I looked up and saw in the dim altitudes a long silvery object among the stars.  As the searchlights played upon it, it seemed almost diaphanous, and the body appeared to undulate like a trout seen in a clear stream.  Jupiter shone hard and bright in the southern hemisphere, and suddenly a number of new planets appeared in the firmament as though certain stars shot madly from their spheres.  Round and about the monster came and went these exploding satellites.  Then another appeared close under her, and like a frightened fish she swerved sharply and was lost to view among the Pleiades.

“Let’s go and see what’s happened,” said one of my friends.  “I hear she’s dropped a lot of bombs down——.”

As we went down the street I saw that for about two hundred yards ahead it was sparkling as with hoar-frost.  Suddenly the soles of our boots “scrunched” something underfoot.  I looked down.  The ground was covered with splinters of glass.  As we drew nearer we caught sight of a cordon of police, and behind them a great fire springing infernally from the earth, and behind the fire a group of soldiers, whose figures were silhouetted against the background.  Our way was impeded by curious crowds, among whom one heard the familiar chant of “Pass along, please!”

We stopped.  Close to us two men were stooping with heads almost knocking together and searching the ground, while one of them husbanded a lighted match against the wind.

“Blimey, Bill,” said one to the other, “I’ve found ’un!”

“What have you found?” we asked of him.

“A souvenir, sir!”

Truly, they know not the stomach of this people.

FOOTNOTES: 

[30] See Chapter XXV.

[31] See Chapter XI.

[32] Ibid.

THE END

Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh.

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