er a
supernatural beauty and authority. The "fey" woman was "fey"
indeed!--and the powers with which superstition endows the fairy folk
seemed now to invest her with irresistible influence.

"Choose!" she reiterated.

Without another word he turned to Gaspard, who in equal silence got out
the ropes and pulleys of which she had spoken. The air-ship stopped
dead--suspended immovably over the wild waters and almost hidden in
spray; and though the strange vibration of its multitudinous discs
continued in itself it was fixed as a rock. A smile sweet as sunshine
after storm changed and softened Morgana's features as she saw Rivardi
swing over the vessel's side to the pool below, while Gaspard unwound
the gear by which he would be able to lift and support the drowned
creatures he was bidden to bring.

"That's a true noble!" she exclaimed--"I knew your courage would not
fail! Believe me, no harm shall come to you!"

Inspirited by her words, he flung himself down--and raising the body of
the woman first, was entangled by the wet thick strands of her long
dark hair which, like sea-weed, caught about his feet and hands and
impeded his movements. He had time just to see a face white as marble
under the hair,--then he had enough to do to fasten ropes round the
body and push it upward while Gaspard pulled--both men doubting whether
the weight of it would not alter the balance of the air-ship despite
its extraordinary fixity of position. Morgana, bending over from the
vessel, watched every action,--she showed neither alarm nor impatience
nor anxiety--and when Gaspard said suddenly--

"It is easier than I thought it would be!" she merely smiled as if she
knew. Another few moments and the drowned woman's body was hauled into
the cabin of the ship, where Morgana knelt down beside it. Parting the
heavy masses of dark hair that enshrouded it she looked--and saw what
she had expected to see--the face of Manella Soriso. But it was the
death-mask of a face--strangely beautiful--but awful in its white
rigidity. Morgana bent over it anxiously, but only for a moment,
drawing a small phial from her bosom she forced a few drops of the
liquid it contained between the set lips, and with a tiny syringe
injected the same at the pulseless wrist and throat. While she busied
herself with these restorative measures, the second body,--that of the
man,--was landed almost at her feet--and she found herself gazing in a
sort of blank stupefaction at what