“In weird and awful majesty the _Regina_ rests on her blocks—impregnable, unapproachable, indestructible; and so she can remain so long as this world lasts, aye, to all eternity! Although within sight and touch, nothing has been known to pass the protecting current. The shed has to be kept well secured lest any one should inadvertently enter within this invisible zone, and enter eternity at the same moment.” Here Dennis paused, and Gilbert asked: “What has been done recently—say in your father’s time?” “My father spent all his life in trying to find some switch or other controlling force, without success.” “But there must be some wire or secret switch near the door, or the inventors could not have controlled it,” argued Ross. “And it must have been a very secret switch, or they would not have gone into the shed intending to use it before all the people,” urged Gilbert, “else the vessel would not be safe if the source of its control were known.” “So it was thought,” answered Dennis, “and my father, when I was a youth, gradually took down the whole of the wall, piece by piece, in the hope of finding some wires, but nothing was seen, and I myself have done the same thing with a like result.” “Have you tried the floor?” inquired Ross. “Yes, certainly, that has been up, too,” replied Dennis. “Have you gone deep? Have you tried tunnelling under the vessel?” asked Gilbert. “Yes, and a remarkable thing happened,” said Dennis. “The floor and foundations of the walls can be taken up and have been up many a time. I dug down to a great depth, leaving that portion on which the vessel rests and plenty all round it, so that she should not fall, going so deep that she stood as on a monument. Nothing resulting, I felt desperate and told the men to tunnel underneath and blow the lower rock and earth away from below, so that she should topple over. They blew all the earth away, but she would not come down, nor did she move so much as a hair’s-breadth—her gravity and that of the earth were in equilibrium. There she remained, suspended in air, resting on her blocks, with a foot or so of earth below them, and a pick, or indeed anything else, brought within a foot of the earth below the blocks, or the vessel, over or beneath, was at once rendered vaporous. The whole thing was so uncanny that it was months before I could get the pit filled in and then I had to pay well. So far I have spent the best part of my life over the problem and have failed, so I built up the shed as before, fastened it securely, and I do no more!” “That is a pity!” said Ross, musingly. “Why should I spend all my substance on what cannot be discovered? For years many of the first electricians and scientists of the day have spent thousands on her and all to no purpose; all in turn have had to acknowledge themselves beaten.” “It need not cost you anything, you know, for the Government gives grants for such things,” remarked Gilbert.