MD3PAD 739-741

[Toby G Levy]

        From his pack, Dixon's mysterious stranger pulls a small sled
made out of caribou hide and whalebone. He affixes a device to it that
propelled them straight north.

vw#139: Gimbals -  a contrivance, consisting of a ring or base on an
axis, that permits an object, as a ship's compass, mounted in or on it
to tilt freely in any direction, in effect suspending the object so that
it will remain horizontal even when its support is tipped.

        They were so far north that the sun did not set. They did not
make it to the North Pole because before they could reach it the ground
curved inward, and they followed it inside the Earth.

        Mason stuffs his face with food so as not allow himself to
interrupt Dixon's tale.

        Dixon said they travelled further until the ice turned to
tundra. They met with the people who lived there and found that they
could fly. Dixon goes to the local Academy of Sciences where he asks if
this is where the "Gnomes, Elves, smaller folk" come from.  They bow and
say he is correct. They use Tellurick forces to perform what appears to
be magic.  Magnetism is only one of the forces they use. Mason expresses
interest in this.

        Dixon says that they told him that after certain scientific
calculations are completed, they will "seek another space" and vanish.
He said that they pitied the people who lived on the outer surface of
the Earth, because they had to face the great outer darkness and
everyone was slightly pointed away from each other, as opposed to the
inner surface people who leaned slightly toward each other.

        Dixon says that there was not much growing in that country and
the wine was not good.  Mason asks Dixon if he has switched his drink to
wine.  Dixon says that he had to because of gout.

Toby