as he considered that a woman had no business to talk, excepting on

  very rare occasions.

  Although this suggestion was made with the best of motives, the end

  of the author was horrible in the extreme. In spite of his anonymity

  he was traced; it is supposed he was betrayed by some female

  relative. One night when he had just risen to prepare some food for

  his youngest baby, four masked women entered the room, and in a

  stern and terrible voice commanded the wretched fellow to follow

  them. The unhappy male appealed to his wife for protection, but she

  turned a deaf ear to his entreaties. Then, seeing that all hope had

  gone, he kissed his children, said farewell to his miserable wife, and

  pressing his lips firmly together, showed his tormentors how a brave

  male should die. He was taken away, but his fate was never actually

  known, although it was stated as a fact that he was led by his captors

  to a large cavern some distance out of the city and there talked to

  death by two hundred women. This, however, seems so diabolical in

  its fiendish atrocity that it is charitable to suppose, for the honour

  and credit of the female sex, that the statement was really a libel, and

  that some more merciful end was accorded him.

  It would really be a difficult thing here to convey anything like an

  adequate notion of the misery caused by the disorganised state of

  society in Esnesnon. Owing to Flin’s trial all the women seemed to

  go mad, and of course poor, unfortunate man suffered in

  consequence. The matter came before Parliament, and the result was

  one of the stormiest discussions on record. Many of the members

  suggested that, with a view of restoring things to their normal

  condition again, Flin should be banished or kept a close prisoner in

  some stronghold. But this was vigorously opposed by the Princess’s

  party, who were largely in the majority. But it gave rise to no end of

  bitterness and bad feeling.

  Time, however as in every other country served to heal the wounds,

  and after the proverbial nine days Flin ceased to be a wonder, and he

  was enabled to go about without attracting any great amount of

  attention. He availed himself of this opportunity to make himself

  better acquainted with the Esnesnonites and their customs, which

  were curious enough in all conscience.

  But the thing that will strike us as being most singular was the

  manner in which the clothes were cleaned. Cold mutton and

  washing-days are institutions with us; but in Esnesnon such things

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  were unknown. In fields situated outside of the town were large

  furnaces, and into these all the dirty clothes were cast, and after

  being subjected to the flames for fifteen minutes, they were drawn

  out and sent home to the owners perfectly cleansed. Burial was also

  unknown, but in its place inurning was in vogue. The dead body

  was placed in a platinum oven, and then calcined by means of

  currents of electricity. The ashes were afterwards collected and

  placed in a diamond vase. The vase was then hermetically sealed,

  and stood on a gold pedestal in places outside of the town appointed

  for the purpose. The cemeteries, if they may so be called, were

  amongst the prettiest sights of Esnesnon. The rows of crystal vases

  on the pure polished gold shafts, which stood amongst the most

  brilliantly-coloured flowers and graceful trees, produced an effect

  that was exquisite.

  The most precious metal in Esnesnon was tin, and from this all the

  valuable coins were made, as well as articles of personal adornment.

  In the botanical world there were many plants that were said in the

  upper world to be extinct. And amongst these was asterophyllite. In

  the fauna, apart form the menopome, already mentioned, there were

  the anoplotherium and the augustherium. The latter were kept by

  the people as watch-dogs. The labyrinthodon was also found in the

  seas. After seeing one of these gigantic reptiles floating in the water

  one day, Mr Flonatin states that he no longer felt any doubt as to the

  truthfulness of the stories about the “great sea serpents” current in

  the upper world. He expresses a strong conviction that this reptile

  was not extinct as naturalists led us to suppose, but still inhabited

  some of the upper world oceans.

  It was seldom that the Esnesnonsites went to war with other

  countries, for they had reached such perfection in the science of

  artillery and explosives that military manoeuvring was not necessary

  as there were no personal encounters between armies. They had a

  gun which threw a shell sixty miles. And this shell on exploding

  would almost destroy a town. It was loaded with a mineral found in

  the earth which was soaked for a number of days in a powerful acid,

  and then acquired most extraordinary explosive properties. Its

  power was beyond anything that the imagination could picture. A

  few grains when confined were sufficient to shatter a large building.

  They also had another gun which would discharge thousands of

  small round shot every time it was fired. And it could be loaded and

  fired at the rate of forty times a minute, by simply pressing a button

  that set a powerful current of electricity free, the gun being self-

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  feeding, while a third gun was constructed to hurl showers of small

  poisoned arrows. This was a most fearful weapon, as the arrows

  were so small and fired with such terrific force that one would pass

  through the bodies of several persons, and if their points only

  happened to touch the skin death was certain.

  All these weapons were the inventions of women, and all the

  soldiers were women. The

  standing army was very small, just sufficient to keep order in

  Esnesnon. But in the event of war there would be a general

  conscription, when every woman under a hundred would be liable

  for military service.

  War, however, was always a very remote contingency. Woman

  exercised all her ingenuity in inventing these diabolical engines of

  death, but it must be confessed that she didn’t like the smell of

  powder. There was a story extant during Mr Flonatin’s sojourn

  amongst them, that some hundreds of years previous to his arrival

  there had been a battle between the Esnesnonites and a neighbouring

  country. When the contending armies were brought face to face they

  forgot all about their weapons, flew at each other like enraged tigers,

  and pulled each other’s hair out in handfuls. Since then there had

  been no battle, and the military engineers had devoted all their time

  to inventions. The enormous sums that were annually spent in

  carrying out these inventions were one of the reasons of the national

  exchequer being so empty. Poor old King Gubmuh knew this. But he

  was powerless to do anything to stay the dreadful waste. If he

  complained to his ministers they told him that he was not in a

  position to judge, and that it was quite useless to have a Parliament

  if the King was to interfere whenever he like. In fact, on one

  occasion, when the burden of his position weighed upon him more

  heavily than usual, he ventured to enter a very strong protest against

  the tyrannical manner in which he himself was governed, and in

  reply some of the most influential ladies at Court politely hinted that

  if he did not keep quiet they would find it necessary, in the interest

  of that great people, to call upon him to resign on the plea of

  imbecility and allow his daughter to ascend the throne. In fact, Flin

  was not slow to observe that there was a general desire amongst the

  female population for the King to abdicate in favour of his daughter.

  But as this would strengthen woman’s power considerably, Mr

  Flonatin determined to prevent it if possible. He saw that the

  unhappy monarch’s life was a burden to him, and that he sighed for

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  freedom. Ytidrusba, too, grew daily thinner, for since the trial his

  wife led him a most dreadful life. He did not complain much, but it

  needed no very great shrewdness to perceive that he suffered

  terribly. Flin’s good heart bled for him. He saw that woman in her

  rule was merciless. Her hand was iron, and her heart was steel. And

  though in her proper sphere she might be an angel, it was certain

  that out of it she was a devil. Mr Flonatin was a peace-loving man.

  He had ever had a wholesome horror of war, but he felt not that he

  was justified in taking every possible means to bring about a

  revolution and raise man to his original and proper station as a lord

  of creation. But the risks to be run were great. He knew that. He

  knew also that he had a desperate one-handed game to play, and

  that if he lost death and dishonour would be certain. Moreover, a

  well-organised and very extensive conspiracy would be necessary.

  And it was a question whether long years of oppression and

  degradation had not entirely crushed the spirit out of the males and

  turned them into mere machines.

  Flin pondered deeply on these points. And one less bold than he

  might well have been pardoned had he shrunk from such a

  Herculean task. Much as he longed to return to the upper world and

  lay his grand discoveries before the Society to which he belonged, he

  felt that he ought to play the part of a liberator. And yet, as

  discretion was the better part of valour, he also considered in

  necessary that he should devote some time to endeavouring to

  discover if a return to the upper earth was practicable. It was clear

  that he could never go back the way he had come. But his great brain

  was fertile in speculation, and he believed that a way back did exist.

  Some distance from Esnesnon was a mountain, the top of which was

  always obscured by the electrical clouds. Only two or three persons

  had ever reached the top of this mountain, and they returned

  horrified, saying that it opened into a huge cavern that went up and

  up, and they felt sure that it was the entrance into the infernal

  regions. Flin had read an account of these several journeys in a book

  published in Esnesnon, and his curiosity was at once aroused. The

  travellers had all been women, and he felt sure that what woman

  could do he could accomplish without much difficulty,

  notwithstanding the boasted superiority of the Esnesnon women.

  Strong in this belief, he applied to Parliament for permission to start

  upon a journey of discovery and to explore the strange cavern. Such

  a request coming from a male naturally caused a great deal of

  surprise amongst the members.

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  Some of them exclaimed that the audacity of the fellow was

  unpardonable. Others said that he was a conceited little puppy. But

  others again ventured to hint that it wouldn’t be a bad plan to let

  him go. This, of course, led to a row that raged hotly for many

  nights. But Flin was artful, and in a second petition which he

  addressed to the House he took good care to excite that most

  sensitive part of woman’s mental organisation—her curiosity. He

  tickled the members’ fancy with a vivid picture of the wonders that

  might lie concealed in those upper strata, and that if they would but

  give him permission to go he was willing to risk his life for their

  sakes and the sake of science. This argument, of course, told. For the

  truth of the matter is, every woman in Esnesnon was burning with

  curiosity, though they were all lacking in courage, and those who

  had gone up had funked when they had reached the portals of the

  strange cavern, and had hurried back as fast as they could. Thus the

  members allowed their curiosity to overcome their discretion, and

  after a very great deal of talk they gave the necessary sanction for an

  expedition, and also acceded to another request Flin made, that he

  should be accompanied to the top of the mountain by males only.

  But there can be little doubt that in making this concession the

  members that the expedition would not return, but be lost, and

  therefore a few old males wouldn’t be missed. A sum of money was

  also voted to defray the expenses.

  Flin’s joy was great when he found that his application had been

  successful, and the two schemes now engrossed his attention. With

  reference to that of the liberties of his fellows, he was determined to

  take the King and Ytidrusba into his confidence. But his idea about

  returning to the upper world would be kept to himself.

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  CHAPTER XXXII

  It will of course be perfectly understood that the two grand schemes

  which now occupied Flin Flon’s attention were the result of the most

  humane and disinterested motives.

  To take every means possible to return to the upper world was a

  duty he owed to science and his friends, while to attempt the

  liberation of the oppressed, un-sexed, and long- suffering men of

  Esnesnon was a duty demanded in the name of humanity.

  The difficulties that lay in the way of accomplishing this task were

  too apparent to be overlooked. Woman in Esnesnon was lynx-eyed

  —- I am not sure if she is not so in every country —- therefore the

  difficulties were increased manifold on account of this vigilance, and

  the most perfect organisation of any secret society would be required

  which had the liberation of males for its grand object.

  But still Flin was not sufficiently egotistical to think that he himself

  could accomplish this. He saw that the chances of success were

  remote, and if he failed death would be certain if he were captured.

  It was to avoid the latter unpleasant consequences that made him

  desire to find out if there was a practical way to the upper world.

  The story of the huge cavern in the higher regions did not appear to

  him by any means as a “mere traveller’s story.” It was true that the

  discoverers had only been women, and little could be expected from

  them. But still, while making every allowance for exaggeration on

  the part of those over ambitious ladies, he considered there was a

  wide margin left for truth, and that being so he was strong in the

  belief that the cavern reported to exist was really the entrance to a

  gallery that had its outlet somewhere in the upper world. In short, it

  was more than possible that it was the shaft or chimney of an extinct

  volcano that had existed near Esnesnon. If this theory was correct the

  daring adventurer believed it to be quite possible to travel upward

  through the bowels of the earth until he emerged once more on the

  crust. But he was determined to put the feasibility of the plan to a

  practical test, and should he find that it could be done it would offer

  him the means of escape in the event of the conspiracy failing.

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  Having got the sanction of Parliament, as well as a grant for the

  expedition of discovery, he lost no time in preparing his plans. Male

  volunteers were advertised for, and the applications were to be sent

  in to a Government officer especially appointed to select the

  candidates. It may be mentioned, as an evidence of the alacrity with

  which the wretched males jumped at any chance that offered a little

  freedom from woman’s oppression, that in one week no fewer than

  9,067,850 applications had reached the office. Nothing could have

  given more convincing proof of the awful condition of the male

  population than this. Even the Government themselves were

  astounded, and they began to hint that they had made a mistake in

  acceding to Flin’s request. But still their curiosity would not permit

  them to countermand it, and so they selected a dozen of the oldest

  and most useless males, and when these poor fellows received the

  news that their applications had been successful they almost wept

  with joy, while the rejected ones verily wept with grief.

  The members having thus been selected, nothing remained but to

  equip the expedition, and this was speedily done. A number of

  electric lamps and various scientific instruments were provided,

  together with a very large quantity of provisions. Flin was particular

  on the latter point, as he wished to have a reserve store up in the

  mountain in case he found it necessary to make a precipitate flight

  from Esnesnon.

  The Princess Yobmot was by no means pleased with the idea of the

  expedition. She had no scientific ambition what woman has? and

  poohpoohed the thing as ridiculous, and not calculated to be

 

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