of the vessel. The vibrating rays within dwindled by slow
degrees--their light became less and less intense--their vibration less
powerful,--till very gradually with a perfectly beautiful motion
expressing absolute grace and lightness the vessel descended towards
the aerodrome it had lately left, and all the men who were waiting for
its return gave a simultaneous shout of astonishment and admiration, as
it sank slowly towards them, folding its wings as it came with the
quiet ease of a nesting-bird flying home. So admirably was the distance
measured between itself and the great shed of its local habitation,
that it glided into place as though it had eyes to see its exact
whereabouts, and came to a standstill within a few seconds of its
arrival. Morgana descended, and her two companions followed. The other
men stood silent, visibly inquisitive yet afraid to express their
curiosity. Morgana's eyes flashed over them all with a bright,
half-laughing tolerance.

"I thank you, my friends!" she said--"You have done well the work I
entrusted you to do under the guidance of the Marchese Rivardi, and you
can now judge for yourselves the result It mystifies you I can see! You
think it is a kind of 'black magic'? Not so!--unless all our modern
science is 'black magic' as well, born of the influence of those evil
spirits who, as we are told in tradition, descended in rebellion from
heaven and lived with the daughters of men! From these strange lovers
sprang a race of giants,--symbolical I think of the birth of the
sciences, which mingle in their composition the active elements of good
and evil. You have built this airship of mine on lines which have never
before been attempted;--you have given it wings which are plumed like
the wings of a bird, not with quills, but with channels many and
minute, to carry the runlets of the 'emanation' from the substance held
in the containers at either end of the vessel,--its easy flight
therefore should not surprise you. Briefly--we have filled a piece of
mechanism with the composition or essence of Life!--that is the only
answer I can give to your enquiring looks!--let it be enough!"

"But, Madama"--ventured Gaspard--"that composition or essence of
Life!--what is it?"

There was an instant's silence. Every man's head craned forward eagerly
to hear the reply. Morgana smiled strangely.

"That," she said--"is MY secret!"

CHAPTER IX

"And now you have attained your object, what is the