Chapter III.

"What is it, Thorndyke? What are you looking at?" And the American
slowly left the bed and approached his friend.

Thorndyke only held the curtain further back and watched Johnston's face
as he looked through the wide plate-glass window.

"My gracious!" ejaculated the latter as he drew nearer. It was a
wondrous scene. The building in which they were imprisoned stood on a
gentle hill clad in luxuriant, smoothly-cut grass and ornamented with
beautiful flowers and plants; and below lay a splendid city--a city
built on undulating ground with innumerable grand structures of white
marble, with turrets, domes and pinnacles of gold. Wide streets paved
in polished stone and bordered with lush-green grass interspersed with
statues and beds and mounds of strange plants and flowers stretched away
in front of them till they were lost in the dim, misty distance. Parks
filled with pavilions, pleasure-lakes, fountains and tortuous drives and
walks, dotted the landscape in all directions.

Thorndyke's breath had clouded the glass of the window, and he rubbed
it with his handkerchief. As he did so the sash slowly, and without
a particle of sound, slid to one side, disclosing a narrow balcony
outside. It had a graceful balustrade, made of carved red-and-white
mottled marble, and on the end of the balcony facing the city sat a
great gold and silver jug, ten feet high, of rare design. The spout was
formed by the body of a dragon with wings extended; the handle was a
serpent with the extremity of its tail coiled around the neck of the
jug.

The air that came in at the window was fresh and dewy, and laden with
the most entrancing odors. Thorndyke led the way out, treading very
gently at first. Johnston followed him, too much surprised to make any
comment. From this position, their view to the left round the corner of
the building was widened, and new wonders appeared on every hand.

Over the polished stone pavements strange vehicles ran noiselessly, as
if the wheels had cushioned tires, and the streets were crowded with an
active, strangely-clad populace.

"Look at that!" exclaimed the American, and from a street corner they
saw a queer-looking machine, carrying half-a-dozen passengers, rise like
a bird with wings outspread and fly away toward the east. They watched
it till it disappeared in the distance.

"We are indeed in wonderland," said the Englishman; "I can't make head
nor tail of it. We were on an isolated isla