into the air.
Mother of God, they were flying! The men in them were flying!

"Rastin and Thicourt took me forward to the great buildings. They spoke
to men there and one brought forward one of the winged cars. Rastin told
me to get in, and though I was terribly afraid, there was too terrible a
fascination that drew me in. Thicourt and Rastin entered after me, and
we sat in seats with the other man. He had before him levers and
buttons, while at the car's front was a great thing like a double-oar or
paddle. A loud roaring came and that double-blade began to whirl so
swiftly that I could not see it. Then the car rolled swiftly forward,
bumping on the ground, and then ceased to bump. I looked down, then
shuddered. The ground was already far beneath! I too, was flying in the
air!

"We swept upward at terrible speed that increased steadily. The thunder
of the car was terrific, and, as the man at the levers changed their
position, we curved around and over downward and upward as though birds.
Rastin tried to explain to me how the car flew, but it was all too
wonderful, and I could not understand. I only knew that a wild thrilling
excitement held me, and that it were worth life and death to fly thus,
if but for once, as I had always dreamed that men might some day do.

"Higher and higher we went. The earth lay far beneath and I saw now that
Paris was indeed a mighty city, its vast mass of buildings stretching
away almost to the horizons below us. A mighty city of the future that
it had been given my eyes to look on!

"There were other winged cars darting to and fro in the air about us,
and they said that many of these were starting or finishing journeys of
hundreds of leagues in the air. Then I cried out as I saw a great shape
coming nearer us in the air. It was many rods in length, tapering to a
point at both ends, a vast ship sailing in the air! There were great
cabins on its lower part and in them we glimpsed people gazing out,
coming and going inside, dancing even! They told me that vast ships of
the air like this sailed to and fro for thousands of leagues with
hundreds inside them.

"The huge vessel of the air passed us and then our winged car began to
descend. It circled smoothly down to the field like a swooping bird,
and, when we landed there, Rastin and Thicourt led me back to the
ground-vehicle. It was late afternoon by then, the sun sinking westward,
and darkness had descended by the time we rolled back into th