miles, there was a world without an atmosphere. This peculiar condition
was not new to me, for I had seen, during my never-to-be-forgotten
journey, many worlds without gaseous air.

I would not have gone thither had it not been for an unaccountable
desire impelling me. Obedient to my impulse, I soon found myself on this
odd planet which I have named Airess.

I at once observed that the people are formed without nose or lungs. The
nose is substituted by an opening into which liquid air is received and
through which it passes to a bodily reservoir of two lobes in the
vicinity of the heart. When I saw how these people were obliged to fill
their living vessels with this air-supplying liquid, I at once thought
of the manner in which we in our world fill our lamps with oil to
furnish light and heat.

Now it is true that nature supplies this liquid air in reasonable
abundance, and no doubt all the people would have been happy until now
had it not been for the unjust scheming of a few unprincipled men.

The strange story of the air problem on this distant world is so similar
to the food problem of ours that I have time to describe it briefly.

There were certain men in Airess, shrewd above their fellows, who
secretly combined to secure a controlling interest in all the land
producing liquid air.

In course of time these shrewd schemers, who are known as monopolists,
gathered this liquid air into large tanks and warehouses, and put an
exorbitant price upon it. The business flourished greatly because