Various

“ I stammered.
"He always does that now," she whispered, "and it frightens me, Mr. Campbell—it frightens me. What does it mean?"
What on earth was I to say? Here was Barton apparently taking the place of his departed ghastly visitor; but how was I to explain this to his wife, who had never heard, and now most certainly must never hear, of her husband's hideous delusion. I was relieved from my difficulty by Barton himself, who now entered the room with the same boisterously cheerful manner that I had noticed before. ”

“ Only a field beyond them ran the Great Northern, and to have caught our anchor in its boundary fence and fallen on the rails, as we assuredly might have done, would have been a far from pleasant or safe proceeding. As it was, the tight wires caught the netting, so that the great silk bag fell over one side while the car remained the other, and although the dying monster struggled hard, aided by the sweeping wind, to rise again, it had not life enough, so fast its vital force was ebbing, to lift us above the obstacle. ”

“ It seems very extraordinary, but if anyone works it out he will see that, if the body had to get on without its two pounds of common lime, there would be no machinery, ships, or railways, no guns and swords, no houses and cities, and human life would entirely consist of crawling out of some hole in the ground at sunrise, chewing berries and leaves, and crawling under the earth again at night. ”

“ Even bulkier, though lighter, is the constituent hydrogen. Every man's body contains sufficient of this lightest of all substances to inflate a balloon that would lift himself, balloon, and tackle. In the ten-stone-ten man, for instance, the bulk of hydrogen is over 2,400 cubic feet—equal to the cubic space of a room ten feet high and 151⁄2 feet square, and the weight of it is a trifle short of 131⁄2 lbs.
Of that inexplicable gas, nitrogen, there is about half an ounce to each pound of body weight, or, approximately, 41⁄2 lbs. ”

“ The Squire remonstrated.
"It's all very well for me, Derwent. I know every inch of the place and every fool living within twenty miles. I was born here. I fit it and it fits me. I was at sea at Oxford, and when I came down I was glad. My father mortgaged most of the land, I've done the rest. I'm not rich. I'm growing poorer every day. Land isn't what it was. But I love the place. There's a whole army of Blakistons in the church, and please God I shall add to their number. I am someone here—I'm nobody away. I like to potter after the hounds on a half-bred. ”

“ After dinner he told many stories to De Courcy, strong stories of a man's life in wild lands, and De Courcy told himself that the Derwent fellow was a very decent chap, and that he had underrated him vastly.
"There was little restraint in those early days in Nevada. A man's friendship was true, and his hatred deadly. Vengeance was swift-footed, and I have seen a man anger another and be laid out cold under the blue sky in the very same day."
"Savage, Derwent, savage!" cried the Squire. "I'm glad that we have laws and constables and magistrates here."
"We are all savage underneath." ”

“ I'll get past those Frenchmen, and deliver my despatches, though the whole French navy were after me. Failure, sir! Not if the Quickmatch and every soul aboard of her goes to the bottom! No, not even then!"
The Admiral smiled at my warmth. Of course, he did not know that my life-long happiness—Bertha, to wit—depended on my getting through with those despatches.
He poured out a glass of champagne, and said, "Don't be too sanguine, Ralph. It's no easy matter, you know, to dodge past such a fleet; but I've great confidence in you, and somehow I think you'll do it. ”

“ In the whole of London, I doubt if you could find a more interesting place to spend an afternoon than the Wellington Street wig shop. And, if you are to any extent a hero worshipper of stage players, it is here you will find them, free, unconventional, Bohemian fellows all, with the strait lace of the footlights gone. ”

“ It is rarely realised what a queer combination of things exists in the human body. When the reader glances at these pages he will wonder whatever matches, candles, balloons, sugar-basins, soap, and all the other things illustrated have to do with the making of a man. At first sight the illustrations seem extraordinarily out of place; but when this article has been read through, he will then understand that the body is more or less of a chandler's shop in the making, for it is intended to show, in everyday language, something of its marvellous construction. ”

“ A moment [pg 386] later they were rapidly casting round on the trail. Then, before you could say "Jack Robinson," there was a deep sonorous bay, more like the roar of the sea-lion echoing in the roof of Brighton Aquarium than anything else I know, but sweet and resonant as the note of a bell. They had found the scent, and were off like streaked lightning. ”

“ The reason it is said to be lifeless is that it hates every other element in the world; and, while oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and the other things, like the Continental Powers, cannot live alone, nitrogen, like England, will not, if it can possibly avoid it, live in company. From this trait arises not only all the action of the human brain and the strength of the muscles, but the terrible force of all the great explosives. While individually without any energy whatever, when it does chance to enter into union with other things nitrogen becomes the most energetic substance in existence. ”

“ Far and away the most important element in flesh and bone is oxygen, and the bulk of that energetic gas which remains tranquilly compressed within us is something marvellous. In a ten-stone-ten man the weight of oxygen is no less than 106 lbs., and the natural bulk of it, if it were set free, would be equal to a beam of wood one foot square and 1,191 feet—nearly a quarter of a mile—long, or several hundred times the bulk of the body itself. ”

“ He looked at her narrowly.
"Who's Jack?" he demanded.
"Jack's—well, Jack. He is the son of the rector. I knew him in London. He's on long leave. Jack!" she called.
Jack found a gap in the hedge—the Squire's hedges had many gaps—and came towards them. Derwent saw that he was good-looking, tall, young, and carried himself with the easy air of a military man. He hated him. It was a new experience; he had never hated men before—he had only disliked them.
"Ah, Daphne!" cried Jack; "I hardly hoped to see you."
"This is Mr. Derwent—Mr. De Courcy. I knew you were coming down yesterday. ”

“ Could he not get rid of it for good and all? Why not drop it over the bridge? No one was in sight. He leant over and looked at the dark waters. Everything was quiet. In an instant, making up his mind, he flung the parcel into the silent river. He heard the splash that followed, and with the sound came an overwhelming sense of guilt.
He turned and hastened homewards, but he had gone only a few yards when, to his consternation, the same policeman confronted him.
"I've been watching you," said the constable.
"Have you?" replied Didcott, vaguely. ”

“ Slowly we moved off, and though we were far from the shore, on the outside right of the fleet, we could hear the hoarse cries which broke wildly from the vast concourse watching us steam away—from home and friends, from love and life, from all that man holds dear, to death and an unknown resting-place. ”

“ Should we venture to even cross one of those brilliant paths of light so vividly flashing all around us, we must inevitably be discovered. Speaking in whispers, hardly daring even to breathe, I cautiously guided the little vessel in and out and to and fro, so as to avoid if possible those argus eyes. ”

“ Sugar in the body is like loose cash in the pocket—it does not stay long; and there seldom is a bowlful of it. But, in some extraordinary way, if the body wishes to be saving, it sometimes converts the sugar into a substance called inosit, which, though sweet, is insoluble in water, and can, therefore, remain a long time in the liver, spleen, lungs, and muscle, being very abundant in the muscle of drunkards.
There are many other compound substances in the body. Alcohol is found in blood, bile, muscle, and brain; gum in the glands that make saliva, and in the lungs ”

“ Nothing could be done in the body without water. It dissolves the food, carries the blood corpuscles, moistens the lining membranes of the mouth, nose, throat, and all the inside of the body, forms a sort of water cushion around the heart, lungs, and organs of the abdomen, cools us by evaporation as sweat, and does many other useful things. And the more water in the body the more vigorous the life. Restless children have more than adults, and the sluggishness of old age is in great measure due to a sort of bodily drought. ”

“ In most of our trials the hounds were put on the trail comparatively soon after the runner had passed over the course, but it must not be forgotten that they are equally successful in working what is termed a "cold scent"—one many hours old. In this respect they surpass all other breeds of hounds.
As I have already said, this power of scent is so subtle as to be almost uncanny. And it is as deep a mystery to those who have devoted a lifetime to hound breeding as to the ignorant layman. ”

“ And by the time we had all scrambled out on to the grass, glad to stretch our limbs and find that none were broken, the whole countryside was alive and rushing up, on foot, on horseback, on bicycles, in carts and carriages, to where the huge balloon lay prostrate in the road, blocking the way and quivering yet in its mortal throes. ”

“ One of the most frightful explosives known is chloride of nitrogen, which goes off if the sun shines on it, or if a leaf touches it; and, in the human body, it is the breaking down of nitrogen compounds which actually constitutes life. ”

“ The grass was high about her feet, reaching, indeed, almost to her knees; her brown hair floated free about her shoulders; and there was such a sweet smile on her lips, and so inviting a glance in her eyes, that I made forward as though to clasp her. ”

“ With calcium and oxygen it forms the exceedingly hard phosphate of calcium that gives the bones their rigidity.
No one appears to be perfectly sure what part it plays in the other tissues of the body. Something very forcible, certainly, for whenever sufficient is not present we grow listless; and nothing tones up the system, in some states of low health, like a course of phosphorus medication. If phosphorus is not precisely, as many people suppose, the element that gives man his intellectual power, it is absolutely essential to a high degree of nervous efficiency. ”

“ De Courcy said. "It blows us strength in the hottest of weather."
"The wind is strong—it will increase." Derwent remarked this with satisfaction.
The Rectory, standing alone, was some little way from the village. It was thatched, and there was much trellis-work over its face, dry and warped with many days' suns. When they reached it Derwent was in the middle of some exciting reminiscence.
"Come in," cried De Courcy, "come in. There's whisky and seltzer, or soda, if you prefer it. You can have a pipe and finish your yarn. It is quite early." ”

“ Barton was lying back in her chair in a sort of stupor, and I was examining the room by the light of one candle—it was now nearly half-past nine—when I heard a sudden outbreak of noise, the bedroom door opened, the key of our door was turned, and the taller of the two brothers looked in.
"The gentleman must come, please," he said, and I hurried out. "He is calling for you," he said, closing the door, "and will not keep still; we can do nothing if he will not keep still." ”

“ Sodium and potassium are equally necessary, and so are sulphur, chlorine, and fluorine.
But the part these take in the processes of life is better seen by observing what combinations they form and what ends these combinations serve. No element exists in the body alone and separate, except, indeed, some accidental traces of oxygen, nitrogen, and a few particles of carbon breathed in by the lungs. They are all present in compounds of extraordinary complexity, mostly put together in the vegetable world, as everyone knows, by some mysterious power of the sun. ”

“ Starch, a most important constituent, goes through strange transformations. When you swallow a potato it is chiefly starch; that is, six atoms of carbon to ten of hydrogen and five of oxygen. In the intestines a little water is added and it becomes sugar, for sugar is merely starch and water joined together. It goes into the blood as sugar, not being able, in fact, to get through as starch, and then it either burns up in the tissues or goes to the liver, where it drops the water and becomes a kind of starch. ”

“ They are only so much carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen mingled in certain proportions and pretty similar to sugar. But they go through curious careers in the body. Most of the fat that one swallows, for instance, meets an alkali in the intestines that has come there specially from the liver and pancreas to make soap.
In the average man some tons of excellent soap are made in a life-time, and at times there must be quite a large cake of soap in the intestines. A quantity of glycerine is also formed as a by-product, just as in a regular soap factory. The body can itself make fat. ”

“ We picked Barton up amongst us, his wife going first to prepare the carriage for his reception, and carried him to the door.
"Stop a minute!" said Barton, suddenly, "let me see the poor fellow who is dead."
"It is right that the gentleman should see him," said the smaller brother, "he saved the gentleman's life." ”

“ Dissolved in the blood it travels to every part of the body on a mission analogous to that of the useful dustman. Wherever it finds a particle of carbonic acid it seizes it, carries it to the lungs, and discharges it into the air. The quantity of washing soda in the blood is really very small, but the work it does is immense.
You cannot perform any action without making a given quantity of poisonous carbonic acid. Every beat of the heart and rise of the chest, even bending the finger or closing the eyes, gives rise to some of this waste product. ”

“ No one who has eaten a cutlet, a sweet-bread, a kidney, a piece of liver, heart, tongue, and tripe, need be reminded how various are the different organs in composition. All this variety, however, the body brings about itself, marvellously [pg 345] selecting from the one raw material, blood, the different substances and the appropriate quantities for each kind of tissue.
Out of the blood the body takes the compounds containing calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and some other things, for the making of the skeleton. ”