You see we
couldn't breathe the air there is outside there--too thin and cold--and
so the _Astronef_ makes her own atmosphere as we go along. But I won't
spoil what you're going to see by any more of this. So if you please,
we'll go down now and get along to Washington. Anyhow, I hope I've
convinced you so far that I've kept my promise."
"Yes, dear, you have, and splendidly! I've only one regret. If _he_ was
only here now, what a happy man he'd be! Still, I daresay he knows all
about it and is just as happy. In fact he must be. I feel certain he
must. The very soul of his intellect was in the dream of this ship, and
now that it's a reality he must be here still. Isn't it part of himself?
Isn't it his mind that's working in these wonderful engines of yours,
and isn't it his strength that lifts us up from the earth and takes us
down again just as you please to turn that wheel?"
"There's little doubt about that, Zaidie," said Redgrave quietly, but
earnestly. "You know we North-country folk all have our traditions and
our ghosts; and what more likely than that the spirit of a dead man or a
man gone to other worlds should watch over the realisation of his
greatest work on earth? Why shouldn't we believe that, we who are going
away from this world to other ones?"
"Why not?" interrupted Zaidie, "why, of course we will.
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