tractor or
radiant engine. There, too, swung far out from the side of the ring on a
framework of steel, was the thermic inductor which had played the
disintegrating Ray upon the Atlas Mountains and the great cannon of Von
Heckmann. The whole affair resembled nothing which he had ever conceived
of either in the air, the earth, or the waters under the earth, the
bizarre invention of a superhuman mind. It seemed as firmly anchored and
as immovable as the Eiffel Tower, and yet Bennie knew that the thing
could lift itself into the air and sail off like a ball of thistledown
before a breeze. He knew that it could do it, for he had seen it with
his own eyes.

A few steps more brought him into the centre of the circle of steel
girders which supported the landing stage. Here the surface of the earth
at his feet had been completely denuded and the underlying rock exposed,
evidently by some artificial action, the downward blast of gas from the
tractor. Even the rock itself had been seared by the discharge; little
furrows worn smooth as if by a mountain torrent radiating in all
directions from the central point. More than anything it reminded Bennie
of the surface of a meteorite, polished and scarred by its rush through
the atmosphere. He paused, filled with a kind of awe. The most wonderful
engine of all time waited his inspection. The great secret was his
alone. The inventor and his associates had been wiped out of existence
in a flash, and the Flying Ring was his by every right of treasure
trove. In the heart of the Labrador wilderness Prof. Benjamin Hooker of
Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave an exultant shout, threw off his coat,
and swarmed up the steel ladder leading to the landing stage.

He had ascended about halfway when a voice echoed among the girders. A
red face was peering down at him over the edge of the platform.

"Hello!" said the face. "I'm all right, I guess."

Bennie gripped tight hold of the ladder, stiff with fear. He thought
first of jumping down, changed his mind, and, shutting his eyes,
continued automatically climbing up the ladder.

Then a hand gripped him under the arm and gave him a lift on to the
level floor of the platform. He steadied himself and opened his eyes.
Before him stood a man in blue overalls, under whose forehead, burned
bright red by the Labrador sun, a pair of blue eyes looked out vaguely.
The man appeared to be waiting for the visitor to make the next move.
"Good morning," said Bennie