ors for terrestrial tragic to them, and so carry them to a
convenient starting place. They required a special sort of swift car to
throw them into the air, but such a car was efficient in any open place
clear of high buildings or trees. Human aeronautics, Graham perceived,
were evidently still a long way behind the instinctive gift of the
albatross or the fly-catcher. One great influence that might have
brought the aeropile to a more rapid perfection had been withheld; these
inventions had never been used in warfare. The last great international
struggle had occurred before the usurpation of the Council.

The Flying Stages of London were collected together in an irregular
crescent on the southern side of the river. They formed three groups of
two each and retained the names of ancient suburban hills or villages.
They were named in order, Roehampton, Wimbledon Park, Streatham,
Norwood, Blackheath, and Shooter's Hill. They were uniform structures
rising high above the general roof surfaces. Each was about four
thousand yards long and a thousand broad, and constructed of the
compound of aluminium and iron that had replaced iron in architecture.
Their higher tiers formed an openwork of girders through which lifts
and staircases ascended. The upper surface was a uniform expanse, with
portions--the starting carriers--that could be raised and were then able
to run on very slightly inclined rails to the end of the fabric. Save
for any aeropiles or aeroplanes that were in port these open surfaces
were kept clear for arrivals.

During the adjustment of the aeroplanes it was the custom for passengers
to wait in the system of theatres, restaurants, news-rooms, and places
of pleasure and indulgence of various sorts that interwove with the
prosperous shops below. This portion of London was in consequence
commonly the gayest of all its districts, with something of the
meretricious gaiety of a seaport or city of hotels. And for those who
took a more serious view of aeronautics, the religious quarters had
flung out an attractive colony of devotional chapels, while a host
of brilliant medical establishments competed to supply physical
preparatives for the journey. At various levels through the mass of
chambers and passages beneath these, ran, in addition to the main moving
ways of the city which laced and gathered here, a complex system of
special passages and lifts and slides, for the convenient interchange of
people and luggage betwee