er hour.
No sign of man remained, save, very far below through a rift in the
pale, moonlit waft of cloud, a tiny light against a coal-black plain
of sea--the light of a slow, crawling steamer--a light which almost at
once dropped far behind.

Vast empty spaces on all hands, above, below, engulfed _Nissr_. The
Master felt himself alone with air and sky, with power, with throbbing
dreams and visions.

"If it can be done!" he repeated. "But--there's no 'if' to it, at
all. It _can_ be! It _shall_! The biggest thing ever attempted in this
world! A dream that's never been dreamed, before! And if it can't,
well, a dream like that is far more than worth dying for. A dream that
can come true--by God, that shall come true!"

His hands tightened on the wheel. You would have said he was trying to
infuse some of his own overflowing strength into the mechanism that,
whirling, zooning with power, needed no more. The gleam in his eyes,
there in the dark pilot-house, seemed almost that of a fanatic. His
jaw hardened, his nostrils expanded.

This strange man's face was now wholly other than it had been only a
week before, drawn and lined by ennui. Now vast ambitions dominated
and infused it with virile force.

As he held the speeding air-liner to her predetermined course through
voids of night and mystery, he peered with burning eagerness at the
beckoning stars along the world's far, eastern rim.

"Behold now, Allah!" he cried suddenly. "_Labbayk_![1] I come!"

[Footnote 1: _Labbayk_ (I am here) is the cry of all Mohammedan
pilgrims as they approach the holy city of Mecca.]

CHAPTER X

"I AM THE MASTER'S!"

The arrival of Simonds, with the spare window-pane, and of
Brodeur--one of the boldest flyers out of Saloniki in the last months
of the war--broke in upon the Master's reveries. Only a few minutes
were required to mend the window. During this time, the Master
explained some unusual features of control to the Frenchman, then let
him take charge of _Nissr_.

"She's wonderful," said he, as Brodeur settled himself at the wheel.
"With her almost unlimited power, her impeccable controls and her
automatic stabilizers, I hardly see what could happen to her."

"Fire, of course, _m'sieur_," the ace replied, "always has to be
guarded against."

"Hardly on an all-metal liner. Now, here you see--and here--"

He finished his explanations, and, satisfied that all was safe, passed
into his own cabin. Rrisa, he found, had al