rap of any
sort of mechanism could be seen. There were two exquisitely furnished
saloons--one a kind of boudoir or drawing-room where everything that
money could buy or luxury suggest as needful or ornamental was
collected and arranged with thoughtful selection and perfect taste. A
short passage from these apartments led at one end to some small,
daintily fitted sleeping-rooms beyond,--at the other was the steering
cabin and accommodation for the pilot and observer. The whole interior
was lined with what seemed to be a thick rose-coloured silk of a
singularly smooth and shining quality, but at a sign from Morgana,
Rivardi and Gaspard touched some hidden spring which caused this
interior covering to roll up completely, thus disclosing a strange and
mysterious "installation" beneath. Every inch of wall-space was fitted
with small circular plates of some thin, shining substance, set close
together so that their edges touched, and in the center of each plate
or disc was a tiny white knob resembling the button of an ordinary
electric bell. There seemed to be at least two or three thousand of
these discs--seen all together in a close mass they somewhat resembled
the "suckers" on the tentacles of a giant octopus. Morgana, seating
herself in an easy chair of the richly carpeted "drawing-room" of her
"air palace," studied every line, turn and configuration of this
extraordinary arrangement with a keenly observant and criticising eye.
The Marchese Rivardi and Gaspard watched her expression anxiously.

"You are satisfied?" asked Rivardi, at last--"It is as you planned?"

She turned towards Gaspard with a smile.

"What do YOU think about it?" she queried--"You are an expert in modern
scientific work--you understand many of the secrets of natural
force--what do YOU think?"

"Madama, I think as I have always thought!--a body without soul!"

"What IS soul?" she said--"Is it not breath?--the breath of life? Is it
not said that God 'made man of the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul!' And what
is the breath of life? Is it not composed of such elements as are in
the universe and which we may all discover if we will, and use to our
advantage? You cannot deny this! Come, Marchese!--and you, Monsieur
Gaspard! Call to them below to set this Eagle free; we will fly into
the sunrise for an hour or two,--no farther, as we are not provisioned."

"Madama!" stammered Gaspard--"I