The following is an extract from the memorial of Joshua Leavitt to Congress, on the wheat interests of the North Western States: "Should it, indeed, come to be settled that there is to be no foreign market for these products, the fine country under contemplation is not, therefore, to be despaired of.

Will it be difficult to find in the dark?" Her question staggered me, for she was clearly bent on seeking out Leavitt at once.

"But that's pre-posterousimpossible!" I tried to conceive of Leavitt in so monstrous a rôle, tried to imagine the missing Farquharson still in the flesh and beguiling Major Stanleigh and myself with so outlandish a story, devising all that ingenious detail to trick us into a belief in his own death.

It smokes unpleasantly now and then, splutters and rumbles as if about to obliterate all creation, but for all its bluster it only manages to spill a trickle or two of fresh lava down its sidesjust tamely subsides after deluging Leavitt with a shower of cinders and ashes.