HEALTHFUL HOUSE 7.

to confine him in this retreat, where every word that
escaped him unconsciously during his paroxysms was
noted with the utmost care.

Eighteen months previously the Minister of Marine at
Washington had received a request from Thomas Roch for
an audience on the subject of a communication which the
latter wished to make.

Although he was aware of the nature of the communica-
tion and what demands would accompany it, he did not
hesitate, and the audience was immediately granted.

In fact, Thomas Roch was so notorious a personage,
that the interests in his charge forbade the Minister to
hesitate to receive the applicant in order to learn the pro-
positions to be laid before him.

Thomas. Roch was an inventor—an inventor of genius.
Important discoveries had alrcady brought his name before
the world. Thanks to him, problems until then merely
theoretic had received a practical application. His name
was known in science, he occupied a prominent place in
the learned world, and we shall see after what vexations,
what mortifications, what insults even, lavished upon him
by the shallow jesters of the press, he had been driven
into the fit of insanity that led to his detenti¢n at Healthful
House.

His latest invention in engines of war was called the
Roch Fulgurator. This apparatus, if he were to be believed;
was so much superior to all others that the State which
should: secure it would be absolutely sovereign over sea

and land,