The Washington times., 1918-06-09
Synopsis of Preceding
Chapters.

=
= at the death Of his young wife
= = sends him on a voyage to the
South Seas. Here with his friends,
Basin and Buckley, he is wrecked and
cast ashore on the island of Orofena.
Trouble with the natives causes the
three Englishmen to seek a more
sequestered retreat on a mysterious
island in a lake.
Here they find evidences of an
ancient civilization, and in a cavern
are two luminous collins containing a
godlike old man and a wondrously
lovely young woman. These are Orc
and his daughter WA. Orc, once king
of the known world, was defied by his
people and, finally, forced to seek
refuge in the subterranean city of
Nyo. When a young Prince came to
offer terms of peace, he also asked for
the hand of WA. This so enraged Orc
that he killed the Prince and sub
merged the known world. thus causing
new lands to arise from the sea. Then
WA and he entered their crystal cof-
fins to sleep for two hundred and fifty
thousand years.
Orc confesses to the three friends
that he fears death, but he rejects the
parson, Bastin's, idea of eternal life as
one of servitude. He VOWS he will rule
in time rather than serve in eternity.
While Arbuthnot is ill he dreams that
his dead wife and WA are the same
person. As he nears recovery. Orc
visits him secretly and by a method
of his own takes Arbuthnot to visit the
countries that are now. at war. Here
amid scenes of brutality and carnage
he finds little of efficiency or nobility
and declares he will again destroy the
world and build a new one to please
himself.
Orc offers WA to Arbuthnot in ex-
change for his assistance in his
schemes, but is refused. Later, when
WA and Humphrey acknowledge their
mutual love, he is appalled, by her sug-
gestion that they will soon be sepa-
rated. She tells him that he is the
Prince whom Orc slew and that she
is his wife Natalie. reincarnated, and
that they two shall belong to each
other through all eternity. She as
sures him that true love shall win its
way at last. Orc commands the three
friends to appear at Nyo. They dare
not refuse. At the time appointed,
WA appears and conducts them below,
where Orc awaits them.
After showing them evidences of his
marvellous power Orc announces that
he is about TO submerge the world by
shifting the balance of the earth at a
certain moment, which he alone knows.
The fatal time is fast approaching.
Again Orc pleads with Arbuthnot TO
reconsider his decision, but. to no
avail. Ruthless, Orc now prepares to
carry out his threat, but at the crucial
moment WA throws herself between
him and the flaming gyroscope which
Orc intended to direct on its path of
destruction. Horror stricken, the
three friends watch while WA, like a
flaming angel wrapped in fire, is swept
outward and upward until she vanishes
forever from their sight. Heart
broken, Arbuthnot and his friends seek
a road of escape out of these unholy
caves to the upper air, and after a long
and weary journey they find them
selves upon the island of Orofena.
Here they are once more taken in
charge by Mariana, the chief, who
shows them that the great cone of a
neighboring volcano had been sunk by
a recent convulsion into the waters
Of the lake.