"Magerful", indeed! Magical, indeed!
The others were silent, swept away by
the magic of it--the greater, moon-storming
magic to come.

Only--only, they breathlessly asked
themselves: "What next?"

Well! the immediate "next" would be
the return of the golden egg, the diary,
the falling fruit of the experiment, without
which there was no proof of its success--
of how high the fiery Bird had
flown--before, its last automatic charge
expended, it sang its swan-song somewhere
in space.

At the increasing speed with which
the little Thunder Bird flew--when miles
were but a moment--the record might
be expected back in a few minutes.

Minutes--but they seemed a moon's
age!

It was Una--Una--who saw it first:
the tiny speck of star-dust drifting down,
down among the woolly clouds--dark
as if the night had been shorn and its
[[237]]

p236 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p237w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p238

v?