recite it. The latter had not been drilled at practices as had the other pupils, Mr. Perkins choosing not to waste time teaching her what she already knew far better than he did. The only time she had recited it had been at the “dress rehearsal” two nights before, at which Sara Ray had not been present. In the poem a Florentine lady of old time, wedded to a cold and cruel husband, had died, or was supposed to have died, and had been carried to “the rich, the beautiful, the dreadful tomb” of her proud family. In the night she wakened from her trance and made her escape. Chilled and terrified, she had made her way to her husband’s door, only to be driven away brutally as a restless ghost by the horror-stricken inmates. A similar reception awaited her at her father’s. Then she had wandered blindly through the streets of Florence until she had fallen exhausted at the door of the lover of her girlhood. He, unafraid, had taken her in and cared for her. On the morrow, the husband and father, having discovered the empty tomb, came to claim her. She refused to return to them and the case was carried to the court of law. The verdict given was that a woman who had been “to burial borne” and left for dead, who had been driven from her husband’s door and from her childhood home, “must be adjudged as dead in law and fact,” was no more daughter or wife, but was set free to form what new ties she would. The climax of the whole selection came in the line, “The court pronounces the defendant—DEAD!” and the Story Girl was wont to render it with such dramatic intensity and power that the veriest dullard among her listeners could not have missed its force and significance. She swept along through the poem royally, playing on the emotions of her audience as she had so often played on ours in the old orchard. Pity, terror, indignation, suspense, possessed her hearers in turn. In the court scene she surpassed herself. She was, in very truth, the Florentine judge, stern, stately, impassive. Her voice dropped into the solemnity of the all-important line, “‘The court pronounces the defendant—‘” She paused for a breathless moment, the better to bring out the tragic import of the last word. “DEAD,” piped up Sara Ray in her shrill, plaintive little voice. The effect, to use a hackneyed but convenient phrase, can better be imagined than described. Instead of the sigh of relieved tension that should have swept over the audience at the conclusion of the line, a burst of laughter greeted it. The Story Girl’s performance was completely spoiled. She dealt the luckless Sara a glance that would have slain her on the spot could glances kill, stumbled lamely and impotently through the few remaining lines of her recitation, and fled with crimson cheeks to hide her mortification in the little corner that had been curtained off for a dressing-room. Mr. Perkins looked things not lawful to be uttered, and the audience tittered at intervals for the rest of the performance. Sara Ray alone remained serenely satisfied until the close of the concert, when we surrounded her with a whirlwind of reproaches. “Why,” she stammered aghast, “what did I do? I—I thought she was stuck and that I ought to prompt her quick.” “You little fool, she just paused for effect,” cried Felicity angrily. Felicity might be rather jealous of the Story Girl’s gift, but she was furious at beholding “one of our family” made ridiculous in such a fashion. “You have less sense than anyone I ever heard of, Sara Ray.” Poor Sara dissolved in tears. “I didn’t know. I thought she was stuck,” she wailed again. She cried all the way home, but we did not try to comfort her. We felt quite out of patience with her. Even Cecily was seriously annoyed. This second blunder of Sara’s was too much even for her loyalty. We saw her turn in at her own gate and go sobbing up her lane with no relenting. The Story Girl was home before us, having fled from the schoolhouse as soon as the programme was over. We tried to sympathize with her but she would not be sympathized with. “Please don’t ever mention it to me again,” she said, with compressed lips. “I never want to be reminded of it. Oh, that little IDIOT!” “She spoiled Peter’s sermon last summer and now she’s spoiled your recitation,” said Felicity. “I think it’s time we gave up associating with Sara Ray.” “Oh, don’t be quite so hard on her,” pleaded Cecily. “Think of the life the poor child has to live at home. I know she’ll cry all night.” “Oh, let’s go to bed,” growled Dan. “I’m good and ready for it. I’ve had enough of school concerts.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. L. M. Montgomery (2008). The Golden Road. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/316/pg316-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

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