quite close together
and yet she appeared to be sitting down. The motor-bus burst into
fragments and its passengers hurtled through the air, mere hideous lumps
that had been men and women. The head of one of them came dancing down
the pavement towards us, a cigar still stuck in the corner of its mouth.

"Yes, this is war," said Oro. "It makes me young again to see it. But
does this city of yours understand?"

We watched a while. A crowd gathered. Policemen ran up, ambulances came.
The place was cleared, and all that was left they carried away. A few
minutes later another man passed by with his arm round the waist of
another girl. Another motor-bus rumbled up, and, avoiding the hole in
the roadway, travelled on, its conductor keeping a keen look-out for
fares.

The street was cleared by the police; the airship continued its course,
spawning bombs in the distance, and vanished. The incident was closed.

"Let us go home," said Oro. "I have seen enough of your great and
wonderful city. I would rest in the quiet of Nyo and think."

The next thing that I remember was the voice of Bastin, saying:

"If you don't mind, Arbuthnot, I wish that you would get up. The
Glittering Lady (he still called her that) is coming here to have a talk
with me which I should prefer to be private. Excuse me for disturbing
you, but you have overslept yourself; indeed, I think it must be nine
o'clock, so far as I can judge by the sun, for my watch is very erratic
now, ever since Bickley tried to clean it."

"I am sorry, my dear fellow," I said sleepily, "but do you know I
thought I was in London--in fact, I could swear that I have been there."

"Then," interrupted Bickley, who had followed Bastin into the hut,
giving me that doubtful glance with which I was now familiar, "I wish to
goodness that you had brought back an evening paper with you."

A night or two later I was again suddenly awakened to feel that Oro was
approaching. He appeared like a ghost in the bright moonlight, greeted
me, and said:

"Tonight, Humphrey, we must make another journey. I would visit the seat
of the war."

"I do not wish to go," I said feebly.

"What you wish does not matter," he replied. "I wish that you should go,
and therefore you must."

"Listen, Oro," I exclaimed. "I do not like this business; it seems
dangerous to me."

"There is no danger if you are obedient, Humphrey."

"I think there is. I do not understand what happens. Do you make use of
wha