The hands slipped over the face of the clock with the hiss of a serpent, and the pendulum beat with accelerated strokes. Master Zacharius no longer spoke. He had fallen to the floor, his throat rattled, and from his oppressed bosom came only these half-broken words: “Life—science!” The scene had now two new witnesses, the hermit and Aubert. Master Zacharius lay upon the floor; Gerande was praying beside him, more dead than alive. Of a sudden a dry, hard noise was heard, which preceded the strike. Master Zacharius sprang up. “Midnight!” he cried. The hermit stretched out his hand towards the old clock,—and midnight did not sound. Master Zacharius uttered a terrible cry, which must have been heard in hell, when these words appeared:— “WHO EVER SHALL ATTEMPT TO MAKE HIMSELF THE EQUAL OF GOD, SHALL BE FOR EVER DAMNED!” The old clock burst with a noise like thunder, and the spring, escaping, leaped across the hall with a thousand fantastic contortions; the old man rose, ran after it, trying in vain to seize it, and exclaiming, “My soul,—my soul!” The spring bounded before him, first on one side, then on the other, and he could not reach it. At last Pittonaccio seized it, and, uttering a horrible blasphemy, ingulfed himself in the earth. Master Zacharius fell backwards. He was dead. [Illustration: He was dead.] The old watchmaker was buried in the midst of the peaks of Andernatt. Then Aubert and Gerande returned to Geneva, and during the long life which God accorded to them, they made it a duty to redeem by prayer the soul of the castaway of science. A DRAMA IN THE AIR. In the month of September, 185—, I arrived at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. My passage through the principal German cities had been brilliantly marked by balloon ascents; but as yet no German had accompanied me in my car, and the fine experiments made at Paris by MM. Green, Eugene Godard, and Poitevin had not tempted the grave Teutons to essay aerial voyages. But scarcely had the news of my approaching ascent spread through Frankfort, than three of the principal citizens begged the favour of being allowed to ascend with me. Two days afterwards we were to start from the Place de la Comédie. I began at once to get my balloon ready. It was of silk, prepared with gutta percha, a substance impermeable by acids or gasses; and its volume, which was three thousand cubic yards, enabled it to ascend to the loftiest heights.