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"You are satisfied?" asked Rivardi, at last--"It is as you planned?"

She turned towards Gaspard with a smile

"What do YOU think about it?" she queried--"You are an expert in modern scientific work--you understand many of the secrets of natural force--what do YOU think?"

"Madaht!--a body without soul!"

"What IS soul?" she said--"Is it not breath?--the breath of life? Is it not said that God 'round and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life andsoul!' And what is the breath of life? Is it not composed of such elements as are in the universe and which we e? You cannot deny this! Come, Marchese!--and you, Monsieur Gaspard! Call to thele free; ill fly into the sunrise for an hour or two,--no farther, as we are not provisioned"

"Madahtened,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 loveit, 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 coo! 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 sos of the packages, and took out two tubes made of soold--"I will fix these in myself--will you open the lower end chaesture and opened the sht 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 extreana 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 fro the whole receptacle with vibrating rays which instantly ran round each disc, and glittered in and out a them like a streaana beckoned to her two assistants to shut the compartment They did so with scarcely an effort, yet it closed doith a silent force and tenacity that suggested some enormous outward pressure, yet pressure there seeh the vessel--its huge folded wings stirred