The Washington times., 1918-06-09
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Basin Discovers a Resemblance
THERE is little more to tell.

teered for service at the front and de-
parted in the uniform Of the R. A. NJ. C.
Before he left, he took the opportunity Of
explaining to Basin how much better It
was in such a national emergency as ex.
listed, to belong to a profession in which
a man could do something to help the
bodies Of his countrymen that had been
broken in the common cause. than to one
like his in which it was only possible to
pelt them with vain words
you think that do you. Bickley?" an
swered Basin. well, I hold that it is
better to heal souls than bodies. because
as even you will have learned out there
in Orofena, they last so much longer"
Il am not certain that l learned any
thing Of the Sort" said Buckley. cor even
that Orc was more than an ordinary old
man. He said that he had lived a thou
sand years, but what was there to prove
this except his word. which is wortA
nothing?"
you forget that there was the Lady
WAS word also, which is worth a great
deal, Buckley"
Yes. but she may have meant thou
sand moons. Further, as according to her
own showing, she was still quite young.
how could she know her fathers age?"
quite so. Buckley. But all she actually
said was that she was of the same age as
one of our women of twenty-seven, which
may have meant two hundred and seventy
for all l know. However, putting that
aside. you will admit that they both slept
for two hundred and fifty thousand years"
Il admit they slept, Basin, because
helped to awaken them, but for how long
there is nothing to show except those star
maps, which for all you or / know are
probably quite inaccurate"
They are not inaccurate" broke in.
''for l have had them checked by leading
astronomers, who say that they show a
marvellous knowledge Of the heavens as
they were two hundred and fifty thousand
years ago and are to-day, also!"
Here 1 should state that those two
metal maps and the ring which gave to
WA and found again after the catastrophe,
were absolutely the only things connected
with her or with Orc that we brought
away with US. The former / never part
with, feeling their value as evidence
Therefore, when we descended to the
city Nyo and the depths beneath, l took
them with me. carefully wrapped in cloth
in my pocket Thus they we're preserved.
Everything else went with the Rock of
Offerings when the cave mouth sank be-
meath the waters of the lake.
This may have happened either in the
earth tremor which no doubt was caused
by the advance of the terrific world-bal-
ance, or when the electric power, though
diffused and turned aside by WAS body,
struck the great horoscopes travelling foot
with sufficient force, not to shift it indeed
on to the right hand path as Orc had de-
signed. but still to cause it to stagger and
even, perhaps. to halt for the fraction Of
a second.
Even so slight a pause may have been
enough to cause commissions Of the earth
Immediately above; indeed. I gathered
from Mariana and other Orofenans that
such commissions had occurred on and
around the island at what must have cor
with this particular moment Of
the loosing of the force.
This loss of our belongings in the house
on the Rock of Offerings was the more
grievous because among them were some
kodak photographs which l had taken, in
Guiding portraits of Orc and one of WA
that was really excellent, to say nothing
OF pictures of the mouth of the cave and
Of the ruins and crater lake above. How
bitterly regret that l did not keep these
in my pocket with the map
plates.
Even if the star maps are correct"
said Buckley, combatively. still it proves
since Oro's astronomical skill
might have enabled him to draw that of
the sky at any period"
Il doubt his taking so much trouble
merely to deceive three wanderers who
lacked the knowledge even to check them
said
But all this misses the point Buckley"
! continued. However long they had slept.
hat man and woman did arise II I'm seem
ng death. They most certainly did dwell
in those marvellous caves with heir I'M
evidences Of departed civiliza-
ions and they did show us that fearful,
TorId-wandering gyroscope. These things
,Ou know we saw"
81 admit that we saw them, Arbuthnot,
7