Secrets of the Dragon Tomb Read Online Free

enormous numbers. While I could see the appeal of avoiding arithmetic lessons, I couldn’t quite understand why Papa wanted to spend every free minute poking away at it.
    â€œIt is a calculating machine,” Papa said. “With it, one might solve problems a thousand times faster than if one was forced to carry them out by hand.”
    â€œWouldn’t be hard to be faster than me,” Freddie said. “Never could quite get the hang of my abacus. Beads all over the place. Still, dashed clever of those Greeks to come up with it. Or was it the Romans? Always get them mixed up. Drives my Greek master mad. Or maybe my Latin master.”
    â€œIn fact,” Papa said, ignoring Freddie’s blithering and rooting through the papers around his plate, “I received a letter only today from my old colleague Professor Lane.”
    â€œGood heavens, Hugo,” Mama cried. “No one cares about your blessed letter. Jane was talking to Frederick.”
    How had Papa received his mail? My Thrilling Martian Tales was still missing. Putty shifted nervously on the other side of the table, and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
    â€œYou must remember Professor Lane,” Papa said, entirely missing Mama’s quelling look. “We worked together on the dynamics of dragon paths.”
    â€œI can hardly be expected to remember your friends, Hugo!” Mama said. “They do not exactly”—she sniffed—“move in good society.”
    â€œIn any case,” Papa sailed on, “Professor Lane wondered if my water abacus might help in deciphering the functions of the artifacts from the dragon tombs. There is quite a lot of higher-order mathematics in understanding them, you see.”
    â€œHugo!” Mama snapped. “This is not a proper topic for conversation.”
    â€œBut, my dear, imagine the great leaps of science that might be made if he is right.”
    â€œI shall not! Dragon tombs, indeed! I will not have people ”—she shot a glance at Freddie—“think this family so poorly mannered.”
    â€œOh, Freddie’s not people,” Putty said cheerfully.
    â€œParthenia!” Olivia said, her gaze flicking across to Freddie. “Don’t be so rude!”
    â€œIt’s true enough,” Freddie said. “Most days I’m barely person. Ha-ha.”
    â€œCousin Frederick,” Olivia said, her gaze fixed resolutely on her plate, “you have traveled the dragon paths. What is your opinion as to their origin? Are they a natural phenomenon or a creation of the Ancient Martian civilization?”
    â€œOlivia!” Mama squawked, sounding half strangled.
    The dragon paths stretched through the void between Mars and Earth. Although I’d never ridden one, I’d read plenty about them. Great currents of wind rushed up from the surface of Mars through the void all the way to Earth, then twisted back to Mars again in an unending double spiral. Carefully constructed ships could ride the dragon path winds, swept along by their great sails, carrying people and cargo between the planets.
    So far, only half a dozen dragon paths had been found. The one that connected Oxford, England, to the slopes of Tharsis Mons on Mars had first been discovered in 1602. Within a couple of years, Britain had established its first trading post with the native Martians who lived near the ruins of the Ancient Martian city of Tharsis, and the British colonization of Mars had begun. It was only years later that they discovered that both the Chinese and the Mapuche Indians from Patagonia had already established colonies on Mars.
    Admittedly, most of what I knew about how dragon paths worked I’d picked up in the pages of Thrilling Martian Tales . In one particularly exciting adventure, Captain W. A. Masters had battled the tyrant’s minions as they were swept along a dragon path, exchanging fire.
    Freddie’s gaze darted back and forth between Olivia