re passing "the line between." All the energetic helpers were
prepared to work all night, delving into the vast suddenly made grave
wherein were tumbled the living with the dead,--and it was verging
towards sunset when one of the priests, chancing to raise his eyes from
the chaos of earth around him to the clear and quiet sky, saw what at
first he took to be a great eagle with outspread wings soaring slowly
above the scene of devastation. It moved with singular lightness and
ease,--now and then appearing to pause as though seeking some spot
whereon to descend,--and after watching it for a minute or two he
called the attention of some of the men around him to its appearance.
They looked up wearily from their gruesome task of excavating the dead.

"That's an air-ship"--said one--"and a big thing, too!"

"An air-ship!" echoed the priest amazedly,--and then was silent, gazing
at the shining expanse of sky through which the bird-shaped vessel made
its leisurely way like the vision of a fairy tale more than any
reality. There was something weirdly terrible in the contrast it made,
moving so tranquilly through clear space in apparent safety, while down
below on the so-called "solid" earth, all nature had been convulsed and
overthrown. The wonderful result of human ingenuity as measured with
the remorseless action of natural forces seemed too startling to be
real to the mind of a Spanish priest who, despite all the evidences of
triumphant materialism, still clung to the Cross and kept his simple,
faithful soul high above the waves that threatened to engulf it.
Turning anew to his melancholy duties, he bent over a dying youth just
lifted from beneath a weight of stones that had crushed him. The boy's
fast glazing eyes were upturned to the sky.

"See the angel coming?" he whispered, thickly--"Never used to believe
in them!--but there's one sure enough! Glory--!" and his utterance
ceased for ever.

The priest crossed his hands upon his breast and said a prayer--then
again looked up to where the air-ship floated in the darkening blue. It
was now directly over the canon,--immediately above the huge rift made
by the earthquake, through which the clamorous rush of water poured.
While he watched it, it suddenly stood still, then dived slowly as
though bent on descending into the very depths of the gully. He could
not forbear uttering an exclamation, which made all the men about him
look in the direction where his own gaze was fixed.