Surely some devil was in it!--for how could the thing fly without any apparent force to propel it?
How was it that its enormous wings spread out on either side as by self-volition and moved rhythmically like the wings of a bird in full flight?
Every man who had worked at the design was more or less mystified.

They had, according to plan and instructions received, "plumed" the airship for electricity in a new and curious manner, but there was no battery to generate a current.

Two small boxes or chambers, made of some mysterious metal which would not "fuse" under the strongest heat, were fixed, one at either end of the ship;--these had been manufactured secretly in another country and sent to Sicily by Morgana herself,--but so far, they contained nothing.

They seemed unimportant--they were hardly as large as an ordinary petrol-can holding a gallon.

When Rivardi had made a trial ascent he had inserted in each of these boxes a cylindrical tube made to fit an interior socket as a candle fits into a candle-stick,--all the workmen watched him, waiting for a revelation, but he made none.