"The Sound Ray knows no
distance. I shall speak--and you shall hear--whenever you will!"

The last syllables died away like faintly sung music--and in a few more
seconds the great air-ship was sailing steadily in a level line and at
a swift pace onward,--the last shining glimpse of the mysterious City
vanished, and the "White Eagle" soared over a sable blackness of empty
desert, through a dark space besprinkled with stars. Filled with a new
sense of power and gladness, Morgana held the vessel in the guidance of
her slight but strong hands, and it had flown many miles before the
Marchese Rivardi sprang up suddenly from where he had lain lost in
unconsciousness and stared around him amazed and confused.

"A thousand pardons, Madama!" he stammered--"I shall never forgive
myself! I have been asleep!"

CHAPTER XIX

At almost the same moment Gaspard stumbled to his feet.

"Asleep--asleep!" he exclaimed--"_Mon Dieu!_--the shame of it!--the
shame! What pigs are men! To sleep after food and wine, and to leave a
woman alone like this!... the shame!"

Morgana, quietly steering the "White Eagle," smiled.

"Poor Gaspard!" she said--"You could not help it! You were so tired!
And you, Marchese! You were both quite worn out! I was glad to see you
sleeping--there is no shame in it! As I have often told you, I can
manage the ship alone."

But Rivardi was white with anger and self-reproach.

"Gross pigs we are!" he said, hotly--"Gaspard is right! And yet--" here
he passed a hand across his brow and tried to collect his
thoughts--"yes!--surely something unusual must have happened! We heard
bells ringing--"

Morgana watched him closely, her hand on her air-vessel's helm.

"Yes--we all thought we heard bells"--she said--"But that was a noise
in our own brains--the clamour of our own blood brought on by
pressure--we were flying at too great a height and the tension was too
strong--"

Gaspard threw out his hands with a half defiant gesture.

"No, Madama! It could not be so! I swear we never left our own level!
What happened I cannot tell--but I felt that I was struck by a sudden
blow--and I fell without force to recover--"

"Sleep struck you that sudden blow, you poor Gaspard!" said Morgana,
"And you have not slept so long--barely an hour--just long enough for
me to hover a while above this black desert and then turn homeward,--I
want no more of the Sahara!"

Rivardi, smarting under a sense of loss and incompetency,