Thick grey smoke, heavy with choking particles and powdery ashes, was spreading everywhere; and from this higher ground, looking back towards the fiery summit of the volcanic hill, they could see cloud after cloud of fire-torn vapour mounting with spiral motion towards the darkened heavens. Wearied though they were, they struggled to their feet, and once more set their faces towards the hill. Linton fully realised that the area of disturbance was far wider than he had at first supposed. Safety, if attainable at all, could only be secured by placing many miles between themselves and the volcanic district. It was no time for weighing small considerations. Silently he decided what to do. They reached the house in which the President had spent and ended the last days of his life. The hall door was wide open; darkness and silence reigned in the interior. The servants, obviously, had fled. Linton shouted, but no answer came. It was clear to him that the engineer of the _Albatross_ was in full flight with the rest. Bidding Zenobia rest a minute in the hall, he opened the glass doors on the inner side and ran down the steps into the garden. There lay the _Albatross_, ready, as he knew, for an immediate aerial journey. His own knowledge of the mechanism of an air-ship, though not complete, was now sufficient, or, at any rate, it must be trusted. The boat was rather smaller than the _Bladud_, and in some respects contained improvements. A swift examination of the machinery satisfied him that the _Albatross_ was fit for flight. Hurrying up the steps he called Zenobia. She came to him obediently and instantly, calmness restored to her, and in her look a ready submission to all that he thought best. "Will you trust yourself to me?" he asked very tenderly, taking her hand. "The boat is ready. I think you will be safe." "I trust you in all things," she answered. "I am ready." He led her down the steps into the garden and helped her to her seat on the stern-bench of the _Albatross_. "You can steer?" he asked. "Yes, if you direct me." "All's ready, then. Keep her before the wind. Now, up and away!" He himself stepped into the boat and immediately switched on the motive power, adjusting the gear to suit the plans he had already formed. The _Albatross_ rose steadily into the air, then, gathering speed in a few rapid circles, began like some huge bird to wing her flight from the dread scene of the catastrophe. Behind them as they sped upon their way arose another violent detonation. Suddenly the clouded air was rent with vivid lightning, and this revealed the falling pinnacles of the Abbey Church. Then, as the thunder crashed above their heads, Linton beheld a vast and fiery chasm open in the labouring hill. Out of its lurid depths the waters of Sul leaped upwards in a mighty column, a fountain, as it were, of liquid fire. Then darkness settled on the scene, and all was still. The End. _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ The Devil's Peepshow.