ng more for any one to say or do in the
matter.

Arnold, as soon as he had exchanged greetings with the Princess, now
known simply as Anna Ornovski, and his other friends and
acquaintances in the colony, not, of course, forgetting Louis Holt,
at once shut himself up in his laboratory by the turbine, and for the
next four hours remained invisible, preparing a large supply of his
motor gases, and pumping them into the exhausted cylinders of the
_Ithuriel_, and all the others that were available, by means of his
hydraulic machinery.

Soon after four he had finished his task, and come out to take his
part in a ceremony of a very different character to that at which he
had been obliged to assist earlier in the day. This was the
fulfilment of the promise which Radna Michaelis had made to Colston
in the Council-chamber of the house on Clapham Common on the evening
of his departure on the expedition which had so brilliantly proved
the powers of the _Ariel_, and brought such confusion on the enemies
of the Brotherhood.

Almost the first words that Colston had said to Radna when he boarded
the _Avondale_ were--

"Natasha is yonder, safe and sound, and you are mine at last!"

And she had replied very quietly, yet with a thrill in her voice that
told her lover how gladly she accepted her own condition--

"What you have fairly won is yours to take when you will have it.
Besides, you cannot do justice on Kastovitch now, for it has already
been done. We had news before we left England that he had been shot
through the heart by the brother of a girl whom he treated worse than
he treated me."

But, as has been stated before, the laws of the Brotherhood did not
permit of the marriage of any of its members without the direct
sanction of Natas, and therefore it had been necessary to wait until
now.

As Radna and Colston were two of the most trusted and prominent
members of the Inner Circle, it was fitting that their wedding should
be honoured by the presence of the Master in person. An added
solemnity was also given to it by the fact that, in all human
probability, it was the first time since the world began that the
mighty hills which looked down upon Aeria had witnessed the plighting
of the troth of a man and a woman.

Like all other formal acts of the Brotherhood, the ceremony was
simple in the extreme; but, in this case at least, it was none the
less impressive on that account. In a lovely glade, through which a
crystal s