It stood there, tense, ready, waiting, with a hum of engines audible in its vast heart, a thing almost of life, man's creation but how illimitably greater than man! For a moment, as this tremendous winged fabric came to the Master's view, he halted, and a look of exultation, pride, and joy came over his face.

But only for a moment.

Quite at once his dark eyes veiled themselves with their habitual impassivity.

Once more he strode forward, the others following him.
Now that they were inside the second barrier--where sleeping men were scattered more thickly than ever--they stood under the very wings of the most stupendous hydroplane ever conceived by the brain of man or executed by the cunning of his hand.
That this hydroplane had been almost on the moment of departure for its trial trip, was proved by the sleepers.

Two were on the gangplank leading up to the entrance door in the fuselage.