MD3PAD 706-708

[Toby G Levy]

        Chapter 73 begins on page 706. It is the final chapter in part
two, "America."  Wicks imagines what would have happened had the party
continued west, being pursued by the Indians who did not want them to
cross the Great Warrior Path. The axmen leave until only Stig is left.
As autumn begins Mason and Dixon decide to stay where they are for the
winter instead of returning to the east coast.

        They go through Illinois, where they find the French teaching
their skills to Indians. They cross the Mississippi river. They stay in
an Indian village and Mason offends the Indians and they have to flee.
They are out on the prairie and acquire a helper named Vongolli. He is
half French, half Indian and his name is similar to the helpful Gerhart
Von Goll of Gravity's Rainbow.

        They encounter an adventurer who has discovered a buried city in
Mexico and Vongolli gives Mason and Dixon herbs to keep them from being
greatly disturbed by the discovery.

        They travel far enough west where the French and English
influence is completely non-existent, and they find Spanish, Russian and
Chinese influences. They survey straight through towns causing laws to
change on one side of the line, setting some slaves free in the process.

        They meet with a tribe that worships an object in the sky, which
they beg Mason and Dixon to identify.  Through their astrological
measurements they find it is a new planet, Uranus, which was actually
discovered by Herschel in 1781.  They are delighted that they have found
something that will make them so successful they will never need to work
again. They imagine their images being glorified on a medallion fashioned
by the famous artist John Singleton Copely. Dixon asks Mason if he
prefers being on the head or the tail of the coin.

Toby