ur circle of light."

"I should like to look down from this height at night," said the
Alphian. "It would be a great view."

"What is this?" Johnston went to one side of the platform and laid his
hand on the spokes of a polished metal wheel shaped like the pilot-wheel
of a steamboat. Branasko hastened to him.

"Don't touch it," he warned. "It looks as if it were to turn the
electric connection off and on. If the sun should go out, the
consequences would be awful. The people of Alpha would go mad with
fear."

The American withdrew his hand, and he and Branasko walked back to the
centre of the platform. Johnston uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"The light is changing."

And it was, for it was gradually fading into a purple that was
delightfully soothing to the eye after the painful brightness of a
moment before.

"I understand," said the Alphian, "we are running very slow and are only
now about to approach the great wall, for purple is the color of the
first morning hour."

"But how is the light changed?" asked Johnston curiously.

"By some shifting of glasses through which the rays shine, I presume,"
returned the Alphian; "but the mechanism seems to be concealed in the
walls of the globe."

Not a word was spoken for an hour. They had lain down on the platform
near the iron railing which encompassed it, and Branasko was dozing
intermittently. Again the light began to change gradually. This time it
was gray. Johnston put out his hand to touch Branasko, but the Alphian
was awake. He sat up and nodded smiling. "Wait till the next hour," he
said; "it will be rose-color; that is the most beautiful."

Slowly the hours dragged by till the yellow light showed that it was the
sixth hour. Branasko had been exploring the vast interior below and came
back to Johnston who was asleep on the floor of the platform.

"I have just thought of something," said Branasko. "This is the day
appointed by the king to entertain his subjects with a grand display of
the elements."

"I do not understand," said Johnston.

"The king," explained the Alphian, "darkens the sun with clouds so that
all Alpha is blacker than night, and then he produces great storms in
the sky, and lightning and musical thunder. We may, perhaps, hear the
music, but we cannot witness the storm and electric display on account
of the light about us. It usually begins at this hour; so be silent and
listen."

After a few minutes there was a rumble from below l