And surely, I was ready to wonder why that I had not seen the
thing plain before that moment; yet was this like to be because
that there was a shadow upon the other side of the great Rock; but
upon this side there was a little fire-hill a way off to the cliff
edge, and this did throw a warm light that made a glimmer upon the
dull metal of the ship's bottom, which was uncovered to my sight,
and was surely of that same deathless grey metal that made the
Great Redoubt.
And yet, as you shall believe, even as I said this thing to my
mind, that the strange matter upon the top of the Rock was truly
one of the olden air-ships, I did feel that I should be proper to
doubt; for it was a very wondrous thing to perceive a thing common
to man, in that utter strange Country, and after that I
