It was just before dawn on the 13th, when the message arrived and a few minutes later the first ‘wave’ was emitted from the _Regina_, telling all the people that the ship would sail five minutes later. Instantly all anchors were released and there commenced such a crush in the air as had never been seen before and, for humanitarian reasons, it is to be hoped will never be seen again. All rules of right of way, passing, and air-plane laws went by the board; some powerfully electrified vessels fused all others that touched them, throwing the weaker vessels out of action and precipitating them on the vessels below, which in turn were rendered impotent by the crushing weight and broken gearing, or by being thrown in sudden contact with others by the shock. Fortunately only two lives were lost in this dreadful crush, but the damage was terrible; all but the most powerfully electrified vessels were scraped clean and smooth as unpainted ships. In four minutes came a message to clear all space above the shed; but so tight was the pack that none could get away laterally, and many of the ships over the shed were already at the highest altitudes to which their engines had power to lift them, so that they were unable to go over the others, and the lower ones, though capable of doing so were equally unable to pass above those wedged higher; but they were soon to see a demonstration of the _Regina’s_ power which made the aërial navigators blanch with fear, seasoned to danger as they were. Punctually to time the roof of the shed slid back, and in the dim twilight there streamed aloft a blinding light. In these days of high-voltage electricity, brilliant lights are common enough, but no one in that vast throng had ever seen so powerful a glare as that which belched upwards from the shed. It lit up the keels of the lower vessels, sending their shadows, black as pitch, for miles into the sky, as it penetrated the higher planes where an opening permitted, blinding everybody with its awful glare. Nothing could be seen as yet of the source of light, which was below, and this gave the shed the semblance of being the opening to the bottomless pit, or as if a damper had been drawn from the flue of some awful subterranean furnace. For a great height above the shed there lay a solid mass of airships in a closely wedged belt. Over this living, throbbing pack, spotted with innumerable lights like diamonds, the stars were paling for the dawn and a faint streak of light showed itself on the eastern horizon. Below the stratum of ships lay the country, fields and trees made blacker by the throng of vessels above. Blackest of all was the enormous shed, the steel-covered walls of which rose up sheer and menacing to a great height, but now this dark and forbidding-looking building was rendered doubly black by the awful glare pouring out of its roof.