ged men and women, while in another they bore a
decided resemblance to birds. Their bodies and limbs were human in
shape, but of slenderer and lighter build; and from the shoulder-blades
and muscles of the back there sprang a second pair of arms arching up
above their heads. Between these and the lower arms, and continued from
them down the side to the ankles, there appeared to be a flexible
membrane covered with a light feathery down, pure white on the inside,
but on the back a brilliant golden yellow, deepening to bronze towards
the edges, round which ran a deep feathery fringe.

The body was covered in front and down the back between the wings with a
sort of divided tunic of a light, silken-looking material, which must
have been clothing, since there were many different colours all more or
less of different hue among them. Below this and attached to the inner
sides of the leg from the knee downward, was another membrane which
reached down to the heels, and it was this which Redgrave somewhat
flippantly alluded to as a tail. Its obvious purpose was to maintain the
longitudinal balance when flying.

In stature the inhabitants of the Love-Star varied from about five feet
six to five feet, but both the taller and the shorter of them were all
of nearly the same size, from which it was easy to conclude that this
difference in stature was on Venus as well as on the Earth, one of the
broad distinctions between the sexes.

They flew round the _Astronef_ with an exquisite ease and grace which
made Zaidie exclaim:

"Now, why weren't we made like that on Earth?"

To which Redgrave, after a look at the barometer, replied:

"Partly, I suppose, because we weren't built that way, and partly
because we don't live in an atmosphere about two and a half times as
dense as ours."

Then several of the winged figures alighted on the mossy covering of the
plain and walked towards the vessel.

"Why, they walk just like us, only much more prettily!" said Zaidie.
"And look what funny little faces they've got! Half bird, half human,
and soft, downy feathers instead of hair. I wonder whether they talk or
sing. I wish you'd open the doors again, Lenox. I'm sure they can't
possibly mean us any harm; they are far too pretty for that. What lovely
soft eyes they have, and what a thousand pities it is we shan't be able
to understand them."

They had left the conning-tower, and both his lordship and Murgatroyd
were throwing open the sliding-d