o invisibility.

Within, the car shewed brutal signs of the sudden check: the doors of
the dining compartments, as he passed along, were flung wide; glasses,
plates, pools of wine and tumbled fruit rolled to and fro on the heaving
floors; one man, sitting helplessly on the ground, rolled vacant,
terrified eyes upon the priest. He glanced in at the door through which
he had come just now, and Father Corkran staggered up from his seat and
came towards him, reeling at the motion underfoot; simultaneously there
was a rush from the opposite door, where a party of Americans had been
dining; and as Percy, beckoning with his head, turned again to go down
to the stern-end of the ship, he found the narrow passage blocked with
the crowd that had run out. A babble of talking and cries made questions
impossible; and Percy, with his chaplain behind him, gripped the
aluminium panelling, and step by step began to make his way in search of
his friends.

Half-way down the passage, as he pushed and struggled, a voice made
itself heard above the din; and in the momentary silence that followed,
again sounded the far-away crying of the volors overhead.

"Seats, gentlemen, seats," roared the voice. "We are moving
immediately."

Then the crowd melted as the conductor came through, red-faced and
determined, and Percy, springing into his wake, found his way clear to
the stern.

The Cardinal seemed none the worse. He had been asleep, he explained,
and saved himself in time from rolling on to the floor; but his old face
twitched as he talked.

"But what is it?" he said. "What is the meaning?"

Father Bechlin related how he had actually seen one of the troop of
volors within five yards of the window; it was crowded with faces, he
said, from stem to stern. Then it had soared suddenly, and vanished in
whorls of mist.

Percy shook his head, saying nothing. He had no explanation.

"They are inquiring, I understand," said Father Bechlin again. "The
conductor was at his instrument just now."

There was nothing to be seen from the windows now. Only, as Percy stared
out, still dazed with the shock, he saw the cruel needle of rock
wavering beneath as if seen through water, and the huge shoulder of snow
swaying softly up and down. It was quieter outside. It appeared that the
flock had passed, only somewhere from an infinite height still sounded a
fitful wailing, as if a lonely bird were wandering, lost in space.

"That is the signalling volor,"