Up and up and up we sailed, way up at first, to get "the lay of the
land" and make note of it.

Out of that dark green sea of crowding forest this high-standing spur
rose steeply. It ran back on either side, apparently, to the far-off
white-crowned peaks in the distance, themselves probably inaccessible.

"Let's make the first trip geographical," I suggested. "Spy out the
land, and drop back here for more gasoline. With your tremendous speed
we can reach that range and back all right. Then we can leave a sort of
map on board--for that relief expedition."

"There's sense in that," Terry agreed. "I'll put off being king of
Ladyland for one more day."

So we made a long skirting voyage, turned the point of the cape which
was close by, ran up one side of the triangle at our best speed, crossed
over the base where it left the higher mountains, and so back to our
lake by moonlight.

"That's not a bad little kingdom," we agreed when it was roughly drawn
and measured. We could tell the size fairly by our speed. And from what
we could see of the sides--and that icy ridge at the back end--"It's a
pretty enterprising savage who would manage to get into it," Jeff said.

Of course we had looked at the land itself--eagerly, but we were too
high and going too fast to see much. It appeared to be well forested
about the edges, but in the interior there were wide plains, and
everywhere parklike meadows and open places.

There were cities, too; that I insisted. It looked--well, it looked like
any other country--a civilized one, I mean.

We had to sleep after that long sweep through the air, but we turned out
early enough next day, and again we rose softly up the height till
we could top the crowning trees and see the broad fair land at our
pleasure.

"Semitropical. Looks like a first-rate climate. It's wonderful what a
little height will do for temperature." Terry was studying the forest
growth.

"Little height! Is that what you call little?" I asked. Our instruments
measured it clearly. We had not realized the long gentle rise from the
coast perhaps.

"Mighty lucky piece of land, I call it," Terry pursued. "Now for the
folks--I've had enough scenery."

So we sailed low, crossing back and forth, quartering the country as we
went, and studying it. We saw--I can't remember now how much of this we
noted then and how much was supplemented by our later knowledge, but we
could not help seeing this much, even on that excited day-