those chair-attendants who have "Inspector" written on their caps.

"If you didn't throw the dog," he said, "who DID?"



The sudden return of movement and familiar noises, and our natural

anxiety about ourselves (our clothe's were still dreadfully hot,

and the fronts of the thighs of Gibberne's white trousers were

scorched a drabbish brown), prevented the minute observations

I should have liked to make on all these things. Indeed, I really

made no observations of any scientific value on that return. The bee,

of course, had gone. I looked for that cyclist, but he was already

out of sight as we came into the Upper Sandgate Road or hidden

from us by traffic; the char-a-banc, however, with its people now

all alive and stirring, was clattering along at a spanking pace

almost abreast of the nearer church.



We noted, however, that the window-sill on which we had stepped

in getting out of the house was slightly singed, and that the

impressions of our feet on the gravel of the path were unusually deep.



So it was I had my first experience of the New Accelerator. Practically

we had been running about and saying and doing all sorts of things

in the space of a second or so of time. We had lived half an hour

while the band had played, perhaps, two bars. But the effect it

had upon us was that the whole world had stopped for our convenient

inspection. Considering all things, and particularly considering our

rashness in venturing out of the house, the experience might certainly

have been much more disagreeable than it was. It showed, no doubt,

that Gibberne has still much to learn before his preparation is

a manageable convenience, but its practicability it certainly

demonstrated beyond all cavil.



Since that adventure he has been steadily bringing its use under

control, and I have several times, and without the slightest bad

result, taken measured doses under his direction; though I must

confess I have not yet ventured abroad again while under its influence.

I may mention, for example, that this story has been written at one

sitting and without interruption, except for the nibbling of some

chocolate, by its means. I began at 6.25, and my watch is now very

nearly at the minute past the half-hour. The convenience of securing

a long, uninterrupted spell of work in the midst of a day full

of engagements cannot be exaggerated. Gibberne is now working

at the quantitative handling of his preparation, with especial reference

to its distinctive effects upon different types of constitution.

He then hopes to find a Retarder with which to dilute its present

rather excessive potency. The Retarder will, of course, have the

reverse effect to the Accelerator; used alone it should enable

the patient to spread a few seconds over many hours of ordinary

time,--and so to maintain an apathetic inaction, a glacier-like

absence of alacrity, amidst the most animated or irritating

surroundings. The two things together must necessarily work an entire



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