finding misery. Ugh!--wish I had a packet of dynamite to drop amongst
them and make them look up. Hallo!"

The earth had suddenly vanished from our sight.




CHAPTER VI.

IN SPACE.


We had entered the clouds.

For half-an-hour we were muffled in a cold, damp mist, and total
darkness, and had begun to think of going indoors when, all at once, the
car burst into the pure and starlit region of the upper air.

A cry of joyous admiration escaped from us all.

The spectacle before us was indeed sublime.

The sky of a deep dark blue was hung with innumerable stars, which
seemed to float in the limpid ether, and the rolling vapours through
which we had passed were drawn like a sable curtain between us and the
lower world. The stillness was so profound that we could hear the
beating of our own hearts.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed Miss Carmichael, in a solemn whisper, as if