t came out as we sat over breakfast, that, with the exception of
Arnott and Pirolo, none of us had ever seen a corpse, or knew in what
manner the spirit passes.

'We're a nice lot to flap about governing the Planet,' De Forest
laughed. 'I confess, now it's all over, that my main fear was I mightn't
be able to pull it off without losing a life.'

'I thought of that too,' said Arnott; 'but there's no death reported,
and I've inquired everywhere. What are we supposed to do with our
passengers? I've fed 'em.'

'We're between two switches,' De Forest drawled. 'If we drop them in any
place that isn't under the Board the natives will make their presence an
excuse for cutting out, same as Illinois did, and forcing the Board to
take over. If we drop them in any place under the Board's control
they'll be killed as soon as our backs are turned.'

'If you say so,' said Pirolo thoughtfully, 'I can guarantee that they
will become extinct in process of time, quite happily. What is their
birth-rate now?'

'Go down and ask 'em,' said De Forest.

'I think they might become nervous and tear me to bits,' the philosopher
of Foggia replied.

'Not really? Well?'

'Open the bilge-doors,' said Takahira with a downward jerk of the thumb.

'Scarcely--after all the trouble we've taken to save 'em,' said De
Forest.

'Try London,' Arnott suggested. 'You could turn Satan himself loose
there, and they'd only ask him to dinner.'

'Good man! You've given me an idea. Vincent! Oh, Vincent!' He threw the
General Communicator open so that we could all hear, and in a few
minutes the chart-room filled with the rich, fruity voice of Leopold
Vincent, who has purveyed all London her choicest amusements for the
last thirty years. We answered with expectant grins, as though we were
actually in the stalls of, say, the Combination on a first night.

'We've picked up something in your line,' De Forest began.

'That's good, dear man. If it's old enough. There's nothing to beat the
old things for business purposes. Have you seen _London, Chatham, and
Dover_ at Earl's Court? No? I thought I missed you there. Immense! I've
had the real steam locomotive engines built from the old designs and the
iron rails cast specially by hand. Cloth cushions in the carriages, too!
Immense! And paper railway tickets. And Polly Milton.'

'Polly Milton back again!' said Arnott rapturously. 'Book me two stalls
for to-morrow night. What's she singing now, bless her?'

'Th