he invisible vapor in the air."

"Bedad, that's what they do in our country," said Flathootly, "only
they explode shells of dynamite in the air. Can you tell me," he
added, "have you got tides in the say here?"

"We have never been able to discover what force it is that lifts the
sea so regularly," said the governor. "We call it the breathing of the
ocean."

"Shure any schoolboy knows it's the moon that does it," replied
Flathootly.

"The moon?" queried the governor.

"Why, of coorse it's the moon on the other side of the wurrld that
lifts up the wather both inside and out. Ye're wake in geography not
to know that," said Flathootly.

The governor looked at me for verification of this astonishing story.
"Where is that wonderful moon," he inquired, "that I hear of? Where is
the surface of the earth that slopes away out of sight?" Just then the
bell sounded its message that called the people to rest, and the
banqueting came to an end. We were forthwith shown to the private
apartments allotted to us in the palace.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE JOURNEY TO CALNOGOR.

There was in Kioram a temple dedicated to the god Rakamadeva, or
Sacred Locomotive, which was one of the many gods worshipped by the
Atvatabarese. It belonged to the gods embraced in the category of
"gods of invention," and its motive power was magnicity, the same
force that propelled the flying men. It was a powerful structure built
of solid gold, platinum, terrelium, aquelium, and plutulium, and
alloys of the most precious and heaviest of metals, and was both car
and locomotive, and was hung over a single elevated rail that
supported it, the weight resting on six wheels in front and six
behind, all concealed by the body of the car.

The battery consisted of one hundred cells of terrelium and aquelium
that developed a gigantic force. The six driving wheels at either end
of the car were of immense size, and the tires were hollowed out with
a semi-circular groove that fitted upon the high rounded rail. On this
rail rested the entire weight of the car, which oscillated as it
rushed. The end of each projecting head was inlaid with an enormous
ruby, and the framework of the god was enriched in numerous places
with precious stones. The sacred locomotive had as attendants
twenty-four priests, clad in flowing vestures of orange and aloe-green
silk (the royal colors), arranged in alternate stripes of great width,
typical of a green earth and golden sky.

Roy