He had time just to see a face white as marble under the hair,--then he had enough to do to fasten ropes round the body and push it upward while Gaspard pulled--both men doubting whether the weight of it would not alter the balance of the air-ship despite its extraordinary fixity of position.

Morgana, bending over from the vessel, watched every action,--she showed neither alarm nor impatience nor anxiety--and when Gaspard said suddenly-- "It is easier than I thought it would be!" she merely smiled as if she knew.

Another few moments and the drowned woman's body was hauled into the cabin of the ship, where Morgana knelt down beside it.

Parting the heavy masses of dark hair that enshrouded it she looked--and saw what she had expected to see--the face of Manella Soriso.

But it was the death-mask of a face--strangely beautiful--but awful in its white rigidity.