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 weird foreboding of horror, "how this can be?"

"The task imposed upon us by the supreme will," he replied, "has been twofold. In the first place, we have had to make perfect mechanical contrivances, by which we can journey with incredible speed through the air. That this has been accomplished thou thyself hast been a witness; and for each of the sleepers a car has been prepared which surpasses in speed the flight of birds and the rush of the storm."

Daphne recalled in all its sublimity her own aërial journey, and she could not doubt the truth of Thoth's words.

Then he continued—"But a harder task was ours, and that also has been at length completed. We have now at our disposal the means of destroying every living being on the face of the earth. The day is near at hand