of a tripe-seller."

"Excuse me," said the Third Vice-President. "I am sorry to interrupt
this interesting discussion, but we really ought to be going.
Gentlemen," to the Committee, "our steeds are waiting. To the City of
Towers!"

The journey which now commenced proved to be a very long one. Day after
day the pilgrims plodded through a wilderness of forest and field, over
streams, across mountains, down into deep valleys and up again, camping
at night wherever they happened to find water and wood, and sleeping
under the stars in blankets on beds of boughs. The moon was gone before
their journey was over.

One morning the trail brought them down on a mountain-side to a
well-paved road. This road they followed for some hours, and it brought
them finally to the top of a gentle hill, covered with trees. From the
top of this hill they saw a striking scene.

Stretching away from the foot of the hill lay a great rolling valley, up
which the road ran as straight as a ribbon. Far away, at the end of the
road, against a dark wooded mountain, stood a great city, walled around
with a high wall, and shining in the sun with white and gold domes and
turrets and towers. The rear of the city rose along the lower slope of
the mountain, and on the top of the mountain, concealing its peak, lay
a cloud; black below, and glittering with sunlight at the edges. It hung
there motionless during the time when the watchers sat watching the
scene. Directly under the cloud, on the slope where the farthest portion
of the city lay, was an open space among the buildings, like a great
garden or park, and in the midst of it a vast white building with a flat
roof, great enough for the palace of a king. That which struck the
strangers most, at their first look, was the great number of towers
which rose at all points in the city; surely so many towers had never
been gotten together in one place before; and the most remarkable one of
them was the tower which rose from just behind the great white building
in the park. It was dull in colour, and doubtless of brick; it was round
in shape, tapering gradually upwards. It rose to a height which none of
the strangers would have thought possible, had they not seen it with
their own eyes; it rose straight to the cloud which hung motionless upon
the mountain; it pierced the cloud, and its top was lost to view in the
cloud or above it.

"The City of Towers!" said the Third Vice-President, waving his arm in
that