Epworth

“ Billy observed dryly.
“I can’t blame him,” Joan snorted. “I have a hasty mind myself. Suppose we travel.”
They gained the end of the bridge but the pigmies in their rear, regaining their courage, followed. Like wild men they ran to get away but Moawha was too slow and Epworth lifted her in his arms. She was heavy for a pigmy but Epworth managed to keep ahead of his pursuers. Just ahead of them appeared a long line of trees. If they could get into the forest there was a chance of them eluding the little men with their spears. ”

“ Epworth suggested. “And——”
He was interrupted by a rush of crickets that began to swarm around him. But he made no mistake. Finding an opening he ran forward and jumped into the air, and began to work his pedals vigorously.
The glider went forward but did not rise. When he put his feet down to make another start he could not touch ground.
He had jumped off into a bottomless crater, and instead of going up, weighted with Billy, he was going down.
“Julian! Julian!” he heard a faint voice call. “Where are you? We are falling, falling.” ”

“ The copper men and the crickets rushed in a body. Epworth knocked down the leader with the butt of his gun, and Toplinsky, seizing a large cricket by its rear legs, swung the insect around his head, and charged, knocking the copper men and crickets around like marbles.
Queen Carza leaned negligently against the wall, and dropped her chin nonchalantly into the palm of her hand. These men had been reported to her to be great fighters, and she loved fighters. ”

“ Epworth and Moawha saw him wave his hands as if in high spirits. His action cast a damper over Moawha’s spirits, and Joan also was troubled.
“W-w-what would you advise?” Moawha asked of Epworth with much anxiety. “Never before have my soldiers been this far, and it seems to me if the crickets pour out of that hole over our heads, armed as that giant asserts they will be, they can creep upon us when we are asleep, and totally annihilate my forces.”
“It is a serious problem,” Epworth replied thoughtfully. “You say that you have a million fighting men?” ”

“ Where Epworth led, Joan was determined to follow. Would they ever be able to climb out? Would their small, inefficient gliders, the invention of a moment, notwithstanding their propelling power, be able to ascend that dizzy height? True that when they entered, the air was so rare that they had to wear air helmets, and that now they put them aside to find heavier and better breathing; but the space was limited, there was no wind to get beneath the plane and elevate it; the whole mysterious dark world was as still as death, and as creepy as the grave. ”

“ Epworth observed sharply, his mouth twitching angrily. “I wonder if the little fellow can be Billy?”
Joan shuddered. She was thinking of the gallant young aviator flying away into the night to give himself voluntarily into captivity for the sake of the men who employed him—a captivity that at present looked as if it was the most vicious of all tyranny.
“We’ve got to get away, and send help,” she whispered fiercely. “This racket must be cleaned out if it takes the entire United States army.”
“The United States army cannot come into this country. It is foreign soil. ”

“ Epworth, who never went without a pair of binoculars, put the glasses to his eyes, and studied the things she pointed out. The things he saw on top of the crickets were more wonderful than the huge insects.
They were men-shaped humps riding on the back of the crickets. At least their small bodies, legs and arms were shaped like men but their heads were enormous knotty projections with eye openings an inch and a half in diameter.
“Do I see properly?” the young man inquired, handing the glasses to Joan. “Do I see some kind of a man with a metallic-like head?” ”

“ Did they really hanker after the Institute, or had they come for reasons as trivial as his own? He put the question to Martin Luther Shenk.
"Marty, do you reckon these are all here for real Epworth League work, or does the Institute want anybody and everybody?"
Marty had been scouting a little, and he answered: "No, to both questions, I should say. Some have come just to be coming, and others seem to be here for business. But I saw Joe Carbrook just now, and if he is an Epworth Leaguer I am the Prince of Puget Sound. You know how he stands at home. ”

“ That she was offering a prayer to God for her deliverance was obvious, and Billy uncovered his head and stood reverently by her side.
While Epworth was just as thankful he was a man of action. His first observation told him that under the leadership of Toplinsky the crickets and Taunans would walk through the copper mesh with wire cutters very easily. The wire, while strong enough to hurl back the bodies of the crickets, could be readily cut.
“Come,” he urged. “We have little time to lose. We must put your borderland in a condition to stand a siege.” ”

“ KILHAM, ALEXANDER (1762–1798) , founder of the ‘methodist new connexion,’ was born of methodist parents at Epworth, Lincolnshire, on 10 July 1762. As a lad of eighteen he worked at Owston Ferry, Lincolnshire. Returning to Epworth he joined the Methodist Society, during a local revival of methodism, and began to preach in his twenty-first year, his first sermon being at Luddington, Lincolnshire. ”

“ When this movement was completed and Epworth discovered that they had the crickets frightened he sent up more orders in the way of rockets which brought the Selinites in vast numbers charging down the side of the mountain with chloroform guns and spears in their hands.
And it was then that Toplinsky awoke to a bedlam of defeat around him. Everywhere his army was seeking safety; everywhere crickets were chirping wildly, demoralized, frightened; rushing over each other and crushing their pigmy officers. ”

“ They had to be careful of footsteps because of the Lunar attraction.
Like shadows they flitted across the open space, and approached the airship, gaining the sides of the vessel, they thought, without being observed. Here they paused and Epworth placed his hand on the steel ladder-steps, and glanced around. He was startled at the clearness of the light. Men on guard would have had little trouble seeing them come across the open space. He shuddered. It would be easy for Toplinsky to prepare an ambush for him; and as easy for him to keep an eye on the cave. ”

“ In the church of Belton is a fine effigy of a knight in chain armour, an hour-glass-stand on a pillar near the pulpit, as at Leasingham, and a monument to Sir Richard de Belwood. Temple Belwood, in the centre of the island, was a preceptory of the Knights Templars. Epworth is the chief town, and is famous as the birthplace of John Wesley. ”

“ Mrs. Wesley's ninth child was born at Epworth in 1698, but, the parish registers having been destroyed by fire, it is not known whether it was a boy or girl. This child speedily died, and the next addition to the family was a John who was followed the next year by a Benjamin, both of whom died in infancy. ”

“ Joan asked.
“He left orders for the men behind to continue to shoot the rockets filled with chemicals at a certain spot, gradually drawing eastward so as to enlarge the lake.”
“It is light enough here,” Epworth observed, “but I perceive that Toplinsky has landed in a spot where the country is shaded for ten miles by the high mountain on which he left his mirrors. That mountain must be six miles high.”
“Another part of his colonizing scheme,” Michael explained. “He thinks that if men can be protected from the rays of the sun the heat will not be unbearable during the long day.” ”

“ The hood-game was also formerly a favourite diversion at Belton, in the Isle of Axholme; and a paragraph in the Retford News, January 18th, 1895, furnishes an account of the revival of the sport after a lapse of twenty years. The contest, which, like Epworth-hood, is considered to have been originally derived from Haxey, was vigorously carried on, the goals being Churchtown and Westgate, and eventually the hood was carried amid loud cheers to the Wheat-Sheaf Inn in Westgate. ”

“ I have reason to believe you have met with a variety of trials at Epworth, and I have heard you evil spoken of abroad; and, for these reasons, I do assure you I love you the more, and pray the more earnestly for you. You have heard of the fluctuating condition of some acquaintance at Oxford. London friends have much the same esteem for you: ‘You are a good man, but you are too rigid,’ etc. ‘Master, in so saying, thou reproachest us also.’
“But to give you some good news. Mr. Salmon [54] is a sincere friend. [62] Mr. Whitefield is well known to you. ”

“ Poor little Eppie had found her home at last—her old home too. Jake Martin, at his wife's instigation, had handed over to his son the little farm that had once belonged to old Sandy and there Charlie and Eppie were to start their new life. And so just as the stars were sinking into the faint blue vault of heaven, and the earth was rising slowly from its shroud of darkness and sleep, Elizabeth had arisen and was now dressed and waiting for Charles Stuart long before he could be expected. ”

“ In the second half of the 18th century they had been settled near Ashford, Kent, for some generations, claiming descent from an equerry of Charles II., but were reduced in circumstances, when John Epps rose to prosperity as a provision merchant in London, and restored the family fortunes. ”

“ He was Samuel John Epplewhite, an elderly and highly respectable tradesman of the town, closely associated with the reform party in the town council, of which the late mayor had become the acknowledged leader. He was a man of substance and repute, who would not break in without serious reason upon proceedings of the sort then going on. The coroner, following Hawthwaite's glance, nodded to him.
“You wish to make some observation, Mr. Epplewhite?” he inquired.
“Before you adjourn, sir—if you please,” replied Epplewhite. “I should like to make a statement—to give evidence, in fact, sir. ”

“ Should he do so, an old age free from care lay before him; but, if he joined the prince and his plan succeeded, how high he might rise! Terribly momentous was the choice confronting him, the father of many children, and beads of perspiration stood on his brow as, incapable of any coherent thought, he led Ephraim to Kasana's tent, and then hastened to his master. ”

“ For twenty years had he still preserved this jar of wine for some specially happy occasion. This jar and his best lute were the only objects which Euphorion had carried with his own hand from Lochias to his daughter’s house and then again to his own new abode. With an air of dignified pride the singer set the old amphora before his sons, but Doris laid hands upon it at once and said:
“I am glad to bestow the good gift upon you, and would willingly drink a cup of it with you; but a prudent general does not celebrate his triumph before he has won the battle. ”

“ Ackworth to his house, where he has a very pretty house, and a very proper lovely woman to his wife, who both sat with me in my chamber, and they being gone, I went to bed, which was also most neat and fine.
15th. Up and down the yard all the morning and seeing the seamen exercise, which they do already very handsomely. Then to dinner at Mr. Ackworth's, where there also dined with us one Captain Bethell, a friend of the Comptroller's. A good dinner and very handsome. ”

“ Whilst she was gathering the flowers for her mother's coffin his image had almost vanished from her mind. Now he appeared before her in person, and the sight moved her so deeply that Sister Perpetua, who saw her turn pale and cling to the young pine by her side, attributed her altered expression to fear of robber knights, and whispered, "Don't be troubled, child; it is only the Emperor." ”

“ A smile of flattered vanity rested on Ephraim’s lips, and toying with the broad gold bracelet on his arm, perhaps unconsciously, he replied with eagerness:
“Ay, my lord, I have often proved my courage in the hunting field; but at home we have plenty of sheep and cattle, which even now I call my own, and it seems to me a more enviable lot to wander freely and rule the shepherds than to obey the commands of others.”
“Aha!” said the priest. “Perhaps Hosea may instil different and better views. To rule—a lofty ambition for youth. ”

“ Ackworth I went down to Woolwich, and mustered the three East India ships that lie there, believing that there is great-juggling between the Pursers and Clerks of the Cheque in cheating the King of the wages and victuals of men that do not give attendance, and I found very few on board. So to the yard, and there mustered the yard, and found many faults, and discharged several fellows that were absent from their business. ”

“ For further details concerning Hans Eworthe, see Mr. Cust’s paper, already quoted, in the Burlington Magazine, and Mr. W. Barclay Squire’s notes to the portrait of Sir Thomas Wyndham in the Earl of Radnor’s Catalogue. The latter describes all the portraits which so far can be attributed to Eworthe with any degree of certainty.
The present writer ventures to suggest that Eworthe was also the author of a picture included in the inventory of the Duke of Buckingham’s pictures at York House in 1635. The entry is as follows: “Hans Evolls—A little head of Queen Mary.” ”

“ Buckeworth, a very fine gentleman, and proves to be a Huntingdonshire man. Thence to my office and there all the afternoon till night, and so home to settle some accounts of Tangier and other papers. I hear this day the Duke and Prince Rupert are both come back from sea, and neither of them go back again. The latter I much wonder at, but it seems the towne reports so, and I am very glad of it. This morning I did a good piece of work with Sir W. Warren, ending the business of the lotterys, wherein honestly I think I shall get above L100. ”