An untidy medley of houses and factories stretched almost to the gates of the vast air terminus.

Listening intently, one could catch the faint roar of the city's awakening traffic, punctuated here and there by the shrill whistling of tugs in the river, hidden from sight by a shroud of ghostly mist.

The dock on which Prince Shan stood was one apportioned to foreign royalty and visitors of note.

A hundred yards away, the Madrid boat was on the point of starting, her whistles already blowing, and her engines commencing to beat.

Presently the great machinery which assisted her flight from the ground commenced its sullen roar.