had been something in the look of her eyes and the
soft touch of her lips that of themselves went far beyond words.

"You darling," he was whispering softly to himself as the girl sprang
to her feet and walked swiftly away, the others following.

"An angel, no less--down in this damned place!"

* * * * *

He wondered, as he watched the flickering light far across the room,
what destination they could be bound for. Surely no one so radiantly
beautiful could inhabit a world of endless dungeons like that where
the mole-men lived. But if not that, then what? Where would their next
journey take them? And in what direction would they go?

Again Rawson's thoughts were submerged beneath his own weariness. This
air that beat about him had seemed cool after the terrific heat that
drove in off the Lake of Fire. Now he realized that the air itself was
hot. His one spurt of strength and energy had been expended.

He watched the men disappear into one of the passages, but he roused
himself when they returned. They were clinging to a strange device, a
metal cylinder that floated in air above their heads like a dirigible
on end. It was about eight feet in diameter and some fourteen feet in
height; both upper and lower ends were rounded. A cage of parallel
bars enclosed it from end to end; like springs of steel they extended
from top to bottom where they curved in and were attached to the
rounded ends.

* * * * *

Rawson sat up quickly and stared in startled amazement at the thing
glinting like polished aluminum in the light. And his engineer's mind
responded as much to that smooth finish and the evident workmanship
that had entered into the making of this thing as it did to the object
itself.

The girl placed her light on the floor. She, too, reached up and
gripped a bar of the protecting cage to which the others were holding.
With her added weight and strength they drew it down almost to the
floor. Rawson knew by their efforts that they were dealing with
something actually buoyant, a metal balloon. One of the men, still
putting his weight on the bars, reached in and opened a door in the
smooth shell. He stepped inside, and a moment later the big shell
dropped to the floor and, still vertical, stood on the lower rounded
end of the protecting cage, rocking gently as the hot whirling wind
hit it.

They were communicating among themselves by signs. Rawson saw them