"I do not believe that the church of the King's Highway to which I belong could use it. It would tend only to confusion," said Miss Church-Member.

"Only till they become accustomed to it," explained the inventor.

"After a few weeks of use its value would be demonstrated. Then the congregation would not part with it under any consideration. You see, Miss Church-Member," he continued as he offered them easy chairs, "there would be a definite time to close the service. The Regulator would move with the precision of a clock, and n.o.body would complain about the preacher speaking too long, for he would stop at a fixed time. It is so arranged that a little bell rings five minutes in advance of the time to stop preaching. It is sometimes a great satisfaction for the hearer to know when the sermon is nearly ended, and the Regulator would be a blessed boon to some preachers who find it difficult to stop talking after they get 'warmed up,' as they call it."

"How beautiful the thought that the bells of the Regulator would call the congregation to prayer, and a bell bid the time to change the devotion from prayer to song. You must not forget that this device is intended to educate the minister, choir, and congregation to a fine degree of accuracy in all their public devotions. See what opportunity this device offers for the display of ingenuity and tact on the part of a minister! He can, on the blank s.p.a.ces, have a few pictures drawn.

These will be interesting to children who cannot comprehend his sermon, or to an adult who loses the thread of the discourse. Does it not seem like a good thing for the church?" he asked, as he turned his gaze upon Miss Church-Member.

"It seems more and more that way, and no doubt it will prove helpful if it gets a fair trial. How does it suit _your_ fancy?" she inquired of Mr. World.

"It seems to me that all churches who know a good thing when they see it will get it at any cost. It just meets my idea exactly. I like to see things done decently and in order in the church. It always makes me nervous to get into a church where enthusiasm runs away with the meeting. It makes me feel somewhat as if I were in a trolley car that is running down grade while the motor-man has lost control of the brakes. It makes it uncomfortable to stay or to run."

"Have any of the churches introduced this novelty yet?" inquired Miss Church-Member.

"None as yet. We are waiting for certain developments before placing this device on the market. The agents of our Secret Service will inform us when the time is ripe."

The manager then offered to conduct them to another floor which was devoted to the interests of the Prayer Meeting, but Miss Church-Member, having lost her interest in such kind of services, expressed a desire to visit some other part of the city.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE WIZARD CITY.

1. The weird city of inventors described.

2. Its ultimate overthrow predicted in a realistic climax.

I saw that Miss Church-Member was anxious to visit the vast tower in the central part of the city. So Mr. World, in deference to her wishes, and agreeably to his own desires, escorted her in that direction.

Standing away at some distance, they were soon gazing upward at the awe-inspiring spectacle. Its grandeur and proportions now appeared to be greatly increased.

They could see, with more distinctness, circling around the ma.s.sive wizard cone, the aerial boulevards, ever alive with private conveyances, and the trolley cars each carrying a variety of pa.s.sengers.

"Will you accompany me on the trolley to the first series of hangings gardens?" cheerily invited Mr. World.

"If we are permitted, and you think it safe to ascend," she answered in a tremulous voice. He calmed her fears and led her to the central pa.s.senger room at the base of the tower. Here they saw a system of interior elevators carrying throngs of people to the numerous stations between the base and the highest dizzy view-point.

Leading off to the right ran the double trolley system, and to the left the equally wide boulevard, each on the exterior of the ma.s.sive tower.

I saw the obliging Mr. World, with more than usual courtesy, conduct his friend to a seat on a trolley car bound for the aerial gardens.

The ascent was smooth and afforded delightful opportunities to view, at every desirable angle, the surrounding city and its suburbs.

"This is the most exhilarating ride of my life!" triumphantly cried Miss Church-Member as they circled higher and higher so gradually that more than ten miles were traveled ere the objective point was reached one thousand feet from the base.

Here lay the variety gardens, suspended from the rigid side of the tower by a feat of architectural engineering surpa.s.sing anything in the natural world.

Around the gardens the boulevards and the trolley lines circled horizontally, and also pa.s.sed through some of the huge corridors which, on this level, diverge from the interior elevators toward the exterior gardens.

When the trolley car reached this height Miss Church-Member at once fixed her eyes on the ponderous pillars on each side of the converging corridors, for she knew that more than four thousand feet of the tower's amazing weight rested on these defiant granites.

Mr. World and his pleasing friend meandered amongst the mult.i.tude from one to another of the hanging gardens, drinking in all the vain glories that this aerial world afforded. At last, wearied by the endless succession of extraordinary sights, they stole away to a quiet retreat on the outer edge of a garden farthest from the tower's center.

Reclining in hammocks, they conversed of all the greatness of the world.

Looking upward they saw, fifteen hundred feet above them, the next series of hanging gardens; and during the lull in the music near by, they caught the strains falling from the upper orchestras like music from Heaven.

"Will you go with me still higher to taste the sweetness of a more ethereal level?"

Intoxicated with the charms already felt, Miss Church-Member was ready for any height. Upward they went on the venturesome trolley, admiring the phenomenal ride and the scenery it opened to their view in panoramic splendor. Their course wound round and round until they came to the horizontal circle twenty-five hundred feet above the base.

This was a place of more refinement and beauty. The touch of the finer artists was seen in all the arrangement and style of the terraces and hanging gardens, but especially in the rich variety of flowers and plants that added their wealth to the novel combinations.

Mr. World carefully guarded his much esteemed friend during their sight-seeing from garden to garden, for at times they encountered throngs of people.

I saw them eventually seek rest on rustic chairs where their conversation deepened into the relations they sustained one to the other, succeeded at last by a tender, thoughtful silence.

In the midst of their reveries they noticed a little spider, swinging on its silken thread, floating in the air between them.

"You rude little creature! Why do you come, at such a time, between my friend and me?" said Miss Church-Member in a half humorous mood.

"It may be for a purpose, dear. Perhaps the little insect poses here to remind us that we can never escape the foe that seeks to separate us."

"Quite an ingenious explanation," she said with deepening seriousness.

"But who is that lurking foe who seeks our separation?"

"'Tis better to learn to know your enemies than to be told of them.

Hence look through your eyes askance."

Just at this instant Miss Church-Member raised her hand and caught the little intruder, placing it alive into a locket which she had secretly carried ever since she had visited the p.a.w.n Shop.

"What can be the meaning of that?" queried Mr. "World as he saw, through the gla.s.s of the little lid, the struggling insect.

"So may it be to any foe that seeks to separate us," she explained.

"Then let me carry the locket," he suggested. "You have captured the foe; allow me to keep him imprisoned."

There was a happy exchange of glances as she pressed the little prison into his hand. "It is yours forever," she pledged under the sway of her rising emotions.

And he, accepting it with a warm heart, spoke thus in glowing words: "I accept the endless task and also pledge to the utmost of my power to keep any foe imprisoned that seeks to rob your life of any pa.s.sing happiness."

"Shall we go still higher?" he soon asked as he fixed his eyes on the dizzy terraces two thousand feet above them.

"In your presence I fear no height," was her confiding response.

The trolley cars ascended no higher, so they proceeded to the interior elevators. But they were told that no visitors were allowed above that point that privilege being reserved alone for the inventors.

"Are we permitted to visit the interior apartments of this tower, even below us?" asked Mr. World wistfully.