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It appeared that Malvowley had swooped unexpectedly down upon her as she was walking on a lonely road near Reading, and despite her cries had carried her off. She had retained presence of mind enough to note the sun’s position and rapidly make the mental calculation necessary in order to obtain her lover’s exact direction; she then telepathed, but ere many thoughts had left her brain, her captor had suspected something, and brutally flung her into the bottom of the car.

Having telepathed to allay the natural anxiety of her guardian at Reading, they sped back to Snell’s private house at Bexley. The happy girl smilingly caressed her lover’s hand, and leaning her head against her newly-found father’s shoulder, said brightly —

“Rescued maiden; long-lost daughter. It seems like one of the old-fashioned novels, doesn’t it?”

“Romance is never old-fashioned, my dear; it is for all time.” Said Bowden Snell.

THE GIBRALTAR TUNNEL

Jean Jaubert

The Victorians were great at enormous construction and civil engineering projects. The first underground railway in the world, the Metropolitan Railway in London, was opened in 1863. It ran from Paddington to Farringdon and was the start of the London underground system. These original tunnels were built by the cut-and-cover method. The first deep tunnelling with tunnel shields, which became known as the “Tube”, happened on what is now the Northern Line and was opened in 1890 and it was throughout this decade and the early 1900s that most of the London Underground, as we know it, was completed.

Thoughts of a Channel Tunnel linking England and France had been around since the early 1800s though exploratory work was not started until 1881. Two man-size bores were dug for over a mile on both sides of the Channel before the idea was shelved. There was always a fear that the Tunnel would compromise Britain’s security and usually when the Tunnel was depicted in fiction it was under threat of invasion, such as in How John Bull Lost London (1882) by Edgar Welch or Pro Patria (1900) by Max Pemberton. The present rail tunnel, the second longest in the world, was started in 1988 and opened in 1994.

The idea of a tunnel across the Straits of Gibraltar, linking Europe with Africa, is far less common in fiction. In fact I’m not aware of one earlier than this story by the French engineer Jean Jaubert, published in 1914. In recent years Spain and Morocco have confirmed their plans to construct such a tunnel, and it remains to be seen how prophetic Jaubert was. — M.A.

HALLOA! Halloa! Are you there? Mr. Glencoe? Halloa! I am sorry to have to inform you sir, that it is absolutely impossible to run the train. Yes, I mean the train cannot start. Why? Well, sir, to put it frankly, the tunnel’s not safe. The roof seems to shake at the passing of even the light cars, and at about the tenth mile the roof is dripping water like a rain-storm. My confidential reports of yesterday and the day before warned you as to the state of the tunnel. But, indeed, it is not merely natural moisture. Down there, just now, it was like a thunderstorm. Indeed, sir, I realize perfectly that the opening of the tunnel has already been put off a week. Circumstances have been too strong for us. The reports that have got about are certainly regrettable. But surely we can’t risk a catastrophe to put a stop to them! Yes, yes, yes; I am absolutely convinced there is danger, sir, and very grave danger. What! Afraid? I? Of course, you’re joking. But remember I have warned you!”

Hanging up the receiver with a vicious snap, the engineer of the Gibraltar Tunnel Railway Company, Mr. James Harward, very young, very intelligent, with a great air of decision about him, left the telephone in disgust, “The shares are falling on Change,” he muttered, with a slight shrug, “and so at all costs the run must be made. Well, we shall see what we shall see!”

Banging the door after him, he left his office.

This was at Ceuta in the days when the great Gibraltar Tunnel was only just finished.

After the proved success of