Traces by Stephen Baxter

Author:Stephen Baxter [Baxter, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Alternative histories, Fiction
ISBN: 9780006498148
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1999-01-28T23:17:48+00:00

3—The Patent

So for the next few evenings, after Bill got back from his employment up at the colliery-owners’ folly, Hean Castle, Jimmy worked on the flying machine.

Slowly the machine took shape once more, as Bill laced the cradle and gondola together with his lengths of cable. Jimmy grew fascinated by the machine itself, by the craftsmanship in it, as if it were some kind of sculpture. The surfaces, lovingly fashioned by Frost’s strong hands, were polished so deep that the light off the sea seemed to sink into the curved wood; the joints and pegs were as finely worked as if it were a bit of Chippendale. Whether it flew or not, the machine was certainly a bloody beautiful piece of work, Jimmy thought.

Jimmy saw slowly that the machine—or, more fundamentally, the idea of flying—was a fixed compass-point in Bill’s thoughts. But it wasn’t an obsession. Bill was a chapel elder, and he took one evening a week off from his machine to coach his male-voice choir.

No, he wasn’t obsessed, or mad. Bill Frost simply wanted to fly.

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