he rails to mark our flight.

We plunged into tunnels of darkness, where the warm air roared with
the echoes of the delirious wheels. The cry of the caverns saluted us
like the shouts of unknown monsters dwelling in the heart of the
mountains.

The sacred locomotive was an element of life, as it shot from the
tunnels and bounded up curving mountain heights through pastures of
delightful flowers. With wheels prevailed upon by the tension of the
invincible fluid, the monster swerved not before the proudest
precipice. It stormed the heights with its audacious tread, flinging
itself on the mountain pass, a marvel of power and intrepidity, and
known as the devourer of distance.

In five hours we had traversed five hundred miles, the distance from
Kioram to Calnogor.

CHAPTER XV.

OUR RECEPTION BY THE KING.

The sacred locomotive swept through a noble archway into a palace
garden, a part of the king's palace in Calnogor. The railway terminal
was a wide marble platform, or causeway, surrounded by a sea of
tropical flowers. The priests had already alighted, and stood in
double file to receive us. Through a sculptured archway a herald
approached us, blowing a trumpet and announcing the coming of his
royal majesty, King Aldemegry Bhoolmakar of Atvatabar.

We alighted, and I had the sailors drawn up in an imposing column on
the platform, every man grasping his sword. Even the remotest walls of
the garden were lined with wayleals, and military music added to the
splendor of the scene.

Presently a stately figure approached us. It was his majesty
accompanied by her majesty, Queen Toplissy. Koshnili whispered that it
was a special honor that the king and queen should greet us even
before we entered the palace. The king was tall and erect in bearing
and his complexion was the color of old gold. His hair, as well as his
closely-trimmed beard and mustache, were of a serpent-green tint. He
wore a dome-shaped crown of gold, surmounted by a blazing ruby. His
dress was a cloth of gold, light as gossamer, that swathed his form
after the manner of our Eastern potentates. His boots of
gold-lacquered leather were covered with emeralds and curiously turned
up at the toes. Queen Toplissy was a handsome lady, rather heavy in
physique, of an orange-yellow complexion, with bright copper-bronze
hair, and her unclad arms wore a profusion of bracelets and armlets of
various metals. Her crown was also of gold surmounted by a blazing