faleena buoyant again and holding its own against gravitation; we had refilled the balloon of the awning enough to keep her afloat. Thyriel stopped the engines and let the sails lie lazily out on the same plane as the car, then she fastened a cord to the bow and, having adjusted her wings again, seized the cord and leapt over. I saw her purpose: she was towing the maimed faleena through the air, still at a great height from the earth. We were near enough, however, for me to see as I looked over the danger we had escaped. We had been falling upon a group of pinnacled and serrated rocks that would have gored our vehicle and endangered my life. Moreover, we were still a long way from Fialume. Thanks to the cessation of our music, the attention of the distant aëronauts was drawn to our laboured flight. It was not half an hour before we saw them hastening back to meet us like a swarm of butterflies; and in a few minutes more they were beside us. I watched their evolutions in the air with absorbed delight; and ere I knew what they were about, they each held a cord from the bow of our faleena, and Thyriel was on board with me directing our flight. How loud their chorus sounded now that they were near! They timed the beat of their wings and the straining of their cords to it, and we sped on our downward way even more quickly than before. I did not know till long after how great was the danger out of which I had escaped. Yet I was conscious of my comrade’s courage and that to her I owed much. It brought us closer together in spiritual friendship, and we seemed to feel ourselves singled out of mankind for mutual confidence. CHAPTER VI FIALUME I WAS revelling in the thought of our comradeship and in the exhilaration of the motion through the air, when the chorus began to soften. It sounded far off, like the echo of an echo, and out of the distance rang notes of welcome. Our company burst out of their low tones of pleading into loud triumph and joy. Then came the whispered softness of their former song; answered softly as if from the hollows of the earth. This swelled again into welcome, and the air rang with notes of joy.