Mavis gave a cry of amazement. Gone was the view of the sky; gone the heavens above and the earth beneath. The entire ship was covered in with an awning of metal.
“Do explain,” said Alan.
“This covering works almost on the principle of a Venetian blind,” went on Masters. “There are really two coverings, with a space of thirty inches between. The levers release the metal and it unfolds and clips into position by means of strong clasps. By means of another lever we fill the cavity between with a mixture of gases—ether is the chief component, and this makes our little home absolutely air proof and rain proof; and above all it makes the inner vessel impervious to atmospheric pressure or gravitation. We hope later on, by the aid of an electrical device we are still working upon, to generate an atmosphere of our own, outside the vessel, which will enable us to propel ourselves through infinite space, and thus we should be independent of the atmospheric peculiarities around us.”
“But how can we breathe?” asked Mavis the practical.
“Masters thought of that contingency also,” said Sir John.
“In the little room we have just left are dynamos for generating our own electricity; there is also another dynamo for generating an inexhaustible supply of air.”
“You have left nothing to chance,” said Alan.
“Nothing, my boy. Remember this is the culmination of over thirty-five years of study and experiment, and the last five years have seen us progress by leaps and bounds.”
“Our absence had its good side, after all,” said Alan. “Had we been allowed to remain, you might never have got this machine to such perfection.”
“I’d rather not have had those years of sorrow, all the same,” said Sir John softly. “I’d rather have destroyed the Argenta with my own hands, and never built her up again, than you should both have left me for those long years,” and the old man turned away with a sigh. “Now about our air supply,” he went on, recovering himself. “As the used up air sinks to the ground, it is attracted into pipes, and by the aid of tiny electric fans is driven to a large cylinder. There it undergoes a kind of filtering process. The purer portions go into circulation again, while the carbonic acid gas is taken down pipes which run along the whole side of the ship to an outlet where it can escape into space. To guard against the extrance of any unknown noxious gases, this pipe has a trap in every foot, which closes mechanically as the gas passes through. The mechanism of these traps makes it impossible for any foreign air to enter. No matter where we are, or through what poisonous air we may pass, we are protected from its entrance by this device; while it is impossible for the ship to collapse while it is protected by its envelope of ether.”