The Master Key - An Electrical Fairy Tale

^

THE MASTER KEY

Rob was

surrounded by

a

group of natives

THE MASTER KEY An

Electrical Fairy Tale

FOUNDED UPON THE MYSTERIES OF ELECTRICITY AND THE OPTIMISM OF ITS DEVOTEES. IT WAS WRITTEN FOR BOYS, BUT OTHERS MAY READ IT

BY

L.

FRANK BAUM ILLUSTRATIONS BY F.

Y.

CORY

Me BOWEN-MERRILL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

INDIANAPOLIS

COPYRIGHT

1901

THE BOWBN-MERRIW, COMPANY

GIFT

PRESS OF

BRAUN WORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN,

N. Y.

-

A9P 151*1

M/V

To my

son

ROBERT STANTON BAUM

RI854174

CONTENTS Page

Chapter I

II

Rob

s

Workshop

The Demon

of Electricity

I

9

III

The Three

IV

Testing the Instruments

29

The Cannibal

43

V VI VII VIII

IX

Gifts

Island

18

The Buccaneers

60

The Demon Becomes Angry

78

Rob Acquires New Powers

86

The Second Journey

97

C O

N T E N TS

ILLUSTRATIONS Page

Rob was

surrounded by a group of natives of hideous appearance Frontispiece

From

his

workshop ran network Headpiece

of wires through

out the house

A A

quick flash of light almost blinded

curious being looked upon him from a magnifi cent radiance Tailpiece

Scientific

men

think the people of

trying to signal us I

Rob

am

Mars have been

Headpiece

here to do your bidding, said the

Demon

Tailpiece

Men

17

have not yet discovered what the birds know

Headpiece

18

/L

L

U8 TR A TI O VS Page

These three

gifts

arnuse you for the next

may

week 28

Tailpiece

Rob

action surprised

s

break

ll

"He

his

them

neck!"

all

Pleadpiecc

cried

the

29

astounded

father

36

The red-whiskered policeman keeled over 42

Tailpiece

Rob

s

"If

it s

him away just the

eaten

Rob

It

up

captors caught

led

the end of the rope and

Headpiece

same

to-day"

to

43

you, old chap,

I

won

t

be

Tailpiece

59

soared through the air with five Buccaneers dangling from his leg Headpiece

was

a

strange sight to see the pirates drop to lie motionless

the deck and

When

night

e a sy

When Rob

fell

his

66

slumber was broken and un-

Ta Up iece

77

had been kissed by

his

mother, he gave

an account of his adventures

Rob

60

sat staring eagerly at the

The Being drew from an resembling a box

Headpiece

Demon

Tailpiece

jj 85

inner pocket something

Headpiece

These spectacles will indicate the character of every one you meet Tailpiece

86

96

IL

US TR A TV O NS

L

Page

Rob

is

in

truth a typical

American boy

Headpiece

Rob

0,7

placed the indicator to a point north of east

and began

his journey

Tailpiece

103

A

crowd assembled, all shouting and pointing toward him in wonder Headpiece

A

man rushed toward threw up

his

it,

but the next

hands and

fell

104

moment he

unconscious

108

Rob reached

the entrance of the palace, only to face another group of guardsmen

Rob

only smiled in an amused past

A

them

The

as he

125

clatter

nearly deafened

126

Headp iece

eyes of the Frenchman were actually pro truding from their sockets

From

an elevation of

14

marched

Tailpiece

tremendous din and

him

way

1

fifty feet

looked a pretty garden

or

128

more Rob over

Headpiece

136

Placing the record so that the President could see clearly, Rob watched the changing expres sions upon the great man s face

Rob

140

experienced a decided sense of relief as he

mixed with the gay populace

Tailpiece

145

Beneath him stretched a vast sandy plain, and speeding across this he came to a land

abounding

in vegetation

Headpiece

146

ILL US TR A T I O NS Page "

Those fellows seem

Uttering

be looking for

trouble*"

150

terror and dismay, the three

cries of

Turks took

to

to their heels

158

Rob was

miserable and unhappy, and remained brooding over his cruel fate Tailpiece

The

Tatars arrived swiftly and noiselessly

Headpiece

.

The Turk

rose slowly into the

ing to

him with desperate

air,

with

Rob

Coming toward him was

176

last

181

an immense bird

Plea dp iece

With one ward

160

cling

tenacity

Without more ado Rob mounted into the air, leaving the Turk staring after him Tailpiece

1

86

scream the creature tumbled down

to join

its

fellow

Tailpiece

During the next few hours Rob suffered from severe attack of homesickness Headpiece

The disappointment

of the sailors

191 a

192

was something

awful to witness

As

159

196

they slowly mounted into the sky the sailor

gave

a squeal of terror

Rob mounted skyward, ment

to the

of the fishermen,

Headpiece

Tailpiece

205

unbounded amaze stared after him

who

2p6

ILL US TRA TI O NS Page

Rob hovered

over the great tower cf the Lick Observatory until he attracted the excited

gaze of

its

inhabitants

21

Tailpiece

Finding himself upon the lake up a vacant bench and

Rob hunted

front, sat

clown to rest

Headp iece

As

214

he started downward he saw looking at him with a half-frightened, half-

the old gentleman

curious expression

At

224

Tailpiece

precisely ten o clock Rob reached the front door of his own house Headpiece

Rob

boldly ascended the

stairs,

entered the

shop and closed and locked the door

work Tail 229

piece

The Demon sank but

still

into a chair nerveless

staring fearfully at the

and limp,

boy

Head 230

piece

A

flash of

Rob.

22:

white light half-stunned and blinded When he recovered himself the De

mon had

disappeared

TailApiece

245

WHO KNOWS? These things are quite improbable,

to

be

sure; but are they impossible? Our big world rolls over as smoothly as It did centuries ago, without a squeak to

show

needs oiling after all these years of revolution. But times change because men it

change, and because civilization, like John Brown s soul, goes ever marching on.

The

impossibilities of yesterday

become

the accepted facts of to-day.

Here

is

a

wonders

of electricity

dren of

this

generation.

readers shall have

my

story

founded upon the and written for chil

fairy tale

may

Yet when

my

become men and women

not seem to their children

like a fairy tale at all.

Perhaps one, perhaps two eral of the

Demon

s

devices will be,

time, in popular use.

Who

knows?

perhaps sev

by

that

"/#

wonder

wonder

it

began; in and admiration

all philosophy

all ends

;

But the first fills up the interspace. wonder is the offspring of ignorance : the last is the parent of adoration COLERIDGE.

THE MASTER KEY

CHAPTER ONE ROB

S

WORKSHOP

Rob became interested

WHEN

tricity

sidered the

his clear-headed father

son,

motors

s

boy

well as amusing his

in elec

;

con

fancy to be instructive as so he heartily encouraged

and Rob never lacked

or supplies of

any

batteries,

sort that his

ex

periments might require.

He

fitted

up the

little

back room

in the

workshop, and from thence a net-work of wires soon ran throughout the house, Not only had every outside door its

attic as his

I

THE MA S TER KE electric

bell,

1

window was

but every

fitted

with a burglar alarm; moreover no one could cross the threshold of any interior room with out registering the fact in

Rob

s

workshop. electric an fob; a lighted by chime, connected with an erratic clock in the boy s room, woke the servants at all hours

The

gas was

of the night

and caused the cook

to give

rang whenever the postman dropped a letter into the box; there were

warning; a

bell

everywhere, ringing at the right time, the wrong time and all the time. bells, bells, bells

And

there were telephones in the different

rooms, too, through which

up the

different

when they

members

boy

his

father

s

dences of

could

call

of the family just

did not wish to be disturbed.

His mother and the

Rob

sisters

scientific

soon came to vote

craze a nuisance; but

was delighted with these

Rob

insisted that

s skill

as

an

electrician,

evi

and

he be allowed perfect freedom

in carrying out his ideas. "

Electricity,"

said 3

the

old gentleman,

WORKSHOP

S fci

sagely,

is

destined tu

The

future advance

be alon^ O

electrical lines.

of the world.

power

of civilization will

become the motive

Our boy may become

a great inventor and

astonish the world with his wonderful cre ations."

"And

in the meantime," said the "

despairingly,

we

shall all

or the house burned or

we

shall

explosion of "

father.

be electrocuted,

down by crossed wires,

be blown into eternity by an chemicals!"

Nonsense "

mother,

ejaculated

!"

Rob

s

the

proud

storage batteries are

not

powerful enough to electrocute one or set Do give the boy a the house on fire. Belinda."

chance,

pranks are so humiliating," continued the ladv. When the minister "And

his

"

yesterday and

rang the bell a big card appeared on the front door on which was printed the words Busy; Call Again. called

:

Fortunately Helen saw him and let him in, but when I reproved Robert for the act he 3

THE said he

would u

was

ATASTER

KEY

the sign to see

just trying

if

it

work."

The boy

Exactly! I

ready.

shall

an inventor

al

have one of those cards

at

tached to the door of

is

my

private office at

you, Belinda, our son will be

once.

I tell

a great

man one

of these

days,"

said

Mr.

up and down with pom

Joslyn, walking

pous strides and almost bursting with the pride he took in his young hopeful.

Mrs. Joslyn sighed. strance

was

She knew remon

useless so long as her

husband

encouraged the boy, and that she would be wise to bear her cross with fortitude.

Rob

knew

also

would be

no

of

his

mother

s

protests

avail; so he continued

to

revel in electrical processes of all sorts, using

the house as an experimental station to test the powers of his productions. It

was

in his

own room, however,

his

that he especially delighted. workshop For not. only was it the center of all his "

numerous

"

"

lines

"

throughout the house, 4

7?