“But we have not,” said Vane.
“Indeed! Then what do you call an Atlantic liner, with the propeller in its tail?”
“But that swims on the top of the water.”
“Of course it does, because the people on board require air to breathe. Otherwise it could be made to swim beneath the water as a fish does, and at twenty miles an hour.”
“Yes: I did not think of that.”
“Well, as we have conquered the water to that extent, I do not see why we should not master the air.”
“We can rise in balloons.”
“Yes, but the balloon is clumsy and unmanageable. It will not do.”
“What then, sir?”
“That’s it, my boy, what then? It is easy to contrive a piece of mechanism with fans that will rise in the air, but when tried on a large scale, to be of any real service, I’m afraid it would fail.”