Pouchis in the Internet First Insurance Platforms Industry

Pouch

pouch

Access/Search your Google Drive files from your bookmarks bar As someone who depends on a number of different tools to get my work done on a day to day basis, I have always been fascinated by finding ways to become even 1% more efficient with my workflows. Whether I am working on my own personal projects or interning at a big company, I always try and find the optimal balance of services and processes to best increase my productivity. In aiming for that, I often find myself trying to cut out parts of my “work-system” that I find unnecessary/boring/inefficient. There are so many auxiliary parts to the modern work environment, that we often spend an incredible amount of time on work that is only designed to support our important work; i.e: the work we actually care about. One inefficiency I recently noticed, among my coworkers/peers, as well as in my own workflow, was that I was spending a stupid amount of time switching between tabs and searching for information. My bookmarks bar was always full. My tabs were all over the place. And…most annoying of which…I kept opening the same services over and over. Over the course of a single day, I found myself opening and closing google drive 30+ times! So…my friends (Jacob and Tyler) and I figured there must be a better way. So we made 👝 Pouch It is a simple, that allows you to easily access/search your google drive files — all from your bookmarks bar. free chrome extension You can also easily copy and paste links to your files! The whole idea with Pouch is that we can erase the need for you to constantly juggle through tabs and services looking for your information. Starting with Google Drive (and Dropbox), you can access all of the relevant information you need without ever having to leave your productive state. So which integrations do you think we should build next? We’re also on , would appreciate your support :) Product Hunt Thanks for reading!

Introducing Pouch👝

So, this is absolutely just another example of me playing around too much, but I had to share. As I mentioned in my yesterday, Google's AI Studio now supports uploading files and working with them in your prompt. post Today, I decided to give the Chat interface a try as I hadn't yet played with it. On a whim, I googled "dungeons and dragons rules PDF" and... well, you won't believe what happened next. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) First off, the most important thing to note if you want to test with PDFs, ensure that they are OCRed. Right now, AI Studio does not handle that well, but it should be corrected in the future. My Google search turned up the PDF here: , and I confirmed it was properly OCRed with a very scientific test by trying to select a few words. https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf Note that it's from 2018 and probably a bit out of date, but I figured it was good enough. I uploaded the PDF to Gemini and ensured I was using Gemini 1.5. This is important as the size of the PDF (180 pages) means a rather large token size. The UI reports this nicely: For my first test, I simply asked, "What are the attributes of a player character?" Here's what I got: In Dungeons & Dragons, player characters (PCs) are defined by several key attributes: Race: This determines your character's physical characteristics, ancestry, and innate abilities. Examples include humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, dragonborns, tieflings, etc. Each race has unique traits that affect gameplay. Class: This represents your character's chosen profession and determines their skills, abilities, and progression path. Examples include fighter, wizard, rogue, cleric, bard, etc. Each class has unique features and abilities that define their role in the party. Ability Scores: These six scores represent your character's core physical and mental capabilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They influence almost every action your character takes, from attacking and defending to interacting with the world and casting spells. Skills: These represent specific areas of expertise your character has developed through training or experience. Examples include Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth, Perception, Persuasion, Arcana, etc. Skills are tied to ability scores and determine your character's success in various tasks. Background: This details your character's history and past experiences before becoming an adventurer. Examples include soldier, criminal, noble, sage, etc. Backgrounds provide additional skills, proficiencies, and roleplaying hooks. Equipment: This includes weapons, armor, tools, and other items your character carries. Equipment affects your character's capabilities in combat and exploration. Personality and Alignment: These define your character's moral compass, beliefs, and behavior. Alignment is a combination of two factors: morality (good, evil, or neutral) and attitude towards society and order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral). Backstory: This is the narrative of your character's life before the game begins, including their motivations, goals, and relationships. A well-developed backstory adds depth and helps you roleplay your character. These attributes work together to create a unique and well-rounded character that you can roleplay and guide through adventures in the D&D world. I'm pretty rusty in D&D, but that surely seems right! (When I shared this in a chat related to Gemini, William Ito skimmed it and said it looks correct for that era - so, I'm taking that as another sign it worked well.) I then asked, "What races are available to player characters?" The most common player character races in Dungeons & Dragons are: Humans: Adaptable and versatile, with no major strengths or weaknesses. Elves: Graceful and long-lived, with a natural affinity for magic and a resistance to charm effects. Subraces include High Elves, Wood Elves, and Dark Elves (Drow). Dwarves: Stout and hardy, with a resistance to magic and poison, and proficiency in combat and craftsmanship. Subraces include Hill Dwarves and Mountain Dwarves. Halflings: Nimble and small, with a natural ability to hide and a resistance to fear. Subraces include Lightfoot Halflings and Stout Halflings. The Player's Handbook also introduces several less common races, including: Dragonborn: Proud and draconic humanoids with scales and the ability to breathe fire. Tieflings: Demonic descendants with a natural affinity for magic and resistance to fire. Gnomes: Inventive and curious small creatures with a natural ability to tinker and a resistance to magic. Half-elves: Combining human and elven traits, they are versatile and have a resistance to charm effects. Half-orcs: Combining human and orc traits, they are strong and fierce with a resistance to being knocked unconscious. Additionally, some campaign settings and sourcebooks introduce even more exotic races, such as Aasimar, Firbolg, Goliath, Aarakocra, Genasi, and many others. The availability of these races depends on your Dungeon Master and the specific campaign setting you are playing in. Remember, the most important factor in choosing a race is to pick one that excites you and fits the character concept you have in mind. I have absolutely no clue if those exotic races exist, but I did a quick search on Aasimar, and it looks like it certainly does: Aasimar Alright, now, at this point, I was impressed. But I thought - why not push my luck? "Given the rules to create a character, create one with all the required characters and give it a name" And holy crap - Gemini delivered! Character Name: Lyra Swiftfoot Race: Lightfoot Halfling Class: Rogue (Thief) Background: Entertainer (Dancer) Alignment: Chaotic Good Ability Scores: (Using the standard set) Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 17 (+3) Constitution: 14 (+2) Intelligence: 13 (+1) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 15 (+2) Hit Points: 10 (8 + 2 from Constitution modifier) Proficiencies: Armor: Light armor Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords Tools: Thieves' tools, Disguise kit (from background) Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence Skills: Acrobatics (+5), Perception (+4), Performance (+6), Stealth (+7) (Expertise in Stealth and Performance) Equipment: Rapier Shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows Leather armor Two daggers Thieves' tools Disguise kit Backpack Bedroll Mess kit Tinderbox 10 torches 10 days of rations Waterskin 50 feet of hempen rope Pouch with 15 gp Personality Traits: I have a quick wit and a fondness for pranks. I am fiercely loyal to my friends and always look out for their safety. Ideal: Freedom: Everyone should be free to live their life as they see fit. (Chaotic) Bond: I will do anything to protect my younger sister, who is the only family I have left. Flaw: I have a weakness for shiny objects and can't resist the urge to steal them, even if it means putting myself at risk. Backstory: Lyra grew up on the streets, using her nimbleness and charm to survive. She learned to dance for coins and honed her skills in stealth and deception to pilfer from unsuspecting onlookers. After her sister was kidnapped by slavers, Lyra vowed to do whatever it takes to find and rescue her, even if it means venturing into the darkest corners of the world. This is just a basic example, and you can further customize Lyra by adding details to her appearance, personality, and backstory. You can also choose different skills, proficiencies, or equipment based on your preferences and the campaign setting. By the way, the formatting above is a bit off, but that came from me copying and pasting from Gemini and being a bit lazy about sprucing it up. I figured I'd push my luck and try again: "do that again please" Character Name: Falion Sunstrider Race: High Elf Class: Wizard (Evocation) Background: Sage (Researcher) Alignment: Neutral Good Ability Scores: (Using the standard set) Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 14 (+2) Constitution: 13 (+1) Intelligence: 17 (+3) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 10 (+0) Hit Points: 8 (6 + 1 from Constitution modifier) Proficiencies: Weapons: Daggers, darts, slings, quarterstaffs, light crossbows Tools: None Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom Skills: Arcana (+6), History (+6), Investigation (+4) (Expertise in Arcana and History) Equipment: Quarterstaff Arcane focus (crystal) Scholar's pack Spellbook with six 1st-level wizard spells (Burning Hands, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield) Backpack Bedroll Mess kit Tinderbox 10 torches 10 days of rations Waterskin 50 feet of hempen rope Pouch with 10 gp Personality Traits: I am deeply curious about the world and always eager to learn new things. I am absent-minded and often lost in my own thoughts. Ideal: Knowledge: The path to power and self-improvement is through knowledge. (Neutral) Bond: I am searching for the lost library of a legendary archmage, rumored to contain powerful spells and forgotten lore. Flaw: I am overconfident in my abilities and sometimes underestimate the dangers I face. Backstory: Falion spent his youth studying in a prestigious academy of magic, quickly surpassing his peers with his thirst for knowledge and natural talent for evocation magic. After hearing rumors of a lost library containing powerful spells and forgotten lore, Falion set out on a journey to find it, hoping to unlock its secrets and further his magical abilities. This is just a basic example, and you can further customize Falion by adding details to his appearance, personality, and backstory. You can also choose different skills, proficiencies, or equipment based on your preferences and the campaign setting. So, at this point, I was blown away. Like, I don't even care if it broke any particular D&D rules; that was just fun. But... yeah, I pushed my luck ... ... ... one last time "Of the two characters you just made, who do you think would be a better party leader?" Between Lyra Swiftfoot and Falion Sunstrider, Lyra would likely be the better party leader for several reasons: : Lyra has a higher Charisma score, which is important for inspiring and motivating others. Her background as an entertainer also suggests she is comfortable in front of crowds and skilled at interacting with people. Charisma : Lyra's skillset is more suited to leadership. Her expertise in Persuasion and Deception allows her to negotiate effectively and navigate social situations, while her proficiency in Perception and Stealth makes her a good scout and strategist. Skills : Lyra's personality traits suggest she is quick-witted and loyal, both valuable qualities in a leader. Her flaw, while potentially problematic, can be mitigated by her other strengths and the support of her party. Personality : While wizards can be powerful, their focus on spellcasting and relative lack of social skills often makes them less effective leaders. Class Falion, on the other hand, excels in knowledge and magical power, making him a valuable asset to the party in terms of strategy and information gathering. However, his lower Charisma and lack of social skills might hinder his ability to effectively lead and inspire others. Additionally, his absent-mindedness and overconfidence could lead to poor decisions in critical situations. Of course, the effectiveness of a party leader also depends on the specific campaign setting, the party composition, and the players' roleplaying preferences. In some situations, Falion's knowledge and magical prowess might be more valuable than Lyra's social skills. Ultimately, the best party leader is the one that the players and the Dungeon Master agree upon and who can effectively guide the party through their adventures. My god. That's just... perfect. And honestly, it feels like the right choice for the right reasons. Anyway, this isn't necessarily a deep look at this particular feature, but it was so fun I had to share!

Google Gemini: Your New Dungeon Master?

গুগল মিথুন: আপনার নতুন অন্ধকূপ মাস্টার?

Google Gemini: Ihr neuer Dungeon-Meister?

Google Gemini: ¿tu nuevo maestro de mazmorras?

Google Gemini : votre nouveau maître de donjon ?

गूगल जेमिनी: आपका नया कालकोठरी मास्टर?

Google Gemini: あなたの新しいダンジョンマスター?

Google Gemini: 새로운 던전 마스터?

Google Gemini: seu novo mestre de masmorras?

Google Gemini: ваш новый мастер подземелий?

Google Gemini: Yeni Zindan Ustanız mı?

Google Gemini: Chủ nhân ngục tối mới của bạn?

谷歌双子座：你的新地下城主？

Scientific American, Vol. XXXIX. No. 6. [New Series.], August 10, 1878, by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A VELOCIPEDE FEAT EXTRAORDINARY. here A VELOCIPEDE FEAT EXTRAORDINARY. Two intrepid velocipedists, M. le Baron Emanuel de Graffenried de Burgenstein, aged twenty years and six months, and a member of the Society of Velocipede Sport, of Paris, has accomplished, with M. A. Laumaillé d'Angers, the greatest distance that has been made with a velocipede in France. Leaving Paris on March 16, they returned on the 24th of April, after having traveled a distance of more than three thousand miles. Their route extended through a part of the west, the middle, and the south of France, Italy, and southern Switzerland. They traveled through Orléans, Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, Bordeaux, Montauban, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseilles, Toulon, Nice, Menton, San-Remo, Genoa, Turin, Milan, the Simplon—where they barely escaped destruction by an avalanche—Vevay, Berne, Lausanne, Geneva, Dijon, Troy, and Provins. The longest distance that they accomplished in a single day, was between Turin and Milan, a distance of 90 miles, which they made in 9-1/2 hours. Superior Excellence of American Goods. The , of Birmingham, England, remarks with regard to American competition, that "perhaps the most humiliating feature of the business for British manufacturers is the fact that their competitors are prevailing, not through the cheapness, but through the excellence of their goods. Time was when English workmanship ranked second to none, and the names of our great manufacturing firms were a guarantee for the sterling quality of the goods they turned out; but competitions, trades unions, piece work, short hours, and other incidents of the 'march of progress' have altered all that. Complaints, received by hardware merchants from their customers abroad, are not confined to the goods of second class firms. Manufacturers who have obtained a world-wide reputation for their products are frequently convicted of sending out scamped and unfinished work, and they do not venture to deny the impeachment, pleading only that the most vigilant must be sometimes at fault, and that their men, unfortunately, are not to be depended upon. In other cases it is the merchants or their customers who are to blame for the inferior quality of the articles by cutting prices so low as to preclude the possibility of honest work, thinking, probably, that anything is good enough for a foreign or colonial market. But whatever the cause, the fact is now undeniable, that a great deal of the manufactured produce shipped from this country of late years has been of a very low standard, and that the American manufacturers have consequently had an easy task in beating it." Post Petroleum Oils as Lubricators. Oils from petroleum are now produced suitable for nearly every mechanical process for which animal oils have heretofore been used, not excepting those intended for cylinder purposes. A serious objection attaching to the animal oils is present in petroleum. If, through the exhaust steam, some of the oil be carried into the boiler, foaming or priming is the consequence, but the same thing happening in the case of petroleum is rather a benefit than otherwise, for it not only does not cause foaming, but it prevents incrustation or adhesion of the scale or deposit, and this aids in the preservation of the boiler, and is perhaps the best preventive of the many everywhere suggested. Often, in removing the cylinder head and the plate covering the valves of an engine, we see evidences of corrosion or action on the surfaces, differing entirely from ordinary wear, and the engineer is generally at a loss how to account for it. According to the general impression grease or animal oil is the preservative of the metal, and is the last thing suspected of being the cause of its general disintegration. The reason of this is that vegetable and animal oils consist of fatty acids, such as stearic, magaric, oleic, etc. They are combined with glycerin as a base, and, under ordinary conditions, are neutrals to metals generally, and on being applied they keep them from rusting by shielding them from the action of air and moisture. But in the course of time the influence of the air causes decomposition and oxidation, the oils become rancid, as it is called, which is acid, and they act on the metals. What happens at the ordinary temperature slowly goes on rapidly in the steam cylinder, where a new condition is reached. The oils are subjected to the heat of high pressure steam, which dissociates or frees these acids from their base, and in this condition they attack the metal and hence destroy it. This applies as well to vegetable as to oils of animal origin, fish or sperm oil included. Petroleum and oils derived therefrom (generally called mineral oils) are entirely free from this objection. Petroleum contains no oxygen, and hence it cannot form an acid, and therefore cannot attack metal. It is entirely neutral, and so bland that it may be and is used medicinally as a dressing to wounds and badly abraded surfaces where cerates of ordinary dressing would give pain.— Coal Trade Journal. Influence of Light on Plants and Animals. Professor Paul Bert, who has recently devoted a great deal of attention to the study of the influence of light on animals and plants, denies that the leaves of the sensitive plant close on the approach of evening, the same as if they had been touched by the hand. On the contrary, he finds that from 9 in the evening, after drooping, they expand again and attain the maximum of rigidity at 2 in the morning. What is commonly called the "sensitiveness" of plants is but the external manifestations of the influences of light. Professor Bert placed plants in lanterns of different colored glass; those under the influence of green glass drooped in the course of a few days as completely as if placed in utter darkness, proving that green rays are useless, and equal to none at all. In a few weeks all plants without exception thus treated died. It has been proved by the experiments of Zimiriareff that the reducing power of the green matter of plants is proportionate to the quantity of red rays absorbed, and Bert shows that green glass precisely intercepts these colored rays, and that plants exist more or less healthily in blue and violet rays. In the animal world phenomena of a directly opposite nature are found, and of a more complex character. Here the light acts on the skin and the movements of the body, either directly or through the visual organs. M. Pouchet has shown the changes in color that certain animals undergo, according to the medium in which they live. For instance, young turbots resting on white sand assume an ashy tint, but when resting on a black bottom become brown; when deprived of its eyes the fish exhibits no change of color in its skin; the phenomenon, therefore, seems to be nervous or optical. Professor Bert placed a piece of paper with a cut design on the back of a sleeping chameleon; on bringing a lamp near the animal the skin gradually became brown, and on removing the paper a well defined image of the pattern appeared. In this case the light acted directly, and without nervous intervention. If, however, the eye of the chameleon be extracted, the corresponding side of the animal becomes insensible to the influence of the light. Professor Bert's conclusion, therefore, is that the circulation in the transparent layers of the skin must be affected by light. According to Dr. Bouchard a sunstroke is the effect of the direct action of light upon the skin, produced by the blue and violet rays. The heat producing rays have no part in such accidents, as proved by the fact that workmen exposed to intense heats do not feel their fatal effect. Professor Bert, in a series of experiments on a variety of animals, found that none avoided light, but all rather sought it; and the lowest forms, like the highest, absorbed the same rays. As regards intensity of color, however, there was a difference, some being more partial to one ray than another. Thus the microscopic daphne of the pond preferred yellow; violet was less in request; spiders seemed to enjoy blue rather than red rays—so resembling people suffering from color blindness. No two persons are sensible to the same shades or tones, while absorbing the same light; and this would seem to indicate that the retina possesses a selective power. New Mechanical Inventions. An improved Weighing Scale has been patented by Hosea Willard, of Vergennes, Vt. The object of this invention is to economize time in ascertaining the weight of an article by avoiding the necessity for shifting the poise on the scale beam. It consists in providing a scale beam with a number of dishes suspended from different points on said beam, and representing or corresponding with different weights, so that the weight of an article may be ascertained by placing it in one or more of said dishes and observing which dish is depressed. William John, of Rigdon, Ind., has patented an improved Tire Setting and Cooling Apparatus, by which the tire may be set by one person, easily and quickly, without burning the fellies, and without straining the wheel by the unequal cooling of the tire. Joseph A. Mumford, of Avondale, Nova Scotia, Canada, has patented an improved machine for Sawing and Jointing Shingles. This machine cannot be properly described without engravings. It has an ingenious feeding device, and its flywheel carries the jointing knives. Ill-balanced Production. The Philadelphia sensibly remarks that the popular complaint of over-production is a mistake. Though of a few things we make or mine too much, our main trouble arises from not producing enough, in variety if not in quantity. Record "The wants of mankind never can be satisfied. Every new means of supplying a want creates new wants. They grow by what they feed on. As long as humanity is so constituted, over-production, in a general and enlarged sense, is impossible. It is this impossible thing with which the reformers would deal who propose to work fewer hours each day, or fewer hours in the week. The trouble they deplore does not exist; the remedy they propose defeats itself. A man cannot get rid of his load by shifting it from his right hand to his left hand. Production will not be stopped by making men their own employers certain hours in the day or certain days in the week, instead of allowing them to pursue their usual avocations. "The real trouble, which the labor reformers seem incompetent to fathom, is that there is not enough diversity in employments. What is desired is more work in productive enterprises, a more diffused industry, and a closer commercial connection with those countries wherein we can make desirable exchanges both of our raw material and our manufactured products. Every miner that drops his pick and takes up a hoe, every idle man that turns himself into an earner of wages, every person that picks up some loose thread of employment, every capitalist that takes advantage of stagnating industry and cheap material to build a house or beautify or improve a country seat, or set on foot some new process of manufacture, does something toward working out the problem which is puzzling the economists. In good time the surplus iron and coal will be sold; new populations will want new railroads; recuperated capital will gather confidence and take hold of new enterprises, and the whole nation will move forward again to more assured prosperity and to vaster undertakings." Labor in Germany. The consul at Barmen reports that for agricultural labor the pay varies greatly, according to the proximity to or remoteness from manufacturing centers; and ranges from fifty-six cents a day in the neighborhood of Barmen to thirty-one cents a day in the lower Rhine valley, and as low as eighteen cents in parts of Silesia. At Barmen, Crefeld and Düsseldorf, carpenters, coppersmiths, plumbers, machinists and wagonsmiths earn fifty-one to seventy-five cents daily; saddlers and shoemakers forty-seven to fifty-two cents daily; bakers and brewers, with board and lodging, from $1.42 to $2.14 weekly, and without board from sixty cents a day to $4.28 a week; farm hands are paid from $107 to $215 yearly, with maintenance; railroad laborers from fifty-six to eighty-[Pg 90]three cents per day, and as high as ninety-five cents daily for piece work on tunnels; silk weavers can earn $2.15 to $2.85 a week per loom; factory women $2.15, and children $1 a week. Business and wages are very low. In good times wages are eighty per cent higher. The cost of the necessaries of life has increased some fifty per cent in thirteen years, although it is now but little higher than five years ago. A man and wife with two or three children can live in two or three rooms in a poor and comfortless manner for $275 a year, and to support such an establishment all the members have to work ten or twelve hours daily. For a family of six persons the cost is about $7 per week—an amount but few families can earn, as the depression of trade and the reduction of time allow few to do a full week's work, although wages are nominally a trifle higher than five years ago. Petroleum June Review. DRILLING WELL ACCOUNT. The low price of oil and large accumulation of stock in the producing regions have had the effect to lessen operations in this department during the month of June. The total number of drilling wells in all the districts, at the close of the month, was 266, which was 110 less than in the preceding month. Rigs erected and being erected 243, against 309 last month. The number of drilling wells completed during the month was 269, being 151 less than in May. Aggregate production of the new wells was 3,788 barrels, against 6,851 barrels in May. The total number of dry holes developed in the month was 22, against 42 in May. The operators in the great northern field (Bradford district) have curtailed operations to an extent which will compare favorably with the operators in the other portions of the producing regions, as will be seen by the following statement, namely: Number of wells drilling at the close of the month, 187, against 284 at the close of the previous month. Number of drilling wells completed in June, 193, against 346 in May. Number of rigs erected and being erected, 196, against 234 in May. PRODUCTION. The daily average production for the month was 40,575 barrels, being a decrease of 227 barrels. The new wells completed in June failed to make good the falling off of the old ones, by decreasing the daily average 227 barrels. Bradford district shows a daily average production of 16,000 barrels, being an increase of 1,280 barrels over last month. The aggregate production in June of all the other districts combined, with the aid of 76 new wells, decreased the daily average 1,507 barrels. SHIPMENTS. The shipments in June, out of the producing regions, were 174,225 barrels larger than in the preceding month. The total shipments of crude, and refined reduced to crude equivalent, by railroad, river and pipes to the following points, were 1,135,119 barrels: New York took 555,794 bbls. Pittsburg " 153,182 " Cleveland " 239,389 " Philadelphia " 73,426 " Boston " 29,266 " Baltimore " 26,623 " Richmond " 7,000 " Ohio River refiners took 5,200 " Other local points took 45,239 " Total shipments 1,135,119 " Included in the above shipments there were 140,299 barrels of refined from Titusville and Oil City, which is equal to 187,065 barrels of crude.— Stowell's Petroleum Reporter. Remarkable Poisoning of a Lake. A contributor to describes the remarkable poisoning of Lake Alexandrina—one of the bodies of water which form the estuary of the Murray river, Australia. This year the water of the river has been unusually warm and low, and the inflow to the lakes very slight. The consequence has been an excessive growth of a conferva which is indigenous to these lakes and confined to them. This alga, , is very light and floats on the water, except during breezes, when it becomes diffused, and being driven to the lee shores, forms a thick scum like green oil paint. Nature Nodularia spumigera This scum, which is from two to six inches thick, and of a pasty consistency, being swallowed by cattle when drinking, acts poisonously and rapidly causes death. The symptoms of the poisoning are stupor and unconsciousness, falling and remaining quiet (as if asleep), unless touched, when convulsions are induced, the head and neck being drawn back by a rigid spasm, subsiding before death. The poison causes the death of sheep in from one to six or eight hours; of horses, in from eight to twenty-four hours; of dogs, in from four to five hours; and of pigs in three or four hours. A shows the plant is rapidly absorbed into the circulation, where it must act as a ferment, and causes disorganization. As the cattle will not touch the puddle where the plant scum has collected and become putrid, all they take is quite fresh, and the poisoning is therefore not due to drinking a putrescent fluid full of bacteria, as was suggested. post mortem When the scum collects and dries on the banks it forms a green crust. When, however, it is left in wet pools it rapidly decomposes, emitting a most horrible stench, like putrid urine; but previous to reaching this stage it gives out a smell like that of very rancid butter. A blue pigment exudes from this decomposing matter, having some remarkable properties. It is remarkably fluorescent, being red by reflected and blue by transmitted light; it appears to be a product of the decomposition, and allied to the coloring matter found in some lichens. 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. Various (2013). Scientific American, Vol. XXXIX. No. 6. [New Series.], August 10, 1878. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-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 VELOCIPEDE FEAT EXTRAORDINARY

Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Dates and the Date Palm here DATES AND THE DATE PALM. Even those whose knowledge of the customs of the Orient extends no further than a recollection of the contents of that time-honored story book, the "Arabian Nights," are doubtless aware that, since time immemorial, the date has been the chief food staple of the desert-dwellers of the East. The "handful of dates and gourd of water" form the typical meal and daily sustenance of millions of human beings both in Arabia and in North Africa, and to this meager diet ethnologists have ascribed many of the peculiar characteristics of the people who live upon it. Buckle, who finds in the constant consumption of rice among the Hindoos a reason for the inclination to the prodigious and grotesque, the depression of spirits, and the weariness of life manifest in that nation, likewise considers that the morbid temperament of the Arab is a sequence of vegetarianism. He points out that rice contains an unusual amount of starch, namely, between 83 and 85 per cent; and that dates possess precisely the same nutritious substances as rice does, with the single difference that the starch is already converted into sugar. To live, therefore, on such food is not to satisfy hunger; and hunger, like all other cravings, even if partially satisfied, exercises control over the imagination. "This biological fact," says Peschel, "was and still is the origin of the rigid fastings prescribed by religions so widely different, which are made use of by Shamans in every quarter of the world when they wish to enter into communication with invisible powers." Peschel and Buckle, however, are at variance as to the influence of the date diet as affecting a race; and the former remarks that, "while no one will deny that the nature of the food reacts upon the mental powers of man, the temperament evoked by different sorts is different;" yet "we are still far from having ascertained anything in regard to the permanent effects of daily food, especially as the human stomach has, to a great degree, the power of accommodating itself to various food substances, so that with use even narcotics lose much of their effect." The same author also adds that the date "trains up independent and warlike desert tribes, which have not the most remote mental relationship to the rice-eating Hindoos." It remains for the reader to reconcile this disagreement of learned doctors according to his own judgment. The evidence of those who subsist on the date is certainly overwhelming in its favor. The Assyrians, tradition says, asserted that it was such a great gift to them that its worth could not be too extravagantly told; for they had found, for the leaves, the fruit, the juices, and the wood of the tree, three hundred and sixty different uses. The Mohammedans adopt the date palm into their religion as an emblem of uprightness, and say that it miraculously sprang into existence, fully grown, at the command of the Prophet. Palm branches still enter as symbols of rejoicing into Christian religious ceremonies; and throughout Palestine constant reference is found to the date and the palm in the naming of towns. Bethany means "a house of dates." Ancient Palmyra was a "city of palms," and the Hebrew female name Tamar is derived from the word in that language signifying palm. In Africa there is an immense tract of land between Barbary and the great desert named Bilidulgerid, "the land of dates," from the profusion of the trees there growing. In this country, the date as an article of food is classed with the prune, the fig, and the tamarind, to be used merely as a luxury. We find it coming to the markets at just about this time of year in the greatest quantities, packed in baskets roughly made from dried palm leaves. The dates, gathered while ripe and soft, are forced into these receptacles until almost a pasty mass, often not over clean, is formed. Their natural sugar tends to preserve them; but after long keeping they become dry and hard. This renders them unfit for use; but they still find a sale to the itinerant vendors who, after steaming them to render them soft (of course at the expense of the flavor), hawk them about the streets. Dates in the pasty condition are not relished by those who live on them; nor, on the other hand, would we probably fancy the dried, almost tasteless fruit which, strung on long straws, is carried in bunches by the Arabs in their pouches. The date palm ( ) is the most important species of the dozen which make up its genus. Though slow in growth, it shoots up a magnificent stem, to the height sometimes of eighty feet, the summit of which is covered with a graceful crown of pinnated leaves. The trunk is exceedingly rough and spiny; the flower spathes, which appear in the axils of the leaves, are woody, and contain branched spadices with many flowers; more than 11,000 have been counted on a single male spadix. As the flowers are diœcious, it is necessary to impregnate the female blossoms artificially in order to insure a good crop; and to this end the male spadices are cut off when the pollen is ripe and carefully shaken over the female ones. At from six to ten years of age, the tree bears, and then remains fruitful for upward of 200 years. An excellent idea of the palm in full bearing may be obtained from our illustration, which represents the mode of gathering the dates, of which a single tree will often yield from one to four hundredweight in a season. The fruit varies much in size and quality; and in the oases of the Sahara forty-six varieties have been named. phœnix dactylifera The utilizations of the date palm and its products are very numerous. The stem yields starch, and timber for houses, boats, fences, fuel, etc., as well as an inferior kind of sago. The leaves serve as parasols and umbrellas, and for material for roof covering, baskets, brushes, mats, and innumerable utensils. At their base is a fiber, which is spun into excellent rope. When the heart of the leaf is cut, a thick honey-like juice exudes, which, by fermentation, becomes wine (the "toddy" of India), or vinegar, and is also boiled down into sugar. The young shoots, when cooked, resemble asparagus; and the dates themselves are dried and ground into meal, from which bread is prepared. 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. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-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

DATES AND THE DATE PALM

Being productive has turned into a cult. We are using it to assess the performance of others as well as our own. No matter how much we praise it, two truths follow it. First, it is hardly a measurement of success. Second, no matter how much we despise them, some things can be detrimental to it. Things like… Taking on all the tasks I have not only encountered tons of people who made these mistakes but made them myself. People who want to be successful often adopt the “If you want to do it right, do it yourself” mindset. The further in our career we progress, the more difficult it becomes. Our calendars become more busy and our task boards become near unmanageable. Trying to do it all without any help might prove not only tricky but dangerous. It is a true enemy of productivity as the more tasks we have to complete, the more likely we are to get lost in the overload, and the more time we will spend procrastinating. This way nothing gets done, and the results leave much to be desired. delegate and find the balance. As was said by the great Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist and philanthropist, “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all themself or get all the credit.” Fix: Not getting enough sleep A piece of advice that used to be one of the most popular in business literature is, “If you want to be more productive and need more time, simply get out of bed an hour earlier than you usually do.” In my opinion, it is better to go to bed an hour earlier. Scientists not sleeping enough is the cause behind low levels of attention, perception, memory, speed, and other brain functions. After all, they do not tell us not to get behind the wheel when we are sleepy for nothing — we perform worse. say The more sleep we get, the better our brains work and the more productive and creative we become. As a result, we can get our sleep and accomplish everything we set for the day. for me, a good night’s sleep makes all the difference. What I like to do is put my phone as far away from me as possible and set it in focus mode so that no notifications distract me while I read a good book and sleep. It relaxes me, helps me fall asleep faster, and also helps me get through tons of books. What’s not to like? Fix: Scatter tasks across multiple tracking solutions Anyone who has ever moved from one apartment to another knows how frustrating it is to have some things in one place and the rest in another. It is impossible to find anything, and it is easy to get frustrated and annoyed. It is the same with tasks. When they are scattered across multiple locations and platforms, all our productivity, focus, and time goes into finding every task that needs to be done and not into actually doing it. I can hardly call a day spent switching between various apps and tabs productive. centralization is the most effective approach in this case. A team needs to decide which system, be it Kanban, Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall, fits them the best. The next step is choosing a task management solution and sticking to it and only it when managing tasks and marking the progress. This will increase the level of productivity. Fix: Not taking breaks This one has been proven by . Taking breaks helps our brain recharge and switch between different types of activities. This not only keeps it flexible but boosts our problem-solving processes as well as our creativity. science If there is a possibility to squeeze in a little walk or workout into a break — even better. Physical activity facilitates the release of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphin, all of which are responsible for the feeling of euphoria, have a positive effect on the feeling of well-being, and can put one in a good mood, which is one of the keys to productivity. it is important to build a workday structure with breaks in mind. It may be a good idea to block some time in a calendar so that nothing can interrupt those moments of free time set aside for recharging and resting. At SupportYourApp, I encourage our teams to do so to ensure they always have the energy to achieve their professional goals. Fix: Keeping your phone close by Today, smartphones are one of the most popular reasons behind low productivity. All those apps, never-ending Instagram stories, waiting to be reacted to, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) posts that need to be commented on. We may not even notice how much time we spend on our phones. To remain on track and productive, we have to put our phones aside, especially during moments of high focus. That might prove difficult, especially when one’s job depends on non-ending calls or social media presence. there are a myriad of things that can help us here. From time limits that can be set for being in a particular app, to small phone that can be locked with a smartphone inside for a set amount of time (that is harsh, I know). Getting off our phones will free up a lot of time and help us be more productive in the same 8 hours we have in our workday. Fix: pouches

These 5 Things Will Kill Your Productivity

Dedicated to the MIT Press Bookshop

The Fugitive.

Dedicated to BakkaPhoenix Books

According to , the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, remittances from migrants to their home communities—are projected to increase from US$791 billion in 2021 to US$840 billion by the end of 2023. This trend underscores the vital role remittances play in global finance, particularly for Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), excluding China. KNOMAD Developing Economies Benefit the Most from Remittance In 2022, the countries for remittance inflow were: top five recipient India (US$111 billion), Mexico (US$61 billion), China (US$51 billion), Philippines (US$38 billion), and Pakistan (US$30 billion). While remittances are primarily private funds and not a substitute for public spending, they do benefit the economy by enabling recipients to actively participate in the consumer market. After all, when people spend these funds for domestic consumption, it serves as a significant boost to the national economy. The Traditional Remittance Landscape The World Bank calculates the received as a segment of a country's GDP, clearly establishing that personal remittances do, in fact, comprise a noteworthy portion of many nations' GDP. percentage share of personal remittances Albania sources more than 9% of its GDP from personal remittances, whereas, in Armenia’s case, the figure is more than 10%. In El Salvador, remittances constitute almost 27% of the country’s GDP, and for Georgia, it's nearly 17%. Given remittance’s role in uplifting the standards of living of a large segment of the global population, it must happen seamlessly. However, the traditional modes of remittances do not always ensure so. This is due to several key challenges, such as high transaction costs, low speed, limited access to financial services, and lack of transparency. Fixing these loopholes is crucial for the growth and efficiency of the global remittance market. High Transaction Fees In November 2022, the IMF revealing how high transaction costs in remittances negatively affect recipients. published a study As per the study, the global average of remittance transaction fees - as a share of a US$200 remittance - has been nearly US$7.5 worldwide. But in many Southern African countries, such as Angola, Botswana, and Namibia, the fees are 2.5 times the sample average, owing to high exchange rate margins. Apart from an existing imbalance, some countries witnessed a widening of the gap as well. Remittance transaction fees increased by more than 40 percent in countries like Gambia, Afghanistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic between 2016 and 2020. Overall, there is significant heterogeneity in remittance transaction fees globally, as many countries pay a lot more to receive funds from outside than the global average. Yet, high fees aren't the only challenge affecting remittance flows. Transaction Delays Delays in overseas fund transfers also pose challenges to those on the receiving end of remittances. However, factors contributing to these delays are often beyond the control of the beneficiaries. For example, banks have cut-off times for transactions, a factor further complicated by the varying public holidays observed in different regions. Moreover, the methods for sending funds can vary by country, with financial institutions requiring extra time for anti-fraud and anti-money laundering checks. What further exacerbates these delays is often a lack of clear information, introducing another layer of complexity: a lack of transparency. Lack of Transparency The World Bank that sending remittances is unnecessarily confusing, with several independent researchers backing the claim. acknowledged One such shows that 55% of American consumers understand the costs of sending money abroad, but only 18% can correctly identify exchange rates as one of those costs. Echoing this, the World Bank identifies a lack of transparency as the single most important factor leading to high remittance prices. The components of these prices are multifaceted, involving variables like upfront fees and FX margins. research Unbanked, Underbanked Population & Their Plight While transaction delays, high costs, and lack of transparency are mostly infrastructural pitfalls, a large chunk of the global population is bereft of the basic minimum access to banking. According to a World Bank published in July 2022, nearly 1.4 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked. Alarmingly, these adults are usually women, poorer, less educated, and live in rural areas. report Cryptocurrencies: A Potential Game-Changer From the outset, cryptocurrencies have been designed to achieve financial inclusion. They utilize blockchain-enabled smart contracts to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions with minimal need for intermediaries. This not only reduces transaction costs but also accelerates the process. Smart contracts further enable direct loan agreements between lenders and beneficiaries, while asset holders can efficiently invest their idle assets for returns. Collectively, these automated applications represent a transformative shift in the financial sector. Similarly, blockchain and cryptocurrency-based systems have democratically restructured financial transactions. By eliminating the need for centralized, cost-bearing authorities, they have made financial systems more decentralized, inclusive, and equitable. Decentralization Through Blockchain: Impact on the Remittance Market Blockchain-enabled, intermediary-free peer-to-peer transfers can significantly lower transaction costs. In fact, data shows that these crypto transactions can cost as little as 0.01% to 0.10% of the total amount, making them up to than traditional methods. 127 times cheaper To understand the greater economic ramifications, let us take the case of Kenya, for . example Kenya: A Case Study for Remittance Benefits In Kenya, where the average cost to send $200 is over 8.7%, remittances made up 3.5% of the GDP in 2021, totaling $3.7 billion. Lowering these costs to around 2% could have saved the country over US$200 million, equivalent to 0.22% of its GDP. But it's not just about economic savings - crypto remittances also offer significantly better speed. Moreover, since crypto transactions do not require banking institutions to mediate, they can spread to regions with very limited banking infrastructure. All one needs is access to a healthy internet system. This benefit is particularly relevant considering that global banking network distribution is not at all homogeneous. Against this backdrop of unequal banking access, low cost of remittance transactions, better speed, and improved accessibility & inclusion make cryptocurrencies a compelling solution. As a testament to its growing relevance in remittance, crypto adoption is visibly on the rise in many countries worldwide. Real-World Applications and Case Studies Latin America Remittance payments are fueling crypto adoption in Latin America, leading to a 40% surge in value, which reached $562 billion from July 2021 to June 2022. This adoption is further driven by regional economic factors, such as high inflation rates and weakening national currencies. In response, crypto users in the region are increasingly turning to stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to the price of stable currencies like the USD—as a practical solution. Africa’s Growing Cryptocurrency Remittance Market Africa has significantly adopted cross-border blockchain remittance, driven in part by limited access to formal banking systems and poor financial inclusion. This has led to rapid growth in the cryptocurrency remittance market across the continent. Supporting this trend, the International Monetary Fund reports that Africa is one of the fastest-growing crypto markets globally, with transactions reaching US$20 billion per month in 2021. This growth is most evident in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, which boast the highest number of users among African nations. Crypto Remittance Scenario in Asia Pacific In the Pacific, has gained significant traction as a crypto-based solution in Australia. This success is not just anecdotal, as remittance has emerged as a vital use case in Australian digital asset markets, where Ripple's XRP often leads trading volumes on some of the country's top exchanges. Ripple remittance Shifting the focus to Asia, digital fund transfer services are also on the rise here. Strike, for instance, has partnered with a bunch of local businesses that connect Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to local banking services, including Pouch in the Philippines and GetBit in Vietnam. These collaborations underscore the growing fusion of traditional financial systems with cryptocurrencies across Asia. Crypto Remittance Using Blockchain at a Global Level: Challenges and Considerations While crypto remittance has successfully emerged as an alternative to traditional modes of international money transfer, it faces challenges, such as volatility, regulatory pressures, and the need for increased awareness, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Volatility Concerns In some countries like Venezuela, the national currency, such as the Bolivar, has proven even more volatile than Bitcoin. Here, the crypto-economy, with solutions such as stablecoins, has managed to offer far lower volatility levels. Yet volatility is a hurdle in most countries, as even the Bitcoin prices - the representative asset of the crypto-economy have been a topsy-turvy ride over the past year and more. Regulatory Pressure Regulatory pressures pose another significant barrier to adoption. For instance, around 20% of sub-Saharan African countries have banned crypto assets—countries that would, ironically, benefit the most from crypto remittance. Lack of Crypto Awareness Finally, crypto education is not yet up to the mark to encourage a significant segment of the global population to adopt digital assets as a means of international fund transfer. In fact, even among those who have adopted crypto, many are doubtful of its safety and reliability. The Future of Global Remittances In a realm where global remittances could surpass by 2023, cryptocurrencies are emerging as the technological marvel poised to reform conventional money transfers, particularly benefiting developing economies. This stands in sharp contrast to existing systems, which have been hamstrung by a plethora of challenges, including costly fees, sluggish transactions, and obscurity, not to mention the millions without access to basic financial services. $840 billion As blockchain-backed digital currencies promise to slash fees, expedite transactions, and enhance transparency, their real-world utility in remittance services is becoming evident in various regions, from Latin America and Africa to the Asia-Pacific. However, this positive trajectory comes with its own set of barriers like market volatility, regulatory constraints, and limited public familiarity. Despite these challenges, upcoming tech innovations are poised to further simplify and enhance crypto-based remittances, putting the market on track for substantial growth. This signals a tangible leap toward better efficiency, affordability, and financial inclusion globally, but one that will still necessitate a concerted effort among policymakers, regulators, and the crypto industry to overcome lingering obstacles. Also published . here

How Cryptocurrencies Transform the Global Remittance Landscape 

This story was originally published by by . ProPublica Ryan Gabrielson One morning in September 2017, Judge Christopher Plourd opened an unusual hearing at the Imperial County Superior Courthouse, a half-hour north of the California-Mexico border. It involved three illegal drug possession cases that were unrelated to one another. Each of the cases had relied on the results of chemical field test kits used by corrections officers at nearby state prisons. The kits indicated crumbs and shreds of paper that guards found on the inmates contained heroin and amphetamine. But a state forensic laboratory later analyzed the debris utilizing a far more reliable test and found no trace of illegal drugs. The defendants were factually innocent. Rather than simply close the cases, defense attorneys asked the court to determine whether the NIK Public Safety brand field tests used in California’s prisons were too unreliable to show to grand jurors. In effect, they put on trial the evidence most commonly used to secure convictions in drug cases in the U.S. Plourd ruled in early 2018 that the test kit “does not meet a scientific admissibility standard” and therefore “does not support the grand jury indictment.” In other words, the tests were guilty. The Imperial County cases are believed to be the first time a judge blocked field tests from contributing to indictments. In the years since, defendants and inmates in multiple states have scored additional legal victories against agencies using the kits and the companies selling them. “For years, these tests have had this unjustified scientific veneer,” said Des Walsh, founder of the Roadside Drug Test Innocence Alliance, which advocates for the use of more accurate testing technology. “Finally, we believe the tide is turning with this dawning awareness of the unacceptably high rate of false positives.” In a , ProPublica documented law enforcement’s widespread use of field tests to make arrests and secure convictions despite serious flaws. No government agency regulates their use. 2016 series of stories The officers who perform the tests to make arrests on the street often have little or no training in their use. Since then, the new court rulings have contributed to a growing movement to change the way drug cases are prosecuted in America. Courts across the country have long known that field tests are error prone and require forensic laboratories to confirm the results for jury trials. However, nearly all drug convictions in the U.S. come by plea deals during initial hearings, where chemical kits are the primary evidence of guilt. Courts have overturned 131 drug convictions in the past 10 years after laboratory analysis determined the alleged drugs were legal substances, according to a database maintained by the National Registry of Exonerations. A large majority of those wrongful convictions originated in Harris County, Texas, where the crime lab analyzed its backlog of suspected drugs from closed cases and discovered the evidence in hundreds of convictions did not contain drugs. The defendants in those cases had pleaded guilty at preliminary hearings. The tests are small plastic pouches holding vials of chemicals. They’re cheap, roughly $2 apiece, and easy to use. Officers open the pouch and add the substance to be tested. The tests are designed to produce specific colors when mixed with drugs like heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. But dozens of items, including foods and household cleaners, trigger similar reactions. During the Imperial County hearing, an executive at the Safariland Group, the nation’s largest field test manufacturer, testified the company keeps a list of more than 50 legal substances that cause positive results. Court records show chocolate sometimes turns the liquid a similar shade of green as heroin in the NIK kits. Safariland Group did not respond to a request for comment. More evidence of the tests’ inaccuracy came in October 2021, when former inmates filed a class-action lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Correction. The prisons used test kits on all incoming mail, including letters from attorneys. When correspondence tested positive, inmates were sometimes put in solitary confinement and lost eligibility for parole. The lawsuit alleged that the prison system’s use of field tests violated the inmates’ right to due process. Court records show that between August 2019 and August 2020, lab analysis found that 38% of the inmate mail that tested positive did not contain the alleged drug. Shortly after the inmates filed their lawsuit, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Brian David ordered the Correction Department to immediately stop using the chemical kits until the litigation was finished. In the order, David characterized the NARK II brand kits used in Massachusetts’ prisons as “arbitrary and unlawful guesswork.” The inmates are also suing Sirchie Acquisition Co., manufacturer of the NARK II kits, and Premier Biotech, a retailer that sells them, in federal court for negligence, alleging the companies misrepresented the kits’ risk of false positives and provided inaccurate instructions to the state prisons. In September, a federal judge ruled that field test sellers can potentially be held liable for harm caused by erroneous results. Both of the lawsuits are ongoing. Sirchie did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment. Sirchie, Premier Biotech and the Massachusetts Correction Department have denied the inmates’ claims in court records. Compounding field tests’ inherent flaws, police officers and prison guards rarely understand how the kits work, according to court records and interviews. During the hearing in Imperial County, multiple guards testified about the training they received on the field tests and how they described the results to grand jurors. David Eustaquio, an officer with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the court he had used the chemical kits more than 200 times during his career, according to transcripts. He said he’d never had to explain the results beyond saying the color change meant the test was positive for an illegal drug. “Do you know what the accuracy rate is for these NIK tests?” Kelly Jafine, an Imperial County deputy public defender, asked Eustaquio. “No, I do not,” he said. Jafine then asked if the prison had taught him about false positive results during training on the chemical kits. “No,” Eustaquio answered, “I was not.” Photo by on Max Fleischmann Unsplash

Roadside Drug Tests May Become Obsolete: Here's Why

রাস্তার পাশের ওষুধের পরীক্ষাগুলি অপ্রচলিত হয়ে উঠতে পারে: কেন তা এখানে

Drogentests am Straßenrand könnten obsolet werden: Hier ist der Grund

Las pruebas de detección de drogas en la carretera pueden volverse obsoletas: este es el motivo

Les tests de dépistage de drogues en bordure de route pourraient devenir obsolètes : voici pourquoi

सड़क किनारे ड्रग परीक्षण अप्रचलित हो सकते हैं: यहां जानिए क्यों

路上薬物検査は時代遅れになるかもしれない: その理由は次のとおりです

길가 약물 검사가 더 이상 쓸모 없게 될 수 있습니다: 그 이유는 다음과 같습니다.

Os testes de drogas na estrada podem se tornar obsoletos: aqui está o porquê

Yol Kenarındaki Uyuşturucu Testleri Eski Hale Gelebilir: İşte Nedeni

Thử nghiệm ma túy bên đường có thể trở nên lỗi thời: Đây là lý do tại sao

路边药物测试可能会过时：原因如下

Astounding Stories of Super-Science March 1931, by Astounding Stories is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Beyond the Vanishing Point - Chapter X: The Escape CHAPTER X. The Escape To Babs and me the ride in the golden cage strapped to Polter's chest as he made his escape outward into largeness was an experience awesome and frightening almost beyond conception. We heard the alarm in the palace on the island. Polter rushed to Dr. Kent's laboratory door, looked in, and in a moment banged it shut. Babs and I saw very little. We knew only that something horrible had happened; we could see only a blur with formless things in the void beneath our bars; and there were the choking fumes of chemicals surging at us. Polter rushed through the castle corridor. We heard rumbling distant shouts. "The drug is loose! The drug is loose! Monsters! Death for everyone!" The room swayed with horrible dizzying lurches as Polter ran. We clung to the lattice bars, our legs and arms entwined. There were moments when Polter leaped, or suddenly stooped, and our reeling senses all but faded. "Babs! Babs, darling, don't let go! Don't lose consciousness!" If she should be limp, here in this lurching room, her body to be flung back and forth across its confines—that would be death in a moment. I feared I could not hold her. I managed to get an arm about her waist. "Babs!" "I'm—all right, George. I can stand it. We're—he is enlarging." "Yes." I saw water far beneath us, lashed into a turmoil of foam with Polter's wading steps. There was a brief swaying vista of a toy city; starlight overhead; a lurching swaying miniature of landscape as Polter ran for the towering cliffs. Then he climbed and scrambled into the tunnel-mouth. Had he turned at that instant doubtless he would have seen the rising distant figures of Glora, Alan and Dr. Kent. But he did not see them, evidently. Nor did we. Polter spoke only very occasionally to Babs. "Hold tightly!" It was a rumbling voice from above us. He made no move to touch the cage, except that a few times the great blur of his hand came up to adjust its angle. The lurching and jolting was less violent in the tunnel. Polter's frenzy to escape was subsiding into calmness. He traversed the tunnel with a methodical swinging stride. We were aware of him climbing over the noisome litter of the dead giant's body which blocked the tunnel's further end. We heard his astonished exclamations. But evidently he did not suspect what had happened, thinking only that the stupid messenger had miscalculated his growth and been crushed. We emerged into a less dim area. Polter did not stop at the fallen giant. Nothing mattered now to him, quite evidently, save his own rapid exit with Babs from this atomic realm. His movements seemed calm, yet hurried. We realized now how different was an outward journey from the trip coming in. This was all only an inch of golden quartz! The stages upward were frequently only a matter of growth in size; the distances in this vast desert realm of golden rock always were shrinking. Polter many times stood almost motionless until the closing dwindling walls made him scramble upward into the greater space above. It may have been an hour, or less. Babs and I, from our smaller viewpoint, with the landscape so frequently blurred by distance and Polter's movements, seldom recognized where we were. But I realized that going out was far easier in every way than coming in. Easier to determine the route, since usually the diminishing caverns and gullies made the upward step obvious.... We knew when Polter scrambled up the incline ramp. It seemed impossible for us to plan anything. Would Polter make the entire trip without a stop? It seemed so. We had no drugs. Our cage was barred beyond possibility of our getting out. But even if we had had the drugs, or had our door been open, there was no escape. An abyss of distance was always yawning beyond our lattice—the sheer precipice of Polter's body from his chest to the ground. "Babs, we must make him stop. If he sits down to rest, you might get him to take you out. I must reach his drugs." "Yes. I'll try it, George." Polter was momentarily standing motionless as though gazing around him, judging what to do next. His size seemed stationary. Beyond our bars we could see the distant circular walls as though this were some giant crater-pit in which Polter was standing. Then I thought I recognized it—the round, nearly vertical pit into which Alan had plunged his hand and arm. Above us then was a gully, blind at one end. And above that, the outer surface, the summit of the fragment of golden quartz. "Babs! I know where we are! If he takes you out, keep his attention. I'll try and get one of his black vials. Make him hold you near the ground. If I see you there, in position where you can jump, I'll startle him. Oh, Babs, dear, it's desperately dangerous but I can't think of anything else. Jump! Get away from here. I'll keep his attention on me. Then I'll join you if I can—with the drug." Polter was moving. We had no time to say more. "Yes! Yes, I'll try it, George." For just an instant she clung to me with her soft arms about my neck. Our love was sweeping us in this desperate moment, and it seemed that above us was a remote Earth world holding the promise of all our dreams. Or were we star-crossed, doomed like the realm of the atom? Was this swift embrace now marking the end of everything for us? Babs called, "Dr. Polter?" We could feel his movements stopping. "Yes? You are all right, Babs?" She laughed—a ripple of silvery laughter—but there was tragic fear in her eyes as she held her gaze on me. "Yes, Dr. Polter, but breathless. Almost dead, but not quite. What happened? I want to come out and talk to you." "Not now, little bird." "But I want to." To me it was a miracle that she could call so lightly and hold that note of lugubrious laughter in her voice. "I am hungry. Don't you think of that? And frightened. Take me out." He was sitting down! "You remind me that I am tired, Babs. And hungry, also. I haf a little food. You shall come out for just a short time." "Thank you. Take me carefully." Our tilted cage was near the ground as he seated himself. But still it was too far for me to jump. I murmured, "Babs—" "Wait, George! I'll fix that. You hide! If he looks in he'll see you, where you are now!" I scrambled back to my hiding place. Polter's huge fingers were fumbling at our bars. The little door sprang open. "Come, Babs." He held the cupped bowl of his palm to the doorway. "Come out." "No!" she called. "It is too far down!" "Come. That iss foolish." "No! I'm afraid. Put the cage on the ground." "Babs!" His finger and thumb came reaching in to seize her, but she avoided them. "Dr. Polter! Don't! You'll crush me!" "Then come out on my hand." He seemed annoyed. I had scrambled back to the doorway; I knew he could not see me so long as the cage remained strapped to his shirt front. I whispered, "I can make it, Babs!" Polter was apparently on one elbow, half turned on his side. From our cage, the sloping gleaming white surface of his stiff glossy shirt-bosom went down a steep incline. His belt was down there, and the outward bulging curve of his lap—a spreading surface where I could land like a scuttling insect, unobserved, if only Babs could hold his attention. I whispered vehemently. "Try it! Go out! Leave me! Keep talking to him!" She called instantly, "Very well, then. Bring your hand! Closer! Carefully! It seems so high up here!" She swung herself to his palm, and flung her arms about the great pillar of his upcrooked finger. The bowl of his hand moved slowly away. I heard her calling voice, and his overhead rumble. I chanced it! I could not determine the exact position, or which way he was looking. Again I heard Bab's voice. "Careful, Dr. Polter. Don't let me fall!" "Yes, little bird." I let myself down from the tilted doorway, hung by my hands and dropped. I struck the ramp-like yielding surface of his shirt-bosom. I slid, tumbling, scrambling, and landed softly in the huge folds of his trouser fabric. I was unhurt. The width of his belt, high as my body, was near me. I shrank against it; I found I could cling to its upper edge. My hold came just in time. He shifted, and sat up. I was lifted with a swoop of movement. When it steadied I saw above me the top of his knee. His left leg was crooked, the foot drawn close to him. Babs was perched up there on the knee summit. His right leg was outstretched. I was at the right side of his belt. I could dart off along that curving expanse of his leg and leap to the ground. If he would hold this position! One of the pouches of his belt was near me. The vial in it was black. The enlarging drug! I moved toward it. But Babs was too high to jump from that summit of his crooked knee! I think she saw me at his belt. I heard her voice. "I cannot eat up here. It is too high. Oh, please be careful how you move! I am so dizzy, so frightened! You move with such great jerks!" He had what seemed a huge surface of bread and meat. He was breaking o£f crumbs to put before her. I reached the pouch of his belt. The vial was as long as my body. I tugged to try and lift it out. All the giant contours of Polter's body shifted as he cautiously moved. I clung. I saw that Babs was being held gently between his thumb and forefinger. He lowered her to the ground, and she stood beside the bread and meat he had placed there. And she had the courage to laugh! "Why this—this is an enormous sandwich! You will have to break it." He was leaning over her, half turned on his left side. The vial came free. I shoved it; but I could not control its weight. I pushed desperately. It slid over the round brink of his right hip, and fell behind him. I heard the tinkling thud of it down on the rocks. There was no alarm. I could not chance leaping from his hip. I scurried along the convex top of his outstretched leg, and beyond his knee I jumped. I landed safely. I could see the black vial back across the broken rock surface, with the bulge of Polter's hip above it. I ran back and reached the vial; tugged at its huge stopper. The cork began to yield under my panting, desperate efforts. In a moment I would have a pellet of the enlarging drug; make away with it; startle Polter so that Babs might dart off and escape. The huge stopper of the vial was larger than my head. It came suddenly out. I flung it away, plunged in my hand, and seized an enormous round pellet. Then abruptly the alarm came, and I had not caused it! Polter ripped out a startled, rumbling curse and sat upright. Under the curve of his leg, I saw that Babs had been momentarily neglected. She was running. Across the boulder-strewn plain, two tiny men had appeared. Polter had seen them. They were the enlarging figures of Dr. Kent and Alan! 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. Various. 2009. Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1931. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30166/30166-h/30166-h.htm#Beyond_the_Vanishing_Point . 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

Escaping the Golden Cage, Strapped to Polter's Chest 

সোনার খাঁচা থেকে পালানো, পোল্টারের বুকে বাঁধা

Entkommen aus dem Goldenen Käfig, an Polters Brust geschnallt

폴터의 가슴에 묶인 황금 우리에서 탈출

Polter'ın Göğsüne Bağlı Altın Kafesten Kaçış

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has become the modern-day equivalent to classic in that it can seemingly or platform you can think of. Now, not every platform supports mods on their port of this particular game. Case-in-point would be the Nintendo Switch port, for obvious reasons related to potential hacking and piracy on their platform. It’s - on a related note - also one of the first titles I can think of that has the devs support player mods on their game. DOOM run on just about any console One of these types of mods are the Clothing mods. These are the mods that change your characters’ strengths, carrying weight, etc. They also provide some benefits. The Necromancer outfit increases efficiency in Destruction-based magic attacks, for example. : This guide will go over the following questions in detail and attempt to answer What are clothing mods? How do you apply them in / Skyrim Skyrim Special Edition? What are the best clothing mods for this game? For those not in the know by now, Skyrim and support mods on all consoles (except Nintendo Switch) officially. its’ Special Edition Let’s start answering these questions in order. The first question we’re gonna answer is “What are clothing mods?” What are Clothing Mods in Skyrim? Clothing mods are, generally speaking, simple to complex modifications that add new clothes, armors, rings, etc. into the world of and its’ special edition. They can be found in the wide world of Skyrim, or be crafted at the tanning racks if one isn’t good at finding things. One example is Geralt, and another example is The Flash. Skyrim How to find the Tanning Racks in Skyrim This resource ( ) has a list of all the locations in Skyrim that features a Tanning Rack. A Player character/NPC will do this by crouching and using a knife to scrape a hide. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Tanning How to apply clothing mods in Skyrim/Skyrim Special Edition? Applying clothing mods to Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition can enhance your gameplay experience by introducing new and exciting outfits for your characters. These mods can add variety, improve immersion, and let you customize your character's appearance. Below, I'll guide you through the process of installing and applying clothing mods step by step: Choosing the Mods: Start by browsing modding websites like or the Steam Workshop for Skyrim. Look for clothing mods that suit your taste and are compatible with your game version (Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition). Nexus Mods Creating a Backup: Before installing any mods, it's essential to create a backup of your game files. This ensures that you can revert to the original state if any issues arise during the installation process. Install a Mod Manager: To make the process smoother, it's recommended to use a mod manager. The most popular one for Skyrim is "Nexus Mod Manager" (NMM) or " ." For Skyrim Special Edition, "Vortex" is generally the go-to mod manager. Vortex Install Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) (Only for Skyrim, not for Special Edition): Many advanced mods require SKSE to work correctly. Go to the official SKSE website and download the latest version for your game. Follow the installation instructions provided on their website. Download the Clothing Mods: Once you have your mod manager set up, download the clothing mods you want from the modding website of your choice. Usually, mods are downloaded in the form of ".zip" or ".7z" archives. Installing Mods with Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) or Vortex: Click on the "Mod Manager Download" button on the mod page. NMM will automatically handle the download and installation process. In Nexus Mod Manager: Click on the "Mod Manager Download" button on the mod page. Vortex will manage the download and installation process. In Vortex: Activating the Mods: After the mod manager installs the mods, you'll find them listed in the manager's interface. Ensure the checkboxes next to the clothing mods are selected to activate them. The mod manager will take care of the load order and ensure that the mods are correctly placed in the game's data folder. Load Order and Compatibility: Managing load order is crucial, especially if you have multiple mods installed. Certain mods may conflict with each other, causing glitches or crashes. Mod managers usually help sort the load order, but it's good to double-check for compatibility patches if you encounter any issues. Launching the Game: Start the game through the mod manager to ensure that all the installed clothing mods are functioning correctly. If everything is working fine, proceed to the next step. Finding the New Clothing in the Game: After installing the clothing mods, you can find the new outfits in various ways. Some clothing may be added to existing merchants or chests, while others might require crafting at a forge. Refer to the mod's description or the mod author's instructions for information on how to acquire the new clothing in-game. Enjoying the New Clothing: With the mods successfully installed and activated, you can now enjoy the new clothing options for your character. Dress them up in stylish armor sets, elegant robes, or any other outfit you desire. Troubleshooting: If you encounter any issues with the clothing mods, check the mod page for troubleshooting information. The mod author and the modding community often provide solutions to common problems. And Remember, modding is an ongoing process, and updates to both the game and the mods can always affect compatibility. Always check for updates and keep an eye on the modding community for the latest information and support. Enjoy your enhanced Skyrim experience with the new clothing mods! Some of the Best Clothing Mods in Skyrim The world of Skyrim Modding offers a vast array of possibilities to enhance and customize the gaming experience. Among the countless mods available, the best clothing mods for Skyrim truly stand out as they bring a whole new level of immersion, beauty, and practicality to the game. Throughout this exploration of the top clothing mods for Skyrim, we have witnessed the ingenuity and creativity of the Modding community. From the elegant and regal designs of to the weather-appropriate and realistic outfits of these mods go beyond merely changing the appearance of characters. They add depth and authenticity to the game's atmosphere, making it feel more like a living, breathing world. "Immersive Armors" "Winter is Coming," The introduction of advanced physics with mods like and has revolutionized the way clothing behaves in the game. The realistic movement and interaction of garments with the environment make the characters feel more lifelike and believable. Players are now able to witness the swaying of capes in the wind or the flow of skirts as characters move, creating a more immersive and visually appealing experience. "HDT Physics Extensions" "Cloaks of Skyrim" Additionally, the inclusion of practical and functional clothing mods such as "Bandolier: Bags and Pouches" and "Warmonger Armory" not only adds to the realism but also enhances the gameplay. These mods provide the player with storage options, allowing them to carry more items, and offer a wider selection of gear, enabling more strategic approaches to combat and exploration. Furthermore, the versatility and customization options that the "Apachii Divine Elegance Store" brings to the table are unmatched. With an extensive variety of outfits and accessories, players can truly define their characters' style and persona. This mod has expanded the role-playing aspect of Skyrim, allowing players to embody their characters fully and express their unique personalities. The and mods have addressed the long-standing issue of gender representation in Skyrim. These mods provide female characters with armor and clothing designs that are both practical and stylish, avoiding the impractical and sexualized portrayals that were prevalent in the base game. This focus on inclusivity and authenticity is an essential step forward for the modding community and the gaming industry as a whole. "UNP Female Armors" "UNP Minidresses Collection" However, it’s worth mentioning that mods do come with potential drawbacks. The installation and management of multiple mods can be a daunting task for less tech-savvy players, and conflicts between different mods can lead to crashes. Additionally, as the game continues to receive official updates from the developers, some mods may become incompatible or require constant updates to remain functional, which can be frustrating for players who heavily rely on them. Final Thoughts In conclusion, the best clothing mods for Skyrim have significantly enriched the game, pushing the boundaries of what players can experience in this epic fantasy world. From awe-inspiring armors to practical clothing options and diverse styles, these mods have transformed the way we perceive and engage with the game. The dedication and talent of the modding community continue to impress, making Skyrim a timeless masterpiece that evolves with the creative minds of its players. Whether you seek a more immersive role-playing experience, enhanced aesthetics, or practical gear for your adventures, the world of Skyrim modding has something to offer every player. As we eagerly await future developments and expansions, the clothing mods discussed here will undoubtedly remain as some of the most outstanding contributions to the Skyrim modding community, leaving a lasting impact on the game's legacy for years to come.

How to Install Clothing Mods for Skyrim

Cómo instalar mods de ropa para Skyrim

Comment installer des mods de vêtements pour Skyrim

स्किरिम के लिए क्लोदिंग मॉड कैसे स्थापित करें

スカイリムの服MODをインストールする方法

Como instalar mods de roupas para Skyrim

Cách cài đặt Mod quần áo cho Skyrim

如何为《天际》安装服装模组

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 . THE VENTURE MADE here CHAPTER XVII. THE VENTURE MADE What would be the consequences of this sudden and complete disruption, Servadac and his people hardly dared to think. The first change that came under their observation was the rapidity of the sun’s appearances and disappearances, forcing them to the conviction that although the comet still rotated on its axis from east to west, yet the period of its rotation had been diminished by about one-half. Only six hours instead of twelve elapsed between sunrise and sunrise; three hours after rising in the west the sun was sinking again in the east. “We are coming to something!” exclaimed Servadac. “We have got a year of something like 2,880 days.” “I shouldn’t think it would be an easy matter to find saints enough for such a calendar as that!” said Ben Zoof. Servadac laughed, and remarked that they should have the professor talking about the 238th of June, and the 325th of December. It soon became evident that the detached portion was not revolving round the comet, but was gradually retreating into space. Whether it had carried with it any portion of atmosphere, whether it possessed any other condition for supporting life, and whether it was likely ever again to approach to the earth, were all questions that there were no means of determining. For themselves the all-important problem was—what effect would the rending asunder of the comet have upon its rate of progress? and as they were already conscious of a further increase of muscular power, and a fresh diminution of specific gravity, Servadac and his associates could not but wonder whether the alteration in the mass of the comet would not result in its missing the expected coincidence with the earth altogether. Although he professed himself incompetent to pronounce a decided opinion, Lieutenant Procope manifestly inclined to the belief that no alteration would ensue in the rate of Gallia’s velocity; but Rosette, no doubt, could answer the question directly, and the time had now arrived in which he must be compelled to divulge the precise moment of collision. But the professor was in the worst of tempers. Generally taciturn and morose, he was more than usually uncivil whenever any one ventured to speak to him. The loss of his telescope had doubtless a great deal to do with his ill-humor; but the captain drew the most favorable conclusions from Rosette’s continued irritation. Had the comet been in any way projected from its course, so as to be likely to fail in coming into contact with the earth, the professor would have been quite unable to conceal his satisfaction. But they required to know more than the general truth, and felt that they had no time to lose in getting at the exact details. The opportunity that was wanted soon came. On the 18th, Rosette was overheard in furious altercation with Ben Zoof. The orderly had been taunting the astronomer with the mutilation of his little comet. A fine thing, he said, to split in two like a child’s toy. It had cracked like a dry nut; and mightn’t one as well live upon an exploding bomb?—with much more to the same effect. The professor, by way of retaliation, had commenced sneering at the “prodigious” mountain of Montmartre, and the dispute was beginning to look serious when Servadac entered. Thinking he could turn the wrangling to some good account, so as to arrive at the information he was so anxiously seeking, the captain pretended to espouse the views of his orderly; he consequently brought upon himself the full force of the professor’s wrath. Rosette’s language became more and more violent, till Servadac, feigning to be provoked beyond endurance, cried: “You forget, sir, that you are addressing the Governor-General of Gallia.” “Governor-General! humbug!” roared Rosette. “Gallia is my comet!” “I deny it,” said Servadac. “Gallia has lost its chance of getting back to the earth. Gallia has nothing to do with you. Gallia is mine; and you must submit to the government which I please to ordain.” “And who told you that Gallia is not going back to the earth?” asked the professor, with a look of withering scorn. “Why, isn’t her mass diminished? Isn’t she split in half? Isn’t her velocity all altered?” demanded the captain. “And pray who told you this?” again said the professor, with a sneer. “Everybody. Everybody knows it, of course,” replied Servadac. “Everybody is very clever. And you always were a very clever scholar too. We remember that of old, don’t we?” “Sir!” “You nearly mastered the first elements of science, didn’t you?” “Sir!” “A credit to your class!” “Hold your tongue, sir!” bellowed the captain again, as if his anger was uncontrollable. “Not I,” said the professor. “Hold your tongue!” repeated Servadac. “Just because the mass is altered you think the velocity is altered?” “Hold your tongue!” cried the captain, louder than ever. “What has mass to do with the orbit? Of how many comets do you know the mass, and yet you know their movements? Ignorance!” shouted Rosette. “Insolence!” retorted Servadac. Ben Zoof, really thinking that his master was angry, made a threatening movement towards the professor. “Touch me if you dare!” screamed Rosette, drawing himself up to the fullest height his diminutive figure would allow. “You shall answer for your conduct before a court of justice!” “Where? On Gallia?” asked the captain. “No; on the earth.” “The earth! Pshaw! You know we shall never get there; our velocity is changed.” “On the earth,” repeated the professor, with decision. “Trash!” cried Ben Zoof. “The earth will be too far off!” “Not too far off for us to come across her orbit at 42 minutes and 35.6 seconds past two o’clock on the morning of this coming 1st of January.” “Thanks, my dear professor—many thanks. You have given me all the information I required;” and, with a low bow and a gracious smile, the captain withdrew. The orderly made an equally polite bow, and followed his master. The professor, completely nonplussed, was left alone. Thirteen days, then—twenty-six of the original Gallian days, fifty-two of the present—was all the time for preparation that now remained. Every preliminary arrangement was hurried on with the greatest earnestness. There was a general eagerness to be quit of Gallia. Indifferent to the dangers that must necessarily attend a balloon ascent under such unparalleled circumstances, and heedless of Lieutenant Procope’s warning that the slightest check in their progress would result in instantaneous combustion, they all seemed to conclude that it must be the simplest thing possible to glide from one atmosphere to another, so that they were quite sanguine as to the successful issue of their enterprise. Captain Servadac made a point of showing himself quite enthusiastic in his anticipations, and to Ben Zoof the going up in a balloon was the supreme height of his ambition. The count and the lieutenant, of colder and less demonstrative temperament, alike seemed to realize the possible perils of the undertaking, but even they were determined to put a bold face upon every difficulty. The sea had now become navigable, and three voyages were made to Gourbi Island in the steam launch, consuming the last of their little reserve of coal. The first voyage had been made by Servadac with several of the sailors. They found the gourbi and the adjacent building quite uninjured by the severity of the winter; numbers of little rivulets intersected the pasture-land; new plants were springing up under the influence of the equatorial sun, and the luxuriant foliage was tenanted by the birds which had flown back from the volcano. Summer had almost abruptly succeeded to winter, and the days, though only three hours long, were intensely hot. Another of the voyages to the island had been to collect the dry grass and straw which was necessary for inflating the balloon. Had the balloon been less cumbersome it would have been conveyed to the island, whence the start would have been effected; but as it was, it was more convenient to bring the combustible material to the balloon. The last of the coal having been consumed, the fragments of the shipwrecked vessels had to be used day by day for fuel. Hakkabut began making a great hubbub when he found that they were burning some of the spars of the ; but he was effectually silenced by Ben Zoof, who told him that if he made any more fuss, he should be compelled to pay 50,000 francs for a balloon-ticket, or else he should be left behind. Hansa By Christmas Day everything was in readiness for immediate departure. The festival was observed with a solemnity still more marked than the anniversary of the preceding year. Every one looked forward to spending New Year’s Day in another sphere altogether, and Ben Zoof had already promised Pablo and Nina all sorts of New Year’s gifts. It may seem strange, but the nearer the critical moment approached, the less Hector Servadac and Count Timascheff had to say to each other on the subject. Their mutual reserve became more apparent; the experiences of the last two years were fading from their minds like a dream; and the fair image that had been the cause of their original rivalry was ever rising, as a vision, between them. The captain’s thoughts began to turn to his unfinished rondo; in his leisure moments, rhymes suitable and unsuitable, possible and impossible, were perpetually jingling in his imagination. He labored under the conviction that he had a work of genius to complete. A poet he had left the earth, and a poet he must return. Count Timascheff’s desire to return to the world was quite equaled by Lieutenant Procope’s. The Russian sailors’ only thought was to follow their master, wherever he went. The Spaniards, though they would have been unconcerned to know that they were to remain upon Gallia, were nevertheless looking forward with some degree of pleasure to revisiting the plains of Andalusia; and Nina and Pablo were only too delighted at the prospect of accompanying their kind protectors on any fresh excursion whatever. The only malcontent was Palmyrin Rosette. Day and night he persevered in his astronomical pursuits, declared his intention of never abandoning his comet, and swore positively that nothing should induce him to set foot in the car of the balloon. The misfortune that had befallen his telescope was a never-ending theme of complaint; and just now, when Gallia was entering the narrow zone of shooting-stars, and new discoveries might have been within his reach, his loss made him more inconsolable than ever. In sheer desperation, he endeavored to increase the intensity of his vision by applying to his eyes some belladonna which he found in the medicine chest; with heroic fortitude he endured the tortures of the experiment, and gazed up into the sky until he was nearly blind. But all in vain; not a single fresh discovery rewarded his sufferings. Dobryna’s No one was quite exempt from the feverish excitement which prevailed during the last days of December. Lieutenant Procope superintended his final arrangements. The two low masts of the schooner had been erected firmly on the shore, and formed supports for the montgolfier, which had been duly covered with the netting, and was ready at any moment to be inflated. The car was close at hand. Some inflated skins had been attached to its sides, so that the balloon might float for a time, in the event of its descending in the sea at a short distance from the shore. If unfortunately, it should come down in mid-ocean, nothing but the happy chance of some passing vessel could save them all from the certain fate of being drowned. The 31st came. Twenty-four hours hence and the balloon, with its large living freight, would be high in the air. The atmosphere was less buoyant than that of the earth, but no difficulty in ascending was to be apprehended. Gallia was now within 96,000,000 miles of the sun, consequently not much more than 4,000,000 miles from the earth; and this interval was being diminished at the rate of nearly 208,000 miles an hour, the speed of the earth being about 70,000 miles, that of the comet being little less than 138,000 miles an hour. It was determined to make the start at two o’clock, three-quarters of an hour, or, to speak correctly 42 minutes 35.6 seconds, before the time predicted by the professor as the instant of collision. The modified rotation of the comet caused it to be daylight at the time. An hour previously the balloon was inflated with perfect success, and the car was securely attached to the network. It only awaited the stowage of the passengers. Isaac Hakkabut was the first to take his place in the car. But scarcely had he done so, when Servadac noticed that his waist was encompassed by an enormous girdle that bulged out to a very extraordinary extent. “What’s all this, Hakkabut?” he asked. “It’s only my little bit of money, your Excellency; my modest little fortune—a mere bagatelle,” said the Jew. “And what may your little fortune weigh?” inquired the captain. “Only about sixty-six pounds!” said Isaac. “Sixty-six pounds!” cried Servadac. “We haven’t reckoned for this.” “Merciful heavens!” began the Jew. “Sixty-six pounds!” repeated Servadac. “We can hardly carry ourselves; we can’t have any dead weight here. Pitch it out, man, pitch it out!” “God of Israel!” whined Hakkabut. “Out with it, I say!” cried Servadac. “What, all my money, which I have saved so long, and toiled for so hard?” “It can’t be helped,” said the captain, unmoved. “Oh, your Excellency!” cried the Jew. “Now, old Nicodemus, listen to me,” interposed Ben Zoof; “you just get rid of that pouch of yours, or we will get rid of you. Take your choice. Quick, or out you go!” The avaricious old man was found to value his life above his money; he made a lamentable outcry about it, but he unfastened his girdle at last, and put it out of the car. Very different was the case with Palmyrin Rosette. He avowed over and over again his intention of never quitting the nucleus of his comet. Why should he trust himself to a balloon, that would blaze up like a piece of paper? Why should he leave the comet? Why should he not go once again upon its surface into the far-off realms of space? His volubility was brought to a sudden check by Servadac’s bidding two of the sailors, without more ado, to take him in their arms and put him quietly down at the bottom of the car. To the great regret of their owners, the two horses and Nina’s pet goat were obliged to be left behind. The only creature for which there was found a place was the carrier-pigeon that had brought the professor’s message to the Hive. Servadac thought it might probably be of service in carrying some communication to the earth. When every one, except the captain and his orderly, had taken their places, Servadac said, “Get in, Ben Zoof.” “After you, sir,” said Ben Zoof, respectfully. “No, no!” insisted Servadac; “the captain must be the last to leave the ship!” A moment’s hesitation and the orderly clambered over the side of the car. Servadac followed. The cords were cut. The balloon rose with stately calmness into the air. 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

THE VENTURE MADE

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 . THE CAPTAIN MAKES AN EXPLORATION here CHAPTER VI. THE CAPTAIN MAKES AN EXPLORATION Hector Servadac was not the man to remain long unnerved by any untoward event. It was part of his character to discover the why and the wherefore of everything that came under his observation, and he would have faced a cannon ball the more unflinchingly from understanding the dynamic force by which it was propelled. Such being his temperament, it may well be imagined that he was anxious not to remain long in ignorance of the cause of the phenomena which had been so startling in their consequences. “We must inquire into this to-morrow,” he exclaimed, as darkness fell suddenly upon him. Then, after a pause, he added: “That is to say, if there is to be a to-morrow; for if I were to be put to the torture, I could not tell what has become of the sun.” “May I ask, sir, what we are to do now?” put in Ben Zoof. “Stay where we are for the present; and when daylight appears—if it ever does appear—we will explore the coast to the west and south, and return to the gourbi. If we can find out nothing else, we must at least discover where we are.” “Meanwhile, sir, may we go to sleep?” “Certainly, if you like, and if you can.” Nothing loath to avail himself of his master’s permission, Ben Zoof crouched down in an angle of the shore, threw his arms over his eyes, and very soon slept the sleep of the ignorant, which is often sounder than the sleep of the just. Overwhelmed by the questions that crowded upon his brain, Captain Servadac could only wander up and down the shore. Again and again he asked himself what the catastrophe could portend. Had the towns of Algiers, Oran, and Mostaganem escaped the inundation? Could he bring himself to believe that all the inhabitants, his friends, and comrades had perished; or was it not more probable that the Mediterranean had merely invaded the region of the mouth of the Shelif? But this supposition did not in the least explain the other physical disturbances. Another hypothesis that presented itself to his mind was that the African coast might have been suddenly transported to the equatorial zone. But although this might get over the difficulty of the altered altitude of the sun and the absence of twilight, yet it would neither account for the sun setting in the east, nor for the length of the day being reduced to six hours. “We must wait till to-morrow,” he repeated; adding, for he had become distrustful of the future, “that is to say, if to-morrow ever comes.” Although not very learned in astronomy, Servadac was acquainted with the position of the principal constellations. It was therefore a considerable disappointment to him that, in consequence of the heavy clouds, not a star was visible in the firmament. To have ascertained that the pole-star had become displaced would have been an undeniable proof that the earth was revolving on a new axis; but not a rift appeared in the lowering clouds, which seemed to threaten torrents of rain. It happened that the moon was new on that very day; naturally, therefore, it would have set at the same time as the sun. What, then, was the captain’s bewilderment when, after he had been walking for about an hour and a half, he noticed on the western horizon a strong glare that penetrated even the masses of the clouds. “The moon in the west!” he cried aloud; but suddenly bethinking himself, he added: “But no, that cannot be the moon; unless she had shifted very much nearer the earth, she could never give a light as intense as this.” As he spoke the screen of vapor was illuminated to such a degree that the whole country was as it were bathed in twilight. “What can this be?” soliloquized the captain. “It cannot be the sun, for the sun set in the east only an hour and a half ago. Would that those clouds would disclose what enormous luminary lies behind them! What a fool I was not to have learnt more astronomy! Perhaps, after all, I am racking my brain over something that is quite in the ordinary course of nature.” But, reason as he might, the mysteries of the heavens still remained impenetrable. For about an hour some luminous body, its disc evidently of gigantic dimensions, shed its rays upon the upper strata of the clouds; then, marvelous to relate, instead of obeying the ordinary laws of celestial mechanism, and descending upon the opposite horizon, it seemed to retreat farther off, grew dimmer, and vanished. The darkness that returned to the face of the earth was not more profound than the gloom which fell upon the captain’s soul. Everything was incomprehensible. The simplest mechanical rules seemed falsified; the planets had defied the laws of gravitation; the motions of the celestial spheres were erroneous as those of a watch with a defective mainspring, and there was reason to fear that the sun would never again shed his radiance upon the earth. But these last fears were groundless. In three hours’ time, without any intervening twilight, the morning sun made its appearance in the west, and day once more had dawned. On consulting his watch, Servadac found that night had lasted precisely six hours. Ben Zoof, who was unaccustomed to so brief a period of repose, was still slumbering soundly. “Come, wake up!” said Servadac, shaking him by the shoulder; “it is time to start.” “Time to start?” exclaimed Ben Zoof, rubbing his eyes. “I feel as if I had only just gone to sleep.” “You have slept all night, at any rate,” replied the captain; “it has only been for six hours, but you must make it enough.” “Enough it shall be, sir,” was the submissive rejoinder. “And now,” continued Servadac, “we will take the shortest way back to the gourbi, and see what our horses think about it all.” “They will think that they ought to be groomed,” said the orderly. “Very good; you may groom them and saddle them as quickly as you like. I want to know what has become of the rest of Algeria: if we cannot get round by the south to Mostaganem, we must go eastwards to Tenes.” And forthwith they started. Beginning to feel hungry, they had no hesitation in gathering figs, dates, and oranges from the plantations that formed a continuous rich and luxuriant orchard along their path. The district was quite deserted, and they had no reason to fear any legal penalty. In an hour and a half they reached the gourbi. Everything was just as they had left it, and it was evident that no one had visited the place during their absence. All was desolate as the shore they had quitted. The preparations for the expedition were brief and simple. Ben Zoof saddled the horses and filled his pouch with biscuits and game; water, he felt certain, could be obtained in abundance from the numerous affluents of the Shelif, which, although they had now become tributaries of the Mediterranean, still meandered through the plain. Captain Servadac mounted his horse Zephyr, and Ben Zoof simultaneously got astride his mare Galette, named after the mill of Montmartre. They galloped off in the direction of the Shelif, and were not long in discovering that the diminution in the pressure of the atmosphere had precisely the same effect upon their horses as it had had upon themselves. Their muscular strength seemed five times as great as hitherto; their hoofs scarcely touched the ground, and they seemed transformed from ordinary quadrupeds into veritable hippogriffs. Happily, Servadac and his orderly were fearless riders; they made no attempt to curb their steeds, but even urged them to still greater exertions. Twenty minutes sufficed to carry them over the four or five miles that intervened between the gourbi and the mouth of the Shelif; then, slackening their speed, they proceeded at a more leisurely pace to the southeast, along what had once been the right bank of the river, but which, although it still retained its former characteristics, was now the boundary of a sea, which extending farther than the limits of the horizon, must have swallowed up at least a large portion of the province of Oran. Captain Servadac knew the country well; he had at one time been engaged upon a trigonometrical survey of the district, and consequently had an accurate knowledge of its topography. His idea now was to draw up a report of his investigations: to whom that report should be delivered was a problem he had yet to solve. During the four hours of daylight that still remained, the travelers rode about twenty-one miles from the river mouth. To their vast surprise, they did not meet a single human being. At nightfall they again encamped in a slight bend of the shore, at a point which on the previous evening had faced the mouth of the Mina, one of the left-hand affluents of the Shelif, but now absorbed into the newly revealed ocean. Ben Zoof made the sleeping accommodation as comfortable as the circumstances would allow; the horses were clogged and turned out to feed upon the rich pasture that clothed the shore, and the night passed without special incident. At sunrise on the following morning, the 2nd of January, or what, according to the ordinary calendar, would have been the night of the 1st, the captain and his orderly remounted their horses, and during the six-hours’ day accomplished a distance of forty-two miles. The right bank of the river still continued to be the margin of the land, and only in one spot had its integrity been impaired. This was about twelve miles from the Mina, and on the site of the annex or suburb of Surkelmittoo. Here a large portion of the bank had been swept away, and the hamlet, with its eight hundred inhabitants, had no doubt been swallowed up by the encroaching waters. It seemed, therefore, more than probable that a similar fate had overtaken the larger towns beyond the Shelif. In the evening the explorers encamped, as previously, in a nook of the shore which here abruptly terminated their new domain, not far from where they might have expected to find the important village of Memounturroy; but of this, too, there was now no trace. “I had quite reckoned upon a supper and a bed at Orleansville to-night,” said Servadac, as, full of despondency, he surveyed the waste of water. “Quite impossible,” replied Ben Zoof, “except you had gone by a boat. But cheer up, sir, cheer up; we will soon devise some means for getting across to Mostaganem.” “If, as I hope,” rejoined the captain, “we are on a peninsula, we are more likely to get to Tenes; there we shall hear the news.” “Far more likely to carry the news ourselves,” answered Ben Zoof, as he threw himself down for his night’s rest. Six hours later, only waiting for sunrise, Captain Servadac set himself in movement again to renew his investigations. At this spot the shore, that hitherto had been running in a southeasterly direction, turned abruptly to the north, being no longer formed by the natural bank of the Shelif, but consisting of an absolutely new coast-line. No land was in sight. Nothing could be seen of Orleansville, which ought to have been about six miles to the southwest; and Ben Zoof, who had mounted the highest point of view attainable, could distinguish sea, and nothing but sea, to the farthest horizon. Quitting their encampment and riding on, the bewildered explorers kept close to the new shore. This, since it had ceased to be formed by the original river bank, had considerably altered its aspect. Frequent landslips occurred, and in many places deep chasms rifted the ground; great gaps furrowed the fields, and trees, half uprooted, overhung the water, remarkable by the fantastic distortions of their gnarled trunks, looking as though they had been chopped by a hatchet. The sinuosities of the coast line, alternately gully and headland, had the effect of making a devious progress for the travelers, and at sunset, although they had accomplished more than twenty miles, they had only just arrived at the foot of the Merdeyah Mountains, which, before the cataclysm, had formed the extremity of the chain of the Little Atlas. The ridge, however, had been violently ruptured, and now rose perpendicularly from the water. On the following morning Servadac and Ben Zoof traversed one of the mountain gorges; and next, in order to make a more thorough acquaintance with the limits and condition of the section of Algerian territory of which they seemed to be left as the sole occupants, they dismounted, and proceeded on foot to the summit of one of the highest peaks. From this elevation they ascertained that from the base of the Merdeyah to the Mediterranean, a distance of about eighteen miles, a new coast line had come into existence; no land was visible in any direction; no isthmus existed to form a connecting link with the territory of Tenes, which had entirely disappeared. The result was that Captain Servadac was driven to the irresistible conclusion that the tract of land which he had been surveying was not, as he had at first imagined, a peninsula; it was actually an island. Strictly speaking, this island was quadrilateral, but the sides were so irregular that it was much more nearly a triangle, the comparison of the sides exhibiting these proportions: The section of the right bank of the Shelif, seventy-two miles; the southern boundary from the Shelif to the chain of the Little Atlas, twenty-one miles; from the Little Atlas to the Mediterranean, eighteen miles; and sixty miles of the shore of the Mediterranean itself, making in all an entire circumference of about 171 miles. “What does it all mean?” exclaimed the captain, every hour growing more and more bewildered. “The will of Providence, and we must submit,” replied Ben Zoof, calm and undisturbed. With this reflection, the two men silently descended the mountain and remounted their horses. Before evening they had reached the Mediterranean. On their road they failed to discern a vestige of the little town of Montenotte; like Tenes, of which not so much as a ruined cottage was visible on the horizon, it seemed to be annihilated. On the following day, the 6th of January, the two men made a forced march along the coast of the Mediterranean, which they found less altered than the captain had at first supposed; but four villages had entirely disappeared, and the headlands, unable to resist the shock of the convulsion, had been detached from the mainland. The circuit of the island had been now completed, and the explorers, after a period of sixty hours, found themselves once more beside the ruins of their gourbi. Five days, or what, according to the established order of things, would have been two days and a half, had been occupied in tracing the boundaries of their new domain; and they had ascertained beyond a doubt that they were the sole human inhabitants left upon the island. “Well, sir, here you are, Governor General of Algeria!” exclaimed Ben Zoof, as they reached the gourbi. “With not a soul to govern,” gloomily rejoined the captain. “How so? Do you not reckon me?” “Pshaw! Ben Zoof, what are you?” “What am I? Why, I am the population.” The captain deigned no reply, but, muttering some expressions of regret for the fruitless trouble he had taken about his rondo, betook himself to rest. 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

THE CAPTAIN MAKES AN EXPLORATION

After a voyage of seventy-four days, the "Pilgrim" had stranded

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 VIII here CHAPTER VIII Joe’s Importance.—The Commander of the Resolute.—Kennedy’s Arsenal.—Mutual Amenities.—The Farewell Dinner.—Departure on the 21st of February.—The Doctor’s Scientific Sessions.—Duveyrier.—Livingstone.—Details of the Aerial Voyage.—Kennedy silenced. About the 10th of February, the preparations were pretty well completed; and the balloons, firmly secured, one within the other, were altogether finished. They had been subjected to a powerful pneumatic pressure in all parts, and the test gave excellent evidence of their solidity and of the care applied in their construction. Joe hardly knew what he was about, with delight. He trotted incessantly to and fro between his home in Greek Street, and the Mitchell establishment, always full of business, but always in the highest spirits, giving details of the affair to people who did not even ask him, so proud was he, above all things, of being permitted to accompany his master. I have even a shrewd suspicion that what with showing the balloon, explaining the plans and views of the doctor, giving folks a glimpse of the latter, through a half-opened window, or pointing him out as he passed along the streets, the clever scamp earned a few half-crowns, but we must not find fault with him for that. He had as much right as anybody else to speculate upon the admiration and curiosity of his contemporaries. On the 16th of February, the cast anchor near Greenwich. She was a screw propeller of eight hundred tons, a fast sailer, and the very vessel that had been sent out to the polar regions, to revictual the last expedition of Sir James Ross. Her commander, Captain Bennet, had the name of being a very amiable person, and he took a particular interest in the doctor’s expedition, having been one of that gentleman’s admirers for a long time. Bennet was rather a man of science than a man of war, which did not, however, prevent his vessel from carrying four carronades, that had never hurt any body, to be sure, but had performed the most pacific duty in the world. Resolute The hold of the was so arranged as to find a stowing-place for the balloon. The latter was shipped with the greatest precaution on the 18th of February, and was then carefully deposited at the bottom of the vessel in such a way as to prevent accident. The car and its accessories, the anchors, the cords, the supplies, the water-tanks, which were to be filled on arriving, all were embarked and put away under Ferguson’s own eyes. Resolute Ten tons of sulphuric acid and ten tons of iron filings, were put on board for the future production of the hydrogen gas. The quantity was more than enough, but it was well to be provided against accident. The apparatus to be employed in manufacturing the gas, including some thirty empty casks, was also stowed away in the hold. These various preparations were terminated on the 18th of February, in the evening. Two state-rooms, comfortably fitted up, were ready for the reception of Dr. Ferguson and his friend Kennedy. The latter, all the while swearing that he would not go, went on board with a regular arsenal of hunting weapons, among which were two double-barrelled breech-loading fowling-pieces, and a rifle that had withstood every test, of the make of Purdey, Moore & Dickson, at Edinburgh. With such a weapon a marksman would find no difficulty in lodging a bullet in the eye of a chamois at the distance of two thousand paces. Along with these implements, he had two of Colt’s six-shooters, for unforeseen emergencies. His powder-case, his cartridge-pouch, his lead, and his bullets, did not exceed a certain weight prescribed by the doctor. The three travellers got themselves to rights on board during the working-hours of February 19th. They were received with much distinction by the captain and his officers, the doctor continuing as reserved as ever, and thinking of nothing but his expedition. Dick seemed a good deal moved, but was unwilling to betray it; while Joe was fairly dancing and breaking out in laughable remarks. The worthy fellow soon became the jester and merry-andrew of the boatswain’s mess, where a berth had been kept for him. On the 20th, a grand farewell dinner was given to Dr. Ferguson and Kennedy by the Royal Geographical Society. Commander Bennet and his officers were present at the entertainment, which was signalized by copious libations and numerous toasts. Healths were drunk, in sufficient abundance to guarantee all the guests a lifetime of centuries. Sir Francis M——presided, with restrained but dignified feeling. To his own supreme confusion, Dick Kennedy came in for a large share in the jovial felicitations of the night. After having drunk to the “intrepid Ferguson, the glory of England,” they had to drink to “the no less courageous Kennedy, his daring companion.” Dick blushed a good deal, and that passed for modesty; whereupon the applause redoubled, and Dick blushed again. A message from the Queen arrived while they were at dessert. Her Majesty offered her compliments to the two travellers, and expressed her wishes for their safe and successful journey. This, of course, rendered imperative fresh toasts to “Her most gracious Majesty.” At midnight, after touching farewells and warm shaking of hands, the guests separated. The boats of the were in waiting at the stairs of Westminster Bridge. The captain leaped in, accompanied by his officers and passengers, and the rapid current of the Thames, aiding the strong arms of the rowers, bore them swiftly to Greenwich. In an hour’s time all were asleep on board. Resolute The next morning, February 21st, at three o’clock, the furnaces began to roar; at five, the anchors were weighed, and the , powerfully driven by her screw, began to plough the water toward the mouth of the Thames. Resolute It is needless to say that the topic of conversation with every one on board was Dr. Ferguson’s enterprise. Seeing and hearing the doctor soon inspired everybody with such confidence that, in a very short time, there was no one, excepting the incredulous Scotchman, on the steamer who had the least doubt of the perfect feasibility and success of the expedition. During the long, unoccupied hours of the voyage, the doctor held regular sittings, with lectures on geographical science, in the officers’ mess-room. These young men felt an intense interest in the discoveries made during the last forty years in Africa; and the doctor related to them the explorations of Barth, Burton, Speke, and Grant, and depicted the wonders of this vast, mysterious country, now thrown open on all sides to the investigations of science. On the north, the young Duveyrier was exploring Sahara, and bringing the chiefs of the Touaregs to Paris. Under the inspiration of the French Government, two expeditions were preparing, which, descending from the north, and coming from the west, would cross each other at Timbuctoo. In the south, the indefatigable Livingstone was still advancing toward the equator; and, since March, 1862, he had, in company with Mackenzie, ascended the river Rovoonia. The nineteenth century would, assuredly, not pass, contended the doctor, without Africa having been compelled to surrender the secrets she has kept locked up in her bosom for six thousand years. But the interest of Dr. Ferguson’s hearers was excited to the highest pitch when he made known to them, in detail, the preparations for his own journey. They took pleasure in verifying his calculations; they discussed them; and the doctor frankly took part in the discussion. As a general thing, they were surprised at the limited quantity of provision that he took with him; and one day one of the officers questioned him on that subject. “That peculiar point astonishes you, does it?” said Ferguson. “It does, indeed.” “But how long do you think my trip is going to last? Whole months? If so, you are greatly mistaken. Were it to be a long one, we should be lost; we should never get back. But you must know that the distance from Zanzibar to the coast of Senegal is only thirty-five hundred—say four thousand miles. Well, at the rate of two hundred and forty miles every twelve hours, which does not come near the rapidity of our railroad trains, by travelling day and night, it would take only seven days to cross Africa!” “But then you could see nothing, make no geographical observations, or reconnoitre the face of the country.” “Ah!” replied the doctor, “if I am master of my balloon—if I can ascend and descend at will, I shall stop when I please, especially when too violent currents of air threaten to carry me out of my way with them.” “And you will encounter such,” said Captain Bennet. “There are tornadoes that sweep at the rate of more than two hundred and forty miles per hour.” “You see, then, that with such speed as that, we could cross Africa in twelve hours. One would rise at Zanzibar, and go to bed at St. Louis!” “But,” rejoined the officer, “could any balloon withstand the wear and tear of such velocity?” “It has happened before,” replied Ferguson. “And the balloon withstood it?” “Perfectly well. It was at the time of the coronation of Napoleon, in 1804. The aëronaut, Gernerin, sent up a balloon at Paris, about eleven o’clock in the evening. It bore the following inscription, in letters of gold: ‘Paris, 25 Frimaire; year XIII; Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon by his Holiness, Pius VII.’ On the next morning, the inhabitants of Rome saw the same balloon soaring above the Vatican, whence it crossed the Campagna, and finally fluttered down into the lake of Bracciano. So you see, gentlemen, that a balloon can resist such velocities.” “A balloon—that might be; but a man?” insinuated Kennedy. “Yes, a man, too!—for the balloon is always motionless with reference to the air that surrounds it. What moves is the mass of the atmosphere itself: for instance, one may light a taper in the car, and the flame will not even waver. An aëronaut in Garnerin’s balloon would not have suffered in the least from the speed. But then I have no occasion to attempt such velocity; and if I can anchor to some tree, or some favorable inequality of the ground, at night, I shall not fail to do so. Besides, we take provision for two months with us, after all; and there is nothing to prevent our skilful huntsman here from furnishing game in abundance when we come to alight.” “Ah! Mr. Kennedy,” said a young midshipman, with envious eyes, “what splendid shots you’ll have!” “Without counting,” said another, “that you’ll have the glory as well as the sport!” “Gentlemen,” replied the hunter, stammering with confusion, “I greatly—appreciate—your compliments—but they—don’t—belong to me.” “You!” exclaimed every body, “don’t you intend to go?” “I am not going!” “You won’t accompany Dr. Ferguson?” “Not only shall I not accompany him, but I am here so as to be present at the last moment to prevent his going.” Every eye was now turned to the doctor. “Never mind him!” said the latter, calmly. “This is a matter that we can’t argue with him. At heart he knows perfectly well that he going.” is “By Saint Andrew!” said Kennedy, “I swear—” “Swear to nothing, friend Dick; you have been ganged and weighed—you and your powder, your guns, and your bullets; so don’t let us say anything more about it.” And, in fact, from that day until the arrival at Zanzibar, Dick never opened his mouth. He talked neither about that nor about anything else. He kept absolutely silent. 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

Details of the Aerial Voyage.—Kennedy silenced

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . JEMINA, THE MOUNTAIN GIRL here JEMINA, THE MOUNTAIN GIRL This don’t pretend to be “Literature.” This is just a tale for red-blooded folks who want a and not just a lot of “psychological” stuff or “analysis.” Boy, you’ll love it! Read it here, see it in the movies, play it on the phonograph, run it through the sewing-machine. story A Wild Thing It was night in the mountains of Kentucky. Wild hills rose on all sides. Swift mountain streams flowed rapidly up and down the mountains. Jemina Tantrum was down at the stream, brewing whiskey at the family still. She was a typical mountain girl. Her feet were bare. Her hands, large and powerful, hung down below her knees. Her face showed the ravages of work. Although but sixteen, she had for over a dozen years been supporting her aged pappy and mappy by brewing mountain whiskey. From time to time she would pause in her task, and, filling a dipper full of the pure, invigorating liquid, would drain it off—then pursue her work with renewed vigor. She would place the rye in the vat, thresh it out with her feet and, in twenty minutes, the completed product would be turned out. A sudden cry made her pause in the act of draining a dipper and look up. “Hello,” said a voice. It came from a man clad in hunting boots reaching to his neck, who had emerged. “Can you tell me the way to the Tantrums’ cabin?” “Are you uns from the settlements down thar?” She pointed her hand down to the bottom of the hill, where Louisville lay. She had never been there; but once, before she was born, her great-grandfather, old Gore Tantrum, had gone into the settlements in the company of two marshals, and had never come back. So the Tantrums, from generation to generation, had learned to dread civilization. The man was amused. He laughed a light tinkling laugh, the laugh of a Philadelphian. Something in the ring of it thrilled her. She drank off another dipper of whiskey. “Where is Mr. Tantrum, little girl?” he asked, not without kindness. She raised her foot and pointed her big toe toward the woods. “Thar in the cabing behind those thar pines. Old Tantrum air my old man.” The man from the settlements thanked her and strode off. He was fairly vibrant with youth and personality. As he walked along he whistled and sang and turned handsprings and flapjacks, breathing in the fresh, cool air of the mountains. The air around the still was like wine. Jemina Tantrum watched him entranced. No one like him had ever come into her life before. She sat down on the grass and counted her toes. She counted eleven. She had learned arithmetic in the mountain school. A Mountain Feud Ten years before a lady from the settlements had opened a school on the mountain. Jemina had no money, but she had paid her way in whiskey, bringing a pailful to school every morning and leaving it on Miss Lafarge’s desk. Miss Lafarge had died of delirium tremens after a year’s teaching, and so Jemina’s education had stopped. Across the still stream, still another still was standing. It was that of the Doldrums. The Doldrums and the Tantrums never exchanged calls. They hated each other. Fifty years before old Jem Doldrum and old Jem Tantrum had quarrelled in the Tantrum cabin over a game of slapjack. Jem Doldrum had thrown the king of hearts in Jem Tantrum’s face, and old Tantrum, enraged, had felled the old Doldrum with the nine of diamonds. Other Doldrums and Tantrums had joined in and the little cabin was soon filled with flying cards. Harstrum Doldrum, one of the younger Doldrums, lay stretched on the floor writhing in agony, the ace of hearts crammed down his throat. Jem Tantrum, standing in the doorway, ran through suit after suit, his face alight with fiendish hatred. Old Mappy Tantrum stood on the table wetting down the Doldrums with hot whiskey. Old Heck Doldrum, having finally run out of trumps, was backed out of the cabin, striking left and right with his tobacco pouch, and gathering around him the rest of his clan. Then they mounted their steers and galloped furiously home. That night old man Doldrum and his sons, vowing vengeance, had returned, put a ticktock on the Tantrum window, stuck a pin in the doorbell, and beaten a retreat. A week later the Tantrums had put Cod Liver Oil in the Doldrums’ still, and so, from year to year, the feud had continued, first one family being entirely wiped out, then the other. The Birth of Love Every day little Jemina worked the still on her side of the stream, and Boscoe Doldrum worked the still on his side. Sometimes, with automatic inherited hatred, the feudists would throw whiskey at each other, and Jemina would come home smelling like a French table d’hôte. But now Jemina was too thoughtful to look across the stream. How wonderful the stranger had been and how oddly he was dressed! In her innocent way she had never believed that there were any civilized settlements at all, and she had put the belief in them down to the credulity of the mountain people. She turned to go up to the cabin, and, as she turned something struck her in the neck. It was a sponge, thrown by Boscoe Doldrum—a sponge soaked in whiskey from his still on the other side of the stream. “Hi, thar, Boscoe Doldrum,” she shouted in her deep bass voice. “Yo! Jemina Tantrum. Gosh ding yo’!” he returned. She continued her way to the cabin. The stranger was talking to her father. Gold had been discovered on the Tantrum land, and the stranger, Edgar Edison, was trying to buy the land for a song. He was considering what song to offer. She sat upon her hands and watched him. He was wonderful. When he talked his lips moved. She sat upon the stove and watched him. Suddenly there came a blood-curdling scream. The Tantrums rushed to the windows. It was the Doldrums. They had hitched their steers to trees and concealed themselves behind the bushes and flowers, and soon a perfect rattle of stones and bricks beat against the windows, bending them inward. “Father! father!” shrieked Jemina. Her father took down his slingshot from his slingshot rack on the wall and ran his hand lovingly over the elastic band. He stepped to a loophole. Old Mappy Tantrum stepped to the coalhole. A Mountain Battle The stranger was aroused at last. Furious to get at the Doldrums, he tried to escape from the house by crawling up the chimney. Then he thought there might be a door under the bed, but Jemina told him there was not. He hunted for doors under the beds and sofas, but each time Jemina pulled him out and told him there were no doors there. Furious with anger, he beat upon the door and hollered at the Doldrums. They did not answer him, but kept up their fusillade of bricks and stones against the window. Old Pappy Tantrum knew that just as soon as they were able to effect an aperture they would pour in and the fight would be over. Then old Heck Doldrum, foaming at the mouth and expectorating on the ground, left and right, led the attack. The terrific slingshots of Pappy Tantrum had not been without their effect. A master shot had disabled one Doldrum, and another Doldrum, shot almost incessantly through the abdomen, fought feebly on. Nearer and nearer they approached the house. “We must fly,” shouted the stranger to Jemina. “I will sacrifice myself and bear you away.” “No,” shouted Pappy Tantrum, his face begrimed. “You stay here and fit on. I will bar Jemina away. I will bar Mappy away. I will bar myself away.” The man from the settlements, pale and trembling with anger, turned to Ham Tantrum, who stood at the door throwing loophole after loophole at the advancing Doldrums. “Will you cover the retreat?” But Ham said that he too had Tantrums to bear away, but that he would leave himself here to help the stranger cover the retreat, if he could think of a way of doing it. Soon smoke began to filter through the floor and ceiling. Shem Doldrum had come up and touched a match to old Japhet Tantrum’s breath as he leaned from a loophole, and the alcoholic flames shot up on all sides. The whiskey in the bathtub caught fire. The walls began to fall in. Jemina and the man from the settlements looked at each other. “Jemina,” he whispered. “Stranger,” she answered. “We will die together,” he said. “If we had lived I would have taken you to the city and married you. With your ability to hold liquor, your social success would have been assured.” She caressed him idly for a moment, counting her toes softly to herself. The smoke grew thicker. Her left leg was on fire. She was a human alcohol lamp. Their lips met in one long kiss and then a wall fell on them and blotted them out. “As One.” When the Doldrums burst through the ring of flame, they found them dead where they had fallen, their arms about each other. Old Jem Doldrum was moved. He took off his hat. He filled it with whiskey and drank it off. “They air dead,” he said slowly, “they hankered after each other. The fit is over now. We must not part them.” So they threw them together into the stream and the two splashes they made were as one. 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. F. Scott Fitzgerald (2004). Tales of the Jazz Age. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18857/18857-h/18857-h.htm 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

JEMINA, THE MOUNTAIN GIRL

The Big Four by Agatha Christie, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . NUMBER FOUR WINS A TRICK XVII. NUMBER FOUR WINS A TRICK From our quiet retreat in the Ardennes we watched the progress of affairs in the great world. We were plentifully supplied with newspapers, and every day Poirot received a bulky envelope, evidently containing some kind of report. He never showed these reports to me, but I could usually tell from his manner whether its contents had been satisfactory or otherwise. He never wavered in his belief that our present plan was the only one likely to be crowned by success. "As a minor point, Hastings," he remarked one day, "I was in continual fear of your death lying at my door. And that rendered me nervous—like a cat upon the jumps, as you say. But now I am well satisfied. Even if they discover that the Captain Hastings who landed in South America is an imposter (and I do not think they will discover it, they are not likely to send an agent out there who knows you personally), they will only believe that you are trying to circumvent them in some clever manner of your own, and will pay no serious attention to discovering your whereabouts. Of the one vital fact, my supposed death, they are thoroughly convinced. They will go ahead and mature their plans." "And then?" I asked eagerly. "And then, mon ami, grand resurrection of Hercule Poirot! At the eleventh hour I reappear, throw all into confusion, and achieve the supreme victory in my own unique manner!" I realised that Poirot's vanity was of the case-hardened variety which could withstand all attacks. I reminded him that once or twice the honours of the game had lain with our adversaries. But I might have known that it was impossible to diminish Hercule Poirot's enthusiasm for his own methods. "See you, Hastings, it is like the little trick that you play with the cards. You have seen it without doubt? You take the four knaves, you divide them, one on top of the pack, one underneath, and so on—you cut and you shuffle, and there they are all together again. That is my object. So far I have been contending, now against one of the Big Four, now against another. But let me get them all together, like the four knaves in the pack of cards, and then, with one coup, I destroy them all!" "And how do you propose to get them all together?" I asked. "By awaiting the supreme moment. By lying perdu until they are ready to strike." "That may mean a long wait," I grumbled. "Always impatient, the good Hastings! But no, it will not be so long. The one man they were afraid of—myself—is out of the way. I give them two or three months at most." His speaking of some one being got out of the way reminded me of Ingles and his tragic death, and I remembered that I had never told Poirot about the dying Chinaman in St. Giles' Hospital. He listened with keen attention to my story. "Ingles's servant, eh? And the few words he uttered were in Italian? Curious." "That's why I suspected it might have been a plant on the part of the Big Four." "Your reasoning is at fault, Hastings. Employ the little gray cells. If your enemies wished to deceive you they would assuredly have seen to it that the Chinaman spoke in intelligible pigeon English. No, the message was genuine. Tell me again all that you heard?" "First of all he made a reference to Handel's Largo, and then he said something that sounded like 'carrozzo'—that's a carriage, isn't it?" "Nothing else?" "Well, just at the end he murmured something like 'Cara' somebody or other—some woman's name. Zia, I think. But I don't suppose that that had any bearing on the rest of it." "You would not suppose so, Hastings. Cara Zia is very important, very important indeed." "I don't see—" "My dear friend, you never see—and anyway the English know no geography." "Geography?" I cried. "What has geography got to do with it?" "I dare say M. Thomas Cook would be more to the point." As usual, Poirot refused to say anything more—a most irritating trick of his. But I noticed that his manner became extremely cheerful, as though he had scored some point or other. The days went on, pleasant if a trifle monotonous. There were plenty of books in the villa, and delightful rambles all around, but I chafed sometimes at the forced inactivity of our life, and marvelled at Poirot's state of placid content. Nothing occurred to ruffle our quiet existence, and it was not until the end of June, well within the limit that Poirot had given them, that we had our news of the Big Four. A car drove up to the villa early one morning, such an unusual event in our peaceful life that I hurried down to satisfy my curiosity. I found Poirot talking to a pleasant-faced young fellow of about my own age. He introduced me. "This is Captain Harvey, Hastings, one of the most famous members of your Intelligence Service." "Not famous at all, I'm afraid," said the young man, laughing pleasantly. "Not famous except to those in the know, I should have said. Most of Captain Harvey's friends and acquaintances consider him an amiable but brainless young man—devoted only to the trot of the fox or whatever the dance is called." We both laughed. "Well, well, to business," said Poirot. "You are of opinion the time has come, then?" "We are sure of it, sir. China was isolated politically yesterday. What is going on out there, nobody knows. No news of any kind, wireless or otherwise, has come through—just a complete break—and silence!" "Li Chang Yen has shown his hand. And the others?" "Abe Ryland arrived in England a week ago, and left for the Continent yesterday." "And Madame Olivier?" "Madame Olivier left Paris last night." "For Italy?" "For Italy, sir. As far as we can judge, they are both making for the resort you indicated—though how you knew that—" "Ah, that is not the cap with the feather for me! That was the work of Hastings here. He conceals his intelligence, you comprehend, but it is profound for all that." Harvey looked at me with due appreciation, and I felt rather uncomfortable. "All is in train, then," said Poirot. He was pale now, and completely serious. "The time has come. The arrangements are all made?" "Everything you ordered has been carried out. The governments of Italy, France and England are behind you, and are all working harmoniously together." "It is, in fact, a new Entente," observed Poirot dryly. "I am glad that Desjardeaux is convinced at last. Eh bien, then, we will start—or rather, I will start. You, Hastings, will remain here—yes, I pray of you. In verity, my friend, I am serious." I believed him, but it was not likely that I should consent to being left behind in that fashion. Our argument was short but decisive. It was not until we were in the train, speeding towards Paris that he admitted that he was secretly glad of my decision. "For you have a part to play, Hastings. An important part! Without you, I might well fail. Nevertheless, I felt that it was my duty to urge you to remain behind." "There is danger, then?" "Mon ami, where there is the Big Four there is always danger." On arrival in Paris, we drove across to the Gare de l'Est, and Poirot at last announced our destination. We were bound for Bolzano and Italian Tyrol. During Harvey's absence from our carriage I took the opportunity of asking Poirot why he had said that the discovery of the rendezvous was my work. "Because it was, my friend. How Ingles managed to get hold of the information I do not know, but he did, and he sent it to us by his servant. We are bound, mon ami for Karersee, the new Italian name for which is Lago di Carezza. You see now where your 'Cara Zia' comes in and also your 'Carrozza' and 'Largo'—the Handel was supplied by your own imagination. Possibly some reference to the information coming from the 'hand' of M. Ingles started the train of association." "Karersee?" I queried. "I never heard of it." "I always tell you that the English know no geography. But as a matter of fact it is a well-known and very beautiful summer resort, four thousand feet up, in the heart of the Dolomites." "And it is in this out of the way spot that the Big Four have their rendezvous?" "Say rather their headquarters. The signal has been given and it is their intention to disappear from the world and issue orders from their mountain fastness. I have made the inquiries—a lot of quarrying of stone and mineral deposits is done there, and the company, apparently a small Italian firm, is in reality controlled by Abe Ryland. I am prepared to swear that a vast subterranean dwelling has been hollowed out in the very heart of the mountain, secret and inaccessible. From there the leaders of the organisation will issue by wireless their orders to their followers who are numbered by thousands in every country. And from that crag in the Dolomites the dictators of the world will emerge. That is to say—they would emerge were it not for Hercule Poirot." "Do you seriously believe all this, Poirot? What about the armies and general machinery of civilisation?" "What about it in Russia, Hastings? This will be Russia on an infinitely larger scale—and with this additional menace—that Madame Olivier's experiments have proceeded further than she has ever given out. I believe that she has, to a certain extent, succeeded in liberating atomic energy and harnessing it to her purpose. Her experiments with the nitrogen of the air have been very remarkable, and she has also experimented in the concentration of wireless energy, so that a beam of great intensity can be focused upon some given spot. Exactly how far she has progressed, nobody knows, but it is certain that it is much farther than has ever been given out. She is a genius, that woman—the Curies were as nothing to her. Add to her genius the powers of Ryland's almost unlimited wealth, and, with the brain of Li Chang Yen, the finest criminal brain ever known, to direct and plan—eh bien, it will not be, as you say, all jam for civilisation." His words made me very thoughtful. Although Poirot was given at times to exaggeration of language, he was not really an alarmist. For the first time I realised what a desperate struggle it was upon which we were engaged. Harvey soon rejoined us and the journey went on. We arrived at Bolzano about midday. From there the journey on was by motor. Several big blue motor-cars were waiting in the central square of the town, and we three got into one of them. Poirot, notwithstanding the heat of the day, was muffled to the eyes in greatcoat and scarf. His eyes and the tips of his ears were all that could be seen of him. I did not know whether this was due to precaution or merely his exaggerated fear of catching a chill. The motor journey took a couple of hours. It was a really wonderful drive. For the first part of the way we wound in and out of huge cliffs, with a trickling waterfall on one hand. Then we emerged into a fertile valley, which continued for some miles, and then, still winding steadily upwards, the bare rocky peaks began to show with dense clustering pine woods at their base. The whole place was wild and lovely. Finally a series of abrupt curves, with the road running through the pine woods on either side, and we came suddenly upon a big hotel and found that we had arrived. Our rooms had been reserved for us, and under Harvey's guidance we went straight up to them. They looked straight out over the rocky peaks and the long slopes of pine woods leading up to them. Poirot made a gesture towards them. "It is there?" he asked in a low voice. "Yes," replied Harvey. "There is a place called the Felsenlabyrynth—all big boulders piled about in a most fantastic way—a path winds through them. The quarrying is to the right of that, but we think that the entrance is probably in the Felsenlabyrynth." Poirot nodded. "Come, mon ami," he said to me. "Let us go down and sit upon the terrace and enjoy the sunlight." "You think that wise?" I asked. He shrugged his shoulders. The sunlight was marvellous—in fact the glare was almost too great for me. We had some creamy coffee instead of tea, then went upstairs and unpacked our few belongings. Poirot was in his most unapproachable mood, lost in a kind of reverie. Once or twice he shook his head and sighed. I had been rather intrigued by a man who had got out of our train at Bolzano, and had been met by a private car. He was a small man, and the thing about him that had attracted my attention was that he was almost as much muffled up as Poirot had been. More so, indeed, for in addition to greatcoat and muffler, he was wearing huge blue spectacles. I was convinced that here we had an emissary of the Big Four. Poirot did not seem very impressed by my idea, but when, leaning out of my bedroom window, I reported that the man in question was strolling about in the vicinity of the hotel, he admitted that there might be something in it. I urged my friend not to go down to dinner, but he insisted on doing so. We entered the dining-room rather late, and were shown to a table by the window. As we sat down, our attention was attracted by an exclamation and a crash of falling china. A dish of haricots verts had been upset over a man who was sitting at the table next to ours. The head waiter came up and was vociferous in apologies. Presently, when the offending waiter was serving us with soup, Poirot spoke to him. "An unfortunate accident, that. But it was not your fault." "Monsieur saw that? No, indeed it was not my fault. The gentleman half sprung up from his chair—I thought he was going to have an attack of some kind. I could not save the catastrophe." I saw Poirot's eyes shining with the green light I knew so well, and as the waiter departed he said to me in a low voice:— "You see, Hastings, the effect of Hercule Poirot—alive and in the flesh?" "You think—" I had not time to continue. I felt Poirot's hand on my knee, as he whispered excitedly: "Look, Hastings, look. His trick with the bread! Number Four!" Sure enough, the man at the next table to ours, his face unusually pale, was dabbing a small piece of bread mechanically about the table. I studied him carefully. His face, clean-shaven and puffily fat, was of a pasty, unhealthy sallowness, with heavy pouches under the eyes and deep lines running from his nose to the corners of his mouth. His age might have been anything from thirty-five to forty-five. In no particular did he resemble any one of the characters which Number Four had previously assumed. Indeed, had it not been for his little trick with the bread, of which he was evidently quite unaware, I would have sworn readily enough that the man sitting there was some one whom I had never seen before. "He has recognised you," I murmured. "You should not have come down." "My excellent Hastings, I have feigned death for three months for this one purpose." "To startle Number Four?" "To startle him at a moment when he must act quickly or not at all. And we have this great advantage—he does not know that we recognise him. He thinks that he is safe in his new disguise. How I bless Flossie Monro for telling us of that little habit of his." "What will happen now?" I asked. "What can happen? He recognises the only man he fears, miraculously resurrected from the dead, at the very minute when the plans of the Big Four are in the balance. Madame Olivier and Abe Ryland lunched here to-day, and it is thought that they went to Cortina. Only we know that they have retired to their hiding place. How much do we know? That is what Number Four is asking himself at this minute. He dare take no risks. I must be suppressed at all costs. Eh bien, let him try to suppress Hercule Poirot! I shall be ready for him." As he finished speaking, the man at the next table got up and went out. "He has gone to make his little arrangements," said Poirot placidly. "Shall we have our coffee on the terrace, my friend? It would be pleasanter, I think. I will just go up and get a coat." I went out on to the terrace, a little disturbed in mind. Poirot's assurance did not quite content me. However, so long as we were on our guard, nothing could happen to us. I resolved to keep thoroughly on the alert. It was quite five minutes before Poirot joined me. With his usual precautions against cold, he was muffled up to the ears. He sat down beside me and sipped his coffee appreciatively. "Only in England is the coffee so atrocious," he remarked. "On the continent they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made." As he finished speaking, the man from the next table suddenly appeared on the terrace. Without any hesitation, he came over and drew up a third chair to our table. "You do not mind my joining you, I hope," he said in English. "Not at all, monsieur," said Poirot. I felt very uneasy. It is true that we were on the terrace of the hotel, with people all round us, but nevertheless I was not satisfied. I sensed the presence of danger. Meanwhile Number Four chatted away in a perfectly natural manner. It seemed impossible to believe that he was anything but a bona fide tourist. He described excursions and motor trips, and posed as quite an authority on the neighbourhood. He took a pipe from his pocket and began to light it. Poirot drew out his case of tiny cigarettes. As he placed one between his lips, the stranger leant forward with a match. "Let me give you a light." As he spoke, without the least warning, all the lights went out. There was a chink of glass, and something pungent under my nose, suffocating me— 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. Agatha Christie (2023). The Big Four. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70114/pg70114-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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