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came in gusts over his wind-screen and blew his hair in streamers past

his cheek. The aeronaut made some hasty adjustments for the shifting of

the centres of gravity and pressure.

"I want to have these things explained," said Graham. "What do you do

when you move that engine forward?"

The aeronaut hesitated. Then he answered, "They are complex, Sire."

"I don't mind," shouted Graham. "I don't mind."

There was a moment's pause. "Aeronautics is the secret--the privilege--"

"I know. But I'm the Master, and I mean to know." He laughed, full of

this novel realisation of power that was his gift from the upper air.

The aeropile curved about, and the keen fresh wind cut across Graham's

face and his garment lugged at his body as the stem pointed round to the

west. The two men looked into each other's eyes.

"Sire, there are rules--"

"Not where I am concerned," said Graham. "You seem to forget."

The aeronaut scrutinised his face. "No," he said. "I do not forget,

Sire. But in all the earth--no man who is not a sworn aeronaut--has ever

a chance. They come as passengers--"

"I have heard something of the sort. But I'm not going to argue these

points. Do you know why I have slept two hundred years? To fly!"

"Sire," said the aeronaut, "the rules--if I break the rules--"

Graham waved the penalties aside.

"Then if you will watch me--"

"No," said Graham, swaying and gripping tight as the machine lifted its

nose again for an ascent. "That's not my game. I want to do it myself.

Do it myself if I smash for it! No! I will. See. I am going to clamber

by this to come and share your seat. Steady! I mean to fly of my own

accord if I smash at the end of it. I will have something to pay for

my sleep. Of all other things--. In my past it was my dream to fly.

Now--keep your balance."

"A dozen spies are watching me, Sire!"

Graham's temper was at end. Perhaps he chose it should be. He swore.

He swung himself round the intervening mass of levers and the aeropile

swayed.

"Am I Master of the earth?" he said. "Or is your Society? Now. Take your

hands off those levers, and hold my wrists. Yes--so. And now, how do we

turn her nose down to the glide?"

"Sire," said the aeronaut.

"What is it?"

"You will protect me?"

"Lord! Yes! If I have to burn London. Now!"

And with that promise Graham bought his first lesson in aerial

navigation. "It's clearly to your advantage, this journey," he said with

a loud laugh--for the air was like strong wine--"to teach me quickly and

well. Do I pull this? Ah! So! Hullo!"

"Back, Sire! Back!"

"Back--right. One--two--three--good God! Ah! Up she goes! But this is

living!"

And now the machine began to dance the strangest figures in the air. Now

it would sweep round a spiral of scarcely a hundred yards diameter, now

it would rush up into the air and swoop down again, steeply, swiftly,

falling like a hawk, to recover in a rushing loop that swept it high

again. In one of these descents it seemed driving straight at the

drifting park of balloons in the southeast, and only curved about

and cleared them by a sudden recovery of dexterity. The extraordinary

swiftness and smoothness of the motion, the extraordinary effect of the

rarefied air upon his constitution, threw Graham into a careless fury.

But at last a queer incident came to sober him, to send him flying down

once more to the crowded life below with all its dark insoluble riddles.

As he swooped, came a tap and something flying past, and a drop like a

drop of rain. Then as he went on down he saw something like a white rag

whirling down in his wake. "What was that?" he asked. "I did not see."

The aeronaut glanced, and then clutched at the lever to recover, for

they were sweeping down. When the aeropile was rising again he drew a

deep breath and replied. "That," and he indicated the white thing still

fluttering down, "was a swan."

"I never saw it," said Graham.

The aeronaut made no answer, and Graham saw little drops upon his

forehead.

They drove horizontally while Graham clambered back to the passenger's

place out of the lash of the wind. And then came a swift rush down,

with the wind-screw whirling to check their fall, and the flying stage

growing broad and dark before them. The sun, sinking over the chalk

hills in the west, fell with them, and left the sky a blaze of gold.

Soon men could be seen as little specks. He heard a noise coming up to

meet him, a noise like the sound of waves upon a pebbly beach, and

saw that the roofs about the flying stage were dark with his people

rejoicing over his safe return. A dark mass was crushed together under

the stage, a darkness stippled with innumerable faces, and quivering

with the minute oscillation of waved white handkerchiefs and waving

hands.

CHAPTER XVII. THREE DAYS

Lincoln awaited Graham in an apartment beneath the flying stages. He

seemed curious to learn all that had happened, pleased to hear of the

extraordinary delight and interest which Graham took in flying Graham

was in a mood of enthusiasm. "I must learn to fly," he cried. "I

must master that. I pity all poor souls who have died without this

opportunity. The sweet swift air! It is the most wonderful experience in

the world."

"You will find our new times full of wonderful experiences," said

Lincoln. "I do not know what you will care to do now. We have music that

may seem novel."

"For the present," said Graham, "flying holds me. Let me learn more of

that. Your aeronaut was saying there is some trades union objection to

one's learning."

"There is, I believe," said Lincoln. "But for you--! If you would'

like to occupy yourself with that, we can make you a sworn aeronaut

tomorrow."

Graham expressed his wishes vividly and talked of his sensations for a

while. "And as for affairs," he asked abruptly. "How are things going

on?"

Lincoln waved affairs aside. "Ostrog will tell you that tomorrow," he

said. "Everything is settling down. The Revolution accomplishes itself

all over the world. Friction is inevitable here and there, of course;

but your rule is assured. You may rest secure with things in Ostrog's

hands."

"Would it be possible for me to be made a sworn aeronaut, as you call

it, forthwith--before I sleep?" said Graham, pacing. "Then I could be at

it the very first thing tomorrow again.

"It would be possible," said Lincoln thoughtfully. "Quite possible.

Indeed, it shall be done." He laughed. "I came prepared to suggest

amusements, but you have found one for yourself. I will telephone to the

aeronautical offices from here and we will return to your apartments in

the Wind-Vane Control. By the time you have dined the aeronauts will

be able to come. You don't think that after you have dined, you might

prefer--?" He paused.

"Yes," said Graham.

"We had prepared a show of dancers--they have been brought from the

Capri theatre."

"I hate ballets," said Graham, shortly. "Always did. That other--.

That's not what I want to see. We had dancers in the old days. For the

matter of that, they had them in ancient Egypt. But flying--"

"True," said Lincoln. "Though our dancers--"

"They can afford to wait," said Graham; "they can afford to wait.

I know. I'm not a Latin. There's questions I want to ask some

expert--about your machinery. I'm keen. I want no distractions."

"You have the world to choose from," said Lincoln; "whatever you want is

yours."

Asano appeared, and under the escort of a strong guard they returned

through the city streets to Graham's apartments. Far larger crowds had

assembled to witness his return than his departure had gathered, and

the shouts and cheering of these masses of people sometimes drowned

Lincoln's answers to the endless questions Graham's aerial journey had

suggested. At first Graham had acknowledged the cheering and cries

of the crowd by bows and gestures, but Lincoln warned him that such a

recognition would be considered incorrect behaviour. Graham, already

a little wearied by rhythmic civilities, ignored his subjects for the

remainder of his public progress.

Directly they arrived at his apartments Asano departed in search

of kinematographic renderings of machinery in motion, and Lincoln

despatched Graham's commands for models of machines and small machines

to illustrate the various mechanical advances of the last two centuries.

The little group of appliances for telegraphic communication attracted

the Master so strongly that his delightfully prepared dinner, served by

a number of charmingly dexterous girls, waited for a space. The habit

of smoking had almost ceased from the face of the earth, but when he

expressed a wish for that indulgence, inquiries were made and some

excellent cigars were discovered in Florida, and sent to him by

pneumatic dispatch while the dinner was still in progress. Afterwards

came the aeronauts, and a feast of ingenious wonders in the hands of a

latter-day engineer. For the time, at any rate, the neat dexterity of

counting and numbering machines, building machines, spinning engines,

patent doorways, explosive motors, grain and water elevators,

slaughter-house machines and harvesting appliances, was more fascinating

to Graham than any bayadere. "We were savages," was his refrain, "we

were savages. We were in the stone age--compared with this.... And what

else have you?"

There came also practical psychologists with some very interesting

developments in the art of hypnotism. The names of Milne Bramwell,

Fechner, Liebault, William James, Myers and Gurney, he found, bore

a value now that would have astonished their contemporaries. Several

practical applications of psychology were now in general use; it had

largely superseded drugs, antiseptics and anaesthetics in medicine; was

employed by almost all who had any need of mental concentration. A

real enlargement of human faculty seemed to have been effected in this

direction. The feats of "calculating boys," the wonders, as Graham had

been wont to regard them, of mesmerisers, were now within the range of

anyone who could afford the services of a skilled hypnotist. Long ago

the old examination methods in education had been destroyed by these

expedients. Instead of years of study, candidates had substituted a few

weeks of trances, and during the trances expert coaches had simply

to repeat all the points necessary for adequate answering, adding a

suggestion of the post hypnotic recollection of these points. In process

mathematics particularly, this aid had been of singular service, and it

was now invariably invoked by such players of chess and games of manual

dexterity as were still to be found. In fact, all operations conducted

under finite rules, of a quasi-mechanical sort that is, were now

systematically relieved from the wanderings of imagination and emotion,

and brought to an unexampled pitch of accuracy. Little children of

the labouring classes, so soon as they were of sufficient age to

be hypnotised, were thus converted into beautifully punctual and

trustworthy machine minders, and released forthwith from the long, long

thoughts of youth. Aeronautical pupils, who gave way to giddiness,

could be relieved from their imaginary terrors. In every street were

hypnotists ready to print permanent memories upon the mind. If anyone

desired to remember a name, a series of numbers, a song or a speech, it

could be done by this method, and conversely memories could be effaced,

habits removed, and desires eradicated--a sort of psychic surgery was,

in fact, in general use. Indignities, humbling experiences, were thus

forgotten, amorous widows would obliterate their previous husbands,

angry lovers release themselves from their slavery. To graft desires,

however, was still impossible, and the facts of thought transference

were yet unsystematised. The psychologists illustrated their expositions

with some astounding experiments in mnemonics made through the agency of

a troupe of pale-faced children in blue.

Graham, like most of the people of his former time, distrusted the

hypnotist, or he might then and there have eased his mind of many

painful preoccupations. But in spite of Lincoln's assurances he held to

the old theory that to be hypnotised was in some way the surrender of

his personality, the abdication of his will. At the banquet of wonderful

experiences that was beginning, he wanted very keenly to remain

absolutely himself.

The next day, and another day, and yet another day passed in such

interests as these. Each day Graham spent many hours in the glorious

entertainment of flying. On the third day he soared across middle

France, and within sight of the snow-clad Alps. These vigorous exercises

gave him restful sleep, and each day saw a great stride in his health

from the spiritless anaemia of his first awakening. And whenever he was

not in the air, and awake, Lincoln was assiduous in the cause of his

amusement; all that was novel and curious in contemporary invention was

brought to him, until at last his appetite for novelty was well-nigh

glutted. One might fill a dozen inconsecutive volumes with the strange

things they exhibited. Each afternoon he held his court for an hour

or so. He speedily found his interest in his contemporaries becoming

personal and intimate. At first he had been alert chiefly for

unfamiliarity and peculiarity; any foppishness in their dress, any

discordance with his preconceptions of nobility in their status and

manners had jarred upon him, and it was remarkable to him how soon that