light towering toward the
stars. It marked a vertical air-lane that led upward to the horizontal
lanes of flight.

Northbound ships flew between two and four thousand feet; southbound
planes between five and seven thousand feet; those eastbound confined
themselves to the level between nine and eleven thousand feet, while the
westbound flyers monopolized the air between twelve and fourteen
thousand feet.

All planes flying parallel to the earth were careful to avoid those red
beacons which marked ascension routes, and the shafts of green light
down which descending planes dropped to the earth or into lower levels
of travel.

When Dirk's altimeter indicated seventy-five hundred feet he turned the
nose of his ship eastward and adjusted his rheostat until his motors,
fed by wireless current, were revolving at top speed.

The great canyons of Manhattan, linked by arches and highways which
joined and passed through various levels of the stupendous structures of
steelite and quartzite, passed swiftly beneath him; and, after passing
for a few minutes over the deserted surface of Long Island, he completed
his sixty-mile flight and brought his ship to a rest on a landing stage
that was far up on the side of a vast pile that rose up close to the
shore of the Sound.

* * * * *

As soon as he stepped from the door of the cabin he was joined by a girl
who, apparently, had been lingering there, awaiting his arrival.

She was perhaps twenty years old, and she had the golden hair, the light
complexion, and the blue eyes which still were characteristic of the
women of northern Europe.

The slender lines of her exquisite figure and the supple grace which she
displayed when she moved toward Dirk were evidence, however, of the
Latin blood which was in her veins.

For Inga Fragoni, the daughter and heiress of Orlando Fragoni, seemed to
be a culmination of all of the desirable qualities of the women of the
south and those of the north.

The terrace on which Dirk had landed was illuminated by lights which
simulated sunshine, and their soft bright glow revealed the violet hue
of her eyes and the shimmering gloss of her silken hair. She wore a
sleeveless, light blue tunic which was gathered around her waist with a
bejeweled girdle.

On her tiny feet she wore sandals which were spun of webby filaments of
gold and platinum.

"Dirk, I am so glad that you are here!" she exclaimed. "I felt so much
alon