'Yes, sir, I understand,' answered Gerald, his face aglow with interest and excitement. 'It's very, very wonderful! What strange, marvellous scenes and adventures you must have passed through!'
'I have that, my lad! I have passed through many grave dangers too; have had many hair-breadth escapes in the service of my royal master, who is of a very adventurous disposition. His search after knowledge has led us into queer places, I can assure you. But he is a wonderful being! This marvellous airship was constructed from his own inventions and designs. And then, as a man---- Ah!' Here the stranger drew a long breath. 'His is a character which makes you feel you would go through fire and water for him!'
'I 'm sure of it!' cried Gerald with enthusiasm. 'I felt it the first moment I set eyes upon him! How I should like to do as you have done--go with him to Mars and back! What an experience!'
'Ah!' exclaimed the engineer again, 'it would do you good, my lad. It would do anybody--everybody--good, physically, morally, in every way. It gives you a different, a more glorious, outlook on life when you realise that the mighty works of the Creator are not confined to this globe on which we live, but extend through endless "universes" in space. Even comparatively near us there are great planets compared with which this Earth is scarcely more than a big football. There is Saturn, for instance. When we were there'----
'You have visited other planets, then, as well?' Gerald gasped.
Monck nodded. 'Yes, even great Jupiter, but we could not get very near to him. Saturn, however, we landed on, and spent some weeks there--awful, terrible weeks they were. My young friend, even to think of the things to be seen there is almost too much for the ordinary human brain. But, as I have said, it does one good. It instils into the mind some faint conception of the vastness, the greatness, the endless variety to be everywhere found in what we call the creation!'
'Would that your king would make me the offer he made to you!' cried Gerald, with glistening eyes.
'Perhaps he will. What if he has?' was the unexpected reply.
Gerald started up from the chair he had been sitting on. 'You cannot mean it!' he exclaimed.