"You are frightened, my friend!" and Morgana smiled, laying her
little white hand soothingly on his arm--"But if I tell you there is
no cause for fear, will you not believe me? Do you not think I love
my own life? Oh yes, I love it so much that I seek to prolong it,
not risk it by sudden loss. Nor would I risk YOUR life--or HIS!" and
she looked towards Rivardi--"HE is not frightened--he will come with
me wherever I go! Now, Monsieur Gaspard, see! Here is our breath of
life!" And she held up before his eyes the two cylindrically shaped
packages she had previously shown to Rivardi--"The Marchese has
already had some experience of it"--here she unfastened the
wrappings of the packages, and took out two tubes made of some
metallic substance which shone like purest polished gold--"I will
fix these in myself--will you open the lower end chamber first,
please?"

Silently the two men obeyed her gesture and opened the small
compartment fixed at what might be called the hull end of the air-
ship. The interior was seen to be lined with the same round discs
which covered the walls of the vessel, every disc closely touching
its neighbour. With extreme caution and delicacy Morgana set one of
the tubes she held upright in the socket made to receive it, and as
she did this, fine sharp, needle like flashes of light broke from it
in a complete circle, filling the whole receptacle with vibrating
rays which instantly ran round each disc, and glittered in and out
among them like a stream of quicksilver. As soon as this
manifestation occurred, Morgana beckoned to her two assistants to
shut the compartment. They did so with scarcely an effort, yet it
closed down with a silent force and tenacity that suggested some
enormous outward pressure, yet pressure there seemed none. And now a
sudden throbbing movement pulsated through the vessel--its huge