Northwood peeped out the thick glass porthole. Far below, he saw two
tiny streaks of light, one smooth and stationery, the other wavering as
though it were a reflection in water.

"That can't be a lighthouse!" he cried.

The scientist glanced out. "It is. We're approaching the Florida Keys."

"Impossible! We've been traveling less than an hour."

"But, my young friend, do you realize that my sun-ship has a speed of
over one thousand miles an hour, how much over I dare not tell you?"

Throughout the night, Northwood sat beside Dr. Mundson, watching his
deft fingers control the simple-looking buttons and levers. So fast was
their flight now that, through the portholes, sky and earth looked the
same: dark gray films of emptiness. The continuous weird whistle from
the hidden mechanism of the sun-ship was like the drone of a monster
insect, monotonous and soporific during the long intervals when the
scientist was too busy with his controls to engage in conversation.

For some reason that he could not explain, Northwood had an aversion to
going into the sleeping apartment behind the control room. Then, towards
morning, when the suddenly falling temperature struck a biting chill
throughout the sun-ship, Northwood, going into the cabin for fur coats,
discovered why his mind and body shrank in horror from the cabin.

* * * * *

After he had procured the fur coats from a closet, he paused a moment,
in the privacy of the cabin, to look at Athalia's picture. Every nerve
in his body leaped to meet the magnetism of her beautiful eyes. Never
had Mary Burns stirred emotion like this in him. He hung over Mary's
picture, wistfully, hoping almost prayerfully that he could react to her
as he did to Athalia; but her pale, over-intellectual face left him
cold.

"Cad!" he ground out between his teeth. "Forgetting her so soon!"

The two pictures were lying side by side on a little table. Suddenly an
obscure noise in the room caught his attention. It was more vibration
than noise, for small sounds could scarcely be heard above the whistle
of the sun-ship. A slight compression of the air against his neck gave
him the eery feeling that someone was standing close behind him. He
wheeled and looked over his shoulder. Half ashamed of his startled
gesture, he again turned to his pictures. Then a sharp cry broke from
him.

Athalia's picture was gone.

He searched for it everywhere in the room, in his own poc