with a big aerial screw behind, and on the other the
nimbler aeropile. The aeroplanes flew safely only in a

calm or moderate wind, and sudden storms, occurrences
that were now accurately predictable, rendered

them for all practical purposes useless. They were
built of enormous size--the usual stretch of wing

being six hundred feet or more, and the length of the
fabric a thousand feet. They were for passenger

traffic alone. The lightly swung car they carried was
from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet in length.

It Was hung in a peculiar manner in order to minimise
the complexvibration that even a moderate wind produced,

and for the same reason the little seats within
the car--each passenger remained seated during the

voyage--were slung with great freedom of movement.
The starting of the mechanism was only possible

from a gigantic car on the rail of a specially
constructed stage. Graham had seen these vast stages,

the flying stages, from the crow's nest very well. Six
huge blank areas they were, with a giant "carrier"

stage on each.
The choice of descent was equally circumscribed, an

accurately plane surface being needed for safe grounding.
Apart from the destruction that would have been

caused by the descent of this great expanse of sail and
metal, and the impossibility of its rising again, the

concussion of an irregular surface, a tree-set hillside, for
instance, or an embankment, would be sufficient to

pierce or damage the framework, to smash the ribs of
the body, and perhaps kill those aboard.

At first Graham felt disappointed with these cumbersome
contrivances, but he speedily grasped the fact

that smaller machines would have been unremunerative,
for the simple reason that their carrying power

would be disproportionately diminished with deminished
size. Moreover, the huge size of these things

enabled them--and it was a consideration of primary
importance--to traverse the air at enormous speeds,

and so run no risks of unanticipated weather. The
briefest journey performed, that from London to

Paris, took about three-quarters of an hour, but the
velocity attained was not high; the leap to New York

occupied about two hours, and by timing oneself carefully
at the intermediate stations it was possible in

quiet weather to go around the world in a day.
The little aeropiles (as for no particular reason they

were distinctively called) were of an altogether
different type. Several of these were going to and fro in

the air. They were designed to carry only one or two
persons, and their manufacture and maintenance was

so costly as to render them the monopoly of the richer
sort of people. Their sails, which were brilliantly

coloured, consisted only of two pairs of lateral air
floats in the same plane, and of a screw behind. Their

small size rendered a descent in any open space neither
difficult nor disagreeable, and it was possible to attach

pneumatic wheels or even the ordinary motors for terrestrial
tragic to them, and so carry them to a convenient

starting place. They required a special sort of
swift car to throw them into the air, but such a car

was efficient in any open place clear of high buildings
or trees. Human aeronautics, Graham perceived,

were evidently" target="_blank" title="ad.明显地">evidently still a long way behind the instinctive
gift of the albatross or the fly-catcher. One great

influence that might have brought the aeropile to a
more rapid perfection had been withheld; these

inventions had never been used in warfare. The last great
international struggle had occurred before the

usurpation of the Council.
The Flying Stages of London were collected

together in an irregularcrescent on the southern side
of the river. They formed three groups of two each

and retained the names of ancient suburban hills or
villages. They were named in order, Roehampton,

Wimhledon Park, Streatham, Norwood, Blackheath,
and Shooter's Hill. They were uniform structures

rising high above the general roof surfaces. Each was
about four thousand yards long and a thousand broad,

and constructed of the compound of aluminium and
iron that had replaced iron in architecture. Their

higher tiers formed an openwork of girders through
which lifts and staircases ascended. The upper

surface was a uniform expanse, with portions--the
starting carriers--that could be raised and were then able

to run on very slightly inclined rails to the end of the
fabric. Save for any aeropiles or aeroplanes that were

in port these open surfaces were kept clear for arrivals.
During the adjustment of the aeroplanes it was the

custom for passengers to wait in the system of
theatres, restaurants, news-rooms, and places of pleasure

and indulgence of various sorts that interwove with the
prosperous shops below. This portion of London was

in consequencecommonly the gayest of all its
districts, with something of the meretricious gaiety of a

seaport or city of hotels. And for those who took a
more serious view of aeronautics, the religious

quarters had flung out an attractive colony of devotional
chapels, while a host of brilliantmedical establishments

competed to supply physical preparatives for the
journey. At various levels through the mass of chambers

and passages beneath these, ran, in addition to the
main moving ways of the city which laced and

gathered here, a complexsystem of special passages
and lifts and slides, for the convenientinterchange of

people and luggage between stage and stage. And a
distinctive feature of the architecture of this section

was the ostentatious massiveness of the metal piers
and girders that everywhere broke the vistas and

spanned the halls and passages, crowding and twining
up to meet the weight of the stages and the weighty

impact of the aeroplanes overhead.
Graham went to the flying stages by the public ways.

He was accompanied by Asano, his Japanese attendant.
Lincoln was called away by Ostrog, who was

busy with his administrative concerns. A strong
guard of the Wind-Vane police awaited the Master

outside the Wind-Vane offices, and they cleared a
space for him on the upper moving platform. His

passage to the flying stages was unexpected,
nevertheless a considerable crowd gathered and followed

him to his destination. As he went along, he could
hear the people shouting his name, and saw numberless

men and women and children in blue come swarming
up the staircases in the central path, gesticulating

and shouting. He could not hear what they shouted.
He was struck again by the evidentexistence of a

vulgar dialect among the poor of the city. When at last
he descended, his guards were immediately surrounded

by a dense excited crowd. Afterwards it
occurred to him that some had attempted to reach him

with petitions. His guards cleared a passage for him
with difficulty.

He found an aeropile in charge of an aeronaut