Rollsborough said nothing, for he, along with the other objectors, had decided to take a neutral stand, and neither help nor hinder anything the owners and their colleagues were pleased to do. But he now debated with himself whether he would not be justified in divulging the real facts of the case, though on further consideration he remembered that if the owners chose to do anything with the ship’s powers, they could do it, and as no one else understood the control of these forces, no good purpose could be served by interfering now. Besides, with the ship elevated, as was the usual custom, no hurt could come to the natives, or district, and every man on board was supposed to be level-headed and ought to know what he was doing. So Rollsborough made no comment, but stood along with many of his companions and the natives, watching the strange glow round the vessel, and thus they continued several hours, during which gloom had fallen, and for the first time within the history of this world there was dense, black night; the only light seen was the ghastly, ghoulish glow round the vessel. The natives insisted on their visitors going back to the ship, so Rollsborough and his friends entered, and with closed doors and the artificial apparatus going, they felt no inconvenience. So refreshing was this after the heat outside, that they persuaded a number of the natives to enter, but they could not breathe the air, which was _only_ air, and incapable of supporting their life, so they had to leave hastily, but would not hear of the visitors coming out of their ship again till the storm, as they thought it, had passed. For even now, though they were so extremely intelligent, they did not associate with it the _Regina_ and the far-away world—never thinking that the world was coming straight at them, like a shot out of a gun, for they knew the changes were really electrical disturbances only, and bad as the effect was on the air, it was their natural atmosphere, and they could endure it better than their visitors; therefore, when they found those in the artificial air were free from trouble, they insisted on their staying in the ship. This consideration made the delinquents feel very guilty, and Godfrey tried to persuade his friends to abandon their project, but they said it was but a temporary inconvenience, and would pass away soon.