“Since the time when the _Regina_ made her first serious voyage to the dog-star Sirius, and brought back the planetoid to the consternation of the whole earth, and then, shooting the planet back into space, sent it within the orbit of Jupiter, she had made many voyages; but you will recall that the secret of the power to overcome gravity and successfully to manipulate the vessel was committed to writing and placed in the _Regina’s_ safe previously to that first long voyage recorded by my ancestor, ages ago. This document was never disturbed, as the details were firmly fixed in the minds of the two inventors, Fraser Burnley and Jervis Meredith, who never divulged the secrets. “These two friends willed their whole interest in the vessel to the survivor of them absolutely, and it is a matter of history how Meredith, my ancestor, became the sole owner. Another long voyage had been arranged—the seventh or eighth since that to Sirius—and both went to the shed where the magnificent silver-like Queen was housed, in order to enter for the voyage. Behind them followed the crew and a number of other people, for the public had been admitted. Fraser Burnley opened the door, and at the moving of a switch the great roof slid aside. Evidently forgetting the current was still on, he impulsively jumped on the ladder and that instant he was annihilated, even before the cry of warning could form itself on Meredith’s lips. “Every one round the great doorway saw him, in the twinkling of an eyelid, de-atomise into vapour and vanish. Not a trace of him was left; he was completely volatilised. “Of course the journey was postponed; later on, Meredith, now the sole owner and the only living person who knew the secret, made another and many subsequent ascents. “As age advanced, he felt unequal to the strain such voyages entailed, falling as it did on him alone—and he would not take any one, even his son, into his confidence—so he decided to make no more journeys until he became a little stronger; therefore he housed the _Regina_ in her shed with all the fittings intact, also placing around it the well-known protective current of de-atomising force. In the hope of wooing health and strength to return to him, he spent his days in quietly studying, with the strange scientific instruments brought from various worlds, the forces of nature on earth and the limitless space beyond. However, instead of growing stronger, as he had anticipated, he became gradually weaker, and less and less able to bear any excitement, but still he would not give in, trying heroically to defy the old age which was slowly and surely drawing him to his long home.