There is a constant crossback movement, first with one foot and then with the other.

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).

Perhaps the boys were right in waiting for the snow to glacify, said the Traveller; but we're in for it now, and nothing but bad luck will keep us from sleeping in Italy to-night, he continued reassuringly.

Gaston of Orleans was seated in a fauteuil, wrapped in a loose dressing-gown, everything about him betokening an indolent love of ease.