With Rose in his arms, Polaris stepped from the cabin and gazed curiously about him.
He stood in a long gallery or corridor, some nine feet wide by thirty in extent. It was lighted brightly by a number of globes similar to that in the cabin. The flooring was of wood, the ceiling of steel. Opposite him was the door of another cabin. A few feet along the corridor ahead of him, toward the prow of the fademe, the floor was pierced to admit a large post or beam, which thrust up through it and disappeared through another opening in the ceiling of the gallery. Around the beam spiraled a slender winding stair of yellow metal.
Oleric led on toward the bow. As he passed the stairway, Janess saw that it led to a small, towerlike structure above. A glance through the opening in the floor showed him another gallery, or deck, below, and he had a glimpse of a mass of mechanism and shafting. It was the engine room of the fademe into which he looked. Near the prow, the flooring was cut away again to allow the passage of what seemed to be a pillar of solid, yellow glass, as large around as the body of a man.
As they passed the second pillar by, Oleric struck it lightly with his palm.
"There is what brought death to your good ship, my brother," he said. "It is the secret of the power of the navy of Bel-Ar."
At the end of the corridor was an open door. Beyond it was a small chamber and another door. The chamber was constructed entirely of steel. Both of its doors were circular in shape, and they were fitted with valves and bars which made them resemble the breechblocks of enormous cannon. From beyond the second door came the sound of the splashing of waves and the hum of many human voices.
Oleric passed through the chamber. At the outer door he paused and gave Polaris a hand with his burden. A breeze of salt air fanned their faces. Through the door Polaris saw an expanse of blue water alight with shafts of sunshine—for the rain had ceased—and the line of a rocky wall.
"The harbor of the city of Adlaz," the red captain said.
They stood on a metal deck six feet square on the extreme prow of the fademe. From the deck a narrow, swaying gangplank reached to the edge of the quay that was built of massive blocks of masonry, alongside of which the fademe was moored.