shed the current for
their spears.

As each wayleal required ample space for the movement of his or her
wings, it will be seen that each living globe was of immense size, and
the entire army became of enormous proportions as it lay stretched
upon the air. I assumed supreme command as commander-in-chief, with
Flathootly as special aide-de-camp, and gave orders for each globe to
double up its wayleals, so that in each case there would be two
globes, the outer or fighting force and the interior or reserve force.
In the centre of each living shell was placed the commissariat
department and the medical, musical and commanding staffs.

The death of Lyone had been kept a secret. The bands of each army
began to play the "March of Lyone," and at the word of command the
vast-flying mass of armed men moved grandly forward to Calnogor.

CHAPTER LII.

THE BATTLE OF CALNOGOR.

Long ere we reached Calnogor we discovered the royal army already
marshalled to meet us. It lay above the city in globes of wayleals and
bockhockids still more prodigious than ours. It was composed of three
armies, ranged one above the other, and each army being equal in
numbers to our own. Thus, forming a solid parallelogram of amazing
magnificence, the royal army awaited our onset. Its bockhockids,
formed in ten globes of ten thousand in each, and led by
Grasnagallipas, the lord of invention, were the flower of the army,
and occupied a central position, where possibly they would do the
greatest damage to us. High overhead in a chair of state, supported by
twenty wayleals, sat Coltonobory, commander-in-chief of those immense
legions that were ready to do battle for the defeat of the cause of
their late goddess and the honor of their king.

The sight of two such armies of winged gladiators sweeping toward each
other in revolving globes was one of breathless interest. The
approaching fight was a question of life or death to both combatants.
Defeat to Aldemegry Bhoolmakar meant possibly the loss of crown and
kingdom, and our defeat meant the annihilation of the party of reform
and the cause of Lyone. We were eager to begin the fight without
delay.

To obtain greater freedom of action, I led the army up into the region
where there was no gravity. The movement was followed by a similar
movement on the part of the royal armies, who rose like a swarm of
locusts to meet us. The noise of so many wings in motion was like that
of a roaring storm, and fo