Page 284 - erewhon

CHAPTER XXVIII: ESCAPE

hough busily engaged in translating the extracts given
Tin the last five chapters, I was also laying matters in train
for my escape with Arowhena. And indeed it was high time,
for I received an intimation from one of the cashiers of the
Musical Banks, that I was to be prosecuted in a criminal
court ostensibly for measles, but really for having owned a
watch, and attempted the reintroduction of machinery.
I asked why measles? and was told that there was a fear
lest extenuating circumstances should prevent a jury from
convicting me, if I were indicted for typhus or small-pox,
but that a verdict would probably be obtained for measles, a
disease which could be sufficiently punished in a person of
my age. I was given to understand that unless some unex-
pected change should come over the mind of his Majesty, I
might expect the blow to be struck within a very few days.
My plan was this—that Arowhena and I should escape
in a balloon together. I fear that the reader will disbelieve
this part of my story, yet in no other have I endeavoured to
adhere more conscientiously to facts, and can only throw
myself upon his charity.
I had already gained the ear of the Queen, and had so
worked upon her curiosity that she promised to get leave for
me to have a balloon made and inflated; I pointed out to her
that no complicated machinery would be wanted—nothing,