It is an easy thing to manufacture--at least, so I gathered after reading up the subject at the British Museum; yet I did warn "Balloonist," whoever he might be, to take all necessary precaution against accident.

What more could I have done?
Ten days afterwards a florid-faced lady called at the office, leading by the hand what, she explained, was her son, aged twelve.

The boy's face was unimpressive to a degree positively remarkable.

His mother pushed him forward and took off his hat, and then I perceived the reason for this.
He had no eyebrows whatever, and of his hair nothing remained but a scrubby dust, giving to his head the appearance of a hard-boiled egg, skinned and sprinkled with black pepper.
"That was a handsome lad this time last week, with naturally curly hair," remarked the lady.

She spoke with a rising inflection, suggestive of the beginning of things.
"What has happened to him ?" asked our chief.
"This is what's happened to him," retorted the lady.