These words, I was glad to see, had a soothing effect upon the crowd. Yet I was relieved when at last the boat hove into view, a slender affair as long as the longest river vessel, but not more than twenty-five feet from rail to rail. I did not then give any attention to its details, though I did note how low-lying it was, with but one visible deck, one small cabin and no smokestack or mast. But after it had drawn up to the pier and the gangplank was flung down, I wasted no time about boarding it with my two companions. Benches and chairs were strewn liberally about the deck, sufficient to accommodate the entire crowd; and we had hardly taken seats when the boat commenced to shiver and throb, and we started upstream with the velocity of an express train. So rapidly did we move that in less than an hour we were approaching the head of the Salty River. And during the interval I only once ventured to break the moody solitude of my own thoughts. “When did you find out about all this?” I asked Xanocles, who like the rest of us seemed to be absorbed in bitter reveries. “Last night,” he returned, in an abstracted manner. “I chanced to be in the Hall of Public Enlightenment, and heard the news over the Autophone.” “The Autophone?” I demanded. “Well, naturally, you wouldn’t know what that is,” explained Xanocles. “We get our ordinary news by wireless telegraph, of course, and it is then reported by speakers at the various public meeting places. But the Autophone is more effective, and is used only on rare and important occasions. It operates instantaneously, and consists of a tube and electrical attachment, enabling one to hear a speaker miles away.” “I understand,” said I, for, after all, the Autophone did not impress me as unfamiliar. And with that we lapsed again into silence, a silence shared by all the hundreds of passengers. For now that they had actually embarked upon the voyage, their excitement seemed to have died down to a mood of solemn waiting, a tense and painful waiting all too apparent in the rigid, staring faces of the men and the women’s pale cheeks and frightened eyes. It was with relief that at length I saw the river growing white and agitated ahead of us, and knew that we were not far from the valve where the torrents were hurled in from the sea. Yet I was filled with impatience before we swerved finally into a little side canal and our boat came to a landing before a long granite dock whence a sister ship was just leaving. I need hardly state that I lost no time in stepping across the gangplank, as soon as the crowded state of the deck permitted; and though we were still three or four miles from the glass wall, I was thankful to be able to walk the distance. * * * * *