landed, after which he made his
way to one of the bathrooms, took his bath, and then returned to his
cabin and dressed.

The shock of the ship taking the ground, light though it was, sufficed
to arouse the other sleepers, and half an hour later the male contingent
of the party were assembled in the dining-saloon, taking their early
coffee and biscuit. By glancing from time to time through the saloon
windows, they were able to see that the fog still hung thick about them;
but while they lingered, chatting over their coffee, the professor
suddenly cried out that the mist was clearing, and with one accord they
emptied their cups and made for the deck.

Yes, the fog was certainly thinning away under the influence of the now
risen sun; and in a few minutes it was possible to see with tolerable
distinctness, not only the ground beneath them, but also the clumps of
bush in their immediate neighbourhood, while other and more distant
objects were momentarily stealing into view as the mist-wreaths thinned
away and vanished. A few minutes later the entire landscape lay clearly
revealed before them, sharp and distinct in the crystalline purity of
the early morning light.

And then exclamations of astonishment burst simultaneously from the lips
of four of the five male voyagers; for, as they glanced about them, they
instantly recognised their surroundings, and discovered that von
Schalckenberg, in the blindness of fog that had enveloped him, had
brought the _Flying Fish_ to earth within less than a hundred yards of
the identical spot which she had occupied upon the memorable occasion
when they had first beheld the unicorns. Yes, there was the little
shallow lake amid the tall bordering reeds of which they had ambushed
themselves for the purpose of shooting the game that came down there to
drink at night; there was the streamlet from which they had replenished
their supply of fresh water; they were now in the same open, grassy,
bush-enveloped space that the ship had previously occupied; and over
there, to the left, within a stone's throw, was the precise spot upon
which she had rested; and they doubted not that within five minutes they
could find the actual holes in the soil made by her grip-anchors some
six years or more ago. And there, some two miles away, rose the low,
bare hill upon the crest of which the professor had first seen the troop
of unicorns standing out against the background of pale primrose sky as
they grazed