"This is rather mean of you Mrs. Kinney!" protested the man. "Tell
me all about it, quick!"
The lady complacently took a chair. "Well," she remarked innocently,
"I knew you'd want to see him."
"Yes, but--"
"It serves you right," she went on blithely, "for staying away so
long. Let's see--you left a year ago June, didn't you, Mr. Hill?"
He swallowed something and managed to reply, "Great guns, yes! I've
been in the wilds of New Guinea for a year--without news of any
kind! I saw my first newspaper on board the dirigible this morning!"
"Ah, well," commented Mrs. Kinney provokingly, "you'll have to be
humored, I suppose." She cogitated unnecessarily long, then left the
room to get a folio of newspapers and magazines. One of these she
selected with great deliberation, and opened it at the leading
article. Even then she would not hand it over right away. "You
remember that sky-car idea of the doctor's, don't you?"
"His machine to explore space? He couldn't talk of anything else
when I--you don't mean to say"--incredulously--"that he made a
success of that!"
"He certainly did. Took a three weeks' tour of the planets, month
before last!"
Hill stared in amazement, then leaned forward suddenly and whisked
the magazine out of Mrs. Kinney's fingers. He held the paper with
hands that trembled in excitement; and this is what he read, in the
matter-of-fact black-and-white of The Scientific New Zealander: