The Master Key

The Master Key
An Electrical Fairy Tale
Founded Upon The Mysteries Of Electricity And The Optimism Of Its
Devotees. It Was Written For Boys, But Others May Read It
by L. Frank Baum

Contents
--Who Knows?--
1. Rob's Workshop
2. The Demon of Electricity
3. The Three Gifts
4. Testing the Instruments
5. The Cannibal Island
6. The Buccaneers
7. The Demon Becomes Angry
8. Rob Acquires New Powers
9. The Second Journey
10. How Rob Served a Mighty King
11. The Man of Science

12. How Rob Saved a Republic
13. Rob Loses His Treasures
14. Turk and Tatar
15. A Battle With Monsters
16. Shipwrecked Mariners
17. The Coast of Oregon
18. A Narrow Escape
19. Rob Makes a Resolution
20. The Unhappy Fate of the Demon

Who Knows?
These things are quite improbable, to be sure; but are they impossible?
Our big world rolls over as smoothly as it did centuries ago, without a
squeak to show it needs oiling after all these years of revolution. But
times change because men change, and because civilization, like John
Brown's soul, goes ever marching on.
The impossibilities of yesterday become the accepted facts of to-day.
Here is a fairy tale founded upon the wonders of electricity and written
for children of this generation. Yet when my readers shall have become
men and women my story may not seem to their children like a fairy
tale at all.
Perhaps one, perhaps two--perhaps several of the Demon's devices will
be, by that time, in popular use.
Who knows?

1. Rob's Workshop
When Rob became interested in electricity his clear-headed father
considered the boy's fancy to be instructive as well as amusing; so he
heartily encouraged his son, and Rob never lacked batteries, motors or
supplies of any sort that his experiments might require.
He fitted up the little back room in the attic as his workshop, and from
thence a net-work of wires soon ran throughout the house. Not only had
every outside door its electric bell, but every window was fitted with a
burglar alarm; moreover no one could cross the threshold of any
interior room without registering the fact in Rob's workshop. The gas
was lighted by an electric fob; a chime, connected with an erratic clock
in the boy's room, woke the servants at all hours of the night and
caused the cook to give warning; a bell rang whenever the postman
dropped a letter into the box; there were bells, bells, bells everywhere,
ringing at the right time, the wrong time and all the time. And there
were telephones in the different rooms, too, through which Rob could
call up the different members of the family just when they did not wish
to be disturbed.
His mother and sisters soon came to vote the boy's scientific craze a
nuisance; but his father was delighted with these evidences of Rob's
skill as an electrician, and insisted that he be allowed perfect freedom
in carrying out his ideas.
"Electricity," said the old gentleman, sagely, "is destined to become the
motive power of the world. The future advance of civilization will be
along electrical lines. Our boy may become a great inventor and
astonish the world with his wonderful creations."
"And in the meantime," said the mother, despairingly, "we shall all be
electrocuted, or the house burned down by crossed wires, or we shall be
blown into eternity by an explosion of chemicals!"
"Nonsense!" ejaculated the proud father. "Rob's storage batteries are

not powerful enough to electrocute one or set the house on fire. Do give
the boy a chance, Belinda."
"And the pranks are so humiliating," continued the lady. "When the
minister called yesterday and rang the bell a big card appeared on the
front door on which was printed the words: 'Busy; Call Again.'
Fortunately Helen saw him and let him in, but when I reproved Robert
for the act he said he was just trying the sign to see if it would work."
"Exactly! The boy is an inventor already. I shall have one of those
cards attached to the door of my private office at once. I tell you,
Belinda, our son will be a great man one of these days," said Mr. Joslyn,
walking up and down with pompous strides and almost bursting with
the pride he took in his young hopeful.
Mrs. Joslyn sighed. She knew remonstrance was useless so long as her
husband encouraged the boy, and that she would be wise to bear her
cross with fortitude.
Rob also knew his mother's protests would be of no avail; so he
continued to revel in electrical processes of all sorts, using the house as
an experimental station to test the powers of his productions.
It was in his own room, however,--his "workshop"--that he especially