r own!" and she turned on a switch which
illumined the whole interior of the air-ship with a soft bright
radiance--"Whereabouts are we? Still over the Libyan desert?"

Rivardi consulted the chart which was spread open in his steering-cabin.

"No--I think not. We have passed beyond it. We are over the Sahara.
Just now we can take no observations--the sunset is dying rapidly and
in a few minutes it will be quite dark."

As he spoke he brought the ship to a standstill--it remained absolutely
motionless except for the slight swaying as though touched by wave-like
ripples of air. Morgana went to the window aperture of her silken-lined
"drawing-room" and looked out. All round the great air-ship were the
illimitable spaces of the sky, now of a dense dark violet hue with here
and there a streak of dull red remaining of the glow of the vanished
sun,--below there was only blackness. For the first time a nervous
thrill ran through her frame at the look of this dark chaos--and she
turned quickly back to the table where Rivardi and Gaspard awaited her
before sitting down to their meal. Something quite foreign to her
courageous spirit chilled her blood, but she fought against it, and
seating herself became the charming hostess to her two companions as
they ate and drank, though she took scarcely anything herself. For most
unquestionably there was something uncanny in a meal served under such
strange circumstances, and so far as the two men were concerned it was
only eaten to sustain strength.

"Well, now, have I not been very good?" she asked suddenly of
Rivardi--"Did I not say you should fly with me to the East, and are you
not here? I have not come alone--though that was my wish,--I have even
brought Gaspard who had no great taste for the trip!"

Gaspard moved uneasily.

"That is true, Madama,"--he said--"The art of flying is still in its
infancy, and though in my profession as an engineer I have studied and
worked out many problems, I dare not say I have fathomed all the
mysteries of the air or the influences of atmosphere. I am glad that we
have made this voyage safely so far--but I shall be still more glad
when we return to Sicily!"

Morgana laughed.

"We can do that to-morrow, I dare say!" she said; "If there is nothing
to see in the whole expanse of the desert but dark emptiness"--

"But--what do you expect to see, Madama?" enquired Gaspard, with lively
curiosity.

She laughed again as she met Rivardi's keen glance