run like streams of fire through every vein I have."

Johnston shook his head mutely, and held the sparkling
effervescing fluid between him and the light.

"Ugh! take it down," cried the Englishman, "it throws a green
color on your face that makes you look like a corpse."
Johnston clinked the glass against that of his companion and they
drained the glasses. "Hush, what was that?" asked Thorndyke.

There was a sound like boiling water outside and as if air were
being pumped out of some receptacle, and the vessel began to move
up and down in a lithe sort of fashion and to bend tortuously
from side to side like a great sluggish fish. Through the
partitions of glass they saw one of the men closing the door, and
in a moment the vessel glided away from the shore. The men all
sank into easy positions on the couches, and delightful music as
soft as an Aeolian lyre seemed to be breathed from the walls
and floor. Then the music seemed to die away and a bell down in
the vessel's hull rang.

"We are in the middle of the lake," said Thorndyke, looking
through the glass toward the black cliffy shore; "the next thing
will be our descent. I wonder----"

But he was unable to proceed, and Johnston noticed in alarm that
his eyes were slightly protruding from their sockets. The air
seemed suddenly to become more com- pact as if compressed, and
the water was set into such violent commotion that it was dashed
against the glass sides in billows as white as snow. Then