176 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



the colorless, formless stream of gas flowing down 

 the length of black hose, they became definite 

 spheres, painted and splashed with all the colors in 

 sight. Once, when I was making my first flight in 

 a plane, I had, for a short space of time, the soul- 

 devastating sensation of being suspended motion- 

 less in the ether while the earth dropped away from 

 me. That has never been repeated, but here on the 

 bottom of the sea, looking upward at the great bub- 

 bles of breath, I can often conjure up the belief 

 that I am actually looking at a constellation, a 

 galaxy of worlds and stars, rolling majestically 

 through the invisible ether. The background is as 

 mysteriously colorless and formless as space itself 

 must be, and as I peer out through my little rec- 

 tangular windows I seem to be actually living an 

 experience which only the genius of a Verne or a 

 Wells can imagine into words. It suddenly flashes 

 over me that in giving over my moon and steUar 

 longings for the depths of the sea, I have in a 

 mamier achieved both. 



I have even the sensations of a god, for in each 

 of the spheres I have created, I see very distinctly 

 my own image. But I also see many more inter- 

 esting things and my moonings in the present in- 

 stance were brought to an abrupt end by a glint 

 of gold which appeared on each globule of air — a. 

 fiery pin-point which became an oval and soon a 

 great spot as if a sun were rising behind me. If I 

 were looking at a real planet such a thing might 

 be a tremendous volcanic eruption on the surface. 

 Twisting slightly and peering obliquely through 



