The Washington times., 1911-08-16

81 dared not tell you before" he said
''the Ya-ti ghost is an old myth of the
Htmalayas, and when a fellow under.
takes to materialize 1t for the we'll being
OF visitors, there must be no chance OF
discovery. It's worked marvels of luck
so far, and will doubtless work more"
And do You mean to say 1t was you
who brought back the yaks?"
Yes, / was the ghost, and I've often
wondered you didn't guess it, but since
you didn't, l thought 1t best to keen
mum. l shouldn't have let you into the
secret now-but-well, fits probably the
last time l shall have to play the part. u
My surprise was genuine-I had never
guessed it. The false face, the robe
the lamp hidden beneath it's folds and
shining through its diaphenous texture
made the deception perfect. 1t was a
minute before l could take 1t in.
And the Ya-ti ghost is
reality in the minds and traditions
OF the lamas. l studied it up when i
was here before. and resolved to imper-
senate 1t If necessary. See!"
saw and gasped. Why had l never
thought of it-even suspected!
Follow me-" he said, after we had
rested, I've something TO show YOU"
BY the dim light of his lantern we
the cavern into its further recesses.
Down natural stairways into well-like
openings. through low tunnels and
crooked Observation-Disclosures
If the lamp should so out!'
But it won't" He was filled with
the light of enthusiasm but my weaker
nerves were troubled, and 1 said so.
'Bosh! Follow me and never fear
IN going to show you the stuff that
makes the mare go!'
Money!"
"No-something better"
l was stumbling along behind him
and could only hear part of what he
It's what told you about-the basic
principle OF levitatiOn. It's the lifting
power in the airship-the gases from
The combination of radium-and-Alex-
Hndrite - and - and - mechanically and
Chemically-treated-an
tripped over a Jagged rock and
couldn't hear what followed. Such
words as the magic of the lamas,'"
control of the masses." ''etheric cur
rents" electric impact" and "odic
force" were some Of those l did hear.
There were others which l did not un-
derstand, still others that failed to i'm
filled with the thought of how we
should ever escape If left there in the
dark-I knew the oil in the miserable
butter lamp could not hold out long.
Then, turning to the right, Gwynne
led the way into chamber which was
truly remarkable. The walls were self
luminous. and there was every indica-
ton that it had been hewn out of the
deed, upon every side were the marks
of the crowbar and the pick Low
vaulted, vet spacious enough, semicirCu-
Jar in form. light
For a moment we stopped to gaze at
the shimmering walls around US.
Gwynnc set his lantern behind pro-
lection. but its light was hardly missed.
The largest deposit in the world"
he said.
asked what he intended to do about
st.
What the pundits have been doing
for hundreds of years" He was turn
ing over some gOatskin gunnies with his
foot, already half filled with the product
Of the mine. See! those fellows were
in the midst Of loading, when the dread
specter of the Himalayas attacked them.
Peter, the mineral embedded in these
walls, properly treated, is going to
revolutionize the art of flying. Like
yeast. there is a germ that grows, that
spreads, that takes possession of the
whole. 1t is the life of these myriads of
organisms that is to solve the problem
of flight, for in their very substance is
an energy that neutraTizes the power of
Eravitation. 1t is a fact that l diSCov-
cred on my last visit"
you've been here before, them
Yes with the Narney girls. They
knew of it-wondered at the marvels
they had witnessed and asked me to
explain them. l did my best to do so.
] made various experiments in the dead
or night, when the laTlaS were asleep. |
discovered the strange properties of
the mineral-formulated plan of flight, |
hut had not the apparatus or means OF
obtaining it. II was impossible to escape |
with the girls with the means at our
disposal, so l carried a small sack OF
the material with me, resolved upon |
building an air-ship and coming back |
for them. l had not thought 1t all out |
then, but ] knew ] must be disguised in |
one way or another If l hoped to get |
n have
kept my word"
You have kept your word. but they !
haven't kept theirs"
They will. The lamasery is so vast, |
there are SO many hundreds, perhaps |
thousands, of inmates. that they may |
not Know OF our arrival. Have pa
uence."
asked how It was that we had not
even accidentally come across either of
them. He replied that it was doubtless
due to the lamas' fear that they would
be stolen. for since they had discovered |
my effort to do So they had undoubt-
them, forbidding them to appear in
the presence of strangers. This, of
course, was surmise, but 1t seemed
reasonable.
A minute more, and we were both at
work picking this living substance from
the walls with the tools which our pre-
decessors had left there--There was
something unCanny in the work. The
CLEAN was intermittent playing, dane
ing shimmeIing. Like the glow of
phosphorus or lightning in embryo, it
spread in Uniformed sheets-creeping
from spot to spot-from roof to floor.
Phantom-ike,i 1T formed weird faces in the
irregularities of the rock, fingered for
minute, went out in the biackness, and
came again. Never was the wall en-
urely dark, never entirely light. Always
crawling growing, fading, winking, 1t
was a sight not easily forgotten. When
] remembered that this was a subter-
ranean chamber, forever buried from
the light of day,in the depths of the
Himalayan mountains, l was awed.
Even here the sullen roar of the Tsan-
po met our ears, though shut out from
sight by impenetrable walls of bed
rock. Whether it was above or below
us-to the right or left-I knew not.
Gwynne said II was not far away, and
the thunder of the cataract made the
ground tremble the chamber scintillate
with greater mystery.
1t was not necessary to carry with us
vast stores of this charmed mineral
owing to the yeasty properties Gwynne
said II possessed under proper treat
ment Indeed, the little stock We had
brought would have been sufficient had
not the laws Of its reproduction been
violated by the altitude, which had cut
short the atmospheric and etheric eQui-
librium-conditions necessary to the
reorganization and rehabilitation of the
parts when exhausted.
1t was hard work, the picks were
heavy, and much of the best and
brightest OF the mineral was lodged