“No. You said that you would stay with the buckboard. I need you to do that. Plus, if you say something like that, you need to follow through and be a man of your word,” said Father.

“But…” Arthur looked longingly at the museum. “Yes Father, I will stay here and watch over the buckboard.”

“Good, you will stay with the buckboard, I will take Kate and Vicki, and Mr. Binns can take Dawsey and Bertie. Is that acceptable to you Mr. Binns?”

“Yes, that would be excellent. I am sure that we can find something for everybody.”

Everybody got off of the buckboard except Arthur.

“Arthur, I want thee to park the buckboard over there.” Mr. Binns pointed to a gathering of numerous other carriages. “If thee looks in that bag, thee might find something to make up for not being able to pursue Julia.”

Mr. Binns turned around and everybody went up the stairs to enter the museum.

“This building looks fantastic. Just these doors are marvelous,” said Kate.

“It looks like one of our castles,” said Vicki.

“Yes, I imagine that it might.” Mr. Binns opened the doors. “Enter thine castle,” he said with a flourish.

The girls giggled and entered the museum. Everyone else just followed and entered the museum.

Kate looked around and gasped. “This is beautiful!”

“I have never seen anything like it,” said Bertie.

“I am not surprised. This was built for the World’s Fair in 1876. I imagine that there are very few buildings like it anywhere in the world,” said Mr. Binns.

“Do you know what direction we should go Mr. Binns,” said Father.

“No, I do not. It looks like all of the art is on this floor. But I do not think the boys would be much interested in that. Let us ask this person, maybe she can help us,” said Mr. Binns who went up to the coat check desk. “Hello. I am wondering if you can help me find something that these young boys would like to see.”

“Yes, I have just the thing for two young boys. There is a lecture being given by the Keeley Motor Company that started a few minutes ago.”

“The Keeley Motor Company, what is so special about that,” said Dawsey.

“Oh, I think you will like it. Mr. Keeley, the founder, is giving a demonstration of his hydro-pneumatic pulsating vacuo-engine that does not use gas or electricity as it’s power source,” said the coat check lady.

“Then how is it powered,” said Bertie.

“You will just have to go to the lecture and find out,” said the lady with a wink.

“And with a name like that, how can we possibly go wrong? How do we get to the demonstration,” said Mr. Binns.

“You go into the main hall, go into the hall on the right, go to the stairs on the other side of the hall, and when you get to the bottom you will be at the demonstration.”

“Goodbye girls have a fun time with your father looking at all the art. We will be at the lecture and should be back here in about an hour. Meet us here. Then we will leave and go to my house in Springfield,” said Mr. Binns.

With that, two boys started to run off.

“Stop right there! I want thee to stay with me. We will get there in plenty of time to hear the lecture,” said Mr.Binns.

“Yes Papa,” said Dawsey.

“Yes Mr. Binns,” said Bertie.

“Stay with me and while we are going to the lecture, some of this art may just appeal to you.”

The boys and Mr. Binns entered the grand hall. The boys glanced at the art. But they stared at the walls and ceiling. They especially liked the great glass dome that was high above them.

“I have never seen anything like that. It is so grand,” said Bertie.

“That is funny. The dome seems to be much smaller than how I remember it,” said Dawsey.

“That is because the last time thee was here, thee was much younger. Everything would look larger back then. But now, I need thee to turn right and go into this hall. We do not want to arrive too late for the lecture,” said Mr. Binns.

They all turned right and entered that hall. It was only slightly smaller than the first hall, but it did not have a glass dome. So the boys walked quickly to the stairs at the other end of the hall. They bounded down the stairs. Mr. Binns had a hard time keeping up with them.

“Slow down. I do not want to lose thee.” Mr. Binns looked out across the crowd. “Over there, that is the lecture. Let us go over there and find a seat.”

They walked through numerous people who were looking at the art on the wall. The boys did not look at the art. They were focused on getting to the lecture. They arrived at the lecture and in front of them where several rows of chairs and a sign that said:

“Mr. John Keely of The Keely Motor Company.
Demonstration of the Hydro-Pneumatic Pulsating Vacuo-Engine”

Mr. Binns guided the boys to some available seats in the back row. At the front, they could see a man with a mutton chop beard. Next to him were several large devices that were made of shiny brass orbs and tubes. The man was pointing at one of the devices.

“… and this machine, which is attached to the vibratory engine via these tubes, is what I call, The Liberator. It provides the freed and now available, vibrating energy to the engine…”

Photo courtesy of an Unknown author – Jessup & Moore, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20099712