The Secret Power

"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?"

"Madama, I think as I have always thought!--a body without soul!"

"What IS soul?" she said--"Is it not breath?--the breath of life? Is it not said that God 'made man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul!' And what is the breath of life? Is it not composed of such elements as are in the universe and which we may all discover if we will, and use to our advantage? You cannot deny this! Come, Marchese!--and you, Monsieur Gaspard! Call to them below to set this Eagle free; we will fly into the sunrise for an hour or two,--no farther, as we are not provisioned."

"Madama!" stammered Gaspard--"I am not prepared--"

"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 folded wings stirred.