gh above the roads beneath. He had
examined the whole vessel just now from stem to stern, and had
found it vaguely familiar; he determined to examine it again
presently. There was no gas-bag to sustain it--so much he had
noticed--though he could not say whence he had the idea that
gas-bags were usual. But it seemed to him as if the notion of
airships did carry some faint association to his mind, although
far less distinct than that of motor-cars and even trains. He had
enquired of his companion an hour or two earlier as they had
discussed their journey as to whether they would not go by train
and steamer, and had received the answer that these were never
used except for very short journeys.

Here, then, he stood and stared.

It was very quiet up here; but he listened with considerable
curiosity to the strange humming sound that filled the air,
rising and falling, as of a beehive. At first he thought it was
the working of engines in the ship; but he presently perceived it
to be the noise of the streets rising from below; and it was then
that he saw for the first time that foot-passengers were almost
entirely absent, and that practically the whole roadway, so far
as he could make out from the high elevation at which he stood,
was occupied by cars of all descriptions going this way and that.
They sounded soft horns as they went, but they bore no lights,
for the streets were as light as day with a radiance that seemed
to fall from beneath the eaves of all the buildings that lined
them. This effect of lighting had a curious result of making the
city look as if it were seen through glass or water--a
beautifully finished, clean picture, moving within itself like
some precise and elaborate mechanism.

He turned round at a touch on his arm.

"You would like to see the start, perhaps," said the old priest.
"We are a little late to-night. The country mails have only just
arrived. But we shall be off directly now. Come this way."

The upper deck, as the two turned inwards, presented an extremely
pleasant and reassuring picture. From stem to stern it ran clear,
set out, however, with groups of tables and chairs clamped to the
floor, at which sat a dozen parties or so, settling themselves
down comfortably. There were no funnels, no bridge, no break at
all to the delightful vista. The whole was lighted by the same
device as were the streets, for round the upper edges of the
transparent walls that held out the wind shone a stea