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Slowly Morgana began to regain courage By degrees she realised that she was attaining the wish of her heart--naain she questioned the voice-"You tell me I cannot proceed,"--she said--"Why?"
"Because our city is guarded and fortified by the air,"--was the answer--"We are surrounded by a belt of etheric force through which nothing can pass A ainst it would be dashed to pieces We saw you co--ere surprised, for no air-ship has ever ventured so far--we rang the bells of the city to warn you, and stopped your flight"
The warentleness of the voice thrilled her with a sudden sympathy
"That was kind!" she said, and sht so Presently she spoke again-"Then you hold me here a prisoner?"
"No You can return the way you came, quite freely"
"May I not come down and see your city?" "No"
"Why?"
"Because you are not one of us" The Voice hesitated "And because you are not alone"
Morgana glanced at the prostrate and unconscious forms of Rivardi and Gaspard with a touch of pity
"My companions are half dead!" she said
"But not wholly!" was the prouards your city--that has struck them down?" she asked
"Yes"
"Then as I not also struck down?"
"Because you are what you are!" Then--after a silence--"You are Morgana!"
At this every nerve in her body started quivering like harp strings pulled by testing fingers The unseen speaker knew her name!--and uttered it with a soft delicacy thata hand as though to touch the invisible
"How do you know me?" she asked
"As we all know you,"--came the answer--"Even as YOU have known the inside of a sun-ray!"
She listened, amazed--utterly mystified Whoever or whatever it was that spoke knew not only her name, but the trend of her earliest studies and theories The "inside of a sun-ray"! This hat she had only the other day explained to Father Aloysius as being her first experience of real happiness! She tried to set her thoughts in order--to realise her position Here she was, a fragile hun, held fast by atmospheric force above an unknown city situate somewhere in the Great Desert,--and so with her by a method of "wireless" as yet undiscovered by admitted science,--yet co up the suggestion presented to her she said-"You are speaking to lish folk in your city?"