The doctor set down his ale and adjusted
his spectacles, and gazed at the speaker with an air of surprise and
astonishment, while Hanz and the school-master suddenly ceased smoking.
"Now don't get alarmed, my friends," said Titus, watching with evident
delight the increasing alarm of his guests. "It is all here, and true.
He has invented a steam-horse, with an iron stomach and wheels; and the
animal can, with good management, be made to run over a road at the rate
of twenty miles an hour. Yes," added Titus, with a look of great
seriousness, "people are already risking their lives by riding in this
way."
The doctor heaved a sigh, and, half raising his pipe, gave it as his
opinion that a man who would invent such dangerous machines must be in
league with the devil. This profound opinion was endorsed by both Hanz
and the school-master. The latter, in short, suggested that such men
were generally vagabonds, whom it were well to throw into the Tappan
Zee, with stones around their necks.
"If the world was going to the devil in this way, what was the use of
living in it," inquired the school-master, finishing his ale, and
passing his mug for a fresh draught.
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