The garden-party at Fairoaks had promised well to be spoken of as a red-letter social event. The guests had been royally amused. The presence of the King and Queen had lent a special luster to the occasion and then, too, there was the beautiful Miss Cameron, affording opportunity alike for observation and for gossip. The entertainment, under the direction of Sir Richard Hollowboy, Imperial and Royal Director of Pyrotechnics and Plastics, had been a huge success. Sir Richard had more than sustained his high reputation; upon this occasion he had fairly eclipsed himself. Among the features of Sir Richard’s entertainment were a series of what Sir Richard was pleased to term, “Fifteen-o’clock Fireworks”--this designation being presumably intended to create the impression of fireworks by daylight. The “daylight fireworks,” as a matter of fact, consisted of certain really wonderful smoke effects in the air, representing extremely interesting and well-executed tableaux. One of the most colossal reproductions was attracting the interest of the guests when suddenly something of a most startling nature occurred. From all four points of the compass there appeared, as if coming from the sky itself, a number of strange aërial forms, which massed themselves about the gigantic figure in the air and hovered directly above the grounds of the garden-party. Fantastic forms of varying sizes were these strange apparitions--forms which suggested somewhat the outlines of a ship, or boat; but then--who ever saw a ship, or a boat, floating in mid-air? Someone whispered that they formed part of the entertainment; yet there was something too material, too realistic, about them to warrant this belief. And were not those human forms moving about in them? Outside the gates of Fairoaks, too, strange events were occurring. The two sentries at the gates, stationed there because of the presence of their Majesties, noticed a number of peculiarly constructed mobiles suddenly make their appearance in the highway. These mobiles stopped before the grounds of Fairoaks and the foremost advanced as if to make its way through the gates. There was something suspicious about the general appearance and movements of these mobiles, and one of the sentries promptly challenged. His answer was a sudden flash of rifle barrels, a point-blank volley and, shot through head and breast, the sentry dropped dead in his tracks. His companion, apparently unwounded, hastily dodged behind the high stone wall and, with a ringing shout, gave the alarm to his fellow-guardsmen, comfortably encamped upon one of the wide-stretching lawns a short distance away.