Some of the troops advanced toward the barricade.  Instantly the long line of its top bristled with fire; the fire was returned; the rattle was continuous and terrible, mingled with the rapid, grinding noise of the machine guns.  The sound spread in every direction.  The barricades were all attacked.

Suddenly the noise began to decrease.  It was as if some noble orator had begun to speak in the midst of a tumultuous assembly.  Those nearest him catch his utterances first, and become quiet; the wave of silence spreads like a great ripple in the water; until at last the whole audience is as hushed as death.  So something—­some extraordinary thing—­had arrested the battle; down, down, dropped the tumult; and at last there were only a few scattering shots to be heard, here and there; and then these, too, ceased.

I could see the soldiers looking to the west.  I swept the sky with my glass.  Yes, something portentous had indeed happened!  Instead of the whole dark flight of thousands of airships for which the soldiers had been looking, there came, athwart the sky, like a great black bird, a single Demon.

As it approached it seemed to be signaling some one.  Little flags of different colors were run up and taken down.  I turned and looked to the barricaded district.  And there on the top of a very high building, in its midst, I could see a group of men.  They, too, were raising and lowering little flags.  Nearer and nearer swept the great bird; every eye and many a field-glass in all that great throng were fastened upon it, with awe-struck interest—­the insurgents rejoicing; the soldiers perplexed.  Nearer and nearer it comes.

Now it pauses right over the tall building; it begins to descend, like a sea-gull about to settle in the waves.  Now it is but a short distance above the roof.  I could see against the bright sky the gossamer traces of a rope ladder, falling down from the ship to the roof.  The men below take hold of it and steady it.  A man descends.  Something about him glitters in the rising sun.  He is probably an officer.  He reaches the roof.  They bow and shake hands.  I can see him wave his hand to those above him.  A line of men descend; they disappear in the building; they reappear; they mount the ladder; again and again they come and go.

“They are removing the treasure,” I explain to our party, gathering around me.

Then the officer shakes hands again with the men on the roof; they bow to each other; he reascends the ladder; the air-ship rises in the air, higher and higher, like an eagle regaining its element; and away it sails, back into the west.

An age of bribery terminates in one colossal crime of corruption!

I can see the officers gathering in groups and taking counsel together.  They are alarmed.  Then they write.  They must tell the Oligarchy of this singular scene, and their suspicions, and put them on their guard.  There is danger in the air.  In a moment orderlies dash down the street in headlong race, bearing dispatches.  In a little while they come back, hurrying, agitated.  I took to the north.  I can see a black line across the street.  It is a high barricade.  It has been quietly constructed while the fight raged.  And beyond, far as my eyes can penetrate, there are dark masses of armed men.