He accepted the dismissal with a smile, and as he went back he saw Isma slip away from Alexis’ side with a tell-tale blush on her lovely face, and, giving him a saucy, laughing glance as she passed him, run lightly across the room to Alma’s side. “Well,” she said, reading too swiftly and not very correctly the altered expression of her friend’s face, “have you made friends, then, after all? I thought you would, and--oh, Alma, I _am_ so happy!” “Yes,” replied Alma gravely, though she could not repress a smile at the radiant face that looked up at hers, “we have made friends. But you seem to have done something more than that. Your explanations”-- “There were no explanations at all,” interrupted Isma, rosy red from neck to brow. “When we met in the room he picked me up in his arms before everybody and kissed me--and after that of course there was nothing to be said.” FOOTNOTE: [4] Those readers who may be inclined to think this speed extravagant or impossible are requested to remember that the most recent experiments in aerodynamics have proved that the higher the speed of an aerial machine the less is the power required to support and propel it, or, to quote the words of Professor Langley, of the Smithsonian Institute, “One horse-power will transport a larger weight at twenty miles an hour than at ten, a still larger at forty miles an hour than at twenty, and so on with increasing economy of power with each higher speed up to some remote limit not yet attained in experiment.” Granted therefore the practically illimitable energy of the motive power supposed to be at the command of the Aerians, there is no reason why a ship of the dimensions of the _Avenger_ should not be propelled at the enormous speed mentioned in the text. CHAPTER XXII. THE EVE OF BATTLE. AN irregular procession was now formed, at the head of which walked the two returned exiles, each with his father by his side, and followed by the rest of the company. They passed out of the reception-room, down the wide entrance-hall, and out of the great arched portal which opened on to the square. As they appeared at the top of the spacious flight of marble steps which led from it down to the pavement, a mighty cheer of welcome went up from a hundred thousand throats, the peals of bells in the four towers which rose from the angles of the Council Hall sent forth the signal to all the other belfries of the city, and, amidst the jubilant chorus that instantly burst forth, the scene of the reinvestiture was reached. Then the great bell in the dome tolled out one sonorous warning note, and instantly there was silence on the earth and in the air.