Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/295

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A TALE OF THE FUTURE.
291

verdict. After an absence, that to me appeared like ages, they returned, and after being seated, the President began:—

"Young man, we find you guilty of the gravest offence that it is possible for a man of our day to commit against our laws. It is an offence of such a serious nature that no woman dare mention it. By the laws of our country you are condemned by this court to float away into unmeasurable space. Where you will go to or what will become of you no man can tell. After considering your ignorance and your want of appreciation of the necessity of this law, and after making every allowance for you on these heads, the most we can do for you is to so far modify the usual conditions of this sentence, and order that you be provided with instruments, by means of which you can guide your course through space, so long as strength is left you. Whether or not this indulgence is of any value to you no one can tell. The sentence will be carried out the day after tomorrow in the presence of our people in order