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pneumatics, then, if it's caught the eye of the great Babbage! To improve the
art of ballooning, perhaps? Balloon-flight, that's a military field. There's
always ample funding for the sciences of war."
"No, sir; I mean in the practical design of machinery."
"A flying machine, you mean?" Mallory paused. "You're not trying to tell me
this vehicle of yours can fly, are you?"
The mechanics laughed politely. "No," Godwin said, "and I can't say that all
that airy Engine-
spinning has come to much, directly. But we now understand certain matters
having to do with the behavior of air in motion, the principles of atmospheric
resistance. New principles, little-known as yet."
"But we mechanics," said Mr. Chesterton proudly, " 'ave put 'em to practical
use, sir, in the shaping of our Zephyr."
" 'Line-streaming,' we call it," Tom said.
"So you've 'line-streamed' this gurney of yours, eh? That's why it looks so
much like, er . .
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."
"Like a fish," Tom said.
"Exactly," said Godwin. "A fish! It's all to do with the action of fluids, you
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see. Water.
Air. Chaos and turbulence! It's all in the calculations."
"Remarkable," Mallory said. "So I take it that these principles of turbulence
--"
A sudden blistering racket erupted from a neighboring stall. The walls shook
and a fine sifting of soot fell from the ceiling.
"That'll be the Italians," Godwin shouted. "They've brought in a monster this
year!"
"Makes a mortal hogo of a stink!" Tom complained.
Godwin cocked his head. "Hear them try-rods clacking on the down-stroke? Bad
tolerances.
Slovenly foreign work!" He doffed his cap and dusted soot against his knee.
Mallory's head was ringing. "Let me buy you a drink!" he shouted.
Godwin cupped his ear blankly. "What?"
Mallory pantomimed; lifted a fist to his mouth, with his thumb cocked. Godwin
grinned. He had a quick, bellowed word with Chesterton, over the blueprints.
Then Godwin and Mallory ducked out into the sunshine.
"Bad try-rods," the guard outside said smugly. Godwin nodded, and handed the
man his leather apron. He took a plain black coat, instead, and traded his
engineer's cap for a straw wide-awake.
They left the racing-enclosure. "I can only spare a few minutes," Godwin
apologized. " 'The
Master's eye melts the metal,' as they say." He hooked a pair of smoked
spectacles over his ears.
"Some of these hobbyists know me, and might try to follow us . . . But never
mind that. It's good to see you again, Ned. Welcome back to England."
"I won't keep you long," Mallory said. "I wanted a private word or two. About
the boy, and such."
"Oh, Tom's a fine lad," said Godwin. "He's learning. He means well."
"I hope he'll prosper."
"We do our best," Godwin said. "I was sorry to hear from Tom about your
father. Him taking so ill, and all."
" 'Ould Mallory, he won't a-go till he's guv away his last bride,' " Mallory
quoted, in his broadest Sussex drawl. "That's what Father always tells us. He
wants to see all his girls married.
He's a game sort, my poor old dad."
"He must take great comfort in a son like yourself," Godwin said. "So, how
does London suit you? Did you take the holiday train?"
"I've not been in London. I've been in Lewes, with the family. Rode the
morning train from there to Leatherhead; then I tramped it."
"You walked to the Derby from Leatherhead? That's ten miles or more!"
Mallory smiled. "You've seen me tramp twenty, cross-country in the badlands of
Wyoming, hunting fossils. I'd a taste to see good English countryside again.
I'm only just back from
Toronto, with all our crates of plastered bones, while you've been here for
months, getting your fill of this." He waved his arm.
Godwin nodded. "What do you make of the place, then -- now you're home again?"
"London Basin anticline," Mallory said. "Tertiary and Eocene chalk-beds, bit
of modern flinty clay."
Godwin laughed. "We're all of us modern flinty clay . . . Here we go, then;
these lads sell a decent brew."
They walked down a gentle slope to a crowded dray laden with ale-kegs. The
proprietors had no huckle-buff. Mallory bought a pair of pints.
"It was good of you to accept our invitation," Godwin said. "I know that
you're a busy man, sir, what with your famous geologic controversies and
such."
"No busier than yourself," Mallory said. "Solid engineering work. Directly
practical and useful. I envy that, truly."
"No, no," said Godwin. "That brother of yours, he thinks the world of you. So
do we all!
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You're the coming man, Ned. Your star is rising."
"We had excellent luck in Wyoming, certainly," Mallory said. "We made a great
discovery. But without you and your steam-fortress, those red-skins would have
made short work of us."
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