his throat, and with unction.

"Getting your air-legs, so to speak," he said. "You're learning fast.
But don't look down at the ground, at least not yet. By and by you'll
feel the thrill, which to me is like nothing else on earth--or rather
above it. You've noticed, haven't you, that it's growing colder?"

"Not yet. I suppose the excitement has made my blood flow faster than
usual, and that keeps me warm."

"It won't much longer. We're up pretty high now, and we're flying fast
toward that beautiful country of mine. Can't you feel the wind rushing
like a hurricane past your ears?"

"Yes, I do, and in the last minute or two it's acquired an edge of ice."

"And that edge will soon grow sharper. We're going higher."

John felt the upward swoop of the plane. The sensation that a ship gives
a passenger when it dips after a swell returned, but it quickly passed.
With it went all fear, and instead came a sort of unreasoning
exhilaration, born of a strange new tincture in his blood. His ears were
pounding and his heart had a more rapid beat. He hoped that Lannes would
go yet higher. Yes, his comrade was right. He did feel the wind rushing
past, and heard it, too. It was a pleasant sound, telling of trackless
miles through the ether, falling fast behind them.

Those moments were filled for him with a new kind of exaltation. Despite
the cold heights the blood still flowed, warm, in his veins. The
intangible sky was coming nearer and its dusky blue of the night was
deepening. The great, friendly stars looked down, meeting his upturned
gaze, and still danced before him.

Now, he dared to stare down for the second time, and his heart took a
great leap. Far beneath him, somber and dark, rolled the planet on which
he had once lived. He had left war and the hate of nations behind. Here
was peace, the steady throb of the motor in his ear was soothing music.

"I see that you've got your air-balance, John," said Philip, "you learn
fast. I think that Castelneau and Mery would approve of you. Since
you've learned to look down now with steady eyes take these glasses."

He handed him a pair of powerful glasses that he took from under the
seat, and John, putting them to his eyes turned them downward. It gave
him a strange tingling sensation that he from some unknown point in
space should look at the earth as a distant and foreign planet.

But the effect of the glasses was wonderful. The earth sprang forth in
the moonlight. He saw fo