Chapter I: Front Matter

THROUGH THE SUN
IN AN AIRSHIP

“_This I hold
A secret worth its weight in gold
To those who write as I write now;
Not to mind where they go, or how—
Through ditch, through bog, o’er bridge and stile;
Make it but worth the reader’s while,
And keep a passage fair and plain,
Always to bring him back again._”
+Churchill.+

THROUGH THE SUN
IN AN AIRSHIP

BY

JOHN MASTIN, F.S.A. +Scot.+
F.L.S., F.C.S., F.R.A.S., F.R.M.S., R.B.A.

AUTHOR OF

“PARASITES OF INSECTS,” “THE TRUE ANALYSIS OF MILK,”
“PLATE-CULTURE AND STAINING OF AMŒBÆ,” “THE
STOLEN PLANET,” “THE IMMORTAL LIGHT,”
ETC. ETC.

LONDON
CHARLES GRIFFIN & COMPANY, LTD.
EXETER STREET, STRAND
[_All rights reserved_]

Printed by +Ballantyne & Co. Limited+
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London

TO

PROFESSOR SIR HUBERT VON HERKOMER
C.V.O., R.A., D.C.L., ETC.

AS A SLIGHT MARK OF GRATITUDE FOR
MANY PAST KINDNESSES THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED
BY HIS FORMER PUPIL
THE AUTHOR

+Totley Brook+
near +Sheffield+, _June 1909_

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. +The Story of the “Regina”+ 1

II. +The “Regina” gives up Her Secret+ 28

III. +Vox Populi+ 41

IV. +Muscæ Vomitoriæ+ 65

V. +An Innocent Offender+ 85

VI. +The Doomed Planet+ 108

VII. +The Story of a Star+ 125

VIII. +A Jovian Bug+ 140

IX. +Testing the Web+ 149

X. +The Conspiracy+ 161

XI. +“The Impregnable Rock”+ 182

XII. +Through Fire and Flame and Mystery+ 198

XIII. +“Vaults of Purple”+ 213

XIV. +Between Two Worlds+ 234

XV. +Joci Causâ+ 253

XVI. +“A Race of Laughing Philosophers”+ 280

XVII. +Small Profit and Quick Return+ 306