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One thing, however, he should have remembered: that he was in an

ancient and little known part of the world and reposing above a sea

famous in fable as the home of many fierce and terrible creatures; while

not far away lay the land of the dragon, the simurg and other ferocious

monsters.

Rob may have read of these things in fairy tales and books of travel, but

if so they had entirely slipped his mind; so he slumbered peacefully and

actually snored a little, I believe, towards morning.

But even as the red sun peeped curiously over the horizon he was

awakened by a most unusual disturbance--a succession of hoarse

screams and a pounding of the air as from the quickly revolving blades of

some huge windmill.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around.

Coming towards him at his right hand was an immense bird, whose body

seemed almost as big as that of a horse. Its wide-open, curving beak was

set with rows of pointed teeth, and the talons held against its breast and

turned threateningly outward were more powerful and dreadful than a

tiger's claws.

While, fascinated and horrified, he watched the approach of this

feathered monster, a scream sounded just behind him and the next

instant the stroke of a mighty wing sent him whirling over and over

through the air.

He soon came to a stop, however, and saw that another of the monsters

had come upon him from the rear and was now, with its mate, circling

closely around him, while both uttered continuously their hoarse, savage

cries.

Rob wondered why the Garment of Repulsion had not protected him from

the blow of the bird's wing; but, as a matter of fact, it had protected him.

For it was not the wing itself but the force of the eddying currents of air

that had sent him whirling away from the monster. With the indicator at

zero the magnetic currents and the opposing powers of attraction and

repulsion were so evenly balanced that any violent atmospheric

disturbance affected him in the same way that thistledown is affected by

a summer breeze. He had noticed something of this before, but

whenever a strong wind was blowing he was accustomed to rise to a

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