At last, far off, the professor and I heard a thunderous shout:
"Toot, t-o-o-t! Ting-a-ling-a-ling!"
No word-box could have been the source of that echoing cry. The professor gave a gasp and clutched my arm convulsively.
"Do you recognize that voice?" he asked hoarsely. "Merciful powers, Mr. Munn, how could such a thing happen? Look! Look!"
Over the fields beyond the city, leaping along at fifty-foot bounds and dragging behind him a train of queer-looking cars crowded with officials of the system, came no less a person than Emmet Gilhooly!
The professor threw himself at the barrier that hedged us round. He could not pass, although he struggled frantically.
"Take it coolly, professor," I urged, grasping and holding him upright.
"But this is outrageous, Mr. Munn!" he cried. "Poor Gilhooly! Is he the new traction power the other kingdom has been talking about? How does he happen to be here? And why are they treating him like that? This must be stopped! Where's my word-box?"
His eyes swept the ground. Glimpsing his talking machine he dived for it and began working the keys like mad.
No one paid any attention to the furious language that went up under his frenzied fingers, however. Leviathan in harness absorbed the entire attention of all the Baigols, and with another "Toot, toot! Ting-a-ling-a-ling!" the railway magnate galloped out of sight.