Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/109

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THE QUESTION OF A PASSENGER
89

able to us as the man who aids us with his sympathy and encouragement. As the good old Chinese proverb says, 'The things which we least like to hear are those which it is most to our advantage to know.'"


Flora and the doctor did not meet again until eight o'clock the following morning, Dr. Giles having been so busy putting the finishing touches to his work that he could not spare a moment for any other purpose. But eight o'clock found the doctor back in his office again, with the last detail attended to, and everything in readiness for the departure of the first car, scheduled to start at eleven o'clock.

Yet, though the enterprise was thus brought to a point where success seemed assured, Dr. Giles was not wholly satisfied; and the reason was that he had been unable to find a passenger to embark on this first trip. He had, with some misgivings, offered a reward of one hundred pounds to any one who would consent to make this journey through the earth. His fear was that this inducement, small as it was, would nevertheless bring him an endless number of applicants desirious of making the trip; but, to his great surprise as well as disappointment, not a single person presented himself