g, every eye being strained to watch the
strange aerial visitant till it disappeared. Then a babble of question
and comment began in all languages among the travellers from many
lands, who, though most of them were fairly well accustomed to
aeroplanes, air-ships and aerial navigation as having become part of
modern civilisation, found themselves nonplussed by the absolute
silence and lightning swiftness of this huge bird-shaped thing that had
appeared with extraordinary suddenness in the deep rose glow of the
Egyptian sunset sky. Meanwhile the object of their wonder and
admiration had sped many miles away, and was sailing above a desert
which, from the height it had attained, looked little more than a small
stretch of sand such as children play upon by the sea. Its speed
gradually slackened--and its occupants, Morgana, the Marchese Rivardi
and their expert mechanic, Gaspard, gazed down on the unfolding
panorama below them with close and eager interest. There was nothing
much to see. Every sign of humanity seemed blotted out. The red sky
burning on the little stretch of sand was all.

"How small the world looks from the air!" said Morgana--"It's not worth
half the fuss made about it! And yet--it's such a pretty little God's
toy!"

She smiled,--and in her smiling expressed a lovely sweetness. Rivardi
raised his eyes from his steering gear.

"You are not tired, Madama?" he asked.

"Tired? No, indeed! How can I be tired with so short a journey!"

"Yet we have travelled a thousand miles since we left Sicily this
morning"--said Rivardi--"We have kept up the pace, have we not,
Gaspard?--or rather, the 'White Eagle' has proved its speed?"

Gaspard looked up from his place at the end of the ship.

"About two hundred and fifty to three hundred miles an hour,"--he
said--"One does not realise it in the movement."

"But you realise that the flight is as safe as it is quick?" said
Morgana--"Do you not?"

"Madama, I confess my knowledge is outdistanced by yours,"--replied
Gaspard--"I am baffled by your secret--but I freely admit its power and
success."

"Good! Now let us dine!" said Morgana, opening a leather case such as
is used for provisions in motoring, set plates, glasses, wine and food
on the table--"A cold collation--but we'll have hot coffee to finish.
We could have dined in Cairo, but it would have been a bore! Marchese,
we'll stop here, suspended in mid-air, and the stars shall be our
festal lamps, vying with ou