"Why, what on earth is the matter?" she exclaimed, shrinking back from
the glass wall. "There's nothing--we're not anywhere!"
"Pardon me, Miss Rennick, you are on board the _Astronef_," said Lord
Redgrave, as he reached the top of the companion way, "and the
_Astronef_ is at present travelling at about a hundred and fifty miles
an hour above the clouds towards Washington. That is why you don't see
the clouds and sea as you did after we left the _St. Louis_. At a speed
like this they simply make a sort of grey-green blur. We shall be in
Washington this evening, I hope."
"To-night, sir--I beg your pardon, my Lord!" gasped Mrs. Van Stuyler. "A
hundred and fifty miles an hour! Surely that's impossible."
"My dear Mrs. Van Stuyler," said Redgrave, with a side-look at Zaidie,
"nowadays 'impossible' is hardly an English or even an American word. In
fact, since I have had the honour of realising some of Professor
Rennick's ideas it has been relegated to the domain of mathematics. Not
even he could make two and two more or less than four, but--well, would
you like to come into the conning-tower and see for yourselves? I can
show you a few experiments that will, at any rate, help to pass the time
between here and Washington."
"Lord Redgrave," said Mrs. Van Stuyler, dropping gracefully back into
her wicker armchair, "if I may say so, I have seen quite enough
impossibilities, and--er, well--other things since we left the deck of
the _St.
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