FIRST EXPERIENCES OF SPACE
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the present. The story shall unfold itself in due course.
By the middle of the next day everyone was on board again. The Admiral-in-Chief gave the signal, and for the second time the numberless vessels rose into the air with their human freight and palpitating machinery. There was a waving of cocked hats and the clash of swords. The air shook with the roar of a thousand guns as the forts saluted the departing fleet. Then sheets of flame leapt from the sides of every war-ship, and there was a terrible crash of thunder as the fleet returned the salute.
A few hours later not a speck was visible in the blue sky of Neptune, and there was not a trace left of the mighty host that had vanished into the depths of space.
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