tch of level before them was a ghastly
white, broken only by gigantic masses and moving shapes and lengthy
strips of impenetrable darkness, vast ungainly Titans of shadow. All
about them, huge metallic structures, iron girders, inhumanly vast as it
seemed to him, interlaced, and the edges of wind-wheels, scarcely moving
in the lull, passed in great shining curves steeper and steeper up into a
luminous haze. Wherever the snow-spangled light struck down, beams and
girders, and incessant bands running with a halting, indomitable
resolution, passed upward and downward into the black. And with all that
mighty activity, with an omnipresent sense of motive and design, this
snow-clad desolation of mechanism seemed void of all human presence save
themselves, seemed as trackless and deserted and unfrequented by men as
some inaccessible Alpine snowfield.

"They will be chasing us," cried the leader. "We are scarcely halfway
there yet. Cold as it is we must hide here for a space--at least until it
snows more thickly again."

His teeth chattered in his head.

"Where are the markets?" asked Graham staring out. "Where are all
the people?"

The other made no answer.

"_Look_!" whispered Graham, crouched close, and became very still.

The snow had suddenly become thick again, and sliding with the whirling
eddies out of the black pit of the sky came something, vague and large
and very swift. It came down in a steep curve and swept round, wide wings
extended and a trail of white condensing steam behind it, rose with an
easy swiftness and went gliding up the air, swept horizontally forward in
a wide curve, and vanished again in the steaming specks of snow. And,
through the ribs of its body, Graham saw two little men, very minute and
active, searching the snowy areas about him, as it seemed to him, with
field glasses. For a second they were clear, then hazy through a thick
whirl of snow, then small and distant, and in a minute they were gone.

"_Now_!" cried his companion. "Come!"

He pulled Graham's sleeve, and incontinently the two were running
headlong down the arcade of iron-work beneath the wind-wheels. Graham,
running blindly, collided with his leader, who had turned back on him
suddenly. He found himself within a dozen yards of a black chasm. It
extended as far as he could see right and left. It seemed to cut off
their progress in either direction.

"Do as I do," whispered his guide. He lay down and crawled to the edge,
th