ong wreaths of
smoke-mingled steam which in a few moments fell away into nothingness. A
blaze of sunlight burst out from above--the earth had vanished--and
there was nothing visible save the sun and sky overhead, and an
apparently illimitable expanse of cloud underneath.

"There's one good thing about airships," said Mr Hingeston, as he took a
quarter turn at the wheel, "you can generally get the sort of climate
and temperature you want in them." He put his finger on a fourth button
and continued: "Now, Mr Lennard, we have so far just pulled her up above
the mist. You'll have one of these ships yourself one day, so I may as
well tell you that the first signal means 'Stand by'; the second, 'Full
power on lifting fans'; the third, 'Stand by after screws'; and the
fourth--just this--"

He pushed the button down as he spoke, and Lennard saw the brilliantly
white surface of the sunlit mist fall away before and behind them. A few
moments later he heard a sort of soft, sighing sound outside the
conning-tower. It rose quickly to a scream, and then deepened into a
roar. Everything seemed lost save the dome of sky and the sun rising
from the eastward. There was nothing else save the silver-grey blur
beneath them. As far as he was concerned for the present, the earth had
ceased to exist for him five minutes ago.

He didn't say anything, because the circumstances in which he found
himself appeared to be more suitable for thinking than talking; he just
stood still, holding on to a hand-grip in the wall of the conning-tower,
and looked at the man who, with a few touches of his fingers, was
hurling this aerial monster through the air at a speed which, as he
could see, would have left the _Ithuriel_ out of sight in a few minutes.

In front of Hingeston as he sat at the steering-wheel were two dials.
One was that of an aneroid which indicated the height. This now
registered four thousand feet. The other was a manometer connected with
the speed-gauge above the conning-tower, and the indicator on this was
hovering between one hundred and fifty and a hundred and sixty.

"Does that really mean we're travelling over a hundred and fifty miles
an hour?" he said.

"Getting on for a hundred and sixty," said Mr Parmenter, taking out his
watch. "You see, according to that last wire I sent, we're due in the
gardens of Buckingham Palace at ten-thirty sharp, and so we have to
hustle a bit."

"Well," replied Lennard, "I must confess that I tho