The BLUE GOOSE

FRANK LEWIS NASON

Author of To the End of the Trail

Copyright, 1903, by
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
New York

Published, March, 1903, R
Second Impression

"So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise and behold a shaking, and the bones came together bone to bone.

"And, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, but there was no breath in them.

"Son of man, prophesy unto the wind. Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these that they may live.

"And the breath came into them and they lived."

To
MY FRIEND OF TWENTY-ONE YEARS,
CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER

who, with infinite skill and patience, has breathed the breath of life into the dry bones of Earth's untold ages of upward struggle, who has made them speak of the eternity of their past, and has made them prophesy hope for the eternity to come, this book is dedicated by the author.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. The Blue Goose
CHAPTER II. The Old Man
CHAPTER III. Élise
CHAPTER IV. The Watched Pot Begins To Boil
CHAPTER V. Bennie Opens the Pot and Firmstone Comes in
CHAPTER VI. The Family Circle
CHAPTER VII. Mr. Morrison Tackles a Man With A Mind of His Own and a Man Without One
CHAPTER VIII. Madame Seeks Counsel
CHAPTER IX. The Meeting at the Blue Goose
CHAPTER X. Élise Goes Forth To Conquer
CHAPTER XI. The Devil's Elbow
CHAPTER XII. Figs and Thistles
CHAPTER XIII. The Stork and the Cranes
CHAPTER XIV. Blinded Eyes
CHAPTER XV. Bending the Twig
CHAPTER XVI. An Insistent Question
CHAPTER XVII. The Bearded Lion
CHAPTER XVIII. Winnowed Chaff
CHAPTER XIX. The Fly in the Ointment
CHAPTER XX. The River Gives Up Its Prey
CHAPTER XXI. The Sword That Turns
CHAPTER XXII. Good Intentions
CHAPTER XXIII. An Unexpected Recruit
CHAPTER XXIV. The Gathering To Its Own
CHAPTER XXV. A Divided House
CHAPTER XXVI. The Day of Reckoning
CHAPTER XXVII. Passing Clouds

Other Book to Read

THE BLUE GOOSE

CHAPTER I

The Blue Goose

"Mais oui! I tell you one ting. One big ting. Ze big man wiz ze glass eyes, he is vat you call one slik stoff. Ze big man wiz ze glass eyes."

"The old man?"

"Zat's him! One slik stoff! Écoutez! Listen! One day, you mek ze gran' trip. Look hout!" Pierre made a gesture as of a dog shaking a rat.

The utter darkness of the underground laboratory was parted in solid masses, by bars of light that spurted from the cracks of a fiercely glowing furnace. One shaft fell on a row of large, unstoppered