A Strange DISCOVERY

By

Charles Romyn Dake

(1889)

HOW WE FOUND DIRK PETERS

The FIRST Chapter

It was once my good fortune to assist in a discovery of some importanceto lovers of literature, and to searchers after the new and wonderful. As nearly a quarter of a century has since elapsed, and as two othersshared in the discovery, it may seem to the reader strange that thegeneral public has been kept in ignorance of an event apparently so fullof interest. Yet this silence is quite explicable; for of the threeparticipants none has heretofore written for publication; and of my twoassociates, one is a quiet, retiring man, the other is erratic andforgetful. 

It is also possible that the discovery did not at the time impresseither my companions or myself as having that importance and widespreadinterest which I have at last come to believe it really possesses. Inany view of the case, there are reasons, personal to myself, why it wasless my duty than that of either of the others to place on record thefacts of the discovery. Had either of them, in all these years, in everso brief a manner, done so, I should have remained forever silent. 

The narrative which it is my purpose now to put in written form, I haveat various times briefly or in part related to one and another of myintimate friends; but they all mistook my facts for fancies, andgood-naturedly complimented me on my story-telling powers--which wascertainty not flattering to my qualifications as an historian. 

With this explanation, and this extenuation of what some persons maythink an inexcusable and almost criminal delay, I shall proceed. 

In the year 1877 I was compelled by circumstances to visit the States. At that time, as at the present, my home was near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. My father, then recently deceased, had left, in course of settlement inAmerica, business interests involving a considerable pecuniaryinvestment, of which I hoped a large part might be recovered. My lawyer, for reasons which seemed to me sufficient, advised that the act ofsettlement should not be delegated; and I decided to leave at once forthe United States. Ten days later I reached New York, where I remainedfor a day or two and then proceeded westward. In St. Louis I met some ofthe persons interested in my business. There the whole transaction tooksuch form that a final settlement depended wholly upon the agreementbetween a certain man and myself; but, fortunately for the fate of thisnarrative, the man was not in St. Louis. He was one of those wealthyso-called "kings" which abound in America--in this case a "coal king. " Iwas told that he possessed a really palatial residence in St. Louis--where he _did not_ dwell; and a less pretentious dwellingdirectly in the coal-fields, where, for the most of his time, he _did_reside. I crossed the Mississippi River into Southern Illinois, and verysoon found him. He was a plain, honest business man; we did not splithairs, and within a week I had in my pocket London exchange forsomething like £20, 000, he had in his pocket a transfer of my interestin certain coal-fields and a certain railroad, and we were bothsatisfied. 

And now, having explained how I came to be in surroundings to me sostrange, any further mention of business, or of money interests, shallnot, in the course of this narrative, again appear. 

I had arrived at the town of Bellevue, in Southern Illinois, on a brightJune morning, and housed myself in an old-fashioned, four-story brickhotel, the Loomis House, in which the proprietor, a portly, ruddy-faced, trumpet-voiced man, assigned to me an apartment--a spacious cornerroom, with three windows looking upon the main thoroughfare and two upona side street, and a smaller room adjoining. 

[Illustration: _The_ LOOMIS HOUSE. ]

Here, even before the time came when I might have returned to Englandhad I so desired, I acquired quite a home-like feeling. The first twodays of my stay, as I had travelled rapidly and was somewhat wearied, Iallotted to rest, and left my room for little else than the customarytri-daily visits to the _table d'hôte_. 

During these first two days I made many observations from my windows, and asked numberless questions of the bell-boy. I learned that a certainold, rambling, two-story building directly across the side street wasthe hotel mentioned by Dickens in his "American Notes, " and in the lowerpassage-way of which he met the Scotch phrenologist, "Doctor Crocus. "The bell-boy whom I have mentioned was the factotum of the Loomis House, being, in an emergency, hack-driver, porter, runner--all by turns, andnothing long at a time. He was a quaint genius, named Arthur; and hisposition, on the whole, was somewhat more elevated than that of ourEnglish "Boots. " During these two days I became quite an expert in theinvention of immediate personal wants; for, as I continued my studies oflocal life from the windows of my apartment, I frequently desiredinformation, and would then ring my bell, hoping that Arthur would bethe person to respond, as he usually was. He was an extremely profaneyouth, but profane in a quiet, drawling, matter-of-fact manner. He wasfrequently semi-intoxicated by noon, and sometimes quite inarticulate by9 P. M. ; but I never saw him with his bodily equilibrium seriouslyimpaired--in plainer words, I never saw him stagger. He openly confessedto a weakness for an occasional glass, but would have repelled withscorn, perhaps with blows, an insinuation attributing to him excess inthat direction. True, he referred to times in his life when he had been"caught"--meaning that the circumstances were on those occasions such asto preclude any successful denial of intoxication; but these occasions, it was implied, dated back to the period of his giddy youth. 

With little to occupy my mind (I had the St. Louis dailies, one of whichwas the best newspaper--excepting, of course, our _Times_--that I haveever read; but my trunks did not arrive until a day or two later, and Iwas without my favorite books), I became really interested in studyingthe persons whom I saw passing and repassing the hotel, or stopping toconverse on the opposite street-corners; and after forming surmisesconcerning those of them who most interested me, I would ask Arthur whothey were, and then compare with my own opinions the truth as furnishedby him. 

There was a quiet, well-dressed young man, who three or four times eachday passed along the side street. Regarding him, I had formed andaltered my opinion several times; but I finally determined that he was aclergyman in recent orders and just come to town. When I asked Arthurwhether I was correct in my surmise, he answered:

"Wrong again--that is, on the fellow's business"--I had not before madean erroneous surmise; but on the contrary, had shown great penetrationin determining, at a single glance for each of them, two lawyers and abanker--"Yes, sir, wrong again; and right again, too. His name's DoctorBainbridge, and he's fool enough to come here with the town just alivewith other sawbones. He's some kind of a 'pathy doctor, come here tolearn us how to get well on sugar and wind--or pretty near that bad. Hedon't give no medicine worth mentionin', he keeps his hoss so fat hecan't trot, and he ain't got no wife to mend his clothes. They say he'sgettin' along, though; and old farmer Vagary's boy that had 'em, told mehe was good on fits--but I don't believe _that_, for the boy had theworst fit in his life after he told me. The doctor said--so theytell--as that was jest what he expected, and that he was glad the fitcame so hard, for it show'd the medicine was workin'. "

My attention was particularly attracted to a man who daily, in factalmost hourly, stood at an opposite corner, and who frequently arrived, or drove away, in a buggy drawn by two rather small, black, spiritedhorses. He was a tall, lithe, dark-complexioned man, with black eyes, rather long black hair, and a full beard; extremely restless, andconstantly moving back and forth. He addressed many passers-by, a fairproportion of whom stopped to exchange a word with him. In the latterinstance, however, the exchange was scarcely equitable, as he did thetalking, and his remarks, judging by his gestures of head and hand, weregenerally emphatic. 

One of the apparently favorite positions which he assumed was to throwan arm around the corner gas-post, and swing his body back and forth, occasionally, when alone, taking a swing entirely around the post. Another favorite position was to stand with his fists each boring intothe hollow of his back over the corresponding hip, with his chest andshoulders thrown well back, and his head erect, looking steadily offinto the distance. With regard to this man's station in life, I tooklittle credit to myself for a correct guess; for, in addition to otheraids to correct guessing, the store-room on that corner was occupied byan apothecary. When I asked Arthur whether the man was not a physician, "Yes, sir, " he replied; "physician, surgeon, and obstetrician; George F. Castleton, A. M. , M. D. _He_ ought to get a dry-goods box and atorch-light, and sell 'Hindoo Bitters' in the Public-square. If youjest want to die quick, you know where to go to get it. That fellowsalivated me till my teeth can't keep quiet. Oh, he knows it all!Medicine ain't enough to fill his intellecty. _He_ runs the Governmentand declares war to suit himself. 'Moves around a great deal, ' you say?Well, I believe you; but when you see his idees move around you'll quitsighing about his body. Why, sir, that man in a campaign changes hispolitics every day; nobody ever yet caught up with his religion; andbesides, he's a prophet. You jest get back home without touchin' _him_, if you love me, now, please do. "

All of this was said in a quiet, instructive tone, without much show offeeling even when the teeth were mentioned, and only such emphasis ashas been indicated by my italics. Arthur's advice for me to get homewithout "touching" the doctor, I had no intention of following. Mycuriosity regarding the man was aroused, and I had determined, ifpossible, to know him. So far as one could be influenced from athird-story window, I was favorably impressed with him. I judged him tobe superlatively erratic, but without an atom of real evil in his being. I had observed from my window an incident that gave me a glance into theman's heart. A poor, dilapidated, distressed negro, evidently seekinghelp, had come running up to him as he stood near his buggy, at thecorner; and the manner in which he pushed the negro into the buggy, himself followed, and then started off at a break-neck speed, left nodoubt in my mind that the doctor had a heart as large as the wholeworld. Once or twice during the long, warm afternoons, his words came tome through the open windows. I was aware that his almost preternaturallybright, quick eyes flashed a glance or two at me as I once or twicestepped rather close to an open window looking out over the lowerroof-tops beyond; and I felt that he had given me a niche in his mind, as I had him in mine. I wondered if he had formed mental estimates of mystatus, and if so whether he had attempted to corroborate them as did Imine, through Arthur. Once I heard him say to a small, craven-lookingman, apparently feeble in mind and in body, with red, contracted, watering eyes, "Yes, sir, if I had been Sam Tilden, the blood in thesestreets would have touched your stirrups"--the little man had nostirrups--"This country is trembling over an abyss deeper'n the infernalregions. Ha, ha! What a ghastly burlesque on human freedom! Now, harkyou, Pickles"--the small man was not only listening, but, I couldimagine, trembling. He would now and then look furtively around, as iffearing that somebody else might hear the doctor, and that war wouldbegin--"listen to me: 'Hell has no fury like a nation scorned. '" HereDoctor Castleton shot a glance at the little man, to see whether or notso fine a stroke was appreciated, and whether his quotation was or wasnot passing as original. "I repeat, 'Hell has no fury like a nationscorned'--_Nation_, you hear, Pickles--_nation_, not woman. There isjust one thing to save this crumbling Republic; give us more papermoney--greenbacks on greenbacks, mountain high. Let the Government rentby the month or lease by the year every printing-press in thecountry--let the machinery sweetly hum as the sheets of treasury-notesfall in cascades to the floor, to be cut apart, packed in bundles, andsent to any citizen who wants them on his own unendorsednote--_un_endorsed, Pickles, and at two per cent. ! Ever study logic, Pickles? No! Well, no matter; my brain's full enough of the stuff forboth of us. If the American citizen is honest--which I opine that heis--the scheme will work like a charm; if he is _dis_honest--which Godforbid, and let no man assert--then let the country sink--and the soonerthe better. I pity the imbecile that can't see this point. Thepeople--and _is_ this country for the _people_, or is it not?--followme, Pickles: the people obtain plenty of money, the stores get it, thefactories and importers get it, and commerce hums. " Here the doctor wasfor a moment diverted by some objective impression; and without a wordof excuse to the little man, he swung himself into his buggy, whichstood waiting, and drove rapidly away; whilst the diminutive man, aftera moment of weak indecision, shuffled off down the street. I laterlearned that these talks of Doctor Castleton's were, as regards theelement of verity, thrown off as writers of fiction throw off fancies. Sometimes he defended opinions that were in fierce conflict with theideas of his auditors; but he generally talked to please them, frequently assuming as his own, and in exaggerated form, the hobbies, notions, or desires of his auditors. In the incident just recorded, thedoctor probably had not, as a matter of fact, been stating his realopinions, though for the moment he may have imagined that he was anuncompromising "Paper-money man" or "Greenbacker, " as a member of one ofthe minor political parties of the day was termed: the little man waspoor, and Doctor Castleton had simply been drawing for him a picture ofdelights--at least, so I conjectured. This propensity of the doctorsometimes led to startling surprises and results, and, once at least, toa discovery of weighty consequence--as we shall soon perceive. 

It was novelty for me, and under the circumstances often quiterefreshing, to witness the manner in which Americans treated the mightysubjects of life, and spoke of the great and powerful persons of theearth. It was an abundant source of entertainment for me to ask almostanybody with whom I happened to be conversing, for his opinion on somegreat subject or of some noted personage; for the reply was always to meunique, sometimes very amusing, and not infrequently instructive. On theway for the second time from our evening meal to my room, I stopped fora moment in the "Gentlemen's sitting-room, " where I in part overheard aconversation between an elderly and a middle-aged man. I afterwardlearned that the younger man was a lawyer, by name Lill; that he waswell known throughout the State, a man of cultivation, very conventionalin his private life, but an unequivocal dissenter on almost every greatsocial question; a man of high honor, and unquestionable personalhabits, for whom exalted public office had often waited if only he couldhave modified his expressed opinions to less inharmony with those of menwho held the reins of power. It seemed that these two men had not metfor a year or more; and as I entered the room they were comparingexperiences, in a leisurely, confidential, sympathetic way. As I camewithin hearing, the lawyer had just started in afresh, after a laugh anda pause. Settling-down his features, and assuming a more-news-to-be-told manner, with a pinch of fine-cut tobacco between finger andthumb ready to go into his mouth, and leaning slightly forward to keepthe tobacco-dust from his shirt-front, he said, "Well, David, I read theBible through again last winter, and I must continue to think it a veryimmoral book. Its teaching is really bad. Why, sir, what would you thinkof such d---d outrageous teaching if anybody were at this time topromulgate it with an implication of any practical relation to presentevents?" And so he continued, somewhat, though not greatly, to thehorror of his companion, who seemed to be a Christian--at least bydescent. On another day, after the mid-day meal, as I again entered thisroom, I observed a new-comer in conversation with what I took to be asmall delegation of Bellevue business men. I was afterward presented tothis new arrival, when I learned that his name was Rowell--GeneralRowell; a name which I thought I had seen in the newspapers at home. Hewas a large man of prepossessing appearance, and gave me the impressionof considerable mental force and activity. I heard him say to hisvisitors--the words apparently closing a conference: "Yes, gentlemen, ifI come to Bellevue, and we build a nail mill in your city, I ask onlyfive years time in which to make our mill the largest nail-works in theworld. " For a moment, as I heard this remark, it passed through my mindthat I was in the presence of an excellent example of an amusing type ofAmerican life; but the momentary thought was erroneous. This man was oneof a type of American--well, of American promoters, I will say--thebusiness plans of whom, though mammoth and audacious, rarely fail--thegenuine article of which the Colonel Sellerses are but pitifulimitators. In this instance, the promise was fulfilled, with a year ortwo to spare. The right to express personal opinion was looked upon asone of the fruits of '76, and the value of such opinion seemed to bemeasured almost wholly on its merits--even to a laughable extent. Forinstance, this lawyer, or Doctor Castleton, or any other American whom Imet, whatever he might privately have thought on the subject, would notfor a moment have claimed that his opinion was innately superior to thatof, for instance, the factotum, Arthur. A man seemed to have, also, aninalienable right to be a snob; but I saw in America only one man whoutilized that privilege. I heard an Ex-Governor of the State expresshimself on this subject by the concise remark, "We have no law _here_against a man making a d----d fool of himself. " It's "Abe" for thePresident of the Republic, "Dick" for the Governor of the State, and soon, all the way through. But no one should imagine that admiration aswell as respect for the truly great of the land is less than it is wherea man with four names and two inherited titles receives greater homagethan does one with only three names and one title. Customs differ indifferent lands--a trite remark; but it is about all that can be said onthe subject: after all, human feeling is not extremely different indifferent lands, when we once get back of mere form. 

I might illustrate a part of my statement by relating an incident whichoccurred on my third day in the hotel, and just prior to my emergencefrom seclusion into the midst of the busy little city. I was in mysitting-room, and Arthur had brought in a pitcher of ice-water, placingit on a table. Then he paused and looked toward me, as if expecting theusual question on some subject connected with my surroundings. But atthe time I had nothing to ask. After a moment of quiet, Arthur spoke:

"Did you see the Prince lately?" he inquired. I had by this time grownso accustomed to Arthur's mode of thought and lingual expression, thateven this question did not greatly surprise me. I supposed that thequery was made on the first suggestion of an alert mind desirous ofstarting a little agreeable conversation, and wishing to be sociablewith a "two-room" guest. He immediately continued:

"I hope he's well. I met him, you know, when he was over here, sev'ralyears ago, gettin' idees for his kingdom. "

I began to feel amused. Arthur was not a liar, and anything but a bore:he struck me as being truthful on all subjects except that of hisbibulous weakness--a subject on which he was, perhaps naturally, notable to form accurate notions. 

"Where did you meet His Highness, Arthur?" I asked. 

"Oh, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. I was only eight then. They wouldn'tlet boys in the hotel to see him, and there was so many big-wigs aroundthe young man, I couldn't get to see him at first. But after a whilethey all got out in front of the hotel, to get into their carriages. They had to wait a few minutes, but I couldn't get in front to see him. The hotel hall was empty by that time, and everybody was looking at thePrince; so I hurried through the barber-shop into the side hall; slippedalong into the main hall, to the main entrance. I was not more than tenor twelve feet from the Prince, but I was at the back of the crowd; so Ijest got down on all-fours, and crawled in between their legs. I gotclear up to the Prince, but a big man stood on each side of him, rightclose up. For a minute I thought I was worse off than ever. Then Inoticed that the Prince had his legs a little separate--his knees weremaybe six inches apart, with one leg standin' ahead of the other. I wasa little fellow, even for eight; and I saw my chance. I ran my head inbetween his knees and twisted my body and neck so as to look right upinto his face, as he looked down to see what rubbed against him. Helooked kind of funny when he saw my face down there, but not a bit mad;and he could easy have hurt me, but he didn't. I drew back my head soquick that nobody else saw me. I often wonder if the Prince remembersme; and I wish you'd ask him when you go home. Since I grew up, I'veoften felt ashamed to think I did it. If you think of it, and it ain'ttoo much trouble, please tell him that we know better in the UnitedStates than to do such things, but that I was little then, and I musthave been ignorant of ettiket, my father bein' dead, and I havin' tostay out of school to help make money. If you will, say I hope there'sno feelin'; and when you think of it, drop me a line, please. "

The SECOND Chapter

A week had elapsed since my arrival in Bellevue. I had been introducedto Doctor Castleton, and had exchanged a few words with him. I had alsolistened to several of his street-corner talks, and my interest in himfrom day to day had increased. This interest must have been reciprocal, for he seemed to look for my coming; but then, in whom was he notinterested? I liked him for his real goodness, was entertained by hiserratic ways, and admired his intellectual brightness. Never before hadI come in contact with a mind at once so spontaneous and so versatile. It was perhaps his most striking peculiarity, that he seemed always tobe looking for something startling to occur; and in a dearth of the newand sensational from without, he produced excitement for the communityfrom within. The weather, for instance, was growing warmer, and thesummer was apparently to be a sultry one: hence, before the season wasended we were to look for the most sweeping epidemics of disease; acomet had been sighted by one of our comet-hunters, and we were all tosay later whether or not it would have been better if we'd never beenborn, and so on, and so on. His mind teemed with a prescience of theplans and plots of statesmen, of bureaucrats, and of "plutocrats":Germany was going to overshadow Europe, and "grind all beneath it like aglacier"; "France was about to strike back at Prussia, and the blowwould be felt in the trembling of the earth from Pole to Pole. " Yetthis, I thought, was to the man himself all fiction--the froth on thelimpid and sparkling depths beneath--the overflow of a bright, undisciplined mind amid the stagnation of a country town. This strangeman would not intentionally have brought actual injury upon even anenemy--if he ever had a real enemy; he was at heart, and generally inpractice, as kind as a gentle woman. But he seemed unable to existwithout mental super-activity; and the sympathy of his fellows in hismental gyrations was to him a constant necessity. Few of the personswhom he habitually met and who had leisure were able to discuss with himthe books he read, and not many of them cared even to hear him talk ofhis fresh literary accessions. He had, long ago, and many times, described for the benefit of the habitués of the corners, the career ofAlexander and of Napoleon, explaining what they had done, and how theyhad done it, and _why_; with instances in which the execution of theirplans had met with failure, the reasons for that failure, and themethods by which, if _he_ had been them, success might easily have beenattained. An ancient-looking apothecary, with an old "Rebel bushwhacker"and a painter out of work who "loafed" of evenings in, or in front of, the corner apothecary shop, had stood gap-mouthed at these recitationsuntil the mine of wonders had been to the last grain exhausted. Still, excitement must be procured for them. The doctor could better havedispensed for a day with food for the body, than to have foregoneexcitement for the mind; and if a majority of his auditors were also tobe gratified, the subject-matter must be strong and novel, must beboldly produced, and, by preference, should be of local interest. As thedoctor himself delighted in surprises of a terrifying or horrifyingnature, it was unlikely that his inventions in that direction would becharacterized by tameness. He would not, when hard pressed on a dullday, allow a fastidious care of even his own reputation to impede thedevelopment of one of his surprises. If the town of Bellevue was tostagnate mentally, it would not be the fault of George F. Castleton, A. M. , M. D. 

It was on the eighth day of my stay in Bellevue, that, on starting forthfrom the hotel one morning, I saw Doctor Castleton standing before theLoomis House, in one of his favorite attitudes--that is, with his headand shoulders thrown back and his hands upon his hips--looking intentlyat a young man who stood speaking with an aged farmer across the way, near the street curbing--a harmless-looking youth, with dark blue eyes, and straight, very dark hair--in fact, the clerical-looking young manwhom I had seen from my windows. Something in the man's make-up--perhapssomething in his attire--suggested the stranger in town. DoctorCastleton's large black eyes flashed irefully, and he was evidentlygratified at my approach. A complete stranger in my place might havethought his arrival opportune, and have looked upon himself as adiverting instrument in higher hands employed to prevent bloodshed. As Istopped by the doctor's side, he said, with ill-suppressed agitation, "That d----d villain over there has got to leave town. He calls himselfa doctor, but I have set in motion the wheels of the law of this greatState of Illinois, and I'll expose the infernal rascal. " Then, with adark, knowing look at me, he hissed (though none of his preceding wordshad been audible across the street), "An 'Irregular, ' sir--cursedsugar-and-water quack--a figure 9 with the tail rubbed off. Why, sir"(in a more conversational but still emphatic tone), "_I_ have givensixty grains of calomel at a dose, and I have given a tenth of a grainof calomel at a dose; I would give a man a hundred grains of quinine, and I have done it; I have" (and here he took from his pocket a smallround lozenge or button of bone) "--I have bored into the brains ofman--into the Corinthian Capital of Mortality, so to speak. When thatman" (pointing with his right forefinger to the circle of bone in hisleft palm) "was kicked in the head by his mule, three of my colleagueswere on the scene before me--standing around like old women, doingnothing. _I_ have elaborate instruments, sir--I don't read any morebooks--the world's literature is here" (tapping his forehead). "I'vethought too much to care for other men's ideas. Like old women, I wassaying, sir. 'Give me a poker, ' I yelled--' give me anything. ' I sentfor my trephine. Great God, how the blood flew, and the bone creaked! Iraised the depressed bone. The man lives. I've done everything, in mylife. And now a cursed quack comes to town--. Where's his wife? Isay--where's his suffering children?--Don't tell me, anybody, that theman's not married, and run away from his suffering wife. Take his trail;glide like the wily savage back over his course, and mark me, sir, you'll trace the pathway of a besom of destruction: weeping mothers, broken-hearted fathers, daughters bowed in the dust. What's he here for?Why didn't he stay where he was? But I'll drive him out of town--youwill see--bag and baggage: the wires are set--the avalancheapproaches--he is doomed. "

Two days later, at the same spot, I came upon Doctor Castleton inconversation with the harmless-looking young man, to whom the doctorformally presented me. The name of the young man, as stated byCastleton, and as I already knew, was "Doctor Bainbridge. " We exchangeda few words, he extended to me an invitation to call upon him, and heaccepted an urgent request from me to visit me at the hotel. As my stayin America would probably last but a few days longer, I proposed thatthe evening of that same day be selected as the time for his visit, andto this proposal he readily assented. Then, with a quiet smile, he bowedand left us. As he walked away Doctor Castleton remarked, "That young man is a genius, sir. Belongs to the Corinthian Capital ofMortality. Trust me, sir, he's the coming man in this town. He will be apower here, in the years to come. I read a man, sir, as you would read abook. "

I then invited Doctor Castleton to come to my rooms that evening, evenif he could spare no more than a few moments; and he promised to come, "Though, " he said, "I may not be able more than to run in, and run outagain. " Bainbridge, the new Bellevue candidate for medical practice, could devote his hours as he should elect; but Castleton, "for twentyyears the guardian of the lives of thousands, " must abstract, as best hemight, a few minutes from the onerous duties entailed by the exactingwishes of his many invalid patrons. 

Later in the day, I made arrangements for a little luncheon to be servedthat evening in my rooms. There was something about this Bainbridge thatimpelled me to know him better. I had already made up my mind that Ishould like him: his were those clear blue eyes that calmly seemed tounderstand the world around--truth-loving eyes. He had to my mind theappearance of a person with large capacity for physical pleasure, yetthat of one who possessed complete control over every like and dislikeof his being. I at first took him to be extremely reticent; but later Ilearned, that, when the proper chord of sympathy was touched, heresponded in perfect torrents of spoken confidence. So I that eveningsat in the larger of my rooms--my "sitting-room"--in momentaryexpectation of the arrival of one or both of my invited guests. 

The THIRD Chapter

The hour was about eight. I had written a letter or two after our sixo'clock supper, and was now idle. By my side, in the centre of the room, stood a table on which lay several periodicals--monthly and weekly, English and American--a newspaper or two, and a few books. A rap came atmy door, and on opening it I found Doctor Bainbridge standing in thehallway. He wore a black "Prince Albert" coat, a high silk hat, and, theevening having blown-up chilly, a summer overcoat. I received himperhaps a little more warmly than was in the best of taste, consideringthat we had not before exchanged more than a dozen words. But I had, asI have said, frequently seen him from my window; he was almost as muchof a stranger in the town as was I, and I received him cordially becausemy feelings were really cordial. I assisted him to remove his coat, andin other ways did all in my power to make him comfortable. He was ofslightly more than medium height, of rather delicate build, with a fair, almost colorless complexion. His movements, his language, his attire, indicated the gentleman--this I should have conceded him in my club athome, or in my own drawing-room, quite as readily as here, alone, in anobscure hotel in the State of Illinois. As we sat conversing, I was muchsurprised to find in him a considerable degree of culture. He seemed topossess that particular air which we are accustomed to think, andgenerally with reason, is not to be found apart from a familiarity withmetropolitan life on its highest plane. I did not on that evening, nordid I later, think him thoroughly schooled, except in his profession. Hewas, however, fairly well educated, and his opinions seemed to me frommy own stand-point to be sound. I had observed, in a history of thecounty just from the press, which lay on a table in the office of thehotel, that in 1869 he had been graduated from an educationalinstitution somewhere in Pennsylvania; and, in 1873, from the MedicalDepartment of Columbia University. Later, I learned from himself, that, from the age of seven to the age of eleven, he had been instructed athome by a sister who was some nine or ten years his senior. 

I seated him with the large centre-table between us, and immediatelyopened the conversation on some topic of local interest. It is probablethat of the many persons whom I know and continue to like, that I likednine out of ten of them from our first meeting. Doctor Bainbridge hadnot been long in my presence before I knew that my first impressions ofhim were not deceptive; and I felt that his impression of myself wascertainly not unfavorable. 

It appeared to me as we talked through the evening, that he had readabout all that I had read, and much besides. He talked of English andFrench history with minute familiarity. Not only had he read English, French, and German literature, with such Spanish, Russian, and Italianworks as had been translated into English; but he shamed me with thethoroughness of his knowledge of Scott, Dickens, Bulwer, Thackeray, andothers of our best writers of fiction. Goethe he particularly admired. Of Cervantes he thought with the rest of us: He had read "Don Quixote, "for the first time, when he was eighteen, and during a severe illnessaccompanied with intense melancholia; and he had laughed himself out ofbed, and out of his melancholy. "Don Quixote" was, he said, the onlybook which he had ever read in solitude--that is, read to himself--whichhad compelled him to laugh aloud. Works of science, particularlyscientific works in the domain of physics, he delighted in. Hisimagination was of a most charming character. It was at that time in mylife almost a passion with me to analyze human nature--to theorize overthe motives and the results of human action; over the probable causes ofknown or assumed effects, and the reverse--in short, I thought myself aphilosopher. I have never met another person whom it so much interestedme to study as it did this young American. But after ample opportunityto know him, even now as I sit writing more than twenty years later, andI think of the pleasure of that temporary friendship in far-awayIllinois, I am puzzled about many things concerning Doctor Bainbridge. He certainly possessed a scientific mind. He himself said that he had novery great love for written poetry: had he a poetic mind? He loved thebeautiful in life: he loved symmetry in form, he loved harmony in color, he loved good music. And yet, though he had read the English-writingpoets, he seemed to care less for their work than for anything else inliterature. The thought of this inconsistency has perplexed me wheneverI have thought of it through all these years. As I have intimated, hewas charmed by the beautiful, and by every known expression of beauty;but for the strictly metrical in language-expression, he evinced almosta distaste. I have often thought that he had, through some peculiarcircumstance in his earlier life, acquired a suggestive dislike to thevery form of verse. To this peculiarity there was, however, exception, to which I am about to allude. 

By the time we had smoked out a cigar apiece, we were exchanging viewsand comments on such writers, English and American, as came to mind. Oneof the books that lay on my table was a copy of Byron; though most ofthe others were the works of American authors--Hawthorne, Irving, Longfellow, Poe, and one or two others. He had picked up my Byron, andglancing at it had remarked that if all the poets were like Byron hewould devote more time than he did to the reading of verse. I recall aremark that, with Byron's personality in mind, he made as he returnedthe book to the table. "Poor fellow!" he said. "But what are we toexpect of a man who had a volcano for a mother, and an iceberg for awife? A woman's character is largely formed by the quality of men thatenter into her life; a man's, even more so by the quality of women thatenter into his. I wonder if Byron ever intimately knew a true woman?--awoman at once intellectually and morally normal, in a good wholesomeway--a woman with a good brain and a warm heart? No man, in my opinion, is a really good man save through the influence of good women. "

It is impossible for me to recall much of what he said of the Americanauthors of whom we talked, with the exception of Poe; and there arereasons why I should clearly remember in substance, and almost in words, everything that was said of him. Of all writers, with one exception, Poeinterests me the most; and I judge that in interest, both as apersonality and as a literary artist, Doctor Bainbridge placed EdgarAllan Poe first and uppermost among those who have left to the world alegacy of English verse or prose. And this feeling was, I truly believe, in no measure influenced by Poe's nationality. If Bainbridge possessedany narrow national prejudices I never learned of them. 

He spoke rapturously of Poe as a poet--"The Raven, " as a matter ofcourse, receiving high praise: Of that unique and really grand poem, hesaid that he thought it the best in the English language. 

It was at this point in our conversation that he told me he rarely readverse; that he had, with certain exceptions, never done so with muchpleasure, but that in some way he had managed to read nearly all thenoted poetry published in our language. Still, he said, there were poemswhich absorbed and almost fascinated him. Of the English poets of thepresent century, Byron alone had written enough poetry to prove himselfa poet; and he explained that in his opinion the writing of anoccasional or chance poem, though the poem were true poetry, did notmake of the author a poet. Then he mentioned a poem which for more thana century has been by the critical world accepted as of the highestorder of true poetry. Gradually warming to the subject, he said:

"A poem like this is not to my mind poetry. Byron wrote true poetry, andsufficient of it in his short life to prove himself ten times over apoet. To compare this poem with Byron's poetry--say with parts of'Childe Harold, ' or 'The Prisoner of Chillon, ' or with some of hisshorter poems--would be like comparing the most perfect mechanicaldevice with a graceful animal--say the mechanical imitation of a tigeror a gazelle with the living original; the first a wonderfully movingpiece of machinery, illustrating the limit of human constructive power;perfectly under control, the movements smooth, unvarying, rhythmical, charming, excelling in agility and power its living prototype--butstill, scientific--to the discerning eye, artful. The other, somethingmore than rhythmical, more than smooth, beyond the control of humanagency, beyond the power of man to analyze as to synthetize--more thanscience can explain, more than even art dare claim. The one explicable, the other inexplicable; the one from the hand of patient skill--oftalent; the other a result of force mysterious, divine. The lions ofAlexius Comnenus, it is said, could roar louder than the lions of thedesert. "

"But what of Poe, and 'The Raven?'" I asked. 

"The surprising thing about 'The Raven' is, " he said, "and I assert onlywhat I believe to be from internal evidence demonstrable--first, thatthe poem arose out of a true poetic impulse of the soul; and, second, that it discloses the very highest art possible to a writer. Now I trulybelieve that the first writing of 'The Raven'--and, too, the stanzaswere probably not first written in their present publishedorder--conveyed Poe's poetic sense just as completely as the publishedpoem now does. But this was not sufficient for Edgar Allan Poe--for thescientific man, the artful man, the poetic genius with a genius forconcentrated mental toil in the effort to attain literary perfection. This makes 'The Raven' a curiosity in true poetic expression. "

"Then you believe, " I said, "that both the state of feeling from whichtrue poetry arises, and the particular words by which the feeling isconveyed, are inspired. "

"I do. But Poe was able actually to improve the language of inspiration, whilst transmitting uninjured the poetic conception. Those stanzas inGrey's 'Elegy' which convey from him to us the psychic wave of poeticimpulse, may have been hundreds of times altered in their wording, through seven years of tentative effort; and it is possible that hesucceeded in retaining the original feeling--the poem is certainlyartistic. But the feeling conveyed by Grey is commonplace enough, anyway; whilst that transmitted by Poe is wholly unique, and intenselyabsorbing--indeed, a startling revelation. I have always felt thatByron, Milton, Shakespeare, found within their souls their poetry, andthat the linguistic expression of it came to them as naturally as didthe feeling. "

"Such minds, " I said, "will always be a mystery to common mortals. "

"I take it, " replied Bainbridge, "that waves and wavelets of poeticfeeling are common enough among men--quite as common as mental picturesof beautiful material images; but the rarity is in the word-conception, which I hold must as a rule be spontaneous if it is to conveyunblemished the original feeling. The musical genius is able to conveyhis psychic impression in harmonious sounds; the true poet, in words. Tothe rest of us the process is, as you say, a mystery--we call itinspiration. 

"Take an isolated poem, such as under, say patriotic feeling, springsfrom the mind of one who never again writes poetry; does this not helpto prove my theory that all true poetry is a result of inspiration--isin its inception and in its word-expression quite extraneous to itsapparent author?

"To both my intellect and my feeling, 'The Raven' stands a beautifulmasterpiece, which, because it is both the product of a strange psychicstate and the work of intellect will probably be the last poem, of thosenow extant, to be admired by the human race when intellectualdevelopment and growth shall finally have driven from the lives and theminds of men all romance, all sentiment, all poetry, leaving to the raceonly intellect and will. "

After some further talk, and in reply to a statement of my own, Bainbridge said, "Of course I can speak only for myself; and for me there is music in thepoetry of Byron and of Poe, and there is the psychic effect of color. The rhythm in certain of their poems, with the arrangement ofword-sound, produces the saddest music possible, I think, to the soul ofman--a prevailing monotone so measured as to result in an effectdecidedly strange and quite indescribable. But the real peculiarity oftheir poetry--and in this Poe excels Byron--is a psychic effect the sameas that which remains after viewing certain pictures in black and white, the shade gradations of which are so artistic as to create an illusionof color--sombre, highly shaded, yet color. This color effect of Poe'spoetry I have felt very slightly, if at all, immediately on a firstreading, as I feel the music of his verse--a rereading, or the lapse oftime, being required for its full development. I have not read a line ofPoe in the last two or three years, and at the present moment I feel_Ulalume_ as I would some weird scene or picture viewed long ago. "

I asked him what particular color effects Poe's poetry produced in hismind, and he replied, "The impression of red I do not at all retain. That of black, more orless intense, is predominant; but the color effects of almost anyvariegated landscape--red being excluded, and the scene having beenviewed by moonlight, or in the dusk of evening, or possibly on a denselyclouded day--is at this moment alive within me. And yet, with a singleexception, I have never received from musical or other sounds a psychiccolor effect--the exception being that certain tones of a violin leavethe same mental impression as does the sight of purple. As I am notacquainted with the technical language of either painter or musician, Ican attempt to describe these effects only in common language. I speakfor myself only, and am anything but dogmatic on the subject of poetry. The symbolism of Poe's verse we must solve, each for himself. To me, formyself, the solution seems not difficult--and so no doubt says another;but on comparison these solutions would no doubt be very different. "

But highly as Bainbridge estimated Poe's verse, he placed Poe evenhigher among writers of prose fiction than among poets. As I have said, I am myself an admirer of Poe. His prose I have always thought the workof a true genius--something, as Doctor Bainbridge said, "more than art, aided by the most perfect art. " But when we came to speak of his prosewritings, Bainbridge was able to express in language all that I had feltof Poe, and to disclose and explain components of his genius that I hadnever before fully recognized. 

I then asked Bainbridge what it was in Poe's prose that he so muchadmired. 

"Poe's strong element of power as a writer of short stories, " saidBainbridge, "is, I think, his scientific imagination--the same capacity, strange as the statement may appear, that, when directed into anotherchannel, makes a great physicist. It strikes me as inaccurate to saythat Newton discovered the law of gravitation. Newton imagined the factof a law of physical gravitation; and then he proceeded to prove _the_law of gravitation, accomplishing the discovery by means of a secondattribute of genius--viz. , tireless mental energy--the possession of atalent for rigorous mental application and severe nervous strain. In thesense that Columbus discovered America--in that sense, Newton discoveredthe law of gravitation: Columbus imagined an America, and then proceededto make a physical demonstration of his belief by discovering theBahamas. The same faculty--scientific imagination--in Poe gave us 'ADescent into the Maelstrom, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, ' and other ofhis tales. And not alone in physics, but in metaphysics, did hisimagination open up to him just conceptions; so that in the field ofboth healthy and morbid mental action his 'intuitive' knowledge wasunerring. 'The Fall of the House of Usher' is so true to the real inconception, and so consummate in portrayal, that the more one knowsabout the mind, the more he inclines to wonder whether thesecompositions might not have been aided by actual personal experience. Yet these delineations are purely imaginative. Take 'The Imp of thePerverse, The Tell-Tale Heart, ' and similar of his stories, not all ofwhich could in reason have come within the experience of one man, andwhich are undoubtedly grounded upon intuitive suggestion. "

I asked him which of Poe's tales he thought the best. 

"That would indeed be difficult to determine, " he replied. "If thecriterion is to be my own intellectual enjoyment, I should mention one;if my feelings, then another. It is possible that I might select one inwhich my intellectual enjoyment, and my feelings pure and simple, wereabout equally engaged. We shall probably agree that the most importantobject of fiction is to produce in the reader a state of feeling, justas musical composition is intended to produce a state of feeling--theshort story being comparable with a brief musical production intended toproduce a single variety of emotion; the novel, to the music of an operawith its many parts, intended each to excite a particular state offeeling. Naturally prose fiction may, and almost necessarily does, haveother objects. Now the reading of 'The Fall of the House of Usher'produces a certain state of emotion, and that wholly apart from anyappeal to intellect; no endeavor to do more than produce that state offeeling is made, nothing more than that is effected, and that much isattained in a manner which no pen that has traced short-story fiction, save that of Poe, has ever accomplished. Hence, if the production offeeling--an appeal to the purely moral side of the triangle of mind--bethe paramount essential in fiction, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' isthe best short story in the English language. "

Here Doctor Bainbridge rose from his chair, and taking a turn or twoacross the floor, continued, in tones indicating vexation, "Why has not somebody with a ray of the imagination necessary to acomprehension of Poe's genius given us at least a decent sketch of hisbrief life! Was Poe in a state of mental aberration when he madeGriswold his literary executor? Is the world forever to hear of him onlyfrom those who see the dark side of his life and know nothing of hislife's work?--from those who look at his life and his life's workthrough the smoked glass of their dull provincial minds? Let us hope foran assay of what is left to us of Poe--an assay which, not whollyignoring the little dross, will still lose no grain of the pure, virgingold, and give to the world something approaching what is due to thegenius himself, and what, with such a subject, is due to the world. "

"Let me alter my question--or, I should say, ask a different one, " Isaid, when he had again seated himself: "Which of Poe's stories mostinterested you? From which did you receive the most satisfaction?"

"I have been more occupied and interested by 'The Narrative of A. GordonPym' than by any two or three of his other stories. "

I expressed surprise at this avowal; and my comments on what appeared tome to show a peculiar taste implied a desire for explanation. Hecontinued:

"Although 'The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym' has served as a suggestion, or even a pattern, for some of our best recent stories of adventure, andalthough it has many points of excellence in itself, it is not the storyalone, but the opportunity which the story affords of an analysis ofPoe's mind, that creates the greater interest for me. I have always beenpuzzled to find a reasonably adequate cause for the incomplete state ofthat narrative. The supposition that Poe had not at his disposal, at themoment he required it, the necessary time for its completion is anhypothesis which I only mention to dispose of. At its close he wrote andadded to the narrative a 'Note' of nearly a thousand words; and in thetime required for the penning of that addition, he could have broughtthe story to--perhaps an abrupt, but still, an artistic close. No. Thendid Poe not complete 'The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym' because hisimagination failed him--failed to supply material of such a quality ashis refined and faultless taste demanded? If so, then why did he beginit? Why write more than sixty thousand words in his usual careful andprecise style, on a subject to him little known, in to him a new fieldof literary effort? He could in the time required to write 'TheNarrative of A. Gordon Pym' have written from five to ten short storiesalong familiar lines. No: none of these hypotheses explains theunfinished state of that narrative. My explanation is that the story hasa foundation in fact, and that Poe himself never learned more than afoundation for the portion which he wrote. Its leading character next toPym is one Dirk Peters, a sailor, mutineer, etc. It is my theory thatPym and Peters existed in fact, but that Poe never met either of them, though he did meet sailors who had known Dirk Peters, and that he heardfrom them the first part of the story, in the form in which it grew tobe repeated by seafaring men along the New England coast in the '30s and'40s. Having heard what he supposed to be sufficient, with the aid ofhis own imagination, to make an interesting story for publication, Poebegan and continued to write. Then, as he progressed, he found that hisimagination was embarrassed--frustrated by the known facts alreadyemployed--whilst it was not assisted by new facts which he was positiveexisted, but which he could not procure. As he attempted to close thenarrative, the cold, written page was a very different thing from whathe had conceived it would be as he sat in the tap-room of some NewEngland old 'Sailor's Home, ' with a couple of glasses of Burton ale onthe table, listening through the drowsy afternoon to the fact andfiction of some old 'tar, ' as the two looked across the white-sandedfloor at the old moss-grown dock without, and listened to the saltwavelets splashing against its rotting timbers, and watched the far-distant sails on the outer sea. It is not very difficult to picture toone's self Poe searching among these sailors' lodging-houses for DirkPeters; nor is it unreasonable to assume that he did so search for him. If Dirk Peters was twenty-seven years old in 1827, when the mutinyoccurred, he was only forty-nine at the time of Poe's death--in fact, would be only seventy-seven if now alive. Poe says in his 'Note, ' that'Peters, from whom some information might be expected, is still alive, and a resident of Illinois, but cannot be met with at present. He mayhereafter be found, and will, no doubt, afford material for a conclusionof Mr. Pym's account. ' I have no doubt that Poe eventually learnedexactly where Peters resided; but no matter how much Poe may havedesired to meet with Peters, he could not have done so. In the '40s itwas a long, tedious, expensive journey from New York to Illinois. Still, Poe hoped some day to meet Peters, and did not care to say to the publicexactly where he could be met with. Then came Poe's unutterably saddeath, leaving the narrative incomplete. "

As Bainbridge neared the close of his remarks, we heard a heavy andrapid step approach along the hall. It stopped before my door; and justas Bainbridge ceased to speak, a loud rap, evidently made with the headof a heavy cane, sounded on the panel. The door flew open, and DoctorCastleton rushed into the middle of the room--or, rather, bounded acrossthe room. Bainbridge and I instantly arose, and I stepped forward totake Doctor Castleton's hand in mine, and to care for his hat and cane;but he waved me off. "No, no: no time--not a minute to spare--threepatients waiting"--here he glanced at Bainbridge, as if to observe theeffect of his speech on a beginner, who was fortunate if he yetpossessed a single patient--"like to keep my word--fine evening. " Heseated himself on the edge of a chair, and projected his glance aroundthe room. No better subject immediately presenting itself to mind, Iremarked that we had just been talking of Edgar Allan Poe, and hisunfinished story, "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym"; and I spoke of DirkPeters. 

"I know old man Peters--know him well, sir, " said Doctor Castleton, without a moment's hesitation; "short old fellow--seafaring man--aboutfour feet six, or seven--must have been a devil in his day--old man, now--seventy or eighty; no hair, no beard; farms a few acres on theBluff; very sick man, right now. "

Bainbridge and I had cast at each other a glance, which plainly said, "Isn't that Castleton for you?" But as he continued, and we had time toconsider, the probability that Dirk Peters was alive, and the barepossibility that he was in the neighborhood, and that, if he did residenear Bellevue, Doctor Castleton would be very likely to have met him, gradually dawned on our minds. Quick as was the glance we exchanged, Castleton saw it--yes, and understood it. 

"Gentlemen, " he continued, "I know whereof I speak. It is true, I neverbefore thought of Peters in this connection. In the cases of my library, the books stand two rows deep. Thousands of books have been carried intomy attic, to make room for newer books--I never need to glance twice ata book. Of course I have Poe's works, and bound in morocco, too--thegrandest genius ever bestowed upon humanity by the prolific and liberalhand of our Creator. Still, I never happened to read the grand andmighty effort of that colossal intellect to which you refer--'TheNarrative of a Snorting Thing, ' though I recall 'The Literary Life ofThingum Bob. ' But I am certain--certain as the unerring fiat ofOmnipotent Power--that this man Peters is within ten miles of us, and isat this moment a mighty ill man--almost ready, in fact, to visit a landfrom which he will be little likely to return. I refer to 'Theundiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns. ' Bysuperhuman efforts I have kept this man Peters alive now long past thetime-limit set by his Creator for him to go--I mean, three score and tenyears; but even I and science have our limitations, and the beginning ofthe end is at hand. "

By this time Doctor Castleton was pacing up and down the room, stoppingnow and then to look at an engraving on the wall, taking up andreplacing books, seeing everything. I could not but feel that alreadythe curiosity which had impelled him to "run in" was satisfied, and thathe would soon be going. A minute after his last recorded words, DirkPeters seemed to have dropped completely from his mind. I was whollyabsorbed with the thought that Dirk Peters might be within our reach;and that if he really was, it was possible that we might learn whetherPym and he had reached the South Pole, and if so, what they had therediscovered. It was plainly evident that the mind of Doctor Bainbridgewas deeply engaged with the same subject. I was anxious to know what hethought of Castleton's statement; for the more I discussed the matterwithin myself, the more I felt inclined to believe that Castleton wasnot making a mistake. But Castleton was certainly now not thinking ofPeters. I could, amid my thoughts, hear him declaiming, "Yes, sir; England is a mighty power. Her navy, sir, can--and mark me, it will--sweep France and Russia and Prussia and Austria and Italy fromthe ocean as--as a shar--a wha--a huge and voracious swordfish sweepsbefore its imperious onslaught, with unerring certainty and cyclonicpower, a whole school of sneaking mackerel or codfish from the pathwayfixed for it by Eternal Destiny. "

His prognostication was intended to be a graceful compliment paid to thecountry of a visiting stranger, and, in the absence of other foreigners, not discourteous to anybody. I never before or since knew his naturalflow of eloquence to waver as in this instance--a rarity that of itselfmakes the remark worthy of record. Doctor Castleton soon, against allprotests, bounded out of the door, as he had bounded in; and thenBainbridge and I discussed the astonishing possibilities should it provetrue that Dirk Peters was within our reach. We concluded thatCastleton's statement was one of great importance, and we agreed upon acourse of procedure. We spent the remainder of the evening in a mannervery enjoyable to myself, and evidently gratifying to Doctor Bainbridge;and it was past midnight when we separated. 

The following morning I looked up Doctor Castleton; and he, evercourteous and obliging, did more than consent to permit me to drive outto the home of his patient, Peters. He proposed that I wait a day, as heknew that Peters would within that time, and might any hour, send forhim; and as soon as he was summoned he would notify me, and together wewould drive out to the old sailor's residence--which, the doctor said, was a small, two-roomed log structure, where the old man dwelt entirelyalone. 

The FOURTH Chapter

The summons from Doctor Castleton to accompany him came sooner than hehad led me to expect; and at a little past noon of the same day on whichhe had made his promise to take me with him to see Dirk Peters, Ireceived a message, saying that if agreeable to me he would at twoo'clock be in front of my hotel, prepared to start for the home of theold sailor. 

At a minute or two before the time fixed, I was standing at the mainentrance to the Loomis House, and at precisely two o'clock DoctorCastleton drove up in a two-horse, four-wheeled, top-buggy. He made roomfor me on his left, and off we started. 

We drove in a westerly direction for a full mile along the main streetbefore leaving the town behind us. Then we struck a level turf road; andaway trotted the superb team of rather small, wiry, black horses. DoctorCastleton said that we should reach our destination--which was rathermore than ten miles from the city limits--within forty minutes; and wedid. Over a part of the level turf road I should estimate that we droveat about a three-minute gait; but after traversing some four or fivemiles, we turned south into a narrow road, which soon became hilly andtortuous; yet even here it was only on particularly rough or unevenportions of the way that the doctor moderated our speed to less than afour-minute gait. 

As we rode along at this exhilarating pace, the buggy whirling aroundacute curves among the mighty oaks and maples, now and then dashing downa forty-five-degree descent of fifty or sixty feet, again thunderingover a dilapidated bridge of resonant planks, the doctor remarked to methat Peters was certain to die, it being only a question of days, orperhaps of hours. "Old Peters, " he said, "has been without visible meansof support for the past two or three years. The Lord only knows how hehas lived since the period when he became unable to work. Even his smallfarm is mortgaged for all it is worth. " I expressed to the doctor somesurprise that he should be making twenty-mile drives to see a lonely oldman whose illness he was unable to relieve, and from whom he couldexpect no fee. I had grown to take an interest in hearing Castletonexpress his opinions. Many of his conceptions of life were so unique;his mental vision, always intensely acute, was often so oblique; hisstation of mental observation so alterable, and so quickly altered; hissentiments often so earthy, again so exalted--that I believe the manwould have interested me even under circumstances less quiet andmonotonous than were those of my stay, up to this time, in Bellevue. Tomy expression of mild wonderment that he should tax his time andenergies to such an extent without pecuniary gain, he replied:

"My dear sir, you are a traveller. You have sailed the seas and crossedthe mighty main; you have dashed over mountains, and sweltered 'midtropical suns on sandy desert-wastes. To you our Rockies aremole-hills--our great lakes mere ponds. You are not a child to cry outin the darkness. Granted. Yet, sir, let us by a stretch of fancy imagineourselves in the place of Columbus, on the third day of August, 1492. Weare about to leave the Known, in search of the Unknown--about topenetrate for the first time that vast expanse of water which foruncounted ages has stretched away before the wondering vision andbaffled research of Europe. We are not leaving the world--we are notalone. Yet is it not a solace that a few friends gather on the shore tosay good-by? The sympathy of the kind, the well-wishes of the brave--arethey not always a comfort? This poor fellow Peters, whose lowly home weare now approaching, is alone--he is about to start on his last journey, alone. The land to which he perhaps this day begins that journey is notonly unknown, but unknowable to us in our present state. And thereforeis it, sir, that the learned professions live. Even the worldly man, when he comes to start upon this last journey, does not disdain thesympathy and kindness of the loving, and the expressions of hopefulnessthat come from the good and pure. True, you may say that the learnedprofessions are for the man who is about to die but frail supports onwhich to lean. The wise man as well as the ignorant man, when he fearsthat death is near, reaches out for help or at least some knowledge ofhis future. He sends for his physician, who cannot promise himanything--cannot number the days or hours of his remaining life; for hislawyer, who cannot assure him beyond all doubt that his will can be madeto endure for a single day beyond his death. At last, he sends for aminister of God--and what says the spiritual expert? Perhaps herepresents that old, old organization, whose history stretches back forcenturies through the dark ages to the borders of the brilliancy beyond;that old hierarchy that claims to hold all spiritual power to which manmay appeal with reasonable hope. What says to the dying man thisrepresentative and heir of the accumulated spiritual research andculture of the past? He may with honesty say, 'Hope;' but if he saysmore than Hope, he does it as the blind might sit and guide by signsthrough unknown labyrinths the blind. All this is true; but the factthat the learned professions have come into existence, and continue tolive and draw from the masses their material support--a tax greater inamount than the income of the nations--shows that they meet, andgenuinely meet, a demand. I say genuinely, for 'You cannot fool all thepeople all the time. ' And so, my young friend, this poor man Peterswants me. Later, if there is time, he will want the representative ofthe religion which he professes, or which he remembers that his motheror his father professed. I shall stand by his side and place my handupon his throbbing brow--and he will hope, and not despair. Who knowswhether or not our hope and our faith have power in some strange way tolink the present to the future, carrying forward the spirit-seed tosoil in which it blooms in splendor through eternity? As Byron says, 'How little do we know that which we are, How less what we may be. '

But here we are; and I know by the face of that old neighbor-womanlooking from the doorway there that our man still lives. "

We drew up in front of a small building some sixteen feet square, thewalls of which consisted of huge logs piled one upon another andmortised at the corners. The doctor entered, leaving me seated in thebuggy. But soon he came to the door, and signalled for me. As I enteredthe house I heard a voice say, "Yes, doctor, the old hulk's stillafloat--water-logged, but still afloat. " Looking in the direction of thevoice, I saw on a bed in one corner of the room an old beardless man. Ihad not a second's doubt that Dirk Peters of the 'Grampus, ' sailor, mutineer, explorer of the Antarctic Sea, patron and friend of A. GordonPym, was before me. His body up to the waist was covered with an oldblanket; but I felt certain that he was less than five feet in height, and felt quite positive that he would not then measure more than fourand a half feet. His height in 1827 was, Poe states, four feet and eightinches. One of the old man's arms lay exposed by his side, and thefinger-ends reached below the knee; while his hand, spread out on theblanket, would have covered the area of a small ham. His shoulders andneck, and the one bare arm visible, were indicative of vast muscularstrength. There was the enormous head mentioned by Poe; and there wasthe completely bald scalp, exposed, as by a semi-automatic movement ofrespect he raised his hand to his head and removed a section of woollysheepskin; and there, too, was the indenture in the crown; there theenormous mouth, spreading from ear to ear, with the lips which, as hegave a chuckle, and the wrinkles about his eyes evinced a passing facialcontortion, I saw to be wholly wanting in pliancy. There was theexpression, fixed at least as far as the mouth and lower face wasconcerned, the protruding teeth, and the grotesque appearance of a smilesuch as a demon might have smiled over ruined innocence. Oh, there wasno possibility of a mistake. Doctor Castleton glanced at mequestioningly, but confidently; and I lowered my head in assent. But ifI expected to have an opportunity of learning much of anything fromPeters, I was mistaken. Doctor Castleton was almost ready to departbefore I had finished my visual examination of the old man. I heard theaged neighbor-woman, a coal miner's wife, who had as an act of kindnesscome in to assist the invalid, say, looking at the poor old fellow:

"My mon stayed wi' he the night, dochter. The poor mon, he had delerionbad. He thot hesel' on a mountain o' ice, wi' tha mountain o' ice onother like mountain o' salt, a lookin' at devils i' hell. But sin' thalight o' day. Tha good mon's hesel' agin. "

Doctor Castleton had produced from the recesses of a large medicine casecertain pills and powders, had given his directions, and was actuallyabout to leave without giving me an opportunity, or seeming to thinkthat I desired an opportunity, of speaking with Peters. I then appealedfor a moment more of time, and for consent to ask the patient a questionor two; and my appeal was granted. I stepped close to the bedside, andlooking down into the eyes that looked up into mine, asked the old manif his name was Dirk Peters; to which he answered affirmatively. I thenasked him if he had in the year 1827 sailed from the port of Nantucket, on the brig 'Grampus, ' under Captain Bernard, in company, among others, with a youth named A. Gordon Pym? And a moment later I wished that I hadbeen less abrupt in my questioning. Peters did manage quite coolly andrationally to answer "Yes" to all my questions. But at the words "Pym, ""Bernard, " "Grampus, " his eyes began, in appearance, to start from theirsockets; those awful teeth gleamed from that cavernous mouth, as heuttered demoniac yell on yell, and raised himself to a sitting posturein the bed. I thought his eyeballs must certainly burst, as he lookedoff into nothingness wildly, as if a troop of fiends were rushing uponhim. 

"Great God!" he screamed, "there, there--she's gone. Ah, " quieting alittle; "ah; the old man with the eyes of a god, and the cubes ofcrystal with the limpid liquid of heaven. Oh, " his voice again raised topiercing screams, "Oh, she's gone, and he loves her--and I love him. Nowman, they called you the human baboon--be more than man!--I loved theboy--I tell you, I loved him from the first. I saved him once--aye, adozen times--but not like this--not from hell. Scale the chasms of salt, and climb the lava cliffs, and--but the lake of fire at the bottom--theold man--and the abyss, my God, the abyss! The snow-drift beard--thegodlike eyes"--his voice then quieting for a few words. "Ah, mother, mother, mother. " Then in a deep, earnest tone, "I'll be a human baboon, and I'll do what man never yet did, nor beast--yes, and what never intime will man do again. "

Then he completely lost control of himself. He jumped from the bed. Doctor Castleton stood near the doorway, and I quickly moved to hisside. The old woman had vanished. Peters poured forth yell on yell, suchas I had never conceived it possible for a human throat to utter. Hegrasped a strong oak-pole, and broke it as I might have broken a drytwig. I afterward placed the longer fragment of this pole with each ofits extremities on a large stone, the two about four feet apart; andlifting into the air a rock weighing a hundred or more pounds, droppedit on the middle of the fragment; and it did not even bend what this manof awful strength had severed with his two hands as one would break awooden toothpick between the fingers. Then Peters picked up a stovewhich stood, fireless, in the room; and he cast it through an openwindow, seven or eight feet away, into the yard beyond, where it fell, breaking into a hundred pieces. I need scarcely say that DoctorCastleton and myself had left the room with decided alacrity. Well, toterminate a description none too agreeable, Peters' wild deliriumcontinued until, out in the door-yard, forty or fifty feet from thehouse, he fell, exhausted. Then we carried him back to his bed. DoctorCastleton gave some directions to the old woman, and soon we left fortown, Peters being asleep. 

"Strange, " said Doctor Castleton, after we had driven for perhaps amile, "strange that a thought can do such things! A word is said, thethread of memory is touched by suggestion, and it vibrates back throughhalf a century to some scene of terror stamped ineradicably upon thebrain--or if not upon the brain, then where?--and, lo! the reflexesspring into action, and a maniac with Samson's strength takes the placeof a docile invalid. Ah, who can answer the mystery of mysteries, andtell us what this consciousness is! Behind that gift of God rests thesecret of life, and of death, and probably of Eternity itself. "

We rode along, returning a little more leisurely than we had come. I satwondering how we were to learn from such a man as Peters his secrets--ifsecrets he possessed. Even if his past held only important facts not ofsecret import, I had received striking evidence that the subject of thatwonderful sea-voyage was not to be carelessly broached to Dirk Peters. Iconcluded to say nothing more of the matter until I should meetBainbridge, whom I knew would be anxiously awaiting my return, hardlydaring to hope that Poe's Dirk Peters was really in existence anddiscovered. 

As we neared town, my mind turned to the strange being at my side. Herewas a man who could think, and think both learnedly and poetically ofthe wonders of heaven and earth; and yet who could talk of driving fromtown a business competitor! Surely that part of his talk which seemed solaughable was in spirit wholly dramatic--intended rather to fill theassumed expectations of his hearers, than truly representing thespeaker's feeling. Then my thoughts reverted to the talk I hadoverheard, when "Pickles" was made to see veritable showers of"greenbacks" raining into his vacuous pocket. I smiled to myself; andthen a spirit of audacity coming over me, I determined to ascertain whatCastleton would say to me on the currency question. I concluded to admitthat I had overheard through my open window the conversation on monetarymatters alluded to. There would then be no opportunity for him to evadethe responsibility of assuming as his own the peculiar opinionsexpressed by him on that occasion. Now, when he could not consistentlydeny the advocacy of views to me so apparently untenable, and could notseriously adopt them without lowering himself intellectually in theestimation of a stranger--and I did not for an instant think that hebelieved the nonsense which he had so glowingly represented anddemonstrated to poor old "Pickles"--then by what possible means would heextricate himself from the dilemma?

When I broached the money question, he seemed to warm to the subject atonce; but as I led around to the fact of my overhearing the "Pickles"incident, he seemed slightly disconcerted--but only momentarily. He washimself again so quickly that I should not have noticed hisembarrassment had I not been closely observing him for that verypurpose. 

"Well, now, " he said, blithely, "as you are a stranger, a man of highand irreproachable honor, _sans peur et sans reproche_--and one, I know, who will not place me in an equivocal position here in my home bydivulging my true position--I don't mind telling you, in all confidence, the truth. I am not, my dear sir, an ass. (What I say, remember, goes nofarther. ) I am, sir, a theoretical and practical politician of great--Ionly repeat what many of my friends (men of supreme mental attainments, and the best of judges) herald forth as undeniable truth--a politician, sir, of great depth and exceeding cunning--a rare combination, philosophers tell us. What a humbug this whole greenback question is!Why, sir, it is to that very element of scarcity over which they howl, that money, or anything else, owes its commercial value. Diminish thegeneral scarcity of anything on earth to the point of a full supply foreverybody and the commercial value at once becomes _nil_. There isnothing of more real value than atmospheric air; yet the supply is sogreat that all demands are filled, leaving an enormous surplus; andhence atmospheric air has no commercial value. There is nothing on earthof much less service to humanity than are diamonds; yet the possessionof a pound of fair-sized diamonds would make a Croesus of a beggar. Thedreams of the Greenbacker are but new phases of our childhood fancies offinding a mountain of pure gold, with which we are to make the wholeworld happy; it is conceivable to find the mountain of gold--but, alas!what will be its value when we have found it? Take actual money, forinstance. Any metal might be used as money which the world should agreeto call money, provided only that the metal is not so plentiful as tomake it impossible to handle because of bulk, or so scarce as to makethe unit of value impalpable. The standard may even from time to time bechanged, if we do not object to the enormous trouble of making thechange----"

"And, " I remarked, as he paused for a moment, "if we do not object tothe robbery of either the debtor or the creditor, one or the other. "

"Not at all, " he replied. "I assume that the change shall be fairlymade. I have said that it would be a very great inconvenience to theworld, and without any benefit; it would in fact be so great a task tomake the change in our money standard that it would be practicallyimpossible to make it. But we are off the track--we were not to talk ofprimary money; it was of currency, or greenbacks, that you spoke. Now itpuzzles you as a man of sense to conceive by what process of thoughtanother man of sense can bring himself to advocate unlimited inflationof our currency; and yet there is a very good reason why the mostsensible man may do that very thing. Of course, my dear sir, I am awarethat the only honest way for a government to issue unlimited currency isto give the stuff away, and later to repudiate it. Now, sir, I need nottell one like yourself, who has studied the lives of such Englishstatesmen as the puissant Burke, the sagacious Pitt, the astutePalmerston, that ninety per cent, of the people--and it is so even inthis glorious land of free schools and liberty--are relatively to theremaining ten per cent, either poor and dishonest, or poor and ignorant;and that none of the hundred per cent, goes into sackcloth and asheswhen he gets something for nothing. I, sir, am--or I was untilrecently--a Jeffersonian Democrat. But our party made a great mistake afew years ago by sticking to the slave interest too long. I finallybecame hopeless of success at the polls. Now, when I whisper in yourall-comprehending ear that the leaders of this Greenback Party areanything but Republicans, you will grasp the point. I repeat, sir, I amnot an ass--if I do bray sometimes. All's fair in love and politics. Butlet me say to you, that the printing presses of the United States willnever be leased by the United States Treasury, whatever party wins atthe polls. "

As he closed, we entered the town. It may not be wholly lacking ininterest to the reader when I say that, some years later, as I onemorning sat in my library looking through the window at the far-distantsmoke of Newcastle, I had just laid aside a copy of the _Times_, inwhich paper I had read of the results of a political contest in theState of Illinois. The Republicans had won. The Greenbackers and theDemocrats had lost. Then my eye caught the name of Castleton! The doctorhad made the race for Governor--not on the Greenback ticket, however;not on the Democratic ticket; but--of all things!--on the _anti-liquoror Prohibition ticket!_

As we drew up in front of the Loomis House, Doctor Bainbridge stood onthe sidewalk as if awaiting our return. I smiled, then nodded anaffirmative to the question in his eyes; and stepping out of the buggy, I linked his arm within my own, and, thanking Doctor Castleton for hiskindness, piloted the way to my room. 

The FIFTH Chapter

On opening the door of my sitting-room, I found Arthur, the factotum, sitting in my large easy-chair, with one of my volumes of Poe in hishand. He had overheard part of the conversation of the precedingevening, and was evidently interested in "The Narrative of A. GordonPym. " I observed also that a bottle of cognac which sat upon my table, and which I could have sworn was not more than one-fourth emptied when Ileft the hotel directly after dinner, was now quite empty. Theatmosphere of the room was pervaded with the odor of "dead" brandy; andArthur's eyes were unusually glassy and staring--for so early an hour as5 P. M. Then he settled the matter, beyond the shadow of a doubt, with ahiccough. 

"Well, Arthur, " I said, pleasantly, as he clumsily rose in part from hisseat--into which he dropped back, however, as he heard my kindly tone ofaddress, and knew there was to be no severity of reckoning--"well, myboy; been enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, sir, " he replied, in a fairly steady voice--the words thatfollowed, however, being rhythmically interrupted by an aldermanic andmost vociferous hiccough, which shall be omitted from this record--"beenreading about Pym and Barnard. Wasn't that awful when they saw theshipful of dead corpses? Just think of that ship, full of dead men--notone of them alive, and all dead--and the sails set, and the old shipwabbling around the ocean just as things might please to happen! Whenthe ship got close up to their brig, and that scream came from among thecorpses, I just jumped, myself! But wasn't it terrible when that gullpulled its bloody old beak out of the dead man's back, and then flewover the brig and dropped the piece of human flesh at poor hungryParker's feet? Gee-whillikens, now! Why, it just made my blood sink inmy heart and lungs. "

"Yes, " I thought, "and it just made my brandy sink pretty fast in mybottle and down your throat. " I was amused at his comments, and atanother time might have listened longer to his talk; but now I must bemaking some arrangement with Doctor Bainbridge regarding a possibleinterview with Peters; so I said to Arthur that he might take the volumeof Poe and keep it for two or three days, which offer he gladlyaccepted; and with an involuntary wandering of the eye toward the brandybottle, he left the room. 

Then Bainbridge and I seated ourselves, and I described the late scenein Dirk Peters' room, repeating almost word for word all that had beensaid. He pondered for a few minutes, during which I could see that hisversatile imagination was in active play. Then he said, "Well, we have him! My, my, what a discovery! This will be like reachingacross the decrees of death and taking by the hand dear Poe himself! Butyou were hasty--as I myself might have been. Well, we must seeCastleton--that is, you must--and get his consent for us to go right outand stay with Peters, if necessary for a night and a day, or evenlonger. We can take care of the poor old fellow, and watch ouropportunity to glean from him the facts of that strange voyage, onwardfrom the moment when, borne on that swift ocean current, he and Pym wererushed into the mystery that opened to receive them, as thewhite-shrouded figure arose in their pathway. 'Fire'--'salt'--'ice, 'said he? I begin almost--almost to understand! Did you ever, in England, hear of the Peruvian tradition of an antarctic country, warm anddelightful, peopled by a civilized--or rather by a highly enlightenedand very mysterious race of whites? Such a tradition exists. Now, oneday in New York, about three years ago, I allowed myself a holiday, aswas my custom from time to time after a period of severe study. On theday I speak of I entered the Astor Library, and was permitted to wanderat my pleasure among the books. I carried in my hand one of the smallcamp-stools which stood around the room, and whenever I found a bookthat particularly interested me, I would sit down and look it over. Youunderstand, I was dissipating in this great treasure-house of books. About the middle of the afternoon I found myself in one of the mostunfrequented of the library alcoves. There, on a shelf so high that Icould just see over its edge as I stood on one of the librarystep-ladders, I found a strange little book, purporting to have beenwritten in 1594. It had fallen down behind the other books. It had aleather back, well-worn; I saw that it was a 1728 Leipsic publication;and possibly came to the Astor Library by presentation from its wise andliberal founder's private library--though this is pure surmise. The bookread much like other tales of the time, so far as its form went. I satdown to look at it--and I did not arise until I had read it to its end, some three hours later. I had not read two pages before I becamesatisfied that the book had more truth than fiction in it. To haveassumed it wholly the work of imagination, I should have had to admitthat the author was an artist of artists, exceeding, through hisartfulness, in naturalness, all other fiction-writers. No; there wastruth behind the statements in the little book--truth at second or thirdhand, but truth. Now this little book pretended to tell, and I believedid tell, the story of a sailor under Sir Francis Drake, who accompaniedthis English navigator on his 1577-1580 voyage. You will recall, as amatter of history, that, in the voyage mentioned, Sir Francis crossedthe Atlantic, passed the Strait of Magellan, crossed the Pacific, andreturned to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Now during thisthree-year voyage, the story is that he once lost his 'bearings' for amonth; in fact, it is intimated that a hiatus of two months in his 'log'really did exist. This hiatus, however, could easily have been coveredin the ship's log-book. We may conceive of reasons for which he mighthave preferred to keep a temporary silence concerning the discovery of astrange people, in those early, savage times. The little book said, that, when in the Pacific, after passing the strait, Sir Francis was fortwo weeks driven in a southerly course--a severe, and in every way mostunusual storm prevailing. When the winds and the waves subsided, he wassurprised to find himself looking into the mouth of a harbor, on theshores of which stood a city, by no means so large as London or even asParis; but exceeding in grandeur the London or the Paris of that day, asthe Paris of to-day exceeds in elegance the comparative squalor of theParis of three centuries ago. According to the leather-covered littleGerman book, the city was beautiful beyond comparison with any of theEuropean cities of that period. I should suppose that the author thoughtof it as we do of Athens in the days of Pericles. Not much is said ofthe inhabitants, who were probably infinitely superior, socially, to therough voyagers of that date. And for once the 'natives' were neitherbullied nor 'converted, ' Sir Francis departing no richer than hearrived, save for a few commercially valueless gifts. One thing thenatives, it seems, insisted on: Sir Francis arrived in the city withoutknowing his longitude; and they compelled him on leaving to acceptconditions that prevented him from finding his bearings till he was morethan a thousand miles away. What the nature of the climate was in thisstrange city may be judged by the expressions employed in the littlebook, which, translated, were equivalent to 'perfect, ' 'Eden-like, ''balmy, ' 'delicious. ' Once the author compares this antarctic city toVenice--admittedly to the Venice of his imagination. No; Sir Francis hadnothing to brag of in this adventure; and in those days when to bephysically subdued, or in a contest to fail to subdue others, was ahumiliation or even a disgrace, he would have kept very quiet about thewhole affair; particularly as a future navigator could not have foundthe city, even had Sir Francis told all that he knew. Now I mentionthese reports only to show you that others have thought of warmantarctic lands; and I could refer you to many other old stories andtraditions, highly suggestive of inhabited lands in the Antarctic Ocean, on which lands a refined people dwell. I certainly expect to learn fromPeters facts of some importance to the world, if only he does not die, or is not so delirious as to throw a shadow on the verity of his story, even if he does disclose the wonders which I most assuredly believe thathe will if he lives but another day. Really, I am, for the first time inyears, excited. How Castleton keeps so cool and so apparentlyindifferent over this matter, when he is always excited over what seemto me to be comparative nothings, I cannot comprehend. Now, sir, youhunt him up again--he will no doubt be in his office across the street. Get his consent, as I before suggested--Castleton is always obligingwhen you appeal to him directly; then take your supper, and be ready. Iwill be here at eight o'clock with my horse and a piano-box buggy. Itwill be a beautiful moonlight night, and let us not risk waiting untilto-morrow. We will take with us some ice; also wine, beef extract, and afew other things intended to sustain the poor old fellow's vitality--atleast till his story is told. We must go prepared to remain fortwenty-four hours, or even for thirty-six hours if necessary; so haveyour overcoat ready, and I will find a couple of blankets in case wehave to lie down. Good-by till eight. "

And off he went, as excited as a schoolboy at the beginning of anadventure. I began to think he was allowing his imaginations to pray himtricks--purposely allowing himself to be deceived, as a child that isnearing the age of reason still delights in the old fairy tales and theSanta Claus myth, long after its mind has penetrated the deception. Still, in the end it proved we were very far--very far indeed from beingupon an idle quest. 

By eight o'clock I had obtained Doctor Castleton's consent thatBainbridge and I might visit Peters, and remain as long as we shoulddesire. 

"I will run out myself, early in the morning, " said Castleton, "and dowhat I can to keep life in the old man. Don't let Bainbridge get intothe old fellow any of his newfangled, highfalutin remedies--if you do, Iwill not answer for the consequences. I don't say that Bainbridge willnot in time--in time, mark you--be a dazzling therapeutist; but notuntil experience has modified his views, and shown him that Rome was notbuilt in a day, nor with a toothpick, either. Don't tell him what I say, please--I wouldn't like to hurt his young feelings, you know. "

When Doctor Bainbridge drove up in front of the hotel, I was waiting forhim; and we were soon on our way toward the Peters domicile. 

The SIXTH Chapter

The time required by Doctor Castleton to reach the home of Dirk Petershad been about forty minutes; the time required by Doctor Bainbridge wastwo and one-half times forty minutes, or only twenty minutes short oftwo hours. Bainbridge drove a single horse, a beautiful, large, dappledbay--an excellent animal, which, as most horses do, had learned those ofhis master's ways that bore relation to his own interests. Bainbridgewas a lover of animals, as Castleton was not; Castleton was an admirerof horses for their action, whilst with Bainbridge the welfare of hishorse was everything, and he never drove rapidly without a particularand pressing necessity. 

So we drove along in a leisurely way, conversing of Dirk Peters and thePym story, until we had arranged a plan of action for drawing out of theold man an account of that voyage, the mere thought of which, comingsuddenly upon him, had affected him in the terrible manner which I hadthat afternoon witnessed. Doctor Bainbridge explained to me that thewild demonstrations made by Peters and described by me were a result, not so much of any thought of those adventures on which he must havepondered thousands of times in the forty-eight or forty-nine interveningyears, as it was of the manner in which the thoughts or mental pictureshad been brought to his mind. 

"I need only remind you, " he said, "of a single mental characteristicwithin the experience of almost every person, to make this matter clear, and to indicate what our course with the old man must be, and why I saidto you to come prepared for a long stay. Suppose, for instance, a womanto have lost her husband through some extremely painful accident, hisdeath being not only sudden but of a horrifying nature, and that severalyears have elapsed since she was widowed. Now, she has thought thematter over ten thousand times, as the suggestion to do so entered hermind by a hundred different routes, as, for instance, by the seeing ofsomething that her husband in life possessed, or by the drift of her ownthought bringing her to the subject by association or by indirect pathsof suggestion. Every day her mind has many times pictured the horriblescene of death, until she is dry-eyed and passive amid a storm of sadideas. But now, after all these years, bring to her mind, suddenly andby a strange route of suggestion, the same old horror--let a voice, andparticularly the voice of a stranger, remind her of the terriblescene--and immediately the demonstration follows: the sobs of anguish, the tears, all, as on the day of the accident. It is the method ofapproach--the mode of suggestion when the fact is known but latent inconsciousness, that is responsible for the nervous demonstration. Inanother instance, visual suggestion might have a similar result andaudible suggestion be harmless. I anticipate no serious obstruction inthe path to Peters' confidence. Patience, care, deliberate action--thefact ever in mind that 'The more haste the less speed, ' and we shall winthe prize for which we strive. "

As we drove along in the bright moonlight, after we had determined onour "method of approach" to Peters' mind, I felt confident that with theknowledge and tact of Bainbridge we should certainly succeed in ourefforts; and I began to think along other lines. The friendly manner inwhich I had been treated by all whom I had met in America, from themillionaire coal operator down to the bell-boy, came into my thoughts. Ihad not been treated as a foreigner, except to my own advantage, theolder residents of the town seeming to look upon me more as they mightlook upon a man from another State of the Union. In America, even theinland towns are cosmopolitan, while in England only the larger citiesand seaport towns have that characteristic. I was therefore able tojudge of certain questions not only from hearsay, but from actualobservation. I noticed, for example, that among the Americanworking-classes there existed a feeling of repugnance for the Chinaman. Of the lower-class Italian, everybody thought enough to keep out of hisreach after dark. Germans and Irishmen were numerous, and eachindividual was taken on his own merits. The English were universallyliked, wherever I went. True, there was a little tendency to allude tothe glories of Bunker Hill and the like; but this tendency was evincedin a manner rather amusing than objectionable to an Englishman. If thereexists in the American heart a drop of bitterness for the English, Inever discovered it. I am writing now of the American-born American. Igathered the idea that Frenchmen, as seen in America, were scarcelytaken seriously; though all Americans have been systematically educatedto respect and admire the French Nation. Of Spaniards, the prevalentidea seemed to be that they were better at arm's length. (Anglo-Saxonliterature has been very unkind to the Spaniard. ) I did not meet anAmerican that seemed to hate anybody--I do not conceive it possible foran American to harbor the feeling of hatred. 

As we jogged along, the idea entered my mind that I would, when Ireturned home, write a treatise on "American Manners and Customs. " "Nodoubt, " I said to myself, "I can in the next few minutes procure fromBainbridge enough facts to make quite a book. " I afterward abandoned theintention; but at that moment my mind was filled with it. So I decidedto ask my companion a few leading questions, noting well his replies. "And I will first, " I determined within myself, "inquire into the mootedpoint concerning the existence of an aristocratic feeling in the UnitedStates. Some of our English writers on 'American Manners and Customs, 'and our most acute analysts of American character, say that theAmericans are great snobs, and are only too glad to claim the possessionof even the most distant aristocratic connection;" so I broached thesubject to Bainbridge. 

"It interests me to convince you, " he began, in reply, "that in theUnited States there is scarcely a vestige of aristocratic feeling. Infact as in theory, there is in this country but one class of people. Such supposed barriers as wealth and political position are onlypartitions of paper--relative nothings. I do not mention heredity, because in the United States all attempts to establish a family lineresult in the family rotting before it gets ripe. The only pretence tohereditary pride which we have here, exists in two States; in one ofthem some four or five hundred persons cannot forget that theirforefathers got to shore before somebody else; and in the other a fewfamilies still dispute over the threadbare question of whosegreat-great-grandmother cost the most pounds of tobacco. Now, candidly--is this sufficient to justify a reproach from Europe that weare striving to claim or to create an aristocracy?

"And then there is that other reproach--we're such outrageoustuft-hunters. I shall not deny having seen an American run himself outof breath to get a peep at a duke, but I never knew an American spendmoney to see one, unless the American was too beastly rich to care formoney at all. And then, hereditary nobles do not wear well here. Let avisiting duke be followed within a year by anything less than a king, and the visitor will fail to excite anybody out of a walk. You must notin England judge of this subject from the effect on our people of acertain not remote visit; for the people of the United States have afeeling of respect and affection for the present royal family of GreatBritain which no other royal family or individual, past or present, hasever produced. Hum, hum! Our people mean well; but curiosity andimitation will not die out of the human race till an inch or two more ofthe spinal column drops off. "

Still with a view to the gathering of facts for my intended treatise, Iasked Bainbridge to explain in what distinctive manner the people of theUnited States were benefited by a republican form of government. Hereplied that he knew nothing worth mentioning of the science ofgovernment, and had never been outside of the United States. 

"But, " he continued, "I can tell you something of what the whole peopleof this country enjoy. And to begin with, there is, as I have intimated, in the United States but one class of people, aside from the criminalclass common to all lands, and that vicious but not relatively numerouselement which lives on the borderland between respectability and actualcrime. This truth seems sometimes to be questioned in Europe--why, I canbut guess. Who would attempt to enter the nurseries and schoolrooms ofour land today, and, by inquiring as to the parentage of the children, select from among them any approximation to those from whom are to come, in twenty or thirty years, the men that shall then govern our States, sit in our National Congress, direct our army and navy, and control ourcommerce? I have heard that in Europe it is rather the exception for ason to reach exalted position when the father has earned a living bymanual labor. In the United States this is not the exception, but therule. At this moment the positions alluded to are here filled by thesons of poor fathers. With us, inherited wealth appears to be rather adetriment than an aid to political advancement of more than a pettykind. 'And yet, ' you may say, 'your people are not always satisfied. ' Noadvancing, upward-looking people is ever satisfied. With such a people, too, the demagogue is a natural product; and the demagogue period ofthis country is at hand. But there will never be a tom-fool revolutionin this fair land. The people here know that when they have universalsuffrage and majority rule they've pulled the last hair out of the endof the cat's tail for them. "

I made a remark, to which Bainbridge replied:

"Yes, we managed to finish up a pretty fair revolution here some twelveyears ago; but that revolution was caused by a disagreement about the R. Of B. Now----"

"Pardon me, " I said "but what was the 'R. Of B?'"

"Oh, excuse me, " he answered. "The R. Of B. Was the Relic of Barbarism, human slavery--the only relic the United States has ever had, too. "

I prided myself that the material for my book was piling up at a greatrate; and I determined to persevere. 

"How about the feeling of dislike of Americans for the English, of whichwe have heard so much in England?" I asked. "Not that I have had anyevidence of such a feeling. "

"That is a plant which has finally withered away in spite of somecareful artificial cultivation. The politician who shall attempt tobuild on any such feeling against England (a statesman will never desireto make the attempt) will soon learn his mistake. Oh, I suppose itpleases some Americans to think we got the best of our mother in1783--such a big, strong, wealthy mother, too. A little bit of talkdoesn't hurt her any, and it does some of us a heap of good. When a boyruns away from home, half the glory and fun is in being missed; and ifthe folks at home won't say they miss him, why, he must say all thelouder that they are mourning over the loss. But I will say to you--andI say it with the fullest conviction of its truth--that the people ofthe United States could not in any way be induced to take up armsagainst Great Britain, save in their own undivided interest. Individually, as you already know, I love England--not England's fops, but her people; I love the literature of England, I love her memories, Iesteem and admire her well-executed laws. The literature of England hasbeen my mental food from boyhood--aye, almost from infancy; and hermemories, her memories! I think of London as Macaulay must have thoughtof Athens. Decent Americans--that is, a majority--don't listen to jingopoliticians; and new arrivals with a grievance against England are leftto the _vis medicatrix naturæ_. There'll never be another war betweenEngland and the United States. Our Anglo-Saxon element think normally;and the vast majority of our German citizens have always been on thesensible and morally right side of national questions--there's nothinglong-haired or cranky about them. I like the Germans because they don'thanker after the unknown. I believe that most reading Americans--that isto say three-fourths of all--feel toward England as Irving and Hawthornedid. --But, from your description, that must be the home of Peters, justahead of us. "

He was right; and we stopped in front of the old sailor's house. An agedman, apparently a coal miner, came to the door as our buggy stopped. Wecalled him to us and inquired concerning Peters, who he told us wasquietly sleeping. Then we asked with regard to stabling accommodations, and learned that Peters had an old unused stable, the last old horsethat he had owned having preceded its master into the beyond. The oldminer offered to care for our horse; so we gathered up our supplies, andentered the little log house that contained so much of interest for us. We found Peters asleep. 

Making ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit, weawaited developments. At about midnight Peters awoke. He asked for adrink of water, which was given to him. His voice was feeble, and I sawthat Bainbridge felt doubtful as to the length of time that Peters mightremain alive and be able to talk intelligently. But after we had givenhim a little diluted port, and followed it with a cup of prepared beefextract, his actions betokened less weakness, his voice in particulargaining in strength. The poor old fellow had been of necessity muchneglected, and our efforts to arouse him met with decidedly goodresults. All through the night we gratified every want which heexpressed, and attended to every need of his that our own minds couldsuggest. No attempt was made to draw from him any information concerninghis strange voyage; but, on the advice of Bainbridge, we occasionallyspoke aloud to each other, and now and then to Peters himself--always onindifferent topics. This was done to familiarize the old sailor with ourvoices; and as far as we could do so without any possible injury to him, we kept a light in the room, that he should become accustomed to ourappearance. From time to time Bainbridge would step to the bedside, andplace his hand on the old man's forehead; and later he would every nowand then put an arm about the invalid's body, and raise him up to take aswallow of nourishment or wine. 

Before morning, Bainbridge had reached a stage of familiarity thatpermitted him to sit on the edge of Peters' bed and talk to the oldfellow briefly and quietly about his farm, and of Doctor Castleton'sgoodness and ability, and on other subjects presumably interesting tothe invalid. Bainbridge would gently pat the poor old man on a shoulder, and smooth his head--somewhat as one does in making the acquaintance ofa big dog. By morning Peters was thoroughly accustomed to our presence;and he seemed to take our watchfulness as a matter of course, and evento look for our attentions as a kind of right. He had slept severalhours through the night, and at five o'clock was awake and seeminglymuch improved. Not the slightest delirium, even of the passive form--infact, nothing of a nature that could alarm or disconcert us, hadoccurred. Bainbridge had mentioned eight o'clock as about the time hewould broach the subject of subjects to Peters, intending, as a matterof course, to lead up to it by very tactful gradations, passing fromjourneys in the abstract to the journeys in the concrete, thence to seavoyages, and thence, perhaps, to some mention of recent arctic (notantarctic) explorations; and then, asking no questions yet, to proceedto a mention of Nantucket, from which vantage ground the propriety ofrisking a mention of the name Barnard would be considered. If up to thispoint all went well, a more pointed question or allusion might well berisked--the brig Grampus, for instance, might be named; and then, without more delay than should be necessary for Peters' rest, we mighthope to elicit the whole story of that wonderful voyage of discovery, the evidence of the completion of which certainly appeared to be beforeour eyes in the form of Dirk Peters, the returned voyager to the SouthPole, in person. 

At six o'clock we prepared our own breakfast, and enjoyed it, sweetenedas it was by a night in the pure country air, and seasoned with theanticipation of marvellous discoveries, involving the mysteries of astrange land, no doubt teeming with amazing surprises, and, as we feltthat we had reason to believe, peopled by a race of beings with customsand attributes extremely wonderful. 

We had just arisen from our breakfast when a buggy drove rapidly up tothe house, and stopped; and we heard the voice of Doctor Castleton, shouting something to the old miner, who had gone forth a moment beforeto care for Bainbridge's horse. 

The SEVENTH Chapter

Doctor Castleton entered the sick-room with his usual impetuosity, saluting us jointly in an off-hand but courteous manner as he crossedthe floor to the bedside of Peters, and took one of the invalid's wristsin his hand. 

"Ah, " he said; "better! The quinine of yesterday has done its work; thebed-time dose of calomel has gone through the liver and stirred up thatenemy of human health and happiness, the bile; and the morning dose ofsalts will, beyond a peradventure, soon be heard from. Now we will throwthe whiskey toddy into him, and plenty of it, too; and--yes, we'll go onwith the quinine, repeat the calomel to-night, and have him ready forsomething else by to-morrow. "

Now I never like to mention doubtful incidents in such a manner as tosuggest my own belief in them; but I then suspected, and I am nowmorally certain, that Doctor Bainbridge had, in assuming the care ofPeters, failed to execute medical orders, and had administered onlyremedies or pretended remedies of his own, so as to prevent Peters, myself, and the attending physician from detecting any omissions. This, I am aware, is a terrible charge to make--still, I make it: Peters didnot get a fourth, if any, of the medicines left for him by DoctorCastleton during the time that Bainbridge cared for the old man. 

But if Bainbridge had, with the intention of prolonging the life ofPeters, and with greater confidence in his own professional judgmentthan in that of Castleton, omitted the remedies prescribed, it was soonapparent that the deception might prove in vain. I have alreadyintimated that the older physician's perceptions and intuitions were soquick as sometimes to appear almost uncanny; and after asking a questionor two, he began to pour upon a square of white paper, from a small vialwhich he took from one of his vest pockets, a very heavy white powder;and we soon perceived that the powder was to be poured from the paper tothe invalid's tongue. Bainbridge was interested in Peters--not onlyselfishly and with a motive to learn the facts of the old sailor'sstrange voyage; but he was also interested in the poor old wreck for thesake of the man himself. I saw that in the opinion of Bainbridge, ifthat white powder were administered to the invalid it would injurehim--probably weaken him, and cause a relapse, and perhaps even anearlier death than otherwise might occur; and I saw that Bainbridge wasreally apprehensive and annoyed. At last he suggested to Castleton todelay the administration of the intended remedy, if only for a fewhours. And when Castleton called attention to his own view of thenecessity for quick action, involving the instant administration of thedose, it would obviously have been so unwise to contradict him, thatBainbridge did not risk such a course. But, over-anxious to gain hispoint, he did something still more impolitic. He suggested a remedy ofhis own by which, he said, Peters would speedily be relieved--a newdrug, I believe, or at least a remedy not known to Castleton. For amoment I looked for an explosion of offended dignity; but Castletoncontrolled his first impulse, and, not looking at Bainbridge, he centredhis apparent attention wholly upon myself, and with exceedingly gravevigor, said, "I, sir, am a member of the Clare County Medical Society--I was oncePresident of that learned body, and have since then for sevenconsecutive years been its Secretary--my penmanship being illegible tothe other members, and often to myself, preventing many disagreements, by precluding a successful reference to the minutes of past meetings. Now, sir, tell me, as man to man, can I consult with, or listen tosuggestions--even to suggestions, though worthy of a giganticintellect--can I listen to suggestions coming from the mentality of anon-member of our learned body? Before replying, let me say that oursociety is known throughout all of Egypt--that is, you know, Egypt, Illinois. When a medical savant in Paris, or Leipsig, or London, allegesa discovery, we determine the questions of its originality and itsvalue--the chief purpose of our meeting, however, being to present ourown discoveries. Now, sir, I appeal to you whether our rules should orshould not be strictly obeyed--and the second clause of section three ofthose rules and regulations--an ethical necessity, and found in theethical codes of all well-regulated medical societies the worldover--says that a member shall not meet in consultation a non-member, even to save a human life--a decidedly remote possibility. "

He paused. Neither Bainbridge nor I spoke. In fact, an expression of ourthoughts would have been wholly unnecessary, as Castleton appeared tocomprehend what was in our minds, as shown by his continued remarks. 

"'Liberality, '" you may say: "True, there should be liberality in thiseternal world. Individually we _are_ liberal--we _are_ gentlemen; but itis different with us when you take us as a body. I am for harmony. Iadmit that at our meetings we do sometimes fight like very devils--lifeis a conflict, anyway. Sir, the country is full of cursed heresies andgrowing schisms. --But let me ask--not the doctor here, whom I respectfor his immense learning and Cyclopsian (I mean large--not single-eyed)wisdom--what _his_ remedy would be? I ask you, sir, not him. "

Here Doctor Castleton stepped close to my side, and speaking into my earin a ghastly whisper, said, "The ass isn't Regular!" He then drew back, and looked at me as if expecting astonishment on my part. 

I then exchanged a few words with Bainbridge, and informed Castleton ofthe result. "Ah, ha--ah, ha--indeed, " he said, with as near an approachto sarcasm as was possible with him. "So my learned young friend thinksthat an organ--the liver--weighing nearly four pounds is to be movedwith a hundredth of a drop of--of--anything! Damn it, sir, am I awake?"

"Ask Doctor Castleton, sir, what portion of a grain of small-pox virusit would require to disseminate over a whole county, if not checked, adread disease? Ask him from what an oak-tree grows?"

"Ask him, " said Castleton, "how long it takes an acorn to act. In thiscase we require celerity of action--force and penetration. "

"Ask him, " said Bainbridge, "if the solar rays have celerity, and force, and penetration; and how much they weigh. It requires fine shot to bringdown the essence of a disease----"

"Tell him, " shouted Castleton, "that the liver is a mammoth thatrequires a twenty-four-pounder to penetrate its hide. We don't hunt therhinoceros with bird-shot. "

"Say to the gentleman, " said Bainbridge, slightly flushed, but stillwith dignity, "that in this case the animal is not to be slaughtered, but to be cured. "

"Damme, " said Castleton, "who says slaughtered?--Have I, a surgeon ofrenown, a gentleman and a scholar, a member of the County Society, sunkso low that I can be called a murderer? Stop--stop where you are--stopin time. Say to the Gentleman that he has gone too far--say that anapology is in order--say that he treads the edge of a living crater. Iam dangerous--so my friends say--devilish dangerous"--a smile crossedthe face of Bainbridge; and even so slight and transient an appearanceas a passing smile was not lost on Castleton, though he seemed to belooking another way--"I mean dangerous on the field of honor. Quackery, sir, is my abhorrence----"

"Come, come, gentlemen, " I said, "you are allowing your professional_amour propre_ to mislead you. Now, " I continued, assuming an air of_bonhomie_, "it seems to me, an outsider, that this whole differencemight easily be adjusted. Doctor Castleton here advocates firingtwenty-four-pound balls into the patient, and Doctor Bainbridge suggestspeppering the invalid with bird-shot. There is certainly room betweenthe bowlders for the bird-shot to slip, and the one will not interferewith the other--I say, give both. Doctor Castleton advises that the dosebe immediately given, whilst Doctor Bainbridge appears to think four orfive hours hence the better time. I suggest a compromise: let them begiven an hour or two hence. There seems to be also some obstacle in theway of one of you giving the other's medicine--so let me administerboth the remedies. Now what possible objection can be advanced to this?"

They both laughed; and as Castleton would be on his way home in a fewmoments, Bainbridge was thoroughly pleased with my proposal. Castletontacitly consented, and in half a minute seemed to have forgotten theepisode--or, at most, gave indication of remembrance only by an apparentdesire to be over-agreeable to Bainbridge. A moment later he said to me, "My dear sir, I hastened my visit here this morning out of considerationfor yourself. Last evening after you had departed, Mr. ---- called atthe Loomis House to see you. I happened to meet him as, in somedisappointment at having missed you, he was leaving the hotel, where hehad learned that you might be gone for two days. I then offered todeliver any message that he should send to you, this morning. When hewas informed that you were but ten miles away, in the country, he saidthat his business with you was pressing; and he asked if it would bepossible for you to return to town for a few hours this morning. Then Isaid that I would convey to you his wishes, and that if you so desiredyou could be at your hotel before nine o'clock--at which hour he said hewould call at the Loomis House, with the hope of meeting you. "

I thanked the doctor; and after consulting Bainbridge, said I wouldavail myself of the offer to return at once to Bellevue. I appreciatedthat it would be Bainbridge and not I who would have to manage Peters. It was a disappointment to think of missing Peters' story at first-hand;but I hoped to return by the middle of the afternoon, and I knew thatBainbridge could repeat with accuracy all that the old sailor shouldsay. I doubted whether Bainbridge could extract very much from the oldman's senile intellect before my return, as the aged voyager was, bothin mind and body, quite feeble, and of little endurance. Besides, whenonce started and warmed to his subject--and very little informationcould be gained till he was so started--he would no doubt be garrulous. 

Doctor Castleton and I started for town at a brisk trot, the doctorhaving parted from Bainbridge in the best of humors. His last words, shouted back as we drove off, were, "Don't forget the calomel atnine-thirty, doctor; and add to the treatment whatever you may thinkbest. I trust you implicitly. Send me word if you need help. "

Strange man! So pleasant, and so harsh; so grand, and so ignoble; sogreat, and so small; so broad, and so narrow; so kind, and so unkind. Asmy mind ran along in this channel, I wondered how one and the same mancould express the views that he had proclaimed in connection with hismedical association, and yet speak of life and death as he had spoken tome on the day preceding. What did he really believe? Could theactor-temperament, displaying itself on most occasions, in connectionwith a display at times of his natural self, as we say, account for allhis eccentricities?

As we fairly flew along the forest road, nearing our destination by amile in each three minutes, we came to the only hill on the entire routewhich was considerable, both in extent and in degree of gradient. DoctorCastleton allowed the gait of his horses to slacken into a slow walk;and--ever nervous, ever active--he reached into the side pocket of hislinen duster, and drew forth a small book, apparently fresh from thepublisher. 

"'The Mistakes of the Gods, and Other Lectures, '" he said, looking atthe back of the volume, and reading its title. "Ah, 'The Gods. ' Thetitle, sir, almost tells the whole story; and so far as you and I areconcerned, it is almost a waste of time for us to open the book--and acrime against themselves for ignorant men to do so. "

"The author must be one of your 'holy terrors' that I hear mentioned, " Isaid. "A Western 'bad man' no doubt. Sad! sad! is it not?"

"Oh, no, no; the author is not a cowboy--he's a perfect gentleman--aspolished as I am; and there's nothing very sad in the book. It containsseveral lectures in the line of agnostic agitation, which were from timeto time delivered by a very talented, but, as I think, mistaken man. When I say mistaken, I do not mean mistaken in the sense that our churchpeople might apply the term to him; for our church people seem tomisunderstand him, almost as greatly as he misapprehends the purposes ofnineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon Christian workers. But mark my words, sir, you will soon, in England, hear of this young 'infidel' lecturer;for with his keen brain, his invincible logic, his concise and beautifulrhetoric, he will soon be recognized as the most popular livingagnostic. His home is not far distant from Bellevue, and I havefrequently heard him lecture. I think him the best platform orator Ihave ever listened to, though I have twice been charmed by the eloquenceof Phillips, and a dozen times by that of Beecher. I shall not outrageyour own and my own manhood by alluding to anything which the morepartisan church people say of this brilliant agnostic; and I say what Ido, only because in your distant home you may some day wonder just whatis behind an agnostic demonstration such as he is leading up to, andwhich is certain to centralize the dissatisfied spirit of the countryinto an anti-church propaganda of no mean proportions. I am opposed tosuch a movement; but I believe in truth as the only durable weapon, andI love truth for truth's sake--I should refuse to enter the gateway ofheaven if liars were admitted. I cannot go into the history of this man, but this much is fact: There are reasons which cause him to believe thatin striking at Christianity he is performing a highly praiseworthyaction. In this belief he is as sincere and as enthusiastic in his coldlogical way, as is any Christian in _his_ belief. If duplicity werepossible to this man--or if he could have found it consistent with hissense of right even to keep silence concerning his opinion on religioussubjects--he would by this time have been Governor of Illinois; and, with his ability, there is no elective office in the country to which hemight not aspire with reasonable certainty of success. He himself isaware of all this, as are all who know him. At the early age ofthirty-three, before his views were generally known, he was ourAttorney-General. No political party will ever again dare to nominatehim for an office. "

"This is all wrong, " I said; "it savors of religious persecution. "

"True, " said Castleton, "it does; but the fact is as I state it. Hewould if he ran for office lose enough votes from his own party to allowhis opponent to win. "

"But, my dear doctor, " I said, "I fail to catch your reasons forthinking this man mistaken. You surely would not have him be untrue tohimself?"

"Oh, no--never that! I mean that he is intellectually mistaken inthinking that the world is still to be benefited by agnostic agitationamong the masses. Voltaire had a good reason for proclaiming andteaching his views, because in France, in his day, religious infidelitywas necessary to political liberty. Tom Paine had a good reason for hiscourse, because Christianity, misrepresented at that time by mistaken orcorrupt men, was arrayed on the side of the despot, and so continued upto the beginning of the French Revolution. But this man has no goodexcuse for a fight against church influence in the United States, now in1877. The influence of the Christian church is now certainly exerted forgood, and does not attempt to restrict the liberty of any man, or ofsociety. "

"But did you not just say that this agnostic's views would foreverprevent his election to public office, here in this great free country, in the year 1877 and onward?"

"We cannot have a free country and not allow a man to vote againstanother, even if his vote were influenced by the cut of a candidate'strousers. "

"Yes, " I said; "but if the cut of a candidate's trousers influenced aman's vote, such a man would be a good object for education. Youragnostic would no doubt say that the influence of church is to be foughtso long as it judges of a man's capability to do one thing well by hisopinion on a totally different subject. "

"You will never educate the people out of their prejudices; but I myselfshould vote against this man because his course shows his views to beinconsistent with statesmanship. No person desires to restrict another'sindividual opinions; we only combat this man's because of their effects, as he combats those of his opponents. There are as many agnostics, proportionally, that would not vote for a Presbyterian, for instance, for public office, as there are Presbyterians who, under likecircumstances, would not vote for an agnostic. "

"But in what way does the belief, or want of belief, of an agnostic, prevent an otherwise able man from being a statesman?" I asked. 

"No doubt some of the best statesmen living are agnostics; but they arenot agnostic agitators. Men who are able to digest and assimilateagnostic opinions, are able to initiate those ideas for themselves; andonly men who are able to properly digest and assimilate such ideasshould have them at all. "

"Can you, " I asked, "state an instance in which what you indicate aspremature education of the masses in agnostic ideas, might lead toinjury to the persons so instructed, or to society at large?"

"Yes, sir, I can. Your ignorant American--the 'cracker' element of theSouth, your ignorant Italian, and your ignorant Irishman are injured bytaking away their religious beliefs. The first of these, when churchpeople, dress neatly, are honorable, and have some upward-tendingambitions; whilst those of them that are infidels are reduced--men andwomen--to a state of ambitionless inertia and tobacco saturation--if noworse. The two latter are either under religious control, or undersecret-society control. If the lower-class Irishman or Italian, unendowed with judgment to rightly use the little knowledge he alreadypossesses--to properly interpret his own feelings or guide his ownimpulses--has not his church with its priestly control, he will have hissecret-society with its secret executive control, its bovine fury, andits senseless pertinacity, the poison-bowl and the dagger. For my part, if a man must either seek liberty from ambush, and learn independencethrough treachery, or else be on his knees before a graven image, suitedto his mental calibre--let us keep him on his knees till he can rise tosomething better than murder. Why, sir, an Irish Republican (ararity)--an editor, once said to me that some of our Irish emigrantshave hair on their teeth when they get to America; and, though I may bewrong, I never see an Italian organ-grinder without first thinking of adagger between my ribs, and then settling down to a comfortable feelingthat if the fellow's a Catholic the confessional stands between me andsuch a danger. The man who attempts to teach such fellows about completeliberty should be responsible for any consequent acts. "

"Still, doctor, " I said, "the road to universal knowledge cannot be allsmooth. Ground must be broken by somebody. If there is anything inChristianity that bars the way to final freedom of mind for the wholehuman race, then I myself say, clear away the obstructions--the workcannot begin too soon or continue too vigorously. "

"I see nothing in true Christianity but good for the human race--surelyyou speak only to call out my own views. If there is anything in anychurch policy or polity which requires reforming, let it be reformed. "

"Excuse me, doctor, " I said; "but I had thought you yourself anagnostic. Do you not think that if a religion will not bear the test ofcold reason, it should be discarded from the lives of men?"

"No, I do not. The human mind is not comprised in intellect alone--ithas its moral or emotional side, wholly apart from reason. Religion isnot to be reasoned about--it is to be felt. No founder of a religionever claimed for it a place in man's reason. Now just think for aminute. Let us leave the ignorant, and consider what the best of menare--men who have attained a mental cultivation certainly as great aswill ever be possible to the masses. Take the very highest society inEngland and America--to what extent are its members controlled by_reason_, and to what extent by _feeling_ and by the fixed sentimentsgrowing out of feeling? Ratiocination does not influence one of theiractions in a million. There is not within my knowledge a single instancewhere a purely rational conception has been the basis of practice, inopposition to feeling. "

"Surely, " I said, "you do not mean to say that educated men are notgoverned in the main by reason?"

"I mean just what I say--that I do not know, in practice, a singleinstance in which they are so governed in opposition to feeling. Pshaw, pshaw! young man; if we are to compel the acts of practical daily lifeto conform with a dialectic demonstration of what is best for us--to doonly what is in reason best for us--we must simply cease to live, thoughwe do continue to breathe. Even in physics, of what use are logicaldemonstrations, when the premises are only a foundation more unstablethan quicksand--purely provisional?

"Now if these agnostics were truthful--which they try to be; and wereconsistent--which they are not, they would be in a trying situation. Reason shows no advantage to a man in kissing his wife; he has nosyllogistic endorsement for supporting her and the children; in fact, hehas no business to have children--all the result of feeling orsentiment, all rubbish, and beneath the intellect of a man who worshipsPure Reason! And if the demands of man's moral or affectional nature area reason for such indulgences, then his aspirations to the great primalcause of the known, the unknown, and (to us here and now) unknowablewonders and mysteries of the universe without, and of ourselves within, is also justifiable in reason, and ought not by wit and eloquence to bejuggled out of the ingenuous mind. The masses are governed by religion, directly and indirectly, to an extent much greater than at first thoughtappears. The daily life of the agnostic himself is shaped by hisChristian heredity and environment. Now our Author furnishes nosubstitute for this intuitive demand of being. If reason can supplynothing in place of religion, why not allow those who possess religiousconviction to retain so agreeable, and to others beneficial, abelief?--Now right here I can detect the voice of the agnosticagitator--this is his strongest situation, and he simply smiles when youmake this opening for him. The voice says, 'Agreeable? Agreeable to burnforever in hell? Well, well, my friend--our ideas of pleasure differ. 'This is sophistical twaddle. It is not the Christian that suffers from afear of hell--it is the sinner, through his guilty conscience. Conscience, conscience; the only barrier between us and hell on earth!Christians are comforted by the thought of a loving Christ--Christians, in my experience, do not suffer. "

"Why, sir, " I said, "I cannot but wonder that you are not yourself aprofessed Christian. "

"Never mind me, young man. --But here we are on the edge of town. Icould, if I wanted to, preach a sermon capable of converting everyheathen within sound of my voice. Once, at a camp-meeting, I did preacha sermon; and I tell you, the old people looked mighty sober, and theyounger and more susceptible of my auditors covered their faces withtheir hands and seemed to shake with grief and contrition. But, pshaw, pshaw; people don't go to hear either witty agnostics lecture, orpreachers preach, to get something for their brain-boxes to reasonabout. Believe me "--tapping the volume, still in his hand--"this sortof thing won't make anybody reason. After all, the question is one ofswapping off Christ for an Illinois lawyer. "

The EIGHTH Chapter

It lacked half an hour of nine o'clock as we drove up before the LoomisHouse, where I alighted, and ran up to my rooms. I had scarcely morethan made a hasty toilet, when Arthur came in. After telling me who had, during my absence, called to see me, and after attending to sometrifling wants which I expressed, he shuffled his feet in a style that Ihad learned to recognize as indicating a desire to say something notwithin the compass of our purely business relationship--a liberty whichthe precedents of our first two days of acquaintanceship in connectionwith later events had solidified into a vested right. 

"Well, Arthur?" I said. 

"I read the whole book, sir--there it is, on the table. That book justdid get me. But what did become of Pym and Peters? And is it true you'vefound that old soc-doligin' pirate?"

I told him that Peters was found. 

"Well, now!" he continued. "I'd like to see the old four-foot-eighter. But if you love me, tell me what that white curtain reachin' down fromthe sky was, and what made the ocean bilin' hot? What made themante-artic niggers so 'fraid of everything white, and what was thehiryglificks on the black marble meant to say? And, most of all, who wasthe female that stood in the way of the boat? Say--I don't blameanybody--but if Mr. Poe knowed he didn't know these points, what did heget our mouths waterin' for? Did you find out these points yet?"

I explained to him that probably at that very moment Doctor Bainbridgewas sitting on the edge of Dirk Peters' cot, drinking in the wonderfulstory; and that as soon as a certain gentleman had called to see me, Iexpected to return to Peters' house, and to remain until we knew all. 

"Go slow, " said Arthur, "and don't fall down on any importing points. Better take time, and catch everything. I asked Doctor Castleton lastnight what made that ocean bile; and he said he guessed the mouth ofhell was down that way, and Satin had just opened the door to air out. That's him; if it ain't heaven it's got to be hell. But how old Petersever lived this long with Castleton monkeyin' with him is a mighty funnything. --But who's that?"

A rap had sounded on my door. My caller had arrived. 

I did not succeed in getting back to Bainbridge and Peters so soon as Ihad expected. My business in the town dragged along far into theevening, and it was nine o'clock by the time I was at liberty. At teno'clock I sent for a conveyance, and was driven to Peters' house, whereI arrived just before midnight. 

I found Peters sleeping soundly, and Bainbridge dozing in a chair. Myentrance aroused Bainbridge. He arose, smiling, and was apparently gladto see me. I saw at a glance that he had been successful in obtainingfrom Peters the secrets of his antarctic voyage. "Well?" I asked. 

"The information which I have gained, " said Bainbridge, "even could Iprocure no more, would suffice to explain all those mysteries that Poehints at as fact, and much that he seems to apprehend with that sixthsense which in the genius approaches a union of clairvoyance andprescience--mysteries of which he does not speak in languagesufficiently clear for common comprehension. At all events, I am notdisappointed; and more may yet be procured. There remains much ofinterest, in the way of _minutiæ_, which I expect to learn to-morrow. Iknow now what made that antarctic region more than tropical, and whatthe white curtain was--and is. I know how the hieroglyphics came in thecaverns of black marl. That antarctic country exceeds, in the trulywonderful, anything in the world, old or new, with which I amacquainted, or of which I have heard. "

"But is it true? Have you not been listening to fairy tales?--or, rather, to sailor tales?"

"When to-morrow I tell you what I have, hour after hour, with briefrests, drawn from that poor old battered hulk"--he pointed towardPeters' cot--"and when you consider what he is--then say if he is theman, or his sailor friends are the men, to invent such a story. I admitthat at times during the day his mind seemed to wander slightly, andthat he has the usual faculty of sea-faring men for exaggeration; sothat at times I had to employ my best discrimination to enable me toseparate the real from the fanciful, that I might retain the true anddiscard the untrue. He seems to have lived for more than a year inproximity to the South Pole, and his experiences were as marvellous asthat country is strangely grand, and its people truly wonderful--Oh, no--nothing on the Gulliver order; the people are not dwarfs or giants, and they have no horses either that talk or that do not talk; noyahoos--nothing in that line. 'Wings?' Oh, no--no flying men or women, no women in gauze, either; everything quite in good taste and genteel. Just wait, now; you'll hear it all in an orderly way--which I myself didnot, however. 'One-eyed?' I told you, just now, that it was all in goodtaste and genteel. No, no; nothing Homeric--no sheep, and no sirens. Now, I'm really tired, and you'll not succeed in starting me on a storythat'll take six or eight hours to tell, even if we do not stop todiscuss matters as we progress. To-morrow, as I before said, we will getfrom Peters all other possible facts, and no doubt we shall gatherfurther particulars; then we will go to town. I intend to come out hereevery day till Peters gets better or dies--and I suppose you will notrefuse to keep me company. Every evening we will meet in my rooms, or inyours, and I will recite the story in my own way. Now does that satisfyyou?"

It satisfied me fully, I said; and then we spread our blankets, and madea night of it on the floor. 

The next day Bainbridge spent the forenoon, for the most part, sittingon the edge of Dirk Peters' cot, listening to the old man talk, describe, explain. I walked out, and explored the immediately adjacentcountry, entertaining myself as best I could. At about two o'clock inthe afternoon we started for town, leaving Peters much better than whentwo days before we had first, together, entered his humble home. Wepromised to see him the next day; and, in fact, one or both of usreturned each day for many succeeding days. That evening DoctorBainbridge came to my rooms, and began the recitation of Dirk Peters'story; and that, too, was continued from day to day. 

And it is now time that the patient reader should also know the secretsof that far-distant antarctic region--secrets of which Poe himself diedin ignorance--save as the genius, the seer, knows the wonders of heavenand earth--sees gems that lie in hidden places, and flowers that bloomobscurely, and feels the mysteries of ocean depths, and all that is sofar--or near, so great--or small, that common vision sees it not. 

The NINTH Chapter

There may be among my readers some who have never read "The Narrative ofA. Gordon Pym, " or have so long ago perused that interesting andmysterious conception, that they have forgotten even the outlines of thestory. It is the purpose of the present chapter to review a few of theincidents in that narrative, a knowledge of which will add to theclearer understanding of Peters' story. 

Those who are familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's admirable and entrancingnarrative just mentioned, are aware that it is written inautobiographical form, the facts for the most part being furnished byPym in the shape of journal or diary entries, which are edited by Mr. Poe. For such readers it will be but a waste of time to peruse thepresent chapter, brief though it is. And let me further say to anychance reader of mine who has never had opportunity to enjoy thatexciting and edifying work of America's great genius of prose fiction, that he is to be envied the possession of the belated pleasure thatawaits him--only a treasured memory of which delight remains to the restof us. 

From my own narrative I shall omit much of description and colloquywhich, during its development in 1877, occurred concerning discoveriesof a geographical and geological nature, and also many discussions of acharacter purely philosophical; but no fact shall be discarded. Thehistorian has, in my opinion, no discretionary power concerning theintroduction or elimination of facts. His duty is plain, and in thepresent instance it shall be faithfully performed. 

The following presents a very general outline of "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym":

In the year 1827, Pym, just verging upon manhood, runs away from hishome in the town of Nantucket, on the island of the same name, incompanionship with his boy friend, Augustus Barnard, son of the captainof the ship on which they depart. The name of the brig on which theyembark is the Grampus, which is starting for a trading voyage in theSouth Pacific Ocean. Young Barnard secretes Pym in the hold of the brig, to remain hidden until so far from land as to make a return of therunaway impracticable. Pym, hidden amid the freightage of the hold, falls into a prolonged slumber, probably caused by the foul air in thatpart of the vessel. When the brig is four days at sea, a majority of thecrew mutiny; and after killing many of those who have not joined them, Captain Barnard is set adrift in a small boat, without food and withonly a jug of water. Young Barnard is permitted to remain on the vessel. There is a dog that plays a leading part in the mutiny episode by actingas a messenger between Barnard and Pym, who had no other means ofcommunicating. 

Next comes a counter mutiny, made necessary to preserve the life of onePeters, a sailor to whom Barnard owes his life. The ship's cook isdetermined to kill Peters, and is about to accomplish his purpose, whenPeters, young Barnard, and a sailor named Parker, who joins the two, devise a plan for overcoming the mutineers of the "cook's party. " Thisthey succeeded in doing by, at the right moment, producing from hishiding-place young Pym, who is dressed to resemble a certain murderedsailor whose corpse is still on the brig; and during the fright of the"cook's party, " Peters and Parker kill the cook and his followers. 

Then the four--Barnard, Pym, Peters, and the sailor Parker--have manythrilling adventures. The brig is finally wrecked in a storm, and onlythe inverted hull remains above water, to which the four cling for manydays. The party is at last rescued by a trading-vessel on its way todiscover new lands in the Antarctic Ocean. They reach 83 south latitude, soon after which a landing is made on an island inhabited by a tribe ofstrange black people. Here, through a trick of the islanders, the crewlose their lives--all save Pym and Peters. Parker had already died, andin a manner more entertaining to the reader in the perusal than toParker in the performance; and which, Peters said forty-nine yearslater, the mere thought of, always made him willing to wait for hissupper when he had of necessity to forego a dinner. 

Whilst escaping in a small boat from this island, Pym and Peters abductone of the male natives. Like his fellows, this native is black, even tohis teeth; in fact, there is nothing white on the whole island; even thewater has its peculiarities. And also like his fellows, he dreads thecolor _white_; and whenever he sees anything white he becomes almostfrenzied or paralyzed with terror. The small boat with its threeoccupants is carried on an ocean current, to the south. One day Pym, intaking a white handkerchief from his pocket allows the wind to flare itinto the face of the black islander, who sinks in convulsions to thebottom of the boat, later moaning (as had moaned the other islanders onseeing white), "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li. " He continued to breathe, and nomore. The following day the body of a white animal floats by, a bodysimilar to one which they had seen on the beach of the island lastvisited. Then they see in the south a white curtain, which, after theirfurther progress in its direction, they observe reaches from the sky tothe water. The water of the ocean current which is hurrying them alongbecomes hour by hour warmer, and finally hot. An ash-like material, which seems to melt as it touches the water, falls all around and overthem. Gigantic white birds fly from beyond the white curtain, screamingthe eternal "Teke-li-li, tekeli-li"--a syllabication that dies away onthe lips of the islander as his soul finally, on that last terrible day, leaves his body. 

The last words of the last of Pym's entries in his journal are asfollows:

"And now we rushed into the embraces of the cataract, where a chasmthrew itself open to receive us. But there arose in our pathway ashrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than anydweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of theperfect whiteness of the snow. "

The following description of Dirk Peters as he appeared in the year1827, or just fifty years before I saw him, apparently a man ofseventy-five years (though we finally concluded that he was nearereighty), is Pym's, quoted from Poe's narrative:

"This man was the son of an Indian woman of the tribe of Upsarokas, wholive among fastnesses of the Black Hills, near the source of theMissouri. His father was a fur-trader, I believe, or at least connectedin some manner with the Indian trading-posts on Lewis River. Petershimself was one of the most ferocious looking men I ever beheld. He wasshort in stature, not more than four feet eight inches high, but hislimbs were of Herculean mould. His hands, especially, were so enormouslythick and broad as hardly to retain a human shape. His arms, as well ashis legs, were bowed in the most singular manner, and appeared topossess no flexibility whatever. His head was equally deformed, being ofimmense size, with an indentation on the crown (like that on the head ofmost negroes) and entirely bald. To conceal this latter deficiency, which did not proceed from old age, he usually wore a wig formed of anyhair-like material which presented itself--occasionally the skin of aSpanish dog or American grizzly bear. At the time spoken of, he had on aportion of one of these bear-skins; and it added no little to thenatural ferocity of his countenance, which betook of the Upsarokacharacter. The mouth extended nearly from ear to ear; the lips werethin, and seemed, like some other portions of his frame, to be devoid ofnatural pliancy, so that the ruling expression never varied under theinfluence of any emotion whatever. This ruling expression may beconceived when it is considered that the teeth were exceedingly long andprotruding, and were never even partially covered, in any instance, bythe lips. To pass this man with a casual glance, one might imagine himto be convulsed with laughter; but a second look would induce ashuddering acknowledgment, that if such an expression were indicative ofmerriment, the merriment must be that of a demon. Of this singular beingmany anecdotes were prevalent among the seafaring men of Nantucket. These anecdotes went to prove his prodigious strength when underexcitement, and some of them had given rise to a doubt of his sanity. "

The TENTH Chapter

During the early evening of the day on which Doctor Bainbridge and Ireturned from our stay with Dirk Peters, I sat in my room at the LoomisHouse, impatiently awaiting the moment when Bainbridge was to arrive. Iknew that he was wearied by his labors with Peters, and I did notanticipate a prolonged talk from him. Still, I was anxious to hear atleast a beginning of the promised story. At the appointed time he camein, and placing a roll of paper on the table, took the large easy-chairwhich I had placed for him. 

"As I know, " he said, "that the developments of the past three daysmust, quite naturally, have developed a curiosity in you of someintensity to hear the sequel of the Pym adventures, I shall endeavor notto keep you unnecessarily waiting; but shall allay at once a portion ofyour curiosity. Later--tomorrow, if agreeable--I will deal with theparticulars of that strange voyage--perhaps the strangest ever made byman. "

He picked up, and smoothed out upon the table, the roll of paper whichhe had brought with him; and then continued:

"In the first place, I will briefly and in a very general way describefor you the south polar region, which, I feel certain, Pym and Petersreached, and where they resided for somewhat more than one year. Here isa map which I have with some care drawn from rough sketches jotted downas I sat on the edge of Peters' cot, and each of which sketches I hadhim verify. 

[Illustration: Map of Southpolar region and hili-li

A. Central space of boiling lava Diameter 15 miles. Probable situationSouth PoleB. Ring of hot lava, white hot at inner edge, red hot at outer edge. Width, about 4 milesC. Ring of hot lava, dull red, shading to black heat at outer edge. Width, about 4 milesD. Ring 4m in width. Blocks of lava, rock salt, and coral-like terrainsEEE. Volcanic mountains, up to 8m in height and valleysFFF. Antarctic Ocean with islands

SOUTH POLAR REGION _and_ HILI-LI LAND. ]

"Now move this way with your chair, and look at this map. And in thefirst place, I will tell you that at the South Pole--probably notprecisely at the pole, but certainly within the sixth of a degree ofit--is a circular surface of absolutely white-hot, boiling lava, aboutfifteen miles in diameter. This surface was, in ages past, as indicatedby surroundings, many times its present surface extent--say from seventyto seventy-five miles across. No doubt the surface of the earth at theAntarctic Pole had once cooled, and later become covered with water, though with very shallow water--probably at some points by none, atothers by a depth of ten or fifteen feet. From some cause--and manycauses might be imagined--this earth-and-water surface of say twohundred miles in circumference, sank into the interior of the earth, andthe boiling lava came to the surface. We can scarcely conceive of theawful effect when the Antarctic Sea poured over the circumference ofthis mass of boiling earth and metal. 

"Now it must be considered that this boiling lava was not merely a greatsurface of white-hot matter, in which case it would, relativelyspeaking, soon have cooled. To flood its edges with an overflow of tenfeet of water would be comparable to running a film of water a hundredthof an inch in depth over the top of a red-hot stove in which a largefire continues to burn and constantly to renew the heat on its surface. This surface of boiling lava must have had a practically limitlessdepth, and the water which poured over it must have evaporatedinstantly. After thinking the matter over, with the _data_ which I havewell in view, I concluded that it required about two hundred years forthe water to reach the limit which it finally attained as water _enmasse_. A little thought on the subject has shown me that Peters istelling the truth, because his description, to my mind, harmonizes withthe laws of physics. One of the earliest phenomena presented by thiscondition, was that so much sea-water evaporated, and evaporated sorapidly, that masses of rock-salt formed, creating a partial barrier tothe inroads of the sea--I say a partial barrier, because thedeliquescence of salt would cause it to be the poorest of all barriersto water. Still, we must remember that the immediately surrounding watermust have reached, so far as salt is concerned, the saturation point, and would have been a very slow solvent of hard rock-salt in enormousmasses and several miles in extent. Then, two other conditions soonarose: First, the warm surrounding water permitted a coral-likedevelopment, as shown by present appearances, and second, volcanicaction began. 

"Now look at my map. This inner circle represents the present area ofboiling lava, which, as I have said, is about fifteen miles indiameter--the South Pole, according to the natives, being at about thepoint corresponding to this dot, marked 'a. ' The ring next without thecircle I have made to represent a zone of lava which is at its inneredge white-hot, and at its outer edge red-hot, its width, let us say, asthe division is arbitrary, about four miles. The second circlerepresents a zone of lava which is dull red at its inner edge, andblack, but hot, at its outer. Of course the lava blends away fromwhite-hot within, to barely warm without; but I thus map it, the betterto picture reigning conditions. The next circle, some four or five milesin width, represents a ring of cold lava-blocks, masses of rock-salt, and animalculine remains, from twenty-five to two hundred feet high. Outside of this last-mentioned zone, we have several rings of volcanicmountains with intervening valleys, and many active craters at thesummit of mountains; while on the mountain-sides lie numerous masses ofrock-salt, thrown from below by eruptive action, glistening in thebrilliant volcanic light, and slowly deliquescing. This zone ofmountains and valleys is from ten to twenty miles in width, and whilstin the main its mountains are not more than from half a mile to a milehigh, it contains peaks of five or six miles in height, and there is onepeak which rises nine miles above the sea-level. 

"I want you to look particularly at these larger mountain-ranges, one atthe right, the other at the left side of my map--each of which as itstretches out into the sea divides into two smaller chains. Upon theseranges, and the comparatively diminutive height of the interveningmountains, in connection with the fact that there is a constantwind-current from the lower Pacific (generally speaking, from the westof longitude 74 W. ), depends the habitability of this large island, theIsland of Hili-li (here represented in about longitude 75 E. ), and manyother islands which stretch out in the same direction from this enormousactive surface-crater. I say that upon such conditions depends thehabitability of these islands, and so I believe; but there is anothercause for their greater than tropical warmth: If you will glance here onthe right of this map, in the midst of the mountain zone you will seerepresented a bay, which, winding among mountains, makes its way veryclose to the zone of hot lava--in fact, is divided from it by littlemore than the ring of lava-blocks, rock-salt, and animal remains, whichat this point is narrowed to a width of about two miles. The temperatureof the water of this bay at its inner extremity is probably about 180F. --say 32 below the boiling-point of distilled water; and it flows in asteady current past the Island of Hili-li. This bay is undoubtedly fedfrom the opposite side of the great crater, and its supply flows formiles in contact with hot lava. It is probable that this extremely warmwater current greatly assists the hot-air current in creating thesuper-tropical climate of Hili-li. 

"And now, as I have in part satisfied your curiosity, and as I amsomewhat exhausted with my two days' and nights' experience with Peters, I know you will permit me to rest at so suitable a stopping-point. To-morrow evening I will take up the story of Dirk Peters where it joinsthe sudden break in Pym's journal, and will carry you along to the timewhen the inhabitants of Hili-li thought that the atmosphere of someother land would be more conducive to Peters' longevity and health, aswell as to their own tranquillity. And I assure your Sultanship, thatthe story I shall relate to you to-morrow night will be more interestingthan the dry physical facts which I have this evening imparted, andwhich it seemed best that you should know before hearing in consecutivedetail the particulars of Peters' voyage. "

I assented to his suggestions, thanking him for the clear descriptionwhich he had given of that strange region, and for the pains he hadtaken to draft of it so accurate a map--which map he allowed me toretain. I was about to ask a question, when the door opened, and DoctorCastleton rushed into the room. 

"Well, how's the old man?" he asked. 

We described Peters' condition; and I even recounted a few of the factswhich Bainbridge had just imparted to me. Then I asked the questionwhich Castleton's abrupt entry had delayed. 

"But, " I asked, "has not Peters' imagination, owing to theadministration of drugs, been unnaturally stimulated? There are drugswhich it is commonly believed may have a wonderful effect in stimulatingthe imagination to flights of marvellous grandeur. "

"No, " said Bainbridge. "The doctor here will say the same. No drug onearth could produce even an approach to such an effect. "

"Certainly not, " said Castleton. "The mass of laymen are not onlyignorant--excuse me, sir, but I know you want the facts--not onlyignorant, but extremely and persistently ignorant on this subject. Ihave heard it said that Byron drank twelve--or perhaps twenty--bottlesof wine the night he wrote 'The Corsair. ' If he did, he simply wrote'The Corsair' in spite of the wine. I have heard it stated that Poe wasintoxicated when he wrote 'The Raven'--which is not only an untruestatement but one that could not possibly be true, and which certainlyevery man who ever attempted to write under the influence of analcoholic stimulant knows to be false. Drugs--including alcohol--whichare supposed to stimulate what we might term a rational imagination, only stimulate an irrational fancy. They seem to the person affected tocause a play of imagination, but they really produce only a state ofnervous action which causes their subject to feel appreciation ofotherwise trifling mental pictures that in themselves are flimsynothings. Let a man so affected try to impart to another his fancies, and--well, who has not been bored by a drunken man? Did De Quincey, withthat superb mind, succeed in fancying anything that even he could tell?He speaks of glowing drug-born fancies, but he describes nothings. NowMilton, the old Puritan--the cold-water man--he had fancies which he wasable to transmit, and which are worthy to be forever treasured. Theearly Greeks were exceedingly temperate, and the men who composed the'Nostoi' were not drunkards--Homer sang the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey'with a sober tongue, and a sober brain back of his utterances. The manwho gets drunk to write poetry, will find it easier to write his poetryon the following morning, spite of headache, blue-devils, and all. " Hepaused for a moment; and then this peculiar man continued:

"And I know! Why, sir, I have drunk barrels of whiskey--barrels of thestuff. I have seen whiskey-snakes in squirming masses three feet deep. Ihave gone into a parlor, and had a lady say when she saw me fumbling inmy pockets: 'Doctor, your handkerchief is in your back pocket. ' Blessher! I was only putting back into my pockets the jim-jam snake-heads asthe snakes _would_ try to emerge! I pity a weak devil that goes home andto bed because of a mild attack of delirium tremens. I brush the vipersaway with a sweep of my hand, and go about my business. But I myselfdraw the line at roosters. A man who may laugh at snakes will quailbefore roosters. A fellow may shut his eyes to snakes, but he can't shuthis ears to roosters. Well, well: it's all in a life-time. But, believeme, no good poetry, either in verse or in prose, is drunkenman poetry. "

With which final remark he shot out of the room. Then Doctor Bainbridgetook his departure, and I retired to sleep and to dream of fierycraters, with snakes crawling out of them, and gigantic roosters pickingup the snakes one by one and dropping them over a mountain of salt intoa lake of boiling water. I was pleased when morning came, and I heardthe comparatively cheering tinkle from bells on the team of mulesdrawing the little "bob-tail" street-car past the hotel. 

The ELEVENTH Chapter

On the following evening Bainbridge came to my room as he had promised, arriving at about eight o'clock. I had not that day accompanied him onhis visit to Peters, who it seems was daily gaining strength. I hadspent my day in reading, except that Arthur had repeatedly come to myroom, remaining for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time as his dutieswould permit, being curious to learn from me "some of the things aboutthat ante-arctic country, " etc. He was much interested in the subject, and studied with close attention the map made by Doctor Bainbridge. Arthur had asked permission to be present when the doctor should come inthe evening, but I thought better to deny him that privilege. DoctorBainbridge was taking the matter seriously, and I knew Arthur too wellto expect from him a decorous reticence at any time. I could imagine theeffect on Bainbridge as he closed some glowing description, shouldArthur jump up with a remark about "ante-arctic niggers, " or "geewhallopin big females. " I had occasion later to know that my caution wasmost judicious, and to condemn myself for a want of firmness inmaintaining so sensible a decision. 

Doctor Bainbridge, without unnecessary delay or preliminary remark, began the relation of Peters' adventures at the point indicated by himthe evening before as the proper place of commencement. 

"The great white curtain you have no doubt already surmised to be aclear-cut line of dense fog, due to the fact that a perpendicular planeof extremely cold air in that situation cuts through an atmospherewhich, on both sides of this sheet of frigid air, is exceedingly warm, and laden with moisture to the saturation-point. This curtain of fog isso thin that sudden gusts of wind, upon either of its surfaces, drive itaside much as a double curtain is thrown on either side by the arms of aperson passing between. It was through such an opening that Pym andPeters rushed, on a cross-current of warm water which was carrying themalong. The figure of a large, pure-white woman, into whose arms theirhalf-delirious fancies pictured them as rushing, was simply a largestatue of spotless marble, which stands at the entrance of the bay ofHili-li. The ash-like material which for days had rained upon them andinto the ocean around them, was no longer seen. It proved to have been apeculiar volcano dust or crater ash, which, carried into the upper air, fell at a distance--sometimes directly on Hili-li; but rarely so closeas within eighty or ninety miles of the central fire. 

"They had scarcely passed the white fog-curtain when they were accostedby a gay party of young men and young women, numbering some eight or tenpersons, in an elegant pleasure-boat. Pym and Peters being ignorant ofthe language of Hili-li land, and the Hili-lites being ignorant of theEnglish tongue, it was of course impossible for them to hold conversebeyond that permitted by signs. The pleasure party, however, saw at oncethat the two men were almost ready to expire from want of food and rest. The Hili-lites took them into their own spacious boat, and hastened to alanding-place in the suburbs of the capital and metropolis of thenation, Hili-li City. There they all disembarked, and the strangers weresupported across a lawn, the grass of which was of the palest green--(sonearly white, in fact, that its greenness of tint would scarcely havebeen noticed but for the contrast afforded by many brilliant whiteflowers that appeared here and there amid the grass)--up to a palace, the equal of which, for size and beauty, neither of the Americans hadbefore seen, though Pym was familiar with the external appearance of thefinest residences in and about Boston, and also of those on the HudsonRiver just above New York; whilst Peters had been in most of thesea-coast cities of the habitable world. 

"They were taken into this palace, were immediately escorted to the bath(which Peters declined to enter), were furnished with liquidnourishments, and were then allowed to sleep--which both of them did, uninterruptedly, for twenty-four hours. When they awoke they werefurnished with new clothing of the best (the Hili-lites dressedsomething in the style of Louis XIV. ), and then invited to a fullrepast. So well were they treated that in less than a week they feltquite as strong and otherwise natural as they had on leaving the harborof Nantucket. 

"So elegant and expressive, yet so simple was the language of Hili-li, that Pym could in two weeks understand and speak it sufficiently wellfor ordinary converse; whilst Peters was able to employ it sufficientlyfor his purposes, in about a month. 

"The residents of the palace seemed to comprehend just about what hadhappened to the strangers. It appears that once or twice in a centurystrangers similar in general exterior to this pair had arrived in thatregion, generally in small boats, and on one occasion in a ship; butnone of the strangers had desired to depart from a land so beautiful, toundertake a voyage both long and hazardous--none save the persons whohad come in a ship nearly three centuries before--(you will recall whatI told you of the small book that I read in the Astor Library). As therewas little which the Hili-lites had any desire to learn from thestrangers, there was not much to be said, anyway. Pym and Peters werepermitted to roam at will, and many Hili-lites came to look at them. The palace in which they were permitted to reside belonged to a cousinof the king, so that no troublesome surveillance was inflicted uponthese wrecked sailors--in fact, so completely isolated were the two, that no feelings except a mild degree of sympathy and curiosity wereexcited by their presence on the island. A small boat was at theirdisposal, and they soon almost daily took the liberty of rowing acrossthe harbor to the wharf at the end of the main street of Hili-li, wherethey would disembark, and wander for hours around this strange old city, viewing in wonderment its beauties, its peculiarities, its mysteries. 

"Hili-li is a city of from one to two hundred thousand people. But, oh, lovely beyond power of language to describe!--past all conception, andcomparable alone with fancies such as float through the brain ofpoet-lover as he lies dreaming of his soul's desire. I draw myconclusions from Peters' state of mind when he attempts to describe thisstrange city, rather than from what he says; and also from some of Pym'sremarks on the subject, which Peters was able to repeat. In yourimagination, compass within an area two miles in diameter the choicestbeauties of ancient Greece and Egypt, Rome and Persia; then brightenthem with natural surrounding scenery such as Homer and Dante and Miltonmight have dreamed of--and you may feel a little of what Pym and Petersfelt when first they saw this glorious island. In ancient Greece a truedemocrat would have been displeased with the extreme discrepancy betweenthe grandeur of public buildings, and the poverty of private dwellings;but in Hili-li these two bore a perfectly just relationship of elegance, each in its way being perfect. 

"Yet mere inanimate beauties were the least of all. Even Peters, old anddying--never a man to whom art spoke in more than whispers--even he wasaroused from the arms of death when he spoke of the women of Hili-li. 'Were they blondes?' I asked him. 'No. ' 'Were they brunettes?' 'No. 'They were simply entrancing--never to be forgotten. Each and everyone ofthem, like Helen, won by her mere presence the adoration of man. And themen--even they must have been superb--were types of perfect manlyelegance. 

"I spent many hours in trying to draw from Peters facts which I mightput together and so become competent to explain the perfection, physicaland mental--for they possessed both of these charms--of the Hili-lites. And after combining what Peters could describe, and what he could recallof Pym's sayings, with a statement or two of the natives that clings inthe old man's memory, I formed what I am able to assure you is areliable opinion of the origin of the Hili-lite race:

"At about the most trying period of the barbarian invasion of SouthernEurope--certainly preceding the foundation of Venice, and I think in thefourth century--when the enlightened peoples of the Mediterranean werefleeing hither and thither like rats in a burning house from which butfew escape--during this fearful time, a number of men with theirfamilies and a few slaves, took advantage of a momentary lull in theterrors of the period, to save themselves. They purchased a number ofvessels, and loading each with tools, seeds, animals, valuedmanuscripts, and all that they possessed worth moving, started to seek aland in which they might colonize, there in time to found a new empirebeyond the reach of all barbarians. They passed out of the Mediterraneanand down the west coast of Africa. Fortunately they had thoroughlyanticipated storms and wrecks, and each vessel was loaded in such amanner as to be independent of the others. When well on their way, oneof those rare, prolonged storms from the north came on, and the vesselswere soon driven far from land, and separated, each from all the others. One of these vessels managed to outlive the terrific storm, which lastedfor thirty days; and when the winds abated, the hundred or more men, women, children, and slaves, found themselves among the islands of whatnow is named Hili-liland. There they settled--there, where naturefurnishes, without labor, light and heat the year round, and vegetationis literally perpetual. They met with none of the initial difficultiesof primitive peoples. They were educated, and they possessed thetreasures of knowledge born of a thousand years of Roman supremacy; fromthe beginning they had that other priceless treasure, leisure--that realessential of perfect culture; they had for the first five hundred yearsno human enemy to contend with, and even then with the merestweaklings--weaklings in the hands of a people at that period verystrong; for by that time the Hili-lites must have numbered a millionsouls, or almost as many as they now are. But of all that theypossessed, the rest would have been comparatively little had they notretained in lasting memory the lesson of Rome's downfall--the price apeople is compelled to pay for prolonged and unbroken luxuriousindolence. This lesson of the downfall of Rome they never forgot; andto-day, with all their beauty and refinement, physical and mentaleffeminacy is left solely to the women. True, it requires from eachinhabitant but a few hours of labor in the year to supply all purelyphysical material wants; but, beginning with the year of the settlementof Hili-li, up to the present time, the wealthiest in the land hasperformed his share of physical labor quite as conscientiously as hasthe poorest. Then with them, a man or woman is educated up to the timeof death. The children are taught as with us, and the young men, and theyoung women, too, take a college course. But after the college course, they go on with their study. A great jurist at forty, or for that matterat seventy, concludes to make an exhaustive study of astronomy--or, ifearlier in life he has exhausted all desire to know the facts ofastronomy, he perhaps begins a study of anatomy--or whatever it mayhappen to please his fancy to investigate. The Hili-lites claim that inthis way those who live to seventy or eighty acquire a fairly goodgeneral education, but of this I have my doubts. After the age oftwenty, a man does not devote more than two hours a day to new branchesof learning; but two hours a day is sufficient time, if well employed, to keep his mind always young and vigorous; and it has been shown bythis people that a person under such a system retains more of thebuoyancy and freshness of youth at eighty than do we in Europe andAmerica at the age of fifty. 

"In Hili-liland the people have gone much farther than we in thedevelopment of the purely reasoning faculties--in fact, they have goneso far that they now ignore reason almost completely, having carried itsdevelopment to a finality, and found it comparatively worthless in thepractical affairs of life. They claim--and seem by their lives toprove--that, practically, society is happier and more moral when itexists without any pretence that it is controlled by anything else thanby feeling--that is, as a matter of course, by properly educatedfeeling. Hili-li is a kingdom, but its people must, from what I canlearn, have as pure and perfect a constitutional liberty as it ispossible for mankind to enjoy--not liberty as the accident of a royalwhim, but such a perfect liberty as the people of England areapproaching, and in which by another century they will be able toindulge themselves. They claim that as liberty does not mean license, sogovernment of self by feeling and not by reason need not meanlicense--and never will mean license when correctly understood andproperly directed--and yet that such government alone brings completehappiness. This putting aside and dwarfing of the reasoning facultyseems to have resulted in an intuitional state of mind. Peters says thatthe Hili-lites always seemed to know what he was thinking about, andwere always able to anticipate and thwart his acts when they so desired. 

"As I was able to gain from Peters in so brief a time a very limitedrange of fact from which to make correct deductions of importance, I didnot expend much of that valuable time in seeking for descriptions ofbuildings; but I did learn sufficient in that direction to satisfy methat, to the fund of architectural knowledge brought by the ancestors ofthis people from Europe, they had, during the centuries, added much thatis new and valuable, even sublime and truly marvellous. 

"But even here in this paradise on earth, there is a criminal class--notvery terrible, but, legally, a criminal class. It seems that a portionof the old, restless, warrior-spirit must have trickled along in obscureby-ways of the sanguineous system of many of these people, for amongthe youths of each generation several thousand out of the wholepopulation (residing on a hundred islands, large and small), would, despite every effort of their elders, become unmanageable. These--aftereach young man had been given two or three opportunities to reform, andin the end been judged incorrigible--were banished to themountain-ranges which surround the great active surface-crater alreadydescribed, and which are from thirty to eighty miles distant from theCapital of Hili-li. There they might either freeze or roast, as tasteshould dictate. 

"To-morrow evening, " concluded Bainbridge, "I shall relate someparticulars in the lives of Pym and Peters in Hili-liland. The purelypersonal experiences of these two adventurers I should ignore, were itnot that they take us into the region of the wonderful crater and itspeculiar surrounding mountains and valleys, where we shall see nature inone of the strangest of her many strange guises. " Then, after a second'spause:

"Do you accompany me to see the poor old fellow, tomorrow?"

I promised that I would; and we agreed upon two o'clock as the time forstarting. Five minutes later Doctor Bainbridge arose, and sayinggood-night, left me until the morrow. 

The TWELFTH Chapter

The next evening at the appointed hour Doctor Bainbridge came in. I hadnot been able to accompany him in his daily visit to Peters. AsBainbridge took his seat he said a few words concerning the old sailor, who, to the surprise, I think, of both physicians, appeared to berecovering. They hoped for scarcely more than a temporary improvement, but a little longer life for the poor old man seemed now assured. 

Doctor Bainbridge glanced at the map of Hili-li, which I had spread outon the table, and began:

"In the ducal palace, " said he, "in which through the kindness of theyounger members of the household, Pym and Peters were permitted toreside--at first only in the servants' quarters--the servants, however, being, at least in social manners, equal to the strangers--there were, besides the immediate family of the duke, many more or less close familyconnections. Among these was a young woman, corresponding in her periodof life to New England women in their twentieth or twenty-first year, but really in her sixteenth year. Now I should imagine from the actionsof that old sea-dog, Peters, lying there in his seventy-eighth orseventy-ninth year, and forty-nine years after he last set eyes on theyoung woman, that she must have been the loveliest being in a land ofexceeding loveliness. Her eyes, the old man says, were in general like atropical sky in a dead calm, but on occasions they resembled a tropicalsky in a thunder-storm. She had one of those broad faces in which thecheeks stand out roundly, supporting in merriment a hundred changingforms, and laughing dimples enough to steal a heart of adamant--theloveliest face, when it is lovely, in all the world. Her hair wasgolden, but of the very lightest of pure gold--a golden white; and whenin the extreme warmth of her island home she sat amid the trees, and itwas allowed to fall away in rippling waves--to what then am I to likenit? It was transcendently beautiful. I think that I can feel itsappearance. It must have looked like the sun's shimmer on the sea-foamfrom which rose Aphrodite; or like the glint from Cupid's goldenarrow-heads as, later, sitting by the side of Aphrodite, he floatedalong the shores of queenly Hellas, in gleeful mischief shootinglandward and piercing many a heart. Ah, love in youth! The coldreasoning world shall never take away that charm; and when the yearsshall cover with senile snows those who have felt it, then Intuition andnot Reason shall give Faith to them as the only substitute for gloriesthat have faded and gone. 

"But the form of this lovely being--what shall I say of her form! Here Ipause. When Peters, at my urgent solicitation, attempted to describe it, he simply gurgled away into one of his spells of delirium. It was no useto try--though I did, again and again, try to draw from the old mansomething definite. It seems that she was so rounded and so proportionedas to meet every artistic demand, and to divert even from her beautifulface the glance of her enraptured beholders. If we are to gain anapproximate idea of a figure so perfect, we must try to conceive whatmight be the result of a supreme effort of nature to show by comparisonto the most artistic of her people just what puling infants they were intheir attempts to create forms of true beauty from marble. 

"Her name was Lilama. 

"It appears that young Pym was at this time a handsome fellow, almostsix feet tall; and in his attire, of which I have spoken as resemblingin many respects that of the court _habitués_ of Louis XIV, he wasindeed a fine example of natural and artificial beauty combined. Andthen, he had suffered! Need I say more? What heart of maiden would nothave softened to this stranger youth?

"Well, these two loved. From what Peters tells me, the episode of Romeoand Juliet sinks into insignificance by the side of the story of theirlove. With leisure and with opportunity to love, for several monthsthese young people enjoyed an earthly heaven which it is rarely indeedthe lot of a young couple to enjoy. But alas! and alas! True as in thedays when moonlight fell amid the palaces of Babylon and Nineveh is theold poetic expression--its truth older than Shakespeare, older thanhistoric man--that 'The course of true love never did run smooth. '

"It seems that among the so-called criminal exiles to the VolcanicMountains was a young man of good family, who had known--and of courseloved--Lilama. And I will say in passing that the youths who comprisedthis class would, the larger part of them, never have been exiles, ifHili-li had required a standing army, or had even not forbidden by lawthe more rough and dangerous games to be played--I allude to some veryrough sports and pastimes, in which bones were frequently broken--gameswhich these youths and preceding generations of youths had initiated anddeveloped. But there was in Hili-li, aside from boating, no allowablemeans for the gratification of that desire to contend with danger whichis inherent in manly youths the world over. Hence these young men wereby their very nature compelled to violate laws thus unnatural, and, asgenerally happens, in doing so they went to extremes. The youngHili-lite to whom I have alluded had been for more than a year with theexiles. His name was Ahpilus. Lilama did not reciprocate his love. Shehad known him from infancy, and for her there was no romance in poorAhpilus. But the young Hili-lite was madly infatuated with her, and itseems by later developments that his enforced absence from her haddriven him almost, if not wholly, insane. 

"Thus stood matters about three months after the arrival in Hili-li ofthe Americans. It will be remembered that, according to Poe's account, Pym and Peters passed through the 'great white curtain' on March 22d. Peters says that this statement is probably correct. That datecorresponds to their autumnal equinox--about. Three months latercorresponds to our summer solstice--their midwinter. By the latter time, and for weeks before, the antarctic sun never rose above the horizon. But this season was in Hili-li the most beautiful and enjoyable periodof the year. The open crater of almost pure white boiling lava which Ihave described, and which presented a surface of the most brilliantlight, covering an area of more than 150 square miles, was amplysufficient to light islands from 45 to 75 miles distant. Hili-lireceived some direct light from a hundred or more volcanic fires--twowithin its own shores; but by far the greater illumination came from thereflected light of the great central lake of boiling lava. The sky, constantly filled with a circle of high-floating clouds formed ofvolcanic dust, the circumference of which blended away beyond thehorizon, but in the centre of which, covering a space the diameter ofwhich was about thirty miles, was a circle of light of about the samebrilliancy as that of the moon, but in appearance thousands of timeslarger. From this overhanging cloud (the City of Hili-li lay under apart of its circumference) came during the antarctic winter a mild andbeautiful light, whiter than moonlight, and lighting the island to manytimes the brilliancy of the brightest moonlight, though quite subdued incomparison with that which would have been derived from the sun ifdirectly in the zenith. Peters says that the illumination in Hili-li atits midwinter was about as intense as with us on a densely cloudy day;the light not, however, being grayish, but of a pure white, now andagain briefly tinted with orange, green, red, blue, and shades of othercolors, caused by local and temporary outbursts of those colors in theenormous crater fires. 

"I will digress for a moment longer from the relation of thoseoccurrences which developed out of Pym's love affair, to say a wordconcerning some of the physical effects of this artificial light, and toexplain certain facts related by Poe in his narrative of the earlieradventures of our younger hero--I say of our younger hero, because Icannot determine in my own mind which of the two, Pym or Peters, deserves to be called the hero of their strange adventures. 

"On the island of Hili-li the mean summer temperature was about 12° or13° Fahrenheit higher than that of winter. The almost steady temperatureof the island in winter was 93° F. --occasionally dropping two or threedegrees, and, very rarely, rising one or two degrees. The extremes intemperature during the year were caused by the sun's relativeposition--constant sunlight in summer, and its complete absence inwinter. Each year, by December--the south-polar midsummermonth--vegetation has become colored; and its delicacy yet brilliancy oftintage is then very beautiful, and varied beyond that of perhaps anyother spot in the world. Peters has travelled over much of the tropicsand subtropics, and he says that only in Florida has he seen anything tocompare with the beauty of Hili-li vegetation in October and November. Ishould imagine from what he says that the coloring of vegetation is ingreat part the merest tintage, the large admixture of white giving to ita startling luminosity, and permitting the fullest effect of thoseneutral tints which are capable of combinations at once so restful andso pleasing to the refined eye. In the vegetation of Florida there isluminosity; but chromatic depth, as in most tropical coloring, is thechief characteristic of its visual effect. To hear Peters talk of theflowers of Hili-li, almost half a century after he himself viewed them, is a sympathetic treat to my sense of color. But for strangeness--and itwas not without its element of beauty, too--the vegetable growth of Julyand August in that peculiar land must exceed anything else of the kindknown to man. Think for a moment of the effect on vegetable growth ofwarmth and moisture, a rich soil, and the complete absence of sunlight!From the middle of their winter to its close, though vegetation isluxuriant, it is colorless; that is to say, it is apparently of a purewhite, though, on comparison, the faintest shades of hue arediscernible--a very light gray and a cream color prevailing. Thepeculiar grass of Hili-li, probably not indigenous yet certainlydifferent in form from any other grass, is very tender and veryluxuriant, but, even in their summer months, has a pale, almost huelessthough luminous green; whilst in winter it is almost white. Many flowersbloom in the winter, but they differ one from another only in form andin odor--they are all quite hueless. And this effect of artificial heatin connection with absence of sunlight has a similar effect on animallife, the plumage of the birds being a pure white. But in the appearanceof animals the summer sun does not produce much change--in that ofbirds, none whatever. 

"This brings me to the point in Peters' story at which I may mostnaturally explain certain of Poe's statements--or, rather, of A. GordonPym's statements--which have caused more comment than any other part ofthe narrative. Hand me your Poe, please. --Here now: Poe says, quotingfrom Pym's diary:

"'On the seventeenth [of February, 1828], we set out with thedetermination of examining more thoroughly the chasm of black graniteinto which we had made our way in the first search' (this, you willrecall, was on the last island upon which they set foot before beingdriven by winds and ocean currents farther south. They were then inhiding from the barbarians of that island, and were only a few hundredmiles from the South Pole). 'We remembered that one of the fissures inthe sides of this pit had been partially looked into, and we wereanxious to explore it, although with no expectation of discovering hereany opening. We found no great difficulty in reaching the bottom of thehollow as before, and were now sufficiently calm to survey it with someattention. It was, indeed, one of the most singular-looking placesimaginable, and we could scarcely bring ourselves to believe italtogether the work of nature. ' He proceeds to explain that the sides ofthe abyss had apparently never been connected, one surface being ofsoapstone, the other of black marl. The average breadth between the twocliffs was sixty feet. Here are Pym's own words again: 'Upon arrivingwithin fifty feet of the bottom [of the abyss], a perfect regularitycommenced. The sides were now entirely uniform in substance, in colorand in lateral direction, the material being a very black and shininggranite, and the distance between the two sides, at all points, facingeach other, exactly twenty yards. ' The diary goes on to state that theyexplored three chasms, and that in a fissure of the third of thesePeters discovered some 'singular-looking indentures in the surface ofthe black marl forming the termination of the cul-de-sac. ' It issurmised by Pym and Peters that the first of these indentures ispossibly the intentional representation of a human figure standingerect, with outstretched arm; and that the rest of them bore aresemblance to alphabetical characters--such, at least, it seems fromPym's diary, was the 'idle opinion' of Peters. 

[Footnote: See Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, in any complete edition ofPoe's Works. ]

"Pym later had a clew to the meaning of these characters, and no doubtrecorded the facts in a later diary, many of the pages of which Poenever saw. But if Pym and Peters had analyzed more closely theindentures, they might have gained at least the shadow of an idea of themeaning of these representations. Pym made a copy of them, as you know, and Poe here gives us a fac-simile of that copy in his Narrative. Petersnow knows in a general way of what these indentures were significant, and I will in a moment explain to you their general meaning; but firstlook at this fac-simile. "

I drew up my chair to the side of Doctor Bainbridge, and together welooked at the representation of these indentures which Poe has furnishedus. Bainbridge continued:

"Now look at this first figure, which Pym says 'might have been takenfor the intentional, though rude, representation of a human figurestanding erect, with outstretched arm. ' The arm, observe, is here--thearm and forearm, to my mind, separated; and directly above and parallelwith the arm is an arrow; and if we trace out the points of the compassas described in the diary, we find that the arm is pointing to thesouth, the arrow is pointing to the north; or in other words, the armpoints to Hili-li; the arrow, by inference, back to the island on whichthe indentures exist. Now among most savages the arrow, as a symbol, represents war--a fight--individual or even tribal death. 

"Many centuries preceding the time at which Pym and Peters stoodexamining the indentures in the black marl, and at least five centuriesafter the foundation of Hili-li, the natives of that zone of islandsalmost surrounding the South Pole at a distance of from three hundred toseven hundred miles, were affected by one of those waves of feelingwhich perhaps once in a thousand or several thousand years sweeps asideall the common inclinations of a people, and for some reason which liesburied in unfathomable mystery moves them to a concerted action not onlyunknown in the past of those who participate in it, but, so far as canbe conceived, also unknown to the ancestors of the actors. Such a waveof impulse, when it comes, seems to affect all the individuals of everydivision of a race. In the example to which I am alluding, the impulseseemed spontaneously to move the inhabitants of islands far apart, andapparently not in communication--certainly not in direct communication. With the singleness of purpose and uniformity of action seen in an armyunder command of a leader, the natives of a hundred antarctic islandsswarmed into ten thousand fragile boats, and directed their coursetoward the south. Why toward the south? Did instinct tell them that bysuch a course the various bands would converge to a union? They knewnot. The first few boats arrived at Hili-li. Nine of every ten of thosethat began the journey were lost--but still, boats continued to arriveat the islands of the Hili-li group. Then, and after five hundred yearsof peace, the Hili-lites saw that they were to be overrun by barbarians, as their history told them their ancestors had once, in distant lands, been overrun. The Hili-lites did not have formidable weapons; butfortunately those of the invaders were scarcely more efficient. Theconflict came to a hand to hand engagement. The invaders could notreturn, even had they so desired; so they must fight and win, or die. The Hili-lites had no place of retreat, even had they been willing toflee; and they too must fight and win, or die. The invaders numberedmore than a hundred thousand men; the Hili-lites, about forty thousandthat were able to fight in such a battle. The latter armed themselveswith clubs about four feet long, one inch in diameter at the handle, twoinches in diameter at the farther extremity, and made of a wood similarto the dense tropical lignum-vitæ (almost an inconceivable growth inthat comparatively sunless region); and, for additional weapons, behindnatural and artificial barriers they heaped piles of lava-blocks, sharp, jagged, and weighing each from one to five pounds. The invaders had afew very flimsy bows, scarcely six arrows to each bow--and nothing elsein the way of weapons. From all sides, on came the invaders in theirfrail boats, in one mad rush upon the main island of Hili-li, where theHili-lites had, including their women, children, and aged men, gathered. 

"The invaders were ill-fed, tired out by a sea-voyage exhausting almostpast comprehension, ignorant, almost weaponless, and making a charge insmall boats; whilst for them the favorable elements in the coming battlewere that they possessed five men for each two of the defenders, andwere impelled by a mad, instinctive impulse to advance, similar to thatof a swarm of migratory locusts, which advances even through fire, andthough it require the charred bodies of ninety-nine thousand of theirnumber over which the remaining thousand may cross. The Hili-lites werewell-fed, not fatigued, intelligent, comparatively well-armed, and wereon land, prepared for the battle; whilst they possessed also theinherited Roman spirit, once lost by their ancestors, but by thedescendants recovered amid new and pure surroundings. 

"Before a landing could be made, half the invaders, in the confusionincident to a bombardment with lava-blocks, were thrown from their boatsand drowned, or knocked on the head as they swam ashore. Of the otherhalf, a third were killed as they attempted to land, and another thirdwithin five minutes after they reached the shore. Then the remainingfifteen thousand or more rushed back to their boats, only to find themsunk in the shallow water near the shore--it having been quite easy foreight or ten Hili-lites to sink each boat, by bearing in unison theirweight on one gunwale--a thousand or two young Hili-lites having beenassigned to that duty. Then the poor wretches who remained threw downtheir flimsy bows, and fell face-downward on the ground, at the feet ofthe victors. Under the circumstances, what could so noble a people aswere the Hili-lites do? They could not slaughter in cold blood nearlytwenty thousand trembling human creatures. So it was finally decided tobuild a thousand large-sized row-boats, and it being the best time ofthe year for that purpose, take them back to their own islands. This wasdone. But in punishment for their offence, and as a constant reminder ofthe existence of the Hili-lites--(who, as these savages knew, haddestroyed more than eighty thousand of their number, with a loss of onlytwelve of their own killed, and thirty-seven seriously wounded--whichfact, by the bye, Peters says is inscribed on a monument in the City ofHili-li, as well as recorded in the official history of theHili-lites)--as a constant reminder, I say, of a people so powerful, they were ordered never, on any island in their group, to display anyobject of a white color--the national color of the Hili-lites. So strictand inclusive was this command, that the natives were ordered to takeeach of their descendants as soon as his teeth appeared, and color themwith an indelible, metallic blue-black dye, repeating the operationevery year up to ten, and thereafter once in five years. The commandclosed with the statement that the natives would be allowed to retainthe whites of their eyes, but only for the reason that, as they lookedat each other they would there, and only there, see the national colorof Hili-li, and so have always in mind the promise of the victors, thatif another descent on Hili-li were ever attempted, no singlenative--man, woman, or child--would be allowed to live. In addition tothis, the Hili-lites engraved on a number of suitable rocks on eachisland an inscription, briefly recording a reminder of the terribleresults of this attempt at conquest, heading each inscription with therude representation of a man with arm extended to the south, over whichand parallel with which was placed an arrow pointing to thenorth--meaning, 'There is the direction in which a certain foolishpeople may go to find quick death: from there comes war andextermination!'

"So effective were the means employed by the Hili-lites to preventfuture raids, that, though the inhabitants of these islands had againincreased, probably to a million or more, no second invasion had everbeen attempted by even the strongest and bravest of their savagechiefs. "

"Well, " I said, as Bainbridge paused, and seemed to be thinking justwhat to say next, "what of the beautiful Lilama and the infatuatedAhpilus? I hope poor Pym is not to have so charming a love-feast brokeninto by any untoward event. I must say, Bainbridge, those Hili-liteswere wonderfully careless of their loveliest women--of a beautiful girlof sixteen, and so close to royalty itself. "

"Well, my cold-blooded friend, what will you say when I tell you thatLilama was an orphan, and had inherited from her father the only islandin the archipelago upon which precious stones were found, and that evenin that strange land she was wealthier than the king? Had she been ableto get the products of her islands into the markets of the world, shewould have been wealthier than Croesus, the Count of Monte Cristo andthe Rothschilds, all combined. However, in Hili-li, wealth wasnot--well, not an all-powerful factor; important, but not having thepower which in the remainder of the civilized world it possesses. Tohave power, money must be able to purchase human labor or its products, as only by human power is all other force utilized. In Hili-li, acitizen possessed everything that he required for his ordinary wants, and it was almost impossible to purchase the leisure time of any man. Itwas possible on certain conditions to procure human labor, but it wasextremely difficult to do so. Then, for seven or eight hundred yearsslavery had been prohibited in the land, all existing slaves having beenemancipated--after which, in the course of a few generations, Hili-lianhistory says, the slaves and the slave-spirit were lost in the mass ofthe population. 

"In thinking over the position of Lilama and Pym, you must consider thatthe older members of the family would probably not soon hear of such athing as love between these two, and, even when they did hear of it, would have little doubt of being able to 'control the situation' as theyshould please. Then, with the ideas possessed by the Hili-lites, therewould not arise any very serious objection to a union by marriage ofLilama and young Pym. The Hili-lites believed the feelings to be a guideto true happiness; and whilst they would certainly have controlled thecircumstances leading up to the seemingly unwise marriage of a girl ofsixteen--for they believed also in a proper education of thefeelings--they would not have prevented even a seemingly unwisemarriage, provided the feelings of those concerned loudly demanded sucha union--I mean that if in _reason_ such a marriage should seemunwise--But enough. The hour is late, and I shall not before to-morrowevening at eight o'clock begin a description of the exciting scenesthrough which the beautiful Lilama was so soon to pass, and theadventures of Pym and Peters--adventures so terrible that for centuriesto come they will descend, a thrilling romance, from generation togeneration, in those usually quiet and peaceful islands. "

And then, against my protest, he took his departure. 

The THIRTEENTH Chapter

The following morning, after leaving the hotel on some trifling errand, I returned to find Arthur awaiting me. He stood by my table, andoccupied himself in turning the leaves of one of my books. He waslooking with much interest at a picture in a work on paleontology, abook which by some chance had accompanied a few selected works that Ihad brought with me from England. The picture that so interested him, Isaw as I drew nearer, represented the skeleton of a prehistoric mammothwith a man standing by its side, the latter figure placed in thepicture, no doubt, for the purpose of showing relations of size. As Istepped up close to Arthur's side, he turned a page in the book anddisclosed a still more startling representation, that of a reconstructedmammoth, wool, long coarse hair, enormous tusks, and the rest. Arthur, with his usual curiosity, wanted to be told "all about it, " and I withmy usual desire to teach the searcher after knowledge even of littlethings--though a mammoth is scarcely a "little thing"--briefly gave himsome insight of the subject, running over the differences between themastodontine and the elephantine mammoth; and then remarked to him, incidentally, that an American _mastodon giganteus_, found not far fromwhere we stood, over in Missouri, a third of a century before, was nowin our British Museum, where I had seen it. Of course Arthur had manyquestions to ask concerning the "gigantic-cus" which I had actuallyseen. I gave him, from memory, the best description possible, tellinghim that it was more than twenty feet in length, about ten feet high, and so on. He seemed very thoughtful for several moments, whilst I satdown to look at my morning paper. After somewhat of a pause, he askedpermission to speak--for with all Arthur's lack of cultivation he wasnot wanting in a sense of propriety, which he usually displayed in hisrelations with those whom he liked. I gave the desired permission, whenhe said, "I just wanted to say, sir, that I wish't you'd let me come up of anevenin' and sit off in the corner there on that chair, and hear DoctorBainbridge tell about Pym and Peters. I know you've been mighty good totell me the most of it so far, but to-night he'll tell how thatbeautiful female loves Pym, like you said early this morning he wasgoin' to; and I'm awful anxious to hear soon. Something big's goin' tohappen, and I pity the natives if they rouse up that orang-outangPeters. You said I would disturb the flowin' of Doctor Bainbridge'sretorick by goin' out and in. But I won't go out. I just won't go out;if the Boss don't like it he can lump it--I can quit. Right down thestreet I can rent a little shop-room, and a feller and me has beentalking of startin' a ice-cream saloon for the summer--yes, I can quitif the Boss don't like it. I work all day, and half the night; I can'tkeep up my system with a single drink without there's a kick a-coming;and now if I can't have a little literature when it's right in thehouse, it's a pity. No: I'll not interrup' the retorick. "

Well, the end of it was, I gave my consent; and Arthur went offdelighted. I mention these facts in explanation of my position. It hasbeen said by one who ought to know, and the statement has been oftenenough quoted to evidence some general belief in its truth, thatconsistency is a jewel. I had said, that, during Doctor Bainbridge'srecitations of Dirk Peters' story, Arthur should not be present; and nowthat he will be seen in a corner of my room evening after evening, Idesire that the reader shall know all the circumstances. 

That afternoon I accompanied Bainbridge on his visit to the aged sailor. I was pleased to see the old _lusus naturæ_ sitting in a chair, andseemingly quite strong. Bainbridge made himself agreeable, delivered toPeters some small gifts of edibles, and then proceeded to ask a numberof questions--I presume, from their nature, concerning _minutiæ_relating to the adventures under consideration. Then we returned totown, and separated. 

Promptly at eight o'clock Bainbridge entered, and, as he took hiscustomary seat, cast a glance at Arthur, who sat on a chair in thecorner of the room. 

"Well, " began Bainbridge, after a moment's thought, "we were remarkingthat within our own knowledge and experience, true love has beenexceedingly likely to meet with obstructions to its completefruition:--and Lilama and Pym met with a similar experience in far-awayHili-li. Peters took a great interest in Pym's love affair; in fact, hehad grown almost to worship the young fellow whose life he had manytimes preserved, and who in less than a year had, under his eye, grownfrom a careless boy to a thoughtful man. Pym returned the liking of hisold companion and benefactor; but Peters' sentiment was one ofinfatuation, such as only those persons who are 'close to nature' seemcapable of feeling in its fullest development. When the feeling of whichI speak exists in its most intense form, it includes a devotion equal tothat of the dog for its master: it is wholly instinctive, and not eventhe certainty that death stalks in the path between can keep it from itsobject. 

"One morning early, there was excitement in the ducal palace. Lilama wasmissing. Search was diligently made. Pym was wild with excitement; andas the morning wore on Peters grew almost mad. (I shall speak ofmorning, afternoon, evening, and night. The degree of light in Hili-lidid not now vary in the twenty-four hours; but it is necessary that Ishould in some manner divide the day, and our usual method seems thebest. ) The Duke himself arrived at about ten o'clock, by which time thesearch had ceased, and what to do next had become the question. The Dukeappeared surprised at something, and spoke a few words to his son, ayoung man of twenty-two or twenty-three, by name Diregus, who thereuponlooked slightly foolish, as one does who has made some puerile mistake. The Duke appeared to feel a real touch of pity for Pym, who satdejected, a picture of intense anguish, now and then casting abeseeching look at the Duke--the only person who, to his mind, might beable to assist him to regain his sweetheart. The Duke again spoke to hisson, who, turning to Pym, motioned him to accompany them. Then, followedby Peters, they walked down to the shore, and entered a boat. 

"From the moment of starting, every movement of the Hili-lites seemed asif prearranged. It was a peculiarity of this people that a number ofthem acting together talked very little, each of the party appearing toknow the wishes and intentions of the others, without a word spoken. Andso was it on this occasion. Scarcely a word was uttered, and each seemedto comprehend the wishes of the others, mainly by glances and bysemi-involuntary movements. In the present instance, father and son didnot once glance at each other, yet the son was evidently aware of eachwish of the father. They finally came to a landing, across the bay, inthe suburbs of the city most distant from the locality in which stoodthe ducal palace. There, some four hundred feet from the shore, amidgiant trees, in spacious and seemingly neglected grounds, stood a verylarge residence, evidently many centuries old, and of a style ofarchitecture not seen by the Americans elsewhere in Hili-li. Thebuilding had an eerie look, and as the party drew near to it Petersobserved that but one of its wings was inhabited, the remainder of themansion being in a state of almost complete decay. They all entered by aside doorway into the inhabited wing. Pym and Peters were motioned toseats in the hallway, the Duke remarking, in hushed tones, 'The home ofMasusælili, ' as he and Diregus passed through a broken and decayingdoorway into apartments beyond. Soon Diregus returned, and, escortingPym and Peters through several disordered rooms, finally paused before alarge curtained doorway. Then Diregus spoke, but in a hushed voice, andwith an awed solemnity that chilled his hearers through and through. 

"'Fear not, ' he said; 'no harm will befall you. If the benign Fate is tosmile--well; if the Furies are to rage, we can but bow to the Will thathas held in its hand for countless cycles this petty planet--a grain inthe wastes of Eternity. Come!'

"He passed through the doorway, and the two followed him. The room theyentered was spacious--almost thirty feet square. It was crowded withstrange devices, and was lighted by six colored swinging globes. Astrange odor filled the atmosphere of the apartment. The room wasbrilliantly enough illuminated, though the light was variously coloredand its shades and blendings were confusing; whilst the strange, intoxicating perfume also helped to perplex the senses. If the apartmenthad contained not more than several objects, the visitors might soonhave detected and observed all of them; but, as it was, Pym and Petersstood gazing confusedly about them, momentarily beholding fresh objects, all of them strange, many of them bizarre, some of them frightful. Itwas apparently at the same instant of time that the sight of Pym andPeters fell upon an object so awesome that their hearts almost ceased tobeat, and then bounded on with throbs that sent the cold blood leapingdown their spines and to their scalps in chilling waves that ceased onlywhen their terror reached the numbing stage. There before them, not sixfeet away, among great cubes of crystal, and vast retorts, and enormousvase-like objects on the floor, stood an aged man. How aged? He was oldwhen the antarctic barbarians were slain, and their remnant sent back toits home on those dreary islands to live forever in blackness. None knewhow old he was--they, the rulers, knew not; or if they did, on thatsubject they were silent. Some said that on the ship which brought thenucleus of their race from Rome, came Masusælili with the others--anaged man, the oldest on the vessel. There he stood before the visitors, his white beard trailing on the tiling at his feet, his shrunken formerect. But, whence the terror? Three times ere I could learn this fact(and even then I learned it more by inference than by words) did Peterssink into delirium, muttering, 'Oh, those eyes--the eyes of a god--of agod of gods. ' The aged man seated himself at a small Roman table, and, turning to the Duke without a question, said in a voice unlike any othervoice in all the world--steady, but thin, high-pitched, sharp, penetrating and agitating depths within the hearer never reached before, "'You come for knowledge of The Lily. Behold!'

"He pointed to a cube of crystal near him, which, Peters will swear, wasa moment earlier perfectly transparent. But now it looked as if filledwith milk of purest whiteness. As they gazed at it, a fire appeared inthe centre; and soon around the fire there sprang into being a circularrange of mountains, and on the side of one of these--the nearest--stoodtwo persons. 

"'Lilama--Ahpilus, ' screamed Diregus; 'he has stolen her away!'

"Yes: for though Pym and Peters had never seen the exiled lover, theyrecognized Lilama; and even they could surmise the rest. 

"'The youth is mad, ' said the Duke. 'We must rescue our darling from themaniac. '

"Pym, in his impatience, was about to rush from the room; but the oldman beckoned for him to approach. He did as desired. Then the aged manplaced a hand upon Pym's head, and drew it down to him; and the man whohad lived thousands of years whispered some words into the ear of theyouth who had lived not yet four lustrums. As Peters described for me inhis homely way the change that came over the face of Pym as that humanmillenarian spoke perhaps one hundred words into the young man's ear, Iwas reminded of reading as a boy, some years ago, a description of theburning somewhere in South America of a great cathedral. The fireoccurred during a morning service, and with the alarm the doorways ofthe building were at once obstructed by a mass of struggling humanity. Some two or three thousand persons were consumed in this terribleholocaust. The correspondent who wrote the description of the fire ofwhich I speak said that for ten minutes he stood outside the cathedralafter the surrounding heat had become so intense that efforts at rescueceased, and from a raised spot he looked through the windows from whichthe glass had crumbled--looked across the great window-sills raisedeight feet from the cathedral floor, looked into the faces of thedoomed. And as he gazed, he saw the faces of many maidens with theirlovers by their side--(it was a gala day, and all were in their bestattire). As he looked, within a brief ten minutes he saw horror-strickeneyes gaze at the approaching fire, and at other victims sixty feet awayalready burning; then quickly would the fire approach the owner of thoseeyes, reach him, consume him: And in those fleeting moments the face ofa young girl would pass through every stage from youth to extreme age, and then sink down in death. As the aged mystic whispered to Pym, theyoung man's face turned ghastly, then worked convulsively, then settledinto firm resolve. And Peters never again saw on the face of the youthwhom he loved with the love of a mother and of a father in one--neveragain saw the old, careless, boyish smile. Did the old man--shall wecall him a man?--did the old man whisper into Pym's ear the secret ofeternity? Would such a revelation have changed youth to manhood in ahundred seconds?

"As Pym was led by Diregus from the room, Peters started to follow; butthe aged mystic motioned for him, too, to approach. Peters says thatafter what he had just seen he felt much more like taking to flight thanhe did like obeying the summons; but he obeyed it. The old man pointedto one of the smaller crystal cubes, which would have measured some fivefeet across. As Peters gazed upon it, it began to take on the milky huewhich he had before witnessed. Peters says that at first he thoughtthese cubes were of solid crystal, but after he witnessed the strangealterations of which they were capable, he believed they were hollow. Hecontinued to gaze as directed, and soon he saw, sitting at a table, witha lighted candle by her side, knitting, his poor old mother, from whoseside he had, fifteen years before, when a thoughtless, wicked boy, ranaway to sea. He had never seen her again--he has not seen her again tothe present day. As he gazed upon that aged, wrinkled face--that hard, Indian face (his mother was a civilized Indian), he saw that look whichman sees nowhere else on sea or land save only in a mother's face. Hethrew himself face-downward on the floor, and wrung in agony his hands, and moaned out pleas for forgiveness; but the poor, old, fragile formknitted on, and on, and the face was never raised. Alas! why must we allfeel the full force of a mother's love and sacrifices only when toolate? Why must it be that the deepest of all unselfish love goes everunrewarded?

"Peters scarcely knows how he got from the room. He staggered out intothe grounds, and saw that the remainder of the party were already seatedin the boat. 

"But I must hasten on. Let me say in a few words, that the partyreturned to the ducal palace, and immediately prepared to rescue Lilamafrom the power of her discarded lover, the exiled Ahpilus. The rescueparty, on the advice of the Duke, was small. He explained to Peters thatso far as mere human force was concerned, a thousand men could neverrescue the maiden. Her return to them, alive and in health, would dependupon strategy, or possibly might be accomplished as a result of somesuperhuman individual effort. He was of opinion, he remarked--and hejudged from what he had been told by government officials latelyreturned from 'Crater Mountains' and also from changes in the young manobserved by himself preceding the sentence of banishment--that Ahpiluswas a maniac. The Duke went on to say that he really felt but littlehope of ever again seeing, alive, his loved young 'cousin. ' Then heexplained that, whilst there were spots on 'Crater Mountains, ' from fiveto eight miles from the central crater, on the far side of the nearerhills, hot enough to roast a large animal, there were other spots on thefar side of the remoter mountain ranges where, protected from craterradiation and exposed to antarctic air-currents, the temperature wasalmost always far below the freezing-point, and sometimes so cold thatno animal life, even antarctic animal life, could endure it for an hour. He said that poor Lilama was lost, unless some other exile should saveher--which was unlikely, even if possible--or unless we could inventsome plan of capture so peculiar as to baffle the madman--a man, by thebye, of enormous physical strength, and with a madman's cunning. Petersstood drinking in every word spoken by the Duke; whilst Pym listened asif heartbroken, but in an impatient, anxious way, indicative of arestless impulse to be gone. The Duke continued to instruct and advisethem, until a large sail-boat was provisioned and manned, when therescue party hastened away on its errand of love and mercy. 

"The party consisted of the young man Diregus, Lilama's cousin; of Pymand Peters; and of six boatmen, who might or might not be employeddirectly in the attack and rescue, as should later seem best. The partyhad no weapons other than a few peculiarly-shaped clubs, similar tothose mentioned by me in describing the fight of the early Hili-litesagainst the invading barbarians, and a long dirk-knife in the possessionof Peters. 

"By glancing at this map of Hili-liland, you will observe that thesea-course to 'Crater Mountains' was almost direct, it lying in astraight line out of Hili-li Bay and across the open sea for thirtymiles. They were to enter 'Volcano Bay, ' which pursued a tortuous courseamid the mountains, until they should reach a certain pass between twoof the highest mountains in the whole range. In the centre of one ofthese mountains was a peak some eight miles high, named by the foundersof Hili-li 'Mount Olympus. ' It was possible to sail (or to push theirboat) to within seven miles of a point where the lavabed was still redhot--about thirteen miles from the edge of the central, white-hot, boiling lava. This, however, they did not do; first, because the passmentioned, which was the best course up into the mountains, began aboutthree or four miles short of the inner extremity of Volcano Bay; andsecond, because within a mile or two of that extremity the water of thebay sometimes actually boiled, and the heat would there be quiteunendurable. "

Here Bainbridge paused for a moment, and then continued, "Well, myattentive friend, 'the witching hour' approaches. We lost too much timein discussion this evening--What! only ten o'clock?" he said, looking athis watch. "Well, I am at a good resting-place in the story, anyway, asyou will to-morrow evening admit. Why, if I started you up into thosemountains to-night, we should get no sleep before daylight. No, no:'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; more I would'--how does itgo? Well, it means that the evils of two days should not be crowded intoone day. The attempted quotation--as generally happens when I attemptquotation from the Bible--is a double failure: not a success simply inaccuracy of repetition; and, at best, not appropriate. For I have more, and a great deal more. But"--rising from his chair--"I must depart. Soadieu until the morrow--and good-night to you. "

He had not been gone five minutes, and I was just complimenting Arthuron his silence and otherwise commendable behavior, when Doctor Castletonbounced into the room. He knew in a general way the drift of Peters'story, up to the developments of the evening before. His curiosity tohear what Doctor Bainbridge had so patiently and laboriously gleanedfrom Peters did not seem intense, or it was wonderfully well suppressed. Still, he liked briefly to learn from me the outlines of the story, andhad not failed to meet me at some period of each day, and to hint at adesire for information. Therefore, I knew with what object he had thisevening come to see me, and I ran rapidly over the facts developed thepreceding evening, and then over those of that evening. 

"Yes, yes, " he said, "I see, I see. Rich people, but money no good; poorpeople, but poverty no hardship. That's Bainbridge's nonsense--he nevergot anything out of Peters along that line. Money, but money no value!Oh, well; Bainbridge is young and full of theories. The next thing he'llbe saying that they've found a way in Hili-li to make life as valuableand agreeable for the lazy and the vile as for the industrious and moralclasses. He's just philosophizing to suit himself. Why, a people wouldhave money if they had to make it out of their own hides, and the moneywould have value, too--yes, and labor-purchasing value. No people willever have all they want, for they will invent new wants forever, andmore rapidly than the old wants can be gratified. They may get all theyrequire of food and clothing, and that, too, in exchange for next to nowork; but they will always want things that they are unable to procure. So long as people do different kinds of work--supply the community withdifferent necessaries--they will trade; and when they trade, common-sense will soon invent a circulating medium. And so long as oneman is the mental or the physical superior of another, and fills more ofthe demands of the community than another, he will have the means ofgratifying more of his own wants than the other man; and as differencesincrease, and different temperaments develop their varyingpropensities--some anticipating their ability to expend, others desiringto accumulate for the everlasting rainy day--there will, and necessarilymust, arise stable methods of preserving values. Oh, pshaw! Who wants tomake all men--and all women, too--in a single mental and physicalmould?--and a mighty insignificant mould at that? The world is not madebetter by ease and plenty, but by hardship. Ease and plenty come not butas a reward of striving. When every man is like every other man, and allare too lazy to want anything, the reign of money will be ended. 

"Why not enroll the whole world, and have a great army in civil life, constantly under command, with the nature of its wants and their form ofgratification fixed or regulated by--well, by a majority of these doughmen? That's the only way I know for the people to get rid of acirculating medium, and live. "

He paused for a moment, both in his locution, and in his walk back andforward across the floor. Then he resumed both:

"I do not know of anything quite so idiotic as is this howl directedagainst the possession of wealth. I myself am a poor man: if I do notearn a living each year, I go hungry or go in debt. But I would nottrade off my chances of a competency and of wealth--a reasonableambition for every man in England and America--no, not to see every richman on earth starve--or even sent to hell. This howl is the mark of aplebeian, or at least of a wickedly childish cast of intellect. I knowof nothing quite so foolish, and of nothing half so brutal. TheJew-baiting folly is a phase of the same nonsense. It is foolish, because if the possession of capital is denied to the men who can bestacquire and hence best continue to employ it, then commercialcivilization must take a back seat--in fact, go, and go to stay; andthis means abject poverty for everybody but a handful of state andchurch aristocrats. It is brutal, because it is unreasoning andmistakenly vindictive. It is the howl of the mentally weak--of the mob;and the mob is always brutal. 

"If we are to suppress those whose possessions evidence a past or apresent performance of some service that the world demanded and paidfor, we cast aside the useful of the earth: we know that theirpossessions were gained, not from the pauper, but from those who heldmaterial wealth; and I know, and can most solemnly swear, from personalexperience, that in this world nobody gets anything for nothing. 

"Oh, the first French revolution! The French revolution was all right. The fight was not against commercial wealth, but against a corruptchurch, state, and social order. And nobody maintains that thecommercial class is immaculate: every class should come under theregulation of good statutory law. I only claim that it would be wrongand foolish to take away in whole or in part the accumulations of thecommercial class. With us the only wealthy citizens are commercialpeople, and those who have acquired wealth through them, for with ushere, at this time, the wealthy owners of realty are commercial men whohave put their surplus money into land. Oh, yes: control them; but it'snot the business men of the world who need the most looking after. "

And with that he shot out of the room and down the stairs; and I soonafter retired to rest. 

The FOURTEENTH Chapter

The next evening at an early hour Arthur was seated in the leastconspicuous corner of my room, a spot which he seemed to have selectedas his own; and, as usual, Doctor Bainbridge entered promptly at eighto'clock. After the customary minute or two of thoughtful quiet, and aglance at the map of Hili-li, which each evening I kept spread on mytable in the centre of the room, Bainbridge continued his recital:

"Last evening brought us to the moment when the rescue party, havingentered Volcano Bay, were about to land at the foot of the greatmountain, called Olympus--the Hili-li synonym for Mount preceding thename Olympus when the peak, some eight miles high, was referred to. Nowif you will examine this map with a little care you will observe here, near the inner extremity of Volcano Bay, an apparently narrow inletpassing directly into the mountain-side. This does not represent aninlet from the bay, but an outlet from Crater Lake, a very deep lake, the surface of which is several thousand feet below its banks, the lakebeing on the top of the mountain, just south of Mt. Olympus, andemptying into Volcano Bay. This outlet is a small stream at the bottomof a chasm which cannot correctly be represented on my map, as it isrelatively very narrow, being only from ten to one hundred feet inwidth. This chasm is what we here term a canyon, or _cañon_, the wallsof which in this instance rise perpendicularly from the water to theaverage height of ten thousand feet. The paths up the mountain are onthe sides of this outlet--not close to the water, but winding in and outalong the mountain-side above, there being a passable way on each sideof the canyon from the bay to the lake, the distance from bay to lakealong either path being, in its tortuous course, about thirteen miles. At Crater Lake the mountain rises to a height of about six miles, thesurface of the lake being about four miles above the sea level, itsbanks some ten thousand feet in height. A perfectly straight line downthe mountain-side would measure about eight or nine miles. 

"As the canyon leaves the bay, its walls are about a hundred feet high, and are separated by about the same distance; but as the mountain isascended, the walls rapidly rise, and soon become far above the waterbetween, and they gradually approach each other. At certain points thewalls actually overhang the stream below, and almost meet, at one spotapproximating to within ten feet of each other. Three miles from the baythe walls are twenty feet apart, and for the remaining five miles theydo not at any place approach closer, but on the other hand verygradually separate to about sixty feet at the extreme top. At five milesfrom the bay the walls are fully ten thousand feet in altitude, and arenowhere less in height from that point to the edge of Crater Lake. 

"Our party started up the mountain on one side of this canyon, or giantchasm, Diregus appearing in some way to know that this was the propercourse to pursue. When they were some three miles on their way, a youngman was seen approaching, but on the opposite side of the chasm. He wasa young fellow of prepossessing appearance, dressed in plain, coarseloathing, and having the elastic movement and grace of the betterclasses. Peters observed, when only the width of the chasm separated thetwo, that the young Hili-lite had a laughing eye, full of latentmischief, but also of intelligence. 

"He was known to Diregus, and the two began a conversation. He was oneof the exiles, by name Medosus. Diregus soon ascertained that the exileshad long known Ahpilus to be insane; that, three days before, hiscondition had become much aggravated, and that on the preceding day hehad suffered from an attack of raving mania which lasted several hours. Medosus did not know of the abduction of Lilama, but he had three hoursearlier seen Ahpilus a mile or two from Crater Lake. 

"When the party heard this, they were anxious to proceed, but Medosus inturn had a few questions to ask, and in common courtesy Diregus wascompelled to wait and reply to the poor exile's interrogatories. 

"Whilst the two conversed, Medosus took from his pocket some dry, brown, crumpled leaves, and put a wad of them into his mouth, much as would anAmerican planter who raises tobacco and chews the unprepared leaf. NowPeters was a lover of tobacco, and the sight of this action, sosuggestive of his loved weed, excited him greatly, as he had not so muchas seen a scrap of tobacco for months. When it developed that it wastobacco that Medosus had placed in his mouth, and that in some of thevalleys between these mountains a species of wild tobacco grew, Peterswas determined to have some of it, the craving of months seeming so nearto gratification; and he asked Medosus to give him a little of it, tolast until he could procure a fuller supply. Medosus was perfectlywilling to grant this request; but on rolling up a wad and attempting tothrow it across the chasm, it fell into the abyss and fluttered downwardto the water nearly two miles below. He was about to make a secondeffort, when Peters stopped him, and then a pretty, though a reallyterrible thing happened--to relate which was the real purpose of thisdigression from my story proper. 

"Peters was at the moment standing some fifteen feet from the edge ofthe chasm, the chasm being at this point about twenty feet inwidth--twenty feet in width, and even here, where it was two thousandfeet less in depth than it was a mile higher up, at least eight thousandfeet in descent--sheer to the raging torrent and the huge, jaggedlava-bowlders below. It was all done so quickly that none of the partyhad time to become alarmed. Peters, whose arms when he hung them reachedto within four inches of his feet, stooped just enough to bring hishands to the ground. Then, as a lame man using crutches might swinghimself along, but with lightning-like swiftness, Peters took two rapidjumps toward the edge of the chasm, the second jump landing him directlyon its edge. Then he shot up and out into the air over that awful abyss, and landed on the opposite side as gently as a cat lands from a six-footleap; and it did not seem to require of him an unusual effort. Hereceived his tobacco, and turned to make the leap back. 

"When Peters mentioned to me the circumstance of this leap, it was onlybecause he had at the time it was made been so interested in theincident of getting the tobacco, that he never forgot the occurrence; infact, it seems to have impressed his mind and memory almost as deeply asdid the old man with the 'snow-drift beard and the eyes of a god. '

"I attempted to get out of Peters just how he made the leap--whetherwith the legs, or the arms, or both as an impelling force; but it was nouse. I believe that he does not himself know--he did it by an animalinstinct, and that is all there is to be said. The old fellow does notreally know his age, but I should place it, at the present time, at fromseventy-eight to eighty years, which, if correct, would indicate that hewas twenty-eight or thirty at the time he was in Hili-li. He must havebeen as strong generally as three average men, and in the arms as strongas five or six such men. You remember telling me yourself how he twistedthat iron poker, and broke the oak pole; and that was the act of aninvalid nearly eighty years of age. Oh, he must have been a Samson attwenty-eight, and as agile as a tiger. What I could draw out of himconcerning the leap, reminded me of descriptions I have read of the_Simiidae_--particularly of the Borneo orang-outang. 

"But to return: The party separated from Medosus, who, when about twohundred feet away, shouted back, 'You'd better stay with us, Diregus. Wedo not here have to hide away when we play--or at--' (mentioning thenames of two very rough games prohibited by law on all the islands ofthe Hili-li Kingdom--games corresponding to our foot-ball and ourwrestling). The party continued up the mountain-side, resting as theyfelt the need of rest. No preparation for the darkness of night wasnecessary; for here the crater-light was very bright--in some unshadedspots it was even painfully brilliant. 

"After several hours of laborious ascent, the small party of four(Diregus had taken with them only one of the boatmen) came within plainsight of the rim of Crater Lake, half a mile ahead of them, and almostperpendicularly above, though nearly two miles away measured along theshortest route that travellers might pursue. It was not at the timeknown, and therefore never will be known, whether or not Lilama hadcaught a glimpse of her approaching friends; but at that moment apiercing scream rang through the air from above. Peters thinks thatLilama saw some of the party, because the quality of the scream was notsuch as to convey an impression that she was in instant danger. Thesignal, if signal it was, was not repeated, nor did the party wait for arepetition. They all hurried onward with renewed vigor; and, in a shorttime, considering the severity of the ascent, had reached a point nearwhich they supposed the scream must have been uttered. 

"The party had scattered, and were searching among the mammothlava-bowlders, and in the small side valleys and fissures; Peters, however, as he then always instinctively did, keeping by the side ofPym. The two had separated to quite a distance from the others, when, being then quite close to the edge of the great chasm, they heard a deepthough penetrating voice say the one word (of course in the Hili-lilanguage), 'Well?'

"Looking in the direction from which the voice came, they saw on theopposite side of the chasm a young and handsome man, dressed much as wasthe exile, Medosus. There could not for a moment be any doubt in theminds of Pym and Peters concerning the identity of this young man; butif there had been, it would immediately have been dispelled. 

"'Well, gentlemen?' the voice further said. 

"Pym and Peters had stepped up close to the edge of the abyss, whichhere was, as it was throughout the upper third of its length, fromforty-five to fifty-five feet in width (Peters thinks that at this partof its course it was fully fifty feet broad). 

"'Well, gentlemen: why are you two, strangers to me, and to my people, also, I think--why are you here?'

"The speaker would have seemed very far from insane, had it not been forhis large black eyes, shifting and glittering in the bright volcaniclight. 

"At last Pym spoke:

"'Sir, ' he said, very calmly, 'we came to assist our friends of theneighboring island--friends who have been very kind to us--to search fora maiden who by some strange mischance has been lost from herpeople--from her people and her friends, who grieve sorely over theirloss. '

"'Ah, ha, ' said Ahpilus--for it was he--'very good. And they grieve, dothey? Curse them, let them grieve! And a certain lover--and curse him, too--does he grieve? He would better! Ah, ha, ha, ha'--the voice risingwith each syllable, until the last was almost shrieked at Pym--'Kind toyou, were they? Well, there is one of them near by--on this side thechasm, curse you--who won't be kind to you again. Yes, and you may seeher, too. ' Then Ahpilus stepped off behind some thick, stunted bushes ofa variety of evergreen, whence, in a moment, he returned, leading by thewrist Lilama. 'Great Jove above! Girl, do you see your lover over there?You have no love for me--you never had; but never again in time or ineternity shall I lie with burning brain, thinking of those snowy armsabout the stranger's neck--aye, as once I saw them in the palacegrounds. Curse you all, and may you all alike be d----d. Why should astranger come through ten thousand perils to add to all my untoldagonies. ' Here for a moment his voice softened, almost to a gentlewhisper. 'Ah, Lilama, once, only once, you shall, of your own free will, clasp those arms around me--if not in love, then in terror. A momentmore, and over this abyss together we shall go!' With terror in hiseyes, Pym glanced at Peters; and even the phlegmatic Peters wasstartled. 'Yes, for one moment in each other's arms; and then for me, the everlasting darkness of Tartarus, or of endless oblivion. '

"As he talked, he had dropped the wrist of Lilama, and she crouched uponthe ground with her hands before her face, whilst Ahpilus continued torave, and to pace from the chasm's edge away and back again, in maniacstrides, until he had almost beaten where he paced a pathway. There wasnot the slightest necessity for Ahpilus to guard Lilama, for the awfulchasm was more than twice the width that any sane and normal man, evenan athlete, would dare attempt to leap, even to preserve his own life;and the distance to be traversed to gain a point in the chasm so narrowthat an ordinary man would dare attempt to leap it, was several milesdown the mountain-side; so that Lilama was at least ten miles beyond thereach of Pym, though less than eighty feet away. 

"The mental strain on poor Pym was almost enough to make him a madman. There strode the maniac, to and from the edge of the abyss, rhythmically, rarely varying the distance by a yard--twenty yards off, then back again, then away. On every third or fourth approach he steppedliterally to the edge of the chasm, and glanced down, ten thousand feetto where the stream below looked like the finest silver thread, lightedby the dazzling light from the giant crater, reflected into everysmallest fissure. Now and again the madman would lash himself into afury, and stop for a moment to gaze at Lilama, who never moved from hercrouching position some ten feet from the canyon's brink. Even Peters, the stoic, was moved--but moved to anger rather than to grief or fear. He inwardly chafed, and madly raved, by turns, at the impotency of hisposition; whilst Pym seemed frozen into statuesque despair. How muchlonger would this scene of terror last? Oh, the thought of that awfulleap into space! The maniac might any moment end the scene--each time ashe approached in that wild rush backward and forward might be the last. The slightest move, the slightest sound, might precipitate the direcalamity--and Lilama as well as Pym and Peters seemed to feel thistruth. The madman, like the wild beast, appears to need an extraneousstimulus, be it ever so slight, to suggest an initiative: the crookingof a finger, the whispering of a word, may be sufficient, but it must besomething. --Ah! Has the moment come? Has the insane man caught somesound inaudible to the others? He pauses. Yes, he is going to act. 

"'Oh! friend, ' wailed Pym to Peters, in a low voice, 'save her, saveher, or where she goes, there go I. '

"Then Peters looks across the chasm, down upon the scene beyond. Theopposite brink at this point is ten or twelve feet lower than the spotwhere Pym and Peters stand, which gives them an excellent view of Lilamaand Ahpilus. It is impossible to say just why, but it is obvious thatthe time which they dread has come. Ahpilus stands looking at thebeautiful maiden who crouches in front of him; and as he gazes hispowerful form seems to swell, as does that of a wild animal that hasdetermined to spring upon its prey. His arms move forward to grasp her. He has no fear of interruption--he has for the moment forgotten thestrangers. He slightly alters his position--his back is toward thechasm--his hands touch the person of his prey. Lilama partly raises herhead. She glances past the maniac for a last look at her lover. She doesnot scream, even as those vise-like hands close upon her, and slowly, oh, so slowly, but steadily, draw her within that iron embrace--slowly, slowly, as might a maniac devotee move in the desecration of his idol. 

"But why does she not scream? Why are her eyes fastened--not on herlover--not on the madman, but upon another object? What is that object?Is it a man? Can any man move as that thing moves? Surely that cannot bea man, that streak of drab color--yonder thing that casts to the grounda garment, then shoots backward twenty feet from the abyss--swifter thana panther, as silent as death, with two balls of living fire glaringfrom--from a face? Surely not a human face! Yes, it is a human face. Shedoes not see the pallid face, the wild eyes of her lover, looking, too, at that thing--that human embodiment of animal agility. No: she has nottime to look, for though the human eye is quick, that thing is quicker;and if she take her eye from it for half a second, her gaze will loseit. She cannot take from it her gaze--she is fascinated. Within the pastsecond of time an heroic resolve has been formed, and a drama has begun;in the next two seconds an act in the drama will be completed; in sixtyseconds more, a whole tragedy will be added to the list of humansorrows. 

"No tongue can tell what cannot quite be seen. A rush of color towardthat awful gap; it reaches the edge; it rises in the air and shoots outover that gulf that might indeed have been the portal of Tartarus. Fiftyfeet as flies the bird. It is in the air--it is half-way over--and yetthe maniac has seen it not. But the maniac is turning with his victim inhis arms. The streak of drab has passed forty feet--ten feet further ifit is to reach the other brink--ten thousand if it fails to reach it;and it has already sunk ten feet in space--with ten feet more ofhorizontal distance to cover, it is already on a level with the edge ofthe abyss which it must safely reach, or--The maniac has turned; and thestreak of drab has reached the brink--but, ah! below the surface. Theform is that of Peters--the only man who could be in such a situationyet live on. One of those invincible arms is thrown upon the surfaceabove the chasm, and those long fingers fasten upon the immovable lava. And now the madman sees the danger that menaces his design--but toolate, for Peters the unconquerable stands erect between him and thechasm. Then Ahpilus quickly sets on the ground his living burden; andPeters, the human bird of passage, risks again his life. 

"But, for a man like Peters, such a contest was scarcely a risk. HadAhpilus been less savage in his baffled rage, Peters would have sparedthe madman; but it was not to be. There was scarcely a man in allHili-li that could physically cope with Ahpilus; but he was no match forPeters. For a few moments the sailor protected himself without any actof aggression; but it soon became apparent that he would be obliged todestroy his adversary, or himself be destroyed. Ahpilus had pushedPeters, or Peters had carelessly allowed himself to shift his ownposition, to within dangerously close proximity to the chasm, and at themoment when Peters noticed this circumstance, he also saw that he wasbetween Ahpilus and the abyss: and Ahpilus, in all his furious madness, also observed his advantage. Peters had in his possession a very longand keen knife, but, as he afterward said in talking over this incident, he had never yet seen the time when he was compelled to use anartificial weapon in an encounter with a single combatant; andparticularly would he never have used a knife, even though his adversarywere a maniac, if a maniac without an artificial weapon. Peters saw thatDiregus had found Pym, and, as was also the boatman, he and Pym were, ofcourse, viewing the struggle. I should not, however, have included Pymin the party of observers; for he knew too well how the combat would endto be much absorbed in it. He had no eyes for anything but Lilama. --Butto return: As Ahpilus saw his advantage, by a supreme effort he summonedall his great muscular strength, and aided by that invincible motor, thewill of a madman, he endeavored to force Peters over the brink. At thatprecise moment the sailor had his right hand closed on the top ofAhpilus's left shoulder, and his left hand just beneath Ahpilus's rightarm on the side of the exile's chest. He quickly shifted his left handto the side of the hip; and then those great gorilla arms raised fromthe ground the body of the madman, swung it overhead as another manmight swing the body of a three-year-old child, as he did so bringingthe back of his adversary downward; and then came a movement ofHerculean power in which the long arms approximated with a twisting, bending effect; two vertebras in Ahpilus's back at the point of leastresistance separated, the spine was dislocated, and a mass of helpless, vibrating human flesh fell at the feet of the victor. Peters, whilst hisbrute instinct was in full possession of him, might, instead of droppingAhpilus to the ground, have thrown the body into the abyss; but Diregushad anticipated such an action, and called to Peters not to injure thepoor insane fellow more than was necessary to prevent him from injuringothers. Ahpilus was not dead--that is, he was not dead over his entirebody: the hips and all below were as nerveless as the body of a corpse;but above the hips, the same old vigor remained--and so it would bethough he lived for yet a hundred years. "

Here Doctor Bainbridge ceased to speak. Doctor Castleton had entered theroom two or three minutes before, and, keeping silent, had heard thelast three or four hundred words, which described the close of thatbrief but terrible combat. 

The FIFTEENTH Chapter

"Well, " said Doctor Castleton, as Bainbridge closed. "Peters could, whenhe was fifty years younger, have done that very thing to any living manweighing not more than a hundred and eighty or a hundred and ninetypounds. I myself have seen him throw to the ground a powerful horse, andthe little giant must have been older than sixty at the time. Thenagain, he possesses that wonderful instinct of certainty in action whichbelongs to purely animal life. It is said that the tiger when it strikesnever misses its aim; and that our American panther makes the mostunusual leaps without ever making an attempt beyond its powers. I havemany times observed that even our comparatively degenerate domestic catvery rarely indeed, if ever, fails to accomplish the purpose of astroke. Peters possesses, or did possess, that instinct. "

"Yes, " said Bainbridge, "you are right. Peters says that on almost everyvessel he ever shipped on he was called 'the baboon'--because of hisgreat physical power and agility, he says; but as we know, ratherbecause of his extremely short stature, his large mouth--in fact, hisresemblance in many striking ways to the gorilla, or the orang-outang;and perhaps, also, in part, to his habit, mentioned in Pym's descriptionof him, of feigning mental aberration--assuming to be 'simple. '"

"This won't do, " said Castleton, with that peculiar look on his facewhich always appeared when he was about to deflect from the serious tothe humorous. "Whilst I should not object to hearing my old friendPeters called a gorilla, I draw the line at gorilla. I should object tothe appellation orang-outang, and I should resent with emphasis that ofbaboon. But gorilla I will accept, for in many ways the gorilla is, orat least once was, the superior of man. Even if we limit the source ofour deductions to the skeleton of the animal, the truth of my lastassertion is strongly evidenced. In the first place, the gorilla is moresedate and less pettily curious than man; this is proved by his havingonly three, instead of four, bones in the last division of his spine, giving him a shorter caudal appendage than man's, and proving the animalto be farther from the monkey than are we; then in the second place, thegorilla has thirteen ribs, which would seem to be rational evidencethat, whatever the present gorilla may be, his ancestors of by-gone ageswere handsomer than man; because in the gorilla's first search for awife the field of operations was not limited to his own chest. "

"That will do very well, doctor; but don't you think you are a littlesevere on Adam?" I said. 

"I have no sympathies with Adam. Not that I ever blamed him for hisweakness in the apple incident; but I do blame him for his garrulity, and his paltry cowardice in exposing Eve. Eve was an instinctiveagnostic--and she didn't purpose to be anybody's slave. If Adam decidedto keep up with the procession, as he at first did decide to do, he hadno business to whine over the outcome. I'd wager freely that Eve earnedthe living after the pair left paradise. Cain took after his mother; andI hazard the opinion that Eve was in sympathy with Cain in the Abelepisode--that is, after the tragedy. Eve and Cain had the best ofeverything all the way through, for they acted in harmony with theirfeelings; whilst poor old feeble, vacillating Adam tried to use hisworthless old brain-box, and the natural consequence ensued. Hisfeelings, which constituted the strongest part of his mind, were alwaysin conflict with his intellect, which was just strong enough to get himinto trouble when a pure out-and-out unreasoning animal would have beensafe; and he never had enough will properly to correct an error when hedid see it. "

We laughed over this conceit of Castleton's, and Bainbridge said:

"Speaking of biblical characters, I have thought that Moses would, witheven slight literary training, have far surpassed the modern writer ofadventure-fiction. His style may be open to adverse criticism, but hisoriginality is beyond question. If he left any material for a purelyoriginal story, I fail to detect it. He gave to literature thesea-story, the war-story, and the love-story--stories that hinge on allthe human passions, and stories of the supernatural in all its phases. He first presented to a world innocent of fiction-literature the giantand the dwarf; the brave man, the strong man, and the man of supremefortitude; the honest man, the truthful king, and the woman that knowshow to wait for the man she loves; voices in the air, signs in thesky--in short, everything. Even poor old Aesop wasn't in time to grasp areputation for originality. The modern story-teller may combine, extend, and elaborate; but all opportunity for a display of invention seems tobe forever barred. "

"By the bye, doctor, " said Castleton, evidently impatient at hisenforced silence whilst another spoke, "do any of your volcanoes ormountains in Hili-li blow up?"

"No, sir, " answered Bainbridge, with dignity. 

"Well, if I had been Pym I should have blown those mountains into theAntarctic Ocean, " said Castleton. "I understand from the words that Icaught this evening as I entered here that your heroine is safe; but ifI had been Pym, I should have taken no risks. I should have sent yourmadman word to return the girl, or take the consequences--theconsequences being that I should have blown him and the entire mountaininto the mighty deep. 'Sir, ' I should have said, 'return the lady, or Iwill annihilate you. ' And so I should have done, if a hair of her headhad been harmed. --By the bye, gentlemen, I believe you never heard of myinvention for stopping war, did you?" We intimated that we had thus farbeen deprived of that pleasure. I saw that one of his peculiar outburstswas at hand--one of those apparently serious, though, I thought, intentionally humorous sallies, so puzzling coming from a man ofCastleton's intellectual attainments, and the mental _primum mobile_ ofwhich I had already been much interested in trying to determine. 

"Well, gentlemen, " he continued, "it was about fourteen years ago, during the dark days of The War"--he referred to the great rebellion inthe United States, which began in 1861, and which it required theexisting government about four years to suppress. "It was during theperiod when our great President was most worried. I had thought thematter over--as I always do think over vast questions, from thestandpoint of true greatness. 'Why not, ' I mentally soliloquized, 'whynot end this matter at a blow? 'As I drove about through our retiredroads and lanes, I gave the subject my very best attention. I thought tomyself how the present system of the universe depends upon what we termthe luminiferous ether; of the perfect elasticity and inexpansibility ofthat ether; of what its nature must be. I concluded that no ultimateparticle of it--as with matter no atom--is ever added to or removed fromthe universe. Now, if we could succeed in removing from thisinexpansible, universal ocean of ether even the most ultimate portion, there would be a literal vacuum with nothing to fill it, and theequilibrium of the universe would be destroyed. Now, gentlemen, is or isnot this supposition logical?"

We admitted our inability to deny its truth. 

"'Well, then, ' I reasoned, looking at the subject on the reverse side, 'could an additional portion of ether be created, there would be inspace no place to receive it; the universe in its present state--a statein which what we term matter or substance exists--would just simplycease to exist--instantly, and within the compass of every star andplanet. '

"But how to create that particle of ether--that was what occupied mymind for weeks. I would seem to grasp the hint that came and went withinthe recesses of a brain which--so say my friends--has perhaps never hadits equal for variety of conception and rapid response to the slightestexternal or internal stimulus. Now, many physicists suppose matter to besimply a form of ether--plainly, that matter originated out ofether--was made from ether; so that, after all, the universe was createdfrom nothing--that is, nothing if we correctly define matter. It was buta step for me, then, to the end: remove all radiant energy from a fixedgas--a gas without the property of condensation to another form ofmatter, _i. E. _, to a fluid or a solid--and the thing, I said to myself, is done. I am positive that I know of such a gas, and within a few yearsall physicists will recognize it. At present the method of procuring itis my secret, as I may still wish to experiment with what is now but atheoretical discovery, though certain to unfold in practice exactly as Ihave explained it. You understand, of course, that I remove from my gas, by artificial cold and compression, the last vestige of heat, my gasbecomes ether, there is no place for it in the universal ocean ofinexpansible ether, the balance of the universe as it now exists isdestroyed, all matter instantly ceases to exist, and we just sit backand wait for a few billions of trillions of cycles of time, untilanother system of nature is formed. "

For a time we all kept silence: Doctor Bainbridge, I suppose, likemyself, marvelling at the peculiarities of our strange companion. Atlast I said:

"And how about the war, doctor?"

"Now comes the humiliation!" he replied. "Oh, must genius ever grovel atthe feet of mere physical power--insolent official power! Why are greatmen so difficult of access! Why, in 1453, did not Constantine in his dayof trouble listen to your brainy countryman, and save Europe from theinroads of the Turk? Well, I hastened to Washington City, determinedthat no ear other than the President's own should hear the secret; andthat no power on earth should draw it from me. I went to the WhiteHouse. I admit that war-times are busy times--but those infernal WhiteHouse flunkies kept me waiting in the reception-rooms for four hours! Itold my plans to the ushers, to a waiting soldier or two, and to aforeign diplomat with whom I struck up a talk. All of them actedsuspiciously, and I believe were jealous of my wisdom. When, for thethird time, an usher took my card--or pretended to take my card--to thePresident, his secretary came down to me. At first I told him that mysecret was for the President's ear alone; but at last I gave him a clewto the nature of my business. He left me, but he did not return. Such isreflected political power. But I thought of my power--aye, and physicalpower, too--the only real power. I never blamed the President--I to thisday believe that that fellow H---- never told Lincoln of my visit to theWhite House. "

After an appreciative murmur and movement on the part of Bainbridge andmyself--for we felt like laughing, and yet sighs of wonderment wereexpected by Castleton--and after a grunt from Arthur in his corner, Iasked, for want of something better to say, "Were you ever in the army, doctor?"

"Well--ah--no--yes--no, sir; not exactly, " Castleton replied. "But I hada younger brother who beat the drum for a whole week in anenlisting-office tent in Chicago. Poor boy! he died of brain fever in1869--always a genius--great brain. --And this talk reminds me that I amgetting no pension from the United States Government on that poor, neglected, sacrificed boy. Curse my thoughtlessness! Yes, and--but no: Ibelong to the old school of patriots--I will not curse my country. "

As Castleton uttered the last sentence, he approached the door of exitto the hall. He had as usual been pacing the floor; and with the closingword he shot into the hall and was gone. And as the sound of hisfootsteps rang through the corridors of the hotel, Arthur remarked, fromhis corner:

"It's a pity he didn't sit down on his boomerang infernal-machine, andthen set it a-going: he might a been on the moon by this time, where thefool belongs, with the other lunatics. If he ever comes into my newice-cream parlor--(twelve by sixteen, gas-lights, three tables, and sixchairs; two spoons furnished with one saucer if desired, and a napkinfor your lady free; ten cents a saucer, and ginger-bread thrown in)--whyout he goes, too quick. Oh, he's a daisy, he is! If you ever want toremind me of him, anybody, ask me to lend you a dime; and when I shakemy head and my teeth rattle, I'll remember the lunkhead, sure enough. "

I frowned down the youngster, for he had promised not to obtrude hisopinion in the presence of Bainbridge. But as his words did not refer inany manner to the story that Bainbridge was telling us, I should nothave objected to them, but that with Arthur it was necessary to becautious in creating precedents, which, as I have intimated, in his casealmost immediately congealed into vested rights; and our agreement hadobligated him to observe complete silence on the subject of Peters'story, and, if I correctly remember--though Arthur denied thislatter--on all other subjects, in the presence of Doctor Bainbridge. 

As Bainbridge appeared to have nothing further to say, and was makingthose slight occasional movements which I knew presaged his departure, Ibegan to talk of Peters' leap; and in the most guarded manner--for withBainbridge any question of the facts of his narrative required tact anddelicacy to avoid the giving of offence--to discuss the subject ofleaping in general, the facts and probabilities relating to distance, and the laws and conditions that might govern and regulate therunning-leap. 

"Do you not think, " I finally asked, "that Peters somewhat overestimatesthe distance of his marvelous leap? I am aware that Peters was, both instrength and in agility, almost preterhuman; but fifty feet orthereabouts! That seems scarcely possible. Our best athletes, I believe, have never, on level ground, made a running leap of much more than halfthat distance. Now forty feet, under all the circumstances, would notstrike me as impossible, though thirty-five would better chime with myideas of the probable, and thirty would remove all possibility of anydraft on my credulity. "

"It is not a question of ideas or of credulity, " answered Bainbridge, "but one of fact. However, we will look at the incident from thestand-point of reason and experience. Now let us assume that a runningleap of twenty-five feet on level ground would not be beyond the abilityof a trained athlete. I think you will allow to Peters a naturaladvantage of seven feet over an ordinary athlete, when you consider thesuperiority of his form, so well adapted to leaping--a form that givesto him the advantage of an orang-outang, without the disadvantage ofhand-like feet, so poorly suited to flat surfaces. From the fullestinformation I could obtain from Peters, I believe that in leaping heobtains more impetus from his arms than from his legs; but even with hispreternatural strength he does not get quite as much impulse-force fromhis legs as would an ordinary athlete. I myself think that the use ofhis arms in making this leap gave him an advantage of one-third overanother man of equal strength. However, I ask you to allow him from alladvantage of form, in the leap alone, seven feet, or twenty-eight percent. "

To this proposition I assented. 

"Then, " continued Bainbridge, "it must be remembered that so far as theactual leap is concerned, he missed the opposite edge of the abyss--forhe did miss it, and any other man would have gone to the bottom of thechasm. It was only the length of his arm, with its excessive strength, and the iron grip of that enormous hand, which prevented completefailure. As a matter of fact, the walls of the abyss being fifty feetapart, Peters leaped only forty-seven feet. Am I correct?"

Again I assented. 

"Then, " said Bainbridge, "we have brought within the limits of reasonthirty-five of the fifty feet, and fifteen feet remain to be accountedfor. Now let us recall to your memory the fact that the edge of theabyss toward which he leaped was twelve feet lower than the edge fromwhich he sprung; and that, in his progress across the chasm he fell, inaddition to this twelve feet, his own height--which, according to Pym'sdiary was, at that period, four feet and eight inches. If Peters couldhave covered thirty-five feet on level ground, could he have coveredfifty feet with the advantage of a drop of nearly seventeen feet?Assuming a certain weight for Peters, we could calculate the number offoot-pounds of energy, or the initial velocity, necessary to make a leapof thirty-five feet on level ground, and how many foot-pounds it wouldrequire to make a leap of fifty feet with a drop of sixteen feet andeight inches taken into the conditions. But as most of the equations inour calculation are approximative, I prefer that the element ofgravitation should be handled in a general way. If a leaper were toimpel himself horizontally only, he would, in the shortest leap, fallbelow a level. This fall may be met to the extent of about two feet, bydrawing up the legs--that is, by 'hunkering' as the leap progresses, andalighting on his feet with the body to that extent lower than when thespring began. In a leap of twenty-five feet, however, the leaper iscompelled to project himself upward as well as forward; and aninstinctive sense of just how little energy may be expended in raisinghimself, and how much may be left for the forward impulse, is one of thechief elements of his proficiency. Peters did not have to raise his bodyat all. "

"I begin to comprehend, " said I. 

"Yes, " replied Bainbridge, "the more you think of it, the more convincedwill you become that Peters made the leap as he states. Of course hecould not have sprung fifty feet, or even forty feet, on a level; for, in a leap of only forty feet, one would have to raise himself more thantwelve feet into the air, and (except for a possible small advantage ofposition in leaping) it requires the same amount of force to raise abody ten feet on an incline, as it does to raise the same body ten feetperpendicularly into space--an impossible feat, even to Peters attwenty-eight or thirty years of age. "

"I quite believe that he did it, " I said, "and when we consider that heclaims to have measured the distance only mentally, and that he mighttherefore honestly have mistaken it to the extent of a few feet, I amwilling to say that my confidence in his intended veracity isunshaken--even if he is an old sailor. "

"Yes, " said Bainbridge, "and we must not overlook the fact that a man'smental state at the time of performing a physical feat is a veryimportant determining factor in the result of the performance. Apowerful but lackadaisical fellow might, with only a few dollars atstake, make a very poor showing; yet to preserve his life he might makea really wonderful leap. What effect, then, did mental condition exerton a man like Peters under the circumstances attending this unparalleledleap? Think of the enormous muscular power developed by the messagereceived through the nerves from a mind thus affected! His own life, andthat of another, if not of two others, depended upon the success of hiseffort. Under such circumstances muscular power would either beparalyzed, or else intensified beyond our common conception of suchforce. Peters positively asserts, that when a boy of sixteen hefrequently leaped from the flat upper deck of a boat--that is, from aheight of twenty feet--into the surrounding water, habitually covering adistance of from forty to forty-five feet; whilst other boys, under thesame conditions, rarely covered twenty-five feet, and never thirty. "

A moment later Bainbridge arose to depart; but he lingered for a moment, standing, and with his left hand resting on the centre table, began tospeak in a general way of the great antarctic crater and its surroundingwonders. It was my habit to make full notes of the actual facts statedby him in the more formal parts of these evening recitals, and sometimeseven of his comments; and I regret that I did not do so at theparticular moment to which I am now alluding. It was not until thefollowing morning that I made a few memoranda of the closing incident ofthe evening. With the help of these notes and a fairly good memory, Ihope to be able at this late day to describe for the reader an episodethat I should dislike entirely to omit from this narrative. 

He spoke for several minutes of the wonderful power of nature toaccomplish certain ends--the force that accomplishes which, he termed a_purpose_ in nature; and he made some remarks along the line of acontention, that the development of all matter into higher forms waswhat he called an unconscious intention, explaining that there was noparadox in the expression "unconscious intention"; for, he said, evenmen, individual men, are constantly performing a thousand acts that havean unconscious purpose or intention--as, for instance, the automaticaction of winding a watch without the slightest exercise of will, andwithout remembering the action. This unconscious motive-force, he said, is inherent in vegetables as well as in animals, and that in fact itexists, though relatively of very slow and feeble action, in all matter, the power being an attribute of all molecules, and even of elementalatoms. He, however, claimed no originality for any of the views which heexpressed. 

"To my consciousness, " he said, "the conviction of individualimmortality is so clear that, if I were not perfectly aware of the causeof their doubt or disbelief, I should wonder at intelligent personsquestioning the fact. Like everything else taught by Christ, that we areimmortal is a fact; and it is not in a billion years that we shall liveagain under new conditions, but, as He intimated, 'to-morrow. ' And Isurmise that we shall not do so in any absurdly physical way, nor yet ina manner so deeply abstruse that it would require a logician and aprofessional physicist, were it explained, to comprehend it. As with allthat God has given us, we shall find the conditions of the next lifevery simple. Educated men--nearly all highly educated men, andparticularly educated theologians--when they touch this subject remindme of the cuttle-fish. There is nothing around them that is notperfectly transparent until, by their own act, everything is obscured tothemselves and to their neighbors. But whilst the cuttle-fish swims outof the zone of opacity created by himself, the theologian remains inhis, fighting the obscurity with logic--for that purpose the poorest ofall devices. You cannot guide an emotional boat with an intellectualrudder. Something to me much more convincing than reason, tells me thatour bodies will not be long in their graves before we shall again beginto live; and my feeling is, that, though consciousness will at the deathof this body be obscured for a time, it will not be lost for a _long_time. I feel that almost at once after death the mystery of consciousindividuality will again assert itself. Refined by this life, as themolecular construction of inorganic matter is refined by passing throughorganic life, so the consciousness lately within the molecules of yourdiscarded body, will not be as the consciousness within like moleculesof mineral or of vegetable matter; for it will be your consciousness--_your_ consciousness, created by God and developed by His edict--developed after slumbering for ages within the mineral; awakeningto quicker action in the vegetable world; touching the domain ofconscious memory in lower animals; aroused to keener moral andintellectual existence in your late body, and at last made ready for anew mystery--what, we know not--in another world, possibly in thedirection of what we might call a 'fourth dimension' of consciousness. Oh, no; there should not be anything to prevent us from knowing now thatwe shall continue to exist, and to go ever upward, upward, upward. Nature permits us, in each sphere of being, to catch a glimpse of thesucceeding one, if only we will not ourselves obstruct the view. "

A moment later he dropped into an animated, almost rhapsodical, runningcomment on some of the scenic beauties surrounding Hili-li. 

"Imagine, " he said, "what the scenic effects must have been, everywherewithin the illumination of that great lake of fire, covering an area ofnearly two hundred square miles--that great lake of white, boiling, earthy matter, brilliantly lighting the long antarctic night. Think ofthose mountains, with the Olympian offshoot six miles in height; and ofthe peak called Mount Olympus, looming up ten thousand feet above eventhat great mountain-range. Try to picture the valleys, the chasms, theoverhanging cliffs, the many smaller active craters, like mammothwatch-fires lighted on the mountain-tops in all directions; and themasses of glistening salt, thrown by upheavals of the earth high uponthe mountain-side. Cannot you almost behold the scene? May we not, withthe brush of fancy, paint for our mental vision many a strange, weirdpicture? Here we see, high on the mountain-front, a mass of crystalsalt--many millions of tons--thrown, by a mere fillip of terrestrialpower, thirty thousand feet above the ocean level, to rest and sparklelike a gem on the bosom of that old mountain-god, Olympus. Then, stillhigher, on the very summit--for even here, in the glare of this greatcrater, where evaporation rains upward from the sea, all vapor isquickly condensed and frozen on the higher peaks--we see, like thetresses of the aged, the pearly snow and ice overhanging the Olympianbrow. Aye, may we not even--"

Well, dear reader, I expect to be censured. As Bainbridge drew towardwhat I suppose would, under any circumstances, have been his close, Iwas sitting with my face toward Arthur, and the actions of thatunpolished gem told me that the catastrophe was at hand. Those who saythat "the expected never happens" misinform us; for the expected veryfrequently does happen. The wretched boy did not--would not--look at me, and I could not, of course, interrupt the flow of eloquence that pouredfrom the lips of Bainbridge. What could I have done? Even at this lateday, I cannot see what I could have done, though I did know the natureof what was coming. It was the words "snow and ice" that added the laststraw which broke the camel's back, and let fall the load of annoyance;and as Bainbridge uttered the words, "Aye, may we not even----, " Arthur, that miserable factotum, whom I had so rashly trusted, shot from hischair into the air; and, with arms waving, and eyes glistening withexcitement, he fairly yelled:

"Great geewhilikin! Think of that ice, and that salt, and that climate!Now if a fellow only had a drove of Giganticus cows, with old Olympusfor 'em to run over free, where would the other ice-cream fellows be?Free ice, free salt, free cream, free fodder, and no end of 'em all, too! Why, in that hot hole a man 'ud be a ice-cream king in no time. Well, now! doesn't that make your windows bulge? You're a shoutin', Doc. Please don't speak again in the same language till I rest my mind, ifyou love me!"

I could not stop him. Frowning had no effect, and toward the end of hisoutburst I even protested in words. But it was no use. He spoke quickly, and he spoke very loudly, and not a word was lost on Bainbridge. Bainbridge had a fine sense of humor; but like many other humorists, hedid not relish jocosities of which he was the subject. Any levity in anymanner connected with Hili-li, I knew would be to him unendurable. Hehad from the beginning taken the Peters disclosures, and even the oldsailor himself, very seriously. Little happenings during our stay at theold sailor's home, which had brought a smile to my own face, had neverfor a moment altered the countenance of Bainbridge from the sternseriousness becoming that of one who is gathering facts of the mostsolemn import. I am positive that he would have taken with a poor gracethe slightest levity from even myself on the subject of Hili-li. Butfrom the bell-boy of a hotel! Olympus to become a pasture field formastodon cows! Its ice and its saline wonders to be employed in themaking of ice-cream!

Well, I just sat, and said nothing, and blamed myself. The thing wasdone, as it is said, and could not be undone. Doctor Bainbridge lookedat me, with an injured but resigned expression, which seemed to say. "Well, you see you've done it; you _would_ allow the creature to drinkin the nectar of refined literary production, and one of the naturalresults has followed. " He took up his hat, and more in grief than inanger, he made his adieux, and quietly walked out of the doorway, through the hallway, down the stairs, and out of the house. And a momentlater I said:

"Now, young man, you probably see what you have done! We may, or we maynot hear more of Lilama, of Pym, of Ahpilus, and the others. I amanxious to know what became of the poor fellow, Ahpilus; and I intend tofind out, if I have to go to Peters for the information. " Then, as I sawthe boy was really repentant; and when I began to consider the fact thathe could not comprehend why Bainbridge should be offended, when nooffence had been intended, I mentally threw all the blame upon myself, and added:

"But never mind; it does not amount to much. Doctor Bainbridge willprobably be here to-morrow evening, and will, no doubt, have forgotten, or at least buried the incident. But after this, Arthur, you may come tome each morning, and as I dress I will tell you all about what theevening before I shall learn from the doctor. So, goodnight to you, andhere is a dollar to help you start the ice-cream parlor. "

The SIXTEENTH Chapter

On the following evening, at his usual hour, Bainbridge entered myapartment; and after the customary greeting, seated himself. No mentionwas made of Arthur's hapless interruption of the evening before, Bainbridge acting as if that miserable incident had not occurred. 

"If I remember rightly, " he said, "we left Ahpilus lying with a brokenback, and Peters standing by him, with Lilama crouching near; whilst onthe opposite side of the chasm or canyon stood Pym, Diregus, and theboatman, who had accompanied the rescue party in their ascent of themountain. 

"After a moment of astonishment, Diregus inquired concerning thecondition of Ahpilus; and Peters replied that the maniac not only lived, but was not in danger of dying; that he was scarcely conscious, however, and that even if fully aroused would in all probability not be able towalk--Peters knowing from personal experience with similar 'accidents'what the results were likely to be. 

"When Lilama heard Peters' statement, she approached the injuredman--the friend of her childhood and her girlhood--and did what littleshe could to make his position at least appear more comfortable. 

"There was no possible way for the divided party to unite, other than byreturning several miles down the mountain-side. Now that Lilama wassafe, and Ahpilus not only mentally alienated from his people but alsophysically helpless, a kindly feeling came to the party for their oldfriend thus reduced to a condition doubly lamentable, and very pitiableto persons so refined and sensitive as were the Hili-lites. There wassome discussion on the subject of Ahpilus's future; and then Peters saidthat he could easily carry the injured man down the mountain-side. Thishe at once began to do; and in the course of four or five hours, duringwhich he stopped for a rest a number of times, he reached a point in thedescent at which the canyon narrowed to a width of not more than tenfeet, and across which a rude foot-bridge of logs had been constructed. Lilama, as well as those on the opposite side of the chasm, had keptpace with Peters; and the divided party now came together. 

"Ahpilus was gently placed on the ground; and as his old friendsgathered about him it was observed that not only had consciousnessreturned, but that the helpless man looked quite the Ahpilus of formerand happier days. As his old friends looked into his eyes, those windowsof the mind, they saw a soul unruffled, and at peace with nature. 

"Then Diregus addressed to Ahpilus some words of inquiry; but it wassoon apparent that the stricken man could answer no question relating torecent days, or even to the past year or two. In fact, Diregus soonrecognized that Ahpilus knew nothing of his own past from a periodantedating his exile to the present time. It appears that the nervousshock which accompanied the breaking of his spine had, in some way, dispelled his madness, and also those less maniacal, comparatively milddelusions which for several years had clouded and perverted hisotherwise brilliant mind; so that he was again the same loving andlovable Ahpilus of former times; but in all the sixty or seventy yearsthat he might yet live, he never again would be able to walk, or even tostand, unaided. 

"The party of five, carrying the helpless man, sadly and silentlycontinued on their way to Volcano Bay, which in the course of an hourthey reached. There they found the other boatmen waiting for them, and, also, standing here and there in groups, a number of the exiles, amongthem Medosus. It had gone forth among these pariahs of Hili-liland, thatsomething unusual was astir; and, fearing something, they knew not what, they had determined to observe the movements of the invading party. Diregus soon explained what had brought them to Olympus, and the resultsof their search. The exiles were at first quite unable to believe thatPeters had crossed the chasm at the point stated, though lying was inHili-li a lost art, the history of that country stating positively thatbut three adult liars (visitors excepted) had existed in Hili-li forfive hundred years, the last of whom had, two centuries before, died. When the Olympians (as the exiles were generally in derision called)learned of Ahpilus's condition, and of its cause, it appeared for a fewmoments that Peters would be attacked; but the soothing words of Pym andDiregus, and the presence of Lilama, whom they knew had been in extremedanger, as well as the expression on the face of Peters when he firstgrasped the idea that an attack upon him was imminent--all of thesethings together prevented trouble. 

"When the party had made Ahpilus as comfortable as possible in thebottom of the boat, and had seated themselves preparatory to theirreturn, Medosus stepped down to the shore, and asked Diregus if he wouldconvey for the exiles a message to the King and Councillors of Hili-li, and also to the aged mystic, Masusælili, who, though not an official, was in reality the chief adviser of those who did control the kingdom. Diregus, whose father was perhaps second only to the King--it wassupposed by many that the Duke was the real power behind the throne, andit was within the range of reasonable possibility that his son, Diregus, might some day reign--replied that he must hear the message beforemaking any promise. Then Medosus, knowing that his former friend andschoolmate was at heart in sympathy with the exiles, and did not reallybelieve them to be in any way vicious (Diregus himself had twiceoffended, as had a majority of all Hili-lite youths, past and present;but he had not offended for a third time), spoke as follows:

"'Say for us to His Majesty, and to the Honorable Councillors, that we, the so-called Exiles of Olympus, request our release, and alsopermission to return to Hili-li. In making this request we are notwilling to say that we have ever in the past done to the State anyserious wrong. We have, however, reached a time of life when we arewilling to abjure the delights and benefits of wrestling, ofground-ball, of bat-ball, and of other athletic sports. We are willingto promise not again to visit the savages of surrounding islands--a raresport. We regret the broken neck of young Selimus, which occurred duringa game of ground-ball some three years ago, and we regret the accidentalbreaking of a few other bones; but we think these accidents no moredeplorable than the death of Testube the scholar, or the blinding of thechemist, Amurosus--accidents which occurred whilst they were in theirown laboratories, performing experiments of no material benefit, so faras we know, to the people of Hili-li. I might also allude to thelamentable death of Solarsistus, who some four years ago fell from histower whilst observing the noted shower of falling meteors. And we askthese wise men--particularly Masusælili, whose mind is as cultivated ashis body is neglected--what they think would become of the people ofHili-li if, at some future time, even so few as one thousand such men asthese two strangers standing there should make war upon us, assumingthat the decrees of those in power shall have been for a singlegeneration faithfully observed. When the barbarian of the north overcameour ancestors in ancient Rome, it was only after indolent habits hadsapped the physical power of the patrician; and when we here repelledwith ease many times our number of barbarians, it was whilst yet ourrace was hardy from its combat with adverse forces in this then newland. We have not forgotten the strange power which Masusælili is ableto exert over a limited number of persons at one time. We are notunaware of the beneficent results of those laws and customs that compelthe most of our people, between the ages of eighteen and fifty, toperform physical labor during twelve hours of each week; but we maintainthat the elements of contest and danger are necessary concomitants ofphysical exertion, if we are to acquire and retain the manly quality ofphysical bravery, and that other quality so frequently wanting in himwho is only a scholar--fortitude. 

"'Look, ' he continued, pointing to Peters. 'There stands a man inured tophysical danger. A few hours ago he was placed where prompt resolutionwas demanded to decide the fate of one of the loveliest creatures uponwhom the light of yonder crater-fire ever shone--perhaps upon whom thesun ever shone; he had scarcely sixty seconds of time in which todetermine whether she should die, or he should take the chance of aterrible death, with a hand-to-hand conflict, a powerful madman for anadversary, certain to confront him should his leap by a miracle provesuccessful. To have leaped over an abyss of half the width of that one, and then to have met an ordinary adversary, would have been awonderfully brave deed. He decided promptly--and, too, he succeeded. Noman in Hili-li could have done half as much, even had he dared attemptthe feat. 

"'That, I think, is all, ' continued Medosus. 'We have rarely found ourrulers deaf to reasonable petitions, and we believe that they will, uponmature deliberation, annul our sentences of ten years' banishment. If Ido not overtax your time and your patience, I should like to ask you, Diregus, to suggest to your father and to Masusælili this thought: Sincethe termination of those extended surveys which the State inauguratedand terminated after the departure of that ship which visited us abouttwo hundred and fifty years ago, we have been aware that Hili-li issituated in a great inland sea, about twelve hundred miles in diameter, which sea contains from two hundred to three hundred islands, and inwhich our main island occupies a position some three hundred miles fromthe nearest mainland in one direction, and some nine hundred miles fromthe nearest mainland in another direction. We are also aware that thesailing vessel which came to us found an entrance through this vastring-like continent, which entrance-way is only three hundred miles inwidth, and is the only means of access to this inland sea, except anarrower channel diametrically opposite to the broader one. The broaderopening, in its main part, is traversed by warm currents outward, whichremain warm until the continent is passed; and by one broad central warmcurrent inward, which is very swift, and the source of the great warmthof which we have never been able to determine. The narrower passage, generally completely frozen, or choked with ice, conveys to the centralsea only water at nearly the freezing temperature. The mainland consistschiefly of volcanic mountains, is apparently covered with ice, and iswholly impassable. Now, we have long thought ourselves safe from theouter world, as we really are from the savages of the other islandswithin this great sea. We know that in the first thousand years of ourhistory there came to us once two wrecked sailors, and at another time asingle sailor; then came the ship; and since then every ten to thirtyyears we have had some token, animate or inanimate, from the greatbeyond. But none that came, save the ship-load of two hundred and fiftyyears ago, ever left us; and those who sailed that vessel could notagain have found us, had they tried during the remainder of their lives. Hence, our Councillors appear to think that we shall forever remainsecreted here in safety. Now I only wish to suggest to those who arewiser, but whose minds are not like ours sharpened by hardship andsolitude, that some great event in the vast outer world must haveoccurred preceding the visit of that ship. The conditions of the worldhave in some manner changed. Yet, whilst the vast ring-like continent ofice-covered volcanoes will long protect us, the warm strait will bediscovered and mapped, and then design will carry to us many, over thesame course by which chance has conveyed a few. As usual, I suppose, these two men will not be allowed to leave us. But in some way theoutside world will learn of us and of our exhaustless supplies of thesepebbles' (he pointed to nuggets of gold lying on the shore of the bay), 'which we know are the same as others in our museum, that our ancestorsbrought from Rome, and of which--so says our ancient history--one pebblethe size of a fingerend would purchase a human captive! Some chance willcarry to those people (no doubt the descendants of those barbarians whoalmost exterminated our Roman ancestors) a knowledge of this. ' HereMedosus picked from the ground a nugget of gold about the size of alarge orange, and threw it carelessly from him into the bay. 'Aurum, ' hesaid, disdainfully; 'aurum, the curse of our ancestors! What would notthe outer world endure to gain the ship-loads of this stuff that liescattered over our volcanic islands? Stuff which we use only in buildingand for pavements, because it is easily worked, and bright, and lasting. What will our people do when ship-loads of men like these two strangerscome to us? And, come, too, not almost starved and without weapons, butwith spears, and practised arms to use their spears. Astuteness is apoor weapon, when it is the only weapon, against men who are maddenedwith avarice: bravery, physical power, fortitude; the strong arm, backedby the quick eye, and the mind inured to danger--these, in such a timeof need, will alone avail to protect our lives, our land, and our homesfrom a ruthless foe. 

"'Pardon my prolixity; but, as I talked, I became more interested in thefate of my countrymen, even than in that of my fellow-exiles and myself. You understand me, my old friend? I know that you will speak for us. Good-by. '

"And then wishing the exiles good-by, the party in the boat moved fromthe shore--at first by paddle-power; but on reaching the outlet ofVolcano Bay the sails of their boat were spread for the run across theopen sea. "

Here Doctor Bainbridge paused for a moment in his narration, lighted acigar, took a whiff or two, and then continued:

"You must pardon me for entering so fully into the affairs of Medosusand his fellow-exiles. It was only by tact and patience that, little bylittle, I gathered from Peters the facts. My excuse for this verbosityis, that from the speech of Medosus--whose words show that he supposedPym and Peters would never be allowed to leave Hili-li--we obtain, better than from all other sources of information which were opened toPeters, an insight of the geographical knowledge, and of many of thepeculiarities, of a strange, isolated people--a people which, beyond alldoubt, I think, is descended from the pure imperial Roman stock; andalso because it explains the means by which the exiles afterwardobtained their liberty, and were thus enabled to assist their relativesand friends in the City of Hili-li, at a time when, though of briefduration, the islands of Hili-li were threatened with depopulation. Itseems that the message of Medosus, joined with the lesson of Lilama'sabduction, carrying as it did a suggestion of future possibilitiesshould the exiles continue to increase in number whilst growing morereckless, and at the same time no strangers be at hand to assist inovercoming them--these considerations, and the influence of Pym, whodescribed the quality of English, German, French, and American soldiersthat were produced in lands where, he said, sports and games similar tothose of Hili-li (he explained the nature of sparring, cricket, etc. )were in no manner restricted by law. (This, you will remember, was inthe year 1828. )

"The rescue party were met at the Duke's landing by all the residents ofthe palace, and by many relatives and friends of Lilama, who hadgathered to receive her. As soon as Peters' wonderful feat wasexplained, he became the hero of the island. 

"The Hili-lites showed themselves in one respect much like other races. They had no sooner decided to rescind the interdict against the hithertoobnoxious athletic games, than all classes began to patronize thesesports, and immediately they became very popular; and to the other gameswas added that of contests at leaping. Some of the feats performed atthis time by Peters were certainly astonishing. One of his performanceswhich took place during an exhibition in the presence of the élite ofHili-li, was to leap from an improvised platform, placed eighty feetabove the ground, grasp the limb of a tree which projected about thirtyfeet beneath and several feet away from the platform, instantly drop toanother limb, twenty-five feet lower, and then to the ground. To anobserver he appeared to jump from the platform, to strike one limb andthen another in his descent, and to fall, a mass of bruised flesh andbroken bones, upon the earth; the real climax being when, instead, hefell lightly on his feet, and walked away to prepare for his next act inthis public display. 

"But we must hasten on. And before proceeding to subjects of greaterinterest, I will tell at once what was the future of Ahpilus. He hadwhen a boy been noted for a love of study, and now when he could nolonger walk, he turned his attention to literary pursuits. Masusælilitook an interest in the unfortunate young man, and allowed him at firstto be brought occasionally to the studio which the reader has alreadyvisited, and later to become an assistant in his researches. Peters andPym felt very kindly to the poor fellow, and evinced their regard byinventing and making for him a sort of chair on two main wheels and asmall third wheel, upon which he could sit and guide himself with easeand comfort from place to place in the city, and that, too, with quiteas great speed as he had in the past been able to attain by walking. Thelast thing heard of him by Peters was, that he had begun a history ofthe Hili-lite people, from the settlement of Hili-li to 1828. And thisreminds me to say that, to Pym and Peters, one of the strangest thingsin Hili-li was their count of time, which appeared the same as our own. It was not in fact the same, however, though Peters insists that it was;for whilst we, of course, count time according to the Gregoriancalendar, the Hili-lites must have counted time according to the Juliancalendar. This would have placed the Hili-lites about eleven days inarrear of Pym's count--a difference which, under the circumstances, Peters might easily have overlooked. 

"Not many weeks after the rescue of Lilania, she and Pym were marriedaccording to the usual form of Hili-li. The wedding ceremony was a veryquiet one. I have thought that perhaps the customs of Hili-li mightaccount for the lack of any festivity; and, again, that the Ahpilusincident may have precluded all social gaiety at such a time, theinjured man being still in a precarious condition. "

Here Bainbridge paused for a moment, took a turn or two across thefloor, relit the long-neglected cigar that he held in his fingers, seated himself, and continued:

The SEVENTEENTH Chapter

It is pleasant to dwell on this period in the life of young Pym. Wethink of his home on the far-away island of Nantucket, with the lovingmother, the proud father, the doting old grandfather--all cast aside, and probably forever, by the momentary folly of a boy; then of hisconnection with the ship-mutiny--unquestionably one of the most horriblepositions in which it is ever the fate of man to stand; the death of hisfriend and his friend's father; the shipwreck, and the long, lonely daysof watching, in hunger and thirst, for a sail; the final loss of allcompanions save a gorilla-like half-breed, whose animal instinct of loveand fidelity fell about the poor boy like a protecting garment. Thencomes this bright spot in his life away in Hili-liland, like a momentaryrift in the clouds of a stormy day. For Pym the sun shone with aheavenly effulgence, whilst the obstructions of a dire destiny were fora time removed; but when again the clouds closed between him and thebrightness of existence, they closed forevermore. Yet this mere boy, into whose life hardship and danger had introduced more than theexperience of most old men, enjoyed, too, what many very aged men neverhave possessed--what Alexander the Great never possessed--that of whichwealth or other source of power seems actually to deprive many men. Heenjoyed what was worth more than all that ambition backed by wealth andpower can give--that is, the faithful love of a beautiful woman, lovedtruly in return. This boy was loved by one who was capable with herwitching loveliness of satisfying every desire, enthralling theimagination, rousing in the heart that passion which inspires the mindto regions where it throbs in harmony with the Divine, and touches--asmight some dying desert-waif with his parched lips a coolingfountain--the very source of love itself. But the most of humanlove--how debased and debasing, how vile! God, for purposes of His own, links for mankind the Aphroditic passion to the love Divine. The two areseparable, and man assuredly separates them. True love may be witnessedas low in the scale of life, and as high, as consciousness is found. Wefind it in the heart of the faithful animal that dies on a lovedmaster's grave, howling in anguish its life away. And we find it in thepurity of woman's heart, where it rests ready for the contact that is toignite it into illumination forever. Woman herself is divine. Man hasplaced her everywhere, sometimes behind the barred doors of a harem, sometimes on the throne of empire; but he has not blotted out thedivine. 

"With Pym it may not have been a love that would have carried him safelyinto and through a beatific old age--or it may have been; we choose tothink that it was a growth that would have bloomed perennially. It was, I think, such a love as every man of imagination feels to be a mountainof wealth beside which all else is dwarfed to utter nothingness--aconcretion from the endless and eternal ocean of love--a glimpse intothat paradise where exists the Almighty, who is Love. 

"I should judge from what Peters knows well enough, but which I gleanedby patient toil from that wicked though unsophisticated old segment ofintelligence, that these two young persons had a most delightful, thoughextremely peculiar, wedding journey. The months had flown, until it wasagain December--the antarctic midsummer month, in which, and the greaterpart of January, there is no night. 

"At this, the delightful season of the antarctic year, a beautifulyacht-like vessel was equipped; and with Peters as captain, and four menunder his orders; Lilama, and a lady friend, with two maids; and Pym, accompanied by his now close friend, Diregus, the journey began. 

"To Peters' mind, the most remarkable part of this pleasure excursion, was the extreme differences in climatic conditions which the partyexperienced within the range of a single day's, or even a single hour'stravel. In December and January, Hili-li was so warm as scarcely to behabitable--certainly not comfortably habitable for natives of thecentral temperate zone of North America; yet at this same period oftime, there was a small island on the meridian of Hili-li, and onlythirty miles from the large surface-crater, on which the temperature wasabout 65° F. There was, just across 'The Mountain'--as the Hili-litesfrequently spoke of the rings of mountain-ranges surrounding the centralcrater--an island of somewhat greater area, upon which ice was at alltimes to be found at a few feet above sea-level, and which, during eightmonths of the year, was so cold that no animal life could have existedupon it. Then, at variable distances from the crater, and in differentdirections, islands were to be found of almost any desired temperature. The wealthier Hili-lites owned summer residences on these out-lyingislands, situated at sailing distances varying from an hour to sixhours' travel from Hili-li. 

"The wedding-party, owing to the social position or the personalqualities of its members--which included official rank, hereditaryprestige, beauty, mental culture, and preternatural prowess--waseverywhere warmly welcomed. It was expected, received with open arms, and every source of entertainment was exhausted to make its visit ateach island enjoyable. 

"The party visited the island owned by Lilama, where they found thetemperature quite cold, but the island comfortably habitable. It was atabout the same distance from the crater as was Hili-li; and was sosituated as to be of nearly one temperature all the year round. Theyfound at work there a body of men, numbering not more than fifteen ortwenty. It seems that upon making a trial of the various islands as ahome for the descendants of the animals brought south by the originalsettlers, it was found that upon this island conditions were the bestfor raising sheep for their wool; and from the wool raised, Lilama'sincome was much greater than from the precious stones found there later, though precious stones were found on no other island in Hili-liland. Peters knows next to nothing, either theoretically or practically, ofgeology; but he says this island looked very different from the othersin that region, and that its mountainous central portion appearedaltogether different from any other of the mountains in Hili-liland. Asked to say if he had ever seen a mountain-range which Lilama'smountain resembled, he replied, but could not say why he so thought, that it reminded him of various parts of the Appalachian range. 

"In strolling about the island, the party entered a small warehouse inwhich the precious stones were kept. Peters says that the gems which hethere saw were of all sizes up to a large hen-egg, and of all colorsexcept green. He particularly remembers being given several beautifulspecimens, including blue, red, yellow, violet, gray, and white stones, all transparent; a black stone, and a brown-gray opaque stone. Thesewere, of course, the sapphire, ruby, topaz, amethyst, and othervarieties of corundum, the islands evidently containing no emeralds ordiamonds. Lilama selected from a tray a stone the color of pigeon-blood, and about the size of an English walnut, which she handed to Pym as shemight have handed him a beautiful rose. In Europe or America this stonewould have purchased a fair-sized town. 

"Peters described a strange natural phenomenon that exists on an islandnot more than half a mile in length, which the party visited afterleaving Lilama's island. Near the centre of this last-mentioned island, says Peters, is a volcanic mountain about four thousand feet in height, with an extinct crater reaching down through the centre of the mountainto within a hundred feet of the sea-level, and, at its lower part, communicating with the outer surface by a tunnel some ten feet indiameter. Upon entering, by means of the tunnel, this sunken crater, agallery was found, ascending spirally by at least twenty turns to theextreme peak of the mountain. The diameter of the crater was about onehundred feet at the bottom, about two hundred feet at the top--thediameter widening at each complete circuit of the gallery by from eightto twelve feet, the breadth of the gallery varying from four feet tosix. Looking from below at the opening above, the spot of sky, saysPeters, looked like the full moon. The length of the gallery, as itsgradient is about forty-five degrees, must be about a mile and a half. Out of the gallery, at several points in the ascent, passes a smallside-tunnel, communicating with the exterior. 

"On still another island, about a hundred miles from Hili-li, but onabout the same meridian--that is to say, in the same warm air-current, though the heat of the current was there much diminished bydilution--the party visited certain ruins which had always greatlypuzzled the Hili-lites. The island was quite large, and was covered withagricultural farms, from which a single crop was taken each year. Theruins were quite uninjured by time; and one small stone structure was socomplete as to be scarcely more dilapidated in appearance than would beany other old and neglected stone building in Hili-li. The stone ofwhich the various structures were composed had never in all thecenturies of their residence there been found by the Hili-liteselsewhere than in these buildings; the supposition being that it camefrom the great surrounding continent. But, after all, the realpeculiarity of these buildings was in their architecture. The difficultyof obtaining from Peters any architectural facts, you will neverappreciate unless you attempt, as I have done, to procure suchinformation. He declares that in these buildings were neither columnsnor arches; and he also declares that the absence of arches and columnshe knows, not only from his own observation, but because that fact wasalluded to in his presence by the Hili-lite members of the party; yet heis equally certain that in one of the larger of the ruins the roof wasintact. How a roof could be supported without reasonable verticalresistance, and without arch resistance, I am unable to say; and it iswholly improbable that the walls in a building of its dimensions could, without an arch, support a roof. The Hellenes, you recall, were veryartful in hiding from observation the arch, though they frequentlyemployed it. I admit that I must have greatly bored old man Peters overthis subject of architecture; and as I myself know next to nothing ofthe subject, technically, and he knows absolutely nothing of it, technically or otherwise, and as he took no interest in the ruins evenwhen they were before his eyes, you will understand that my informationconcerning these ruins is not very clear. It was also utterly impossiblefor me to gain from the old man data upon which to base an opinion as tothe style of architecture of these structures. The buildings generallywere very large, very beautiful, and constructed in a style entirelydistinct from any known ancient style--that is, for instance, they werenot Hellenic, or Egyptian, or Assyrian, or Roman. This much theHili-lites knew and said. Then, further, there were inscriptions incharacters unknown to the world at the time of the barbarian overflowinto the Roman Empire, and also unknown to Pym. In one of the ruins wasa large window made of blue and yellow transparent corundum, in whichappeared an inscription made by a setting of rubies. 

"What a strange world, in which entire races come and go, some of themleaving a ruin or two, and perhaps an odd indecipherable inscriptionhere and there! The world was fortunate indeed to grasp, from theobliterated and forgotten past, Hebraism and Hellenism--the moral andthe beautiful; from which man's craving for goodness has resulted inChristianity; and from which his impulses of sweetness and brightnessand loveliness have developed the Renascence! Between goodness andbeauty, why should there ever be conflict? Pure goodness is pure love, and love is almost synonymous with beauty. --But, pardon the digression. 

"The tour of the islands comprising Hili-liland continued throughDecember and January. I could tell you much of the social gayeties inmany a bright country-home during these two months; but in these Peterswas not much interested, and I could not get from him many of theparticulars. Thus far I have striven to keep all facts unpolluted by anypossible alloy of my own imagination--let me continue to be, in word andin spirit, true to the facts. Were I to attempt a description of theseisland festivities in faraway Hili-liland, perhaps, inadvertently--thefacts being meagre--I might say something bordering on untruth; and, rather than untruth--a thousand times rather--silence. 

"I will close for this evening by saying that the wedding-party arrivedat the island of Hili-li about February 1st--the year being 1829. Sometime before starting on the tour, Lilama had begun the construction of anew home; and by the time of her return it was completed. Her newresidence was not large, but it was elegant. Here the happy coupledwelt, Peters having an apartment to himself which was enough to set asailor wild with joy. Peters says that he grew to like very much what hecalls 'volcano tobacco;' that it was 'good and strong'--to his taste allthe better for that. The only mistake that Lilama's architect made inhis plan for her new home was in not having Peters' apartment either onthe roof, or else next door. Peters now smokes American tobacco; andeven now--but let the past go; I did not sit on the edge of the oldsailor's bed for thirty hours for nothing. Tomorrow evening I shall tellyou of the great catastrophe which occurred on the island of Hili-liduring the visit of Pym and Peters. "

Here Bainbridge closed his recital for the evening. I believe that hewould have remained for at least a few minutes longer; but as he wasabout to reply to a question of mine, Castleton rushed into the room, and Bainbridge departed. 

Castleton, who was overflowing with joyous excitement, informed me thatthe dreaded yellow fever of the South was on its way North; and that ifI would delay my return to England for a week or ten days I could seeit. His remark did not much alarm me. Then I proceeded to tell him inoutline what had become of Ahpilus, of the marriage of Lilama and Pym, and of the wedding-tour of the islands. As I closed, he said:

"Young man, you will soon be returning to England, that lordly nation towhose hind-quarters the sun is kinder than to its head-quarters. Whenyou get home tell your countrymen of the discoveries you have here made. Tell them of the wonders of Hili-li--but be careful. This fellowBainbridge is a romantic youth, and he is liable to lead you astray insome important respects. Tell your noble countrymen of the centralcrater--that, no doubt, Peters saw; as to the Hili-lites beingdescendants of the pure stock of ancient Rome, that, too, I believe. Butdo not repeat this foolish theory about love which he introduces intoPeters' narrative. The wise, practical, and puissant residents of thatCorinthian Capital of Brains--I refer to London--will know better. Oh, yes; women are true!--very true! Better than wealth--pshaw! better thanempire--pooh! That nonsense will pass at twenty-five; at forty a man hassome brains. The 'constancy' of women--that gets me! Why, sir, I onceloved three women at the same time, and not one of the three was true tome--yet Bainbridge talks of a woman's constancy, single-heartedness, andsuch chimerical stuff--the kind of stuff, that, with youth, takes theplace of the recently discarded nursery fiction. I think of the hundredsof women that I have loved, beginning in my early boyhood, passingthrough my adolescence to the acme of my powers, and even now as I standon the verge of my desuetude! Surely some one of these many women wouldhave been constant, if women have any constancy in their make-up. Showme a woman howling out her life on _my_ grave, and then I'll believeBainbridge. But I know all about Bainbridge. I know where he goes theevenings that he doesn't come here. Never mind--I'm silent as the grave. I don't need to tell a man of your superlative acumen what Bainbridge'stalk implies. He mustn't talk to me though about woman's constancy andsingle-heartedness till he's ten years older; let him tell that stuff toPeters and the other mariners. "

After some further talk, Castleton remarked:

"It seems, then, according to Bainbridge, that we moderns owe about allwe have to the Jew and the Dago! Now, men less intelligent than you andI, after looking at the average Jew and Dago as seen to-day in theUnited States, would doubt this assertion. I cannot dispute it, however;for through the ancient Jew certainly came Christianity, and through theancients in Greece and Italy our art. "

He paused for a moment, and then continued:

"A delightfully euphonious set of names those Hili-lites possess. Thename _Hi_li-_li_ is not bad itself: _Hi_li-_li_, _Hi_li-_lite_, _Hi_li-_li_land--pretty good. _Li_-la-ma, Ah-_pe_-lus, Di-_re_-gus, Me-_do_-sus, Ma-_su_-se-_li_-la--all pretty fair. I have no doubt thatBainbridge would spell them so as to produce a Latin appearance. Andthis reminds me of a certain name not Latin. "

I saw that the doctor was about to recount a "personal experience. " Hecontinued:

"One day a stranger came to our town--a plain, clean-looking, blue-eyedsort of scientific fellow from somewhere so far out in the suburbs ofEurope that the name of his country or province has wholly slipped mymemory--a mighty rare thing, by the by, and it always galls me when Iforget anything. This chap came here to look at coal, or to hammerrocks, or to look for curiosities. Well, he ran up against me. Don't askme his name--I believe he spelled it S-c-h-w-o-j-k-h-h-j-z-y-t-y-h-oB-j-h-z-o-w-h-j-u-g-h-s-c-h-k-j. One day he asked me to introduce him toa certain Bellevue capitalist. The fellow had pleased me, and I agreedto do the introducing--partly, I admit, to see whether a man thatgutteralled his words out of his stomach could swindle one of our ownsharpers that talked through his nose. But now came the rub: how was Ito introduce a man when I couldn't utter his name? I used to practice atpronouncing that name as I rode around in my buggy, but it was no go. Atlast the day came when I was to introduce the fellow with a surplus ofknowledge, to the fellow with a surplus of cash. That morning I awokewith the worst sorethroat of my life. I felt as if I had two boiledpotatoes in my throat. The passage from my nose to my windpipe wasclosed for repairs, and that from my mouth to my throat wasseven-eighths closed. Pretty soon, just from recent habit, I began topractise on the scientific chap's name. Great Scott! I could pronounceit better than its owner could. There were certain grunts and sneezes inthe name--particularly one syllable between a grunt and a sneeze--that Isuppose no Anglo-Saxon had ever before or has ever since utteredcorrectly; but they were nothing to me, so long as my sorethroatlasted. "

Then Castleton rushed from the room; calling back from the head of thestairs, and in tones intentionally audible to every man and woman onthat floor of the hotel:

"It's coming, sir, depend upon it--the genuine yellow fever--evaded theNew Orleans quarantine three weeks ago--three cases at Shreveport andtwo at Memphis reported--talk, too, of a case in St. Louis. Heavens! butI hope a beneficent Creator will not allow some other doctor to get thefirst case, when, happily, it shall have reached Bellevue. "

The last sentence was uttered _sotto voce_, as he descended the stairs. 

The EIGHTEENTH Chapter

"It appears, " continued Bainbridge, on the following evening, "thatHili-li was subject to the recurrence about once in forty-seven years ofa strange thermic phenomenon, the mean duration of which was about fiftyhours. This change had occurred twenty-one times in the precedingthousand years; its duration had once been as brief as thirty hours, andat another time had lasted one hundred and twenty hours. The intervalbetween two of its visitations had once been somewhat less than eightyears; whilst at the period of Pym and Peters' presence in Hili-li, ithad not occurred for eighty-six years and some months. For some reasonthat could not be conjectured, at these times the wind-currents, generally varying but slightly in force and duration, changed, the windcoming from a point of the compass almost diametrically opposite to itsusual direction, and increasing in velocity and force to that of atempest or blizzard. The result was, that in a very few hours thetemperature of Hili-li fell to about zero Fahrenheit, if in December orJanuary; to 60° or 70° Fahrenheit below freezing, if in July or August. During the first few hours of the change, owing to the extremely moiststate of the atmosphere for many miles in all directions from the craterof Hili-li, there occurred a heavy snowfall--which, however, diminishedas the temperature fell, until at somewhat above the zero point itceased. 

"The government of Hili-li, by laws and by the encouragement of custom, did much to prevent damage from these storms--which, as I haveintimated, were a combination of hurricane and snow-storm, with a verysudden and rapid fall of temperature; and when the interval between twoof them was not greater than twenty years, the provisions made by thestate were ample to prevent loss of life. By the law of the land, residence houses had to be built in such a manner that at least one roomin each house could be warmed by a fire. Fire for purposes of warmth wasnever in Hili-li required, except during these storms; and all cookingwas done on a peculiar stove made chiefly of gold, the fuel of which waseither fish oil, or another oil termed by the boatmen who sold it'continent oil'--or, rather, by a name corresponding in the Hili-lilanguage to those words in the English. The law further provided that onthe premises of each home wood should be kept, ready for use, in chestsof a size convenient for two persons to carry into the room in which itwas to be burned. By this means, the worst that could happen to a familywas that its members might suddenly at any time be confined to a singleroom, comfortably warmed, for from thirty to a hundred hours, orthereabouts. Even if there should be very little food in any one home, or if the wood supply should be neglected, the next door neighbor couldbe relied upon for succor. 

"Ninety-four years prior to the summer that now concerns us, a coldspell had occurred after an interval of eighty-one years, which lasted ahundred and ten hours, and during which one-third of the inhabitants ofHili-li, between hunger and cold, lost their lives. Not more than onehundred persons remembered the last preceding storm, and they must havebeen very young children when it occurred; and even they felt no alarmon the subject, as the storm preceding it had happened about sixteenyears earlier, and, though a light one, was sufficient to alarm both therulers and the masses, and resulted in a state of preparedness for thenext storm. But now, the middle-aged men knew of these cold spells onlyas matters of history, to which they gave little practical attention;and from the lips of their grandparents, who, as I have said, had neverpersonally known one of them to cause serious distress or loss of life. 

"On the morning of February 17, 1829, there was not on the Island ofHili-li a single residence which had the wood-supply contemplated by theforgotten statute relating to that subject; there were few homes thathad in store food sufficient for more than forty-eight hours use; and, though most families were in possession of some oil, their cook-stoveswere not constructed for heating, and were connected with flues inoutbuildings; and, further, there was not enough oil on the island tohave warmed the city at such a time for twenty-four hours. 

"It must also be remembered that the Hili-lites were accustomed to atemperature, all the year through, year in and year out, of 90° to 108°Fahrenheit scale; and that for a resident of England, or of the UnitedStates above the latitude of Washington City, a temperature of tendegrees below zero would be quite as well borne as would a temperatureof thirty degrees above zero by these islanders. There was littlephysical and mental inurement to cold, and the lightest of clothing wasworn. A resident of Hili-li, when business compelled him to visit anisland on which the temperature was cold enough to freeze water, prepared himself personally for the journey as would a Swede orNorwegian for a journey of exploration to the North Pole. 

"In the night between February 16th and 17th, Peters, who was in thehabit in Hili-li of sleeping _in puris naturalibus_, awoke in a shiver. He arose, and closing his window-sash began to look around his room forbed-covering; but he found only a sheet, and a very fine wool bedspread, which he drew over him as he once more assumed a recumbent position. Heagain fell asleep; but in an hour awoke, shivering harder than before. He then dressed, and lighting his pipe, walked up and down the floor. Then he looked from the window, and saw that a fine snow was falling, the separately almost invisible flakes whirling in sharp spirals as theyfell. The sailor instinct--the aptitude of the navigator--instantly toldhim what this thermic change meant for Hili-li. Others in the house werenow moving about, and Peters sought them out. Pym did not seem at onceto realize the danger; and Lilama said she had heard of these storms, but did not think that they lasted long. All except Peters were wrappedin shawl-like garments, and some of the servants had about their formslight rugs which they had taken from the floors. Soon, however, allexcept Pym and Peters were shivering; and every article of coveringobtainable was in use. Lilama told a maid to bring out her dresses andwrappers, which she divided among the servants, each donning severalgarments. Peters, stoical, but always on the alert, called Pym aside, and explained to him that this change meant nothing less than thedevastation of Hili-li--that the temperature was steadily falling, thewind increasing, and that the storm was only beginning. Pym could notbut perceive that the cold was due to a pronounced alteration in thedirection of wind-currents; and that under the circumstances the coldwould of necessity increase to the point of normal antarctictemperature--no doubt below zero--unless the wind should before thenchange. Quickly his mind grasped the circumstances in which they wereplaced. They were on an island, situated in water navigable at allseasons and hours, with the chief food-supply on near-by islands, andeach day brought to Hili-li for that day's consumption; they were in acity practically without fuel; the inhabitants were accustomed to heat, and wholly unused to cold; the houses were built without protectionagainst cold, because, except occasionally for a few hours at a time, there were no climatic conditions demanding such a construction. Further, the climate being very warm, there was not--except in thepossession of a hundred men whose business took them on visits toislands lying outside of the crater-warmed air-currents--a heavy wrap ofany kind, such as overcoat, cloak, or shawl, in the entire city. Carpetswere not known in Hili-li, so it would be impossible for thehard-pressed people to retire to bed, where, covering the body with afew sheets and some clothing, they might add the carpets, and, in hungerbut in safety, remain protected against those freezing blasts till thewind should change. Pym comprehended the terrible position in whichLilama and the other Hili-lites stood; the extremity of desolation whichmust soon prevail standing out before him like a vivid picture, and fora moment overawing even his brave, true soul. He did not doubt thatPeters and himself could withstand the cold, though they might not beable to obtain more than a flimsy shelter from the biting antarcticwinds. He scarcely thought of himself--he thought only of Lilama, and, in a measure, of the other residents of the beautiful, stricken city. Exposure to danger had made Pym in times of trouble a rapid thinker, andthe thoughts which I have mentioned passed through his mind in less thana minute of time. Then he turned to Lilama, and asked if there wasbeneath the house a cellar. Fortunately there was--the house was one ofthe few in Hili-li beneath a portion of which a cellar was constructedas a depository, and as a protection against heat for certain articlesof food, most of the residents not caring to construct cellars; articlesof food easily destructible by heat being twice daily brought to thecity and distributed to the houses, and ice costing only the expense ofshipping it by water some six or eight hours' sailing distance. 

"Pym and Peters moved about the house, making certain arrangements sorapidly as to startle the languid Hili-lites. In ten or fifteen minutesthey had removed to the cellar all the necessary furniture of acomfortable room, including a bedstead for Lilama, and another for hertwo maids. Three lamps were taken to the cellar, lighted, and oilsufficient for a week's consumption placed conveniently near. The housecontained enough food to sustain Lilama, and the women servants, forfrom six to eight days. Within twenty minutes of the time Peters hadsuggested to Pym the danger of freezing to be apprehended, Lilama andher maids were safely placed in the cellar, and were making merry overtheir strange surroundings and attire. Then Pym and Peters hastened fromthe house, to see what could be done for others. 

"And now was witnessed the influence on man, of heredity andenvironment, and the insurmountable difficulties in the way, even underthe most pressing need, of overcoming such influence. The Hili-lites inmore than a thousand years had fought only one battle, and that fivehundred years before; nor had they found necessary any struggle forfood, or against rigorous climate. They were a brainy people, and werealmost superhumanly perceptive in every sense organ and in every nerve. But they were wanting in that quality possessed by most European peoplesand by Americans, which takes practical cognizance of the fact thatprompt action and fearlessness is the true protection against danger. Inthe face of this great calamity among the Hili-lites, even the leadingmen seemed paralyzed. Not that they displayed a particle of fear--it wassimply not in them to move rapidly, and to face joyfully great dangers. With them, when mental processes failed to subdue, there was not muchleft. They could have conquered a modern warship, provided they couldhave come in contact with its officers, by controlling in some strangeway the minds of those men; but against a storm, or the course ofinanimate nature in any other direction, they were as powerless as anyother people, and their sense of powerlessness was paralyzing to them. On the other hand, Pym and Peters had sprung from races that had in thepast thousand years gone through hundreds of struggles, amid every kindof danger, for existence; and Peters, on the mother's side, she being anAmerican Indian, belonged to a race which had gone through what wasinfinitely worse than a barbarian invasion--namely, a 'civilized' and'enlightened' invasion. These two men seemed to court danger--to revelin it; but in reality they pursued the course which exposed them to theleast risk of injury consistent with the performance of their full duty. The question was one of method in procedure to save the greatest numberof lives; and they hastened first to the residence of Lilama's uncle andcousin--to the home of the Duke and Diregus. "

The NINETEENTH Chapter

Arriving there, they found the Duke and Diregus quite activelyengaged--for Hili-lites; still, very much valuable time was beingwasted. Already the snow had ceased to fall, and the temperature, Petersthinks, must have reached ten degrees below freezing, and was rapidlyfalling. In the ducal palace there were, in two or three rooms, hearths, and flue-openings for carrying off smoke; but as there was no wood readyfor burning, and as there seemed to be no dry wood in sight, the Dukeand his son were at the end of their resources as soon as they hadgathered together into a safe place food sufficient to last for a weekor ten days. Fortunately the palace was unusually well stocked withedibles. 

When Pym and Peters arrived, their cool manner and prompt actionexhaling confidence with every look and movement, the Duke and Direguswere soon enlivened, as in fact were all others who came in contact withthese two active and intrepid strangers. 

Pym glanced about him, compassing at a look all possible resources. Thenhe issued his orders, himself working with the others, and, so to speak, 'setting the pace. ' In ten minutes a large outbuilding--similar to oursummer-houses, or Anglo-Saxon kiosks--was razed to the ground, broken inpieces, and placed in the rooms, in which fires were soon glowing andcrackling. In twenty minutes, those whom Pym and Peters had foundhalf-frozen and wholly discouraged, were cheerful, comfortable, and outof danger. 

The two men hastened forth through the city, giving assistance andadvice, and infusing confidence. The smaller residences, as well as manyof those of medium size, were constructed of wood. Pym went rapidlythrough the city, ordering that one house in each square be demolished, and the wood divided--but haste! haste! The temperature was rapidlydeclining to a point at which a Hili-lite, even when actively at work, could not exist. 

Pym and Peters might, unaided, have reached one-tenth of the people ofHili-li, and have shown them the way to safety. As many more, possibly, might have found other means of saving themselves. It seems improbablethat more than one-fourth of the people of Hili-li would have survivedthis terrible storm, had Pym and Peters not been reinforced. 

"Let no man, in his finite weakness, ever question the methods ofInfinite Wisdom, which is Infinite Goodness. At the very time when everymoment gained by Pym and Peters meant the saving of a hundred morelives--at the very moment when two additional men, hardy and inured todanger, would have doubled the life-saving force, four hundred of the'Exiles of Olympus' arrived in the city. They had left behind themwarmth and safety, and sailing across thirty miles of tempestuous sea, had come, headed by Medosus, to try to save their fellow-countrymen. These four hundred men, young and vigorous, comprised the realenterprise and daring of Hili-li. They had been promised their liberty, and their visits, individually, to Hili-li had recently been not onlyallowed but even encouraged by those in authority; but the final actpermitting them to return had been, by the formalities of state, delayed. 

"Pym, Peters, and Medosus consulted for a moment, and then the exilesdivided into a hundred parties of four each, and systematicallyscattered through the city, doing the work of giants. Finally the exilesestablished a hundred stations, selecting for the purpose large rooms, in which they built hearths of lava-blocks taken from the streets, inmost of the houses the hearths being placed in the centre of an upperroom, and an opening directly above cut through the roof. At each ofthese stations one exile at a time took charge of the fire, whilst theother three of the party in charge scoured the neighborhood for personsthat might in the first desultory search have been overlooked. Then, when all seemed provided for, the exiles, protecting their bodies withsuch additional clothing as those now cared for could spare, went forthin search of food, to the deserted houses, and to such depots of supplyas the city possessed. 

"The work of rescue being thoroughly inaugurated, Pym had a moment inwhich his mind might roam from the work immediately in hand; and hethought of the aged mystic, Masusælili. The old man resided in a spot soretired that the various rescue parties might easily have overlookedhim; and the temperature was now probably fifty degrees below freezing. Fortunately, at the instant he thought of the old philosopher, he andPeters were near the city limits, and within a third of a mile ofMasusælili's home; and starting off at a brisk run, the two were fiveminutes later in the old man's house, standing outside his laboratorydoor. As the two had hurried along, Peters would continue to murmuragainst the project: 'What's the use, ' he would growl; 'we'll only findthe old fellow roasting himself in front of a magic fire of burning snowor ice. _He's_ all right, and we'd better be saving human people. '

"As several raps, increasing from the gentlest to the most vigorous, elicited no response, Pym opened the laboratory door, and with Petersentered. But the old man was nowhere to be seen. Pym hastily returned tothe hallway, and discovering a stair leading to a small cellar, hedescended. The cellar was filled with _débris_, two small windowcasements opening to the exterior air were broken and decayed to thelast degree of dilapidation, and the icy wind whistled through therubbish of the doleful spot. He ran back to the laboratory, where Peterswas hunting about, hoping to find Masusælili alive, yet fearing to findhis emaciated form lying lifeless amid the mass of chemical andmechanical appliances which littered the room. Several of the largevase-like objects before alluded to stood here and there; and as thesmaller of them might have hidden the body of a large-sized man, thesearchers even glanced into them. Each vase sat apart upon the floor, flaring upward like a giant lily to a height of four or five feet; andfrom each of them projected, within an inch of the floor, a faucet ofrude construction, through which passed a very primitive spigot. One ofthese enormous vases, large enough to have secreted two small men, stoodinverted; and Pym, with no particular object in view, but simply becausehe could not think of anything else to do, gave the vase a push, in sucha way as to raise for an inch or two from the floor its large rim, flaring out to a diameter of probably four feet. 

"'Put that down, ' came a hollow and stridulous voice, so unexpected andstartling to Pym that he withdrew his hand, allowing the vase to dropback to the floor with a resounding thud. 

"'If thou hast aught of importance to impart, 'continued the voice--thatof Masusælili--still stridulous, but now having also the qualitypossessed by a voice heard through a speaking-tube, 'put thy mouth nearto the spigot-hole, and disclose thine errand. '

"Pym placed his lips within an inch of the open faucet, which was onlyan inch or two lower than his mouth as he stood beside the vase, andfrom the opening of which came a fog-like vapor, similar in appearanceto that exhaled from the mouth and nostrils on a very cold day, andsaid:

"'We came, sir, to offer our help--to procure for you wood, and, ifpossible, food; or, if you should so prefer, to remove you in safety tocomfortable quarters. '

"For a moment there was silence, during which the fog-like vaporcontinued to come from the spigot-hole of the inverted vase. Then thevoice of the aged mystic was again heard in reply:

"'Youth--and thine ape-like companion--go hence. Through three and fiftyof these storms have I safely passed. Beneath this vase have I twolamps, alight; oil wherewith to supply with fuel these two lamps for aspace of eight days, which hitherto has been the longest duration of anyof these periodical storms; food and water have I sufficient for mybody's wants for a week. And, too, have I mental aliment; for have Ihere a manuscript written by the youthful sage, Ægyptus, who sent it tome by the hand of Azza, long before the legend of Romulus started fromits mythic source to float adown the stream of time: a manuscript whichit delighteth my soul once in each century to peruse. Fear not for onewho knows no fear. Go hence, and quickly go--go with humiliation in thyheart; for thou hast not yet begun to live, and yet thou presumest tothink in danger one who helped to plan and to construct what thoucallest the ancient city of Babylon. Youth, when thou didst disturb me, I was reading from my friend, who writes from a village called Sakkarah, of how a foolish Pharaoh thinks to perpetuate his memory by building amighty pyramidal structure of stone, which my friend terms a deviceplanned by himself to divert the fancy of his ruler, and incidentally toastonish those European barbarians who may happen that way; and, amongother matters, this Azza asks for my opinion concerning the outersurface of his pyramid; to which request for advice I remember that Ireplied, saying that the walls should be constructed so as to ascend instep-like angles. Ha, ha, ha!' came from the spigot-hole a hollow, cracked attempt at derisive laughter--'Ye say--ha, ha!--ye say thisPharaoh was of the _first_ dynasty!--ha, ha!--the first! Go hence, vainchild. '

"'But, sir, ' insisted Pym, after a pause, 'have you provided forventilating your--your small apartment?'

"'In the floor beneath me is a knot-hole, which doth open to the outerair; and upon the opening is a flat stone, which, little by little, moreor less, I remove and replace in accordance with certain laws, allowingjust the proper amount of atmospheric air to enter from below. This oilmaketh very little smoke, yet seest thou not some smoke emerge from theopen faucet? Feel'st thou not with thine hand the heat escape? Again Isay, go hence, vain youth. '

"Pym stood for a moment, meditating; and then something--perhapssomething connected with the words several months before whispered intohis ear by Masusælili--impelled him to say:

"'Good sir, we meant you no harm. Tell me, Allwise One, can you read thefuture?'

"Before a reply came, there was a pause so long that, says Peters, Pymwas about to speak again. Then came the voice of this old man who hadinvestigated and pondered for thousands of years that only inexhaustiblestudy in the universe, the phenomenon of consciousness--the aged mysticno doubt being pleasantly warmed and mollified by the appellation'Allwise One. '

"'None but God, ' said Masusælili, 'knows of a certainty the future. Truly wise men, and the lower animals, when they would penetrate thefuture, use not the crude instrument termed _reason_; but rather do theynestle close to the bosom of--what now call ye Him? Thine ancestors, thebarbarians of Britannia, when I was with them, named Him God. Thus, andonly thus, may the future become known to thee. Have faith, as the bird, the fish, the little ant, which, _feeling_ God, act, and are notdisappointed. Think ye that the lowest of God's creatures would not haveheard His warning voice, or seen His beckoning arm, or felt His guidinghand when in the air lurked this present danger? Yet reason told notyou! God shows to us the future, when we should know His edicts inadvance, always--always, if only we will look and hearken. But this, good youth, God doth permit only to those who lean with full confidenceupon Him, as do the lower animals. To the consciousness of man it isgiven, if but the right conditions be attained, truly to know what inthe present happeneth anywhere in the universe. _Time_ is a barrier tothe voluntary acquisition of knowledge, but _distance_ is not animpediment. My body is confined to this poor vase, but certainly not mymind--it roams in Europe, in Asia, or amid the stars--but wait a moment. Poor youth! The hand on the dial of thy destiny moves rapidly. Go! Gonow, and go in haste; for one who loves thee, at this moment sorelyneeds thee. Farewell. '

"Pym scarcely heard the word 'farewell;' for he was crossing thethreshold of the house as Masusælili uttered it, and Peters was turningto follow. They ran as rapidly as the snow and the cutting wind wouldpermit, and had covered the necessary three miles in about half an hour. The air was growing intensely cold. They met a party of three exiles, who were helping to scour the city for any food that might have beenleft in deserted homes. These men informed Pym that, in spite of thepromptitude and haste of the rescue parties, more than a hundred personshad been frozen to death; and that frozen hands and feet by the thousandhad been reported. The Hili-lites were so extremely susceptible to coldthat, at a temperature of 20° Fahrenheit, if they were not wellprotected by clothing, they soon became drowsy, then slept, and, if notfound and resuscitated within a very short time, died. One case wasreported in which a woman, only six hundred feet from one of the rescuestations, was frozen to death in somewhat less than an hour, though shemust have been thoroughly chilled when last seen in an apparentlynatural condition. During the day a party of three exiles, whilst on oneof their rounds, had visited the house of this poor woman, and hadcarried her three children to the nearest station; and the womanherself, who was at the time hurrying about the room gathering togethera few articles, it was supposed had followed close behind them. In thisway she was overlooked, until, in the somewhat crowded room to which thechildren were taken, the youngest child, a little girl of four years, broke into tears and began to cry out for her mother. Then two menhastened back, and found the woman unconscious and apparently dead. Theusual methods of resuscitation were inaugurated, and long continued, butthe woman could not be revived. 

"Peters says that he has during his life-time seen a number of personswho were frozen, several of them fatally; of which a part were in theEastern States, others in the far north; and that these Hili-lites frozeto death very differently from those in the northern part of the northtemperate zone. He mentions the case of a Canadian who was exposed toextreme cold during a whole night. When found, the poor fellow was notonly unconscious, but apparently dead. The arms and legs were frozenthrough and through, and the entire body was rigid. He was resuscitated, but afterwards lost his hands and feet. In Hili-li persons lost theirlives from exposure to cold whose bodies were very little--a few of themnot at all--frozen. The explanation of this difference is to be found inthe fact that an animal dies when bodily temperature in the interior ofthe body reaches a certain degree of reduction, which point of reductionin the Hili-lites is much less than in persons habituated to life in acolder climate. In persons accustomed to a climate as warm as that ofHili-li, the heat-producing functions are feeble, and the heat-expellingfunctions are very active; but this does not fully explain why, inPeters' words, 'the people there froze to death without freezing. ' Anyperson dying as a result of exposure to cold, dies long before any ofthe vital organs are frozen; and the Hili-lites no doubt ceased to livewith a reduction of bodily temperature which would not have seriouslyinconvenienced a resident of Scotland or Canada. In the storm of whichwe speak, the people were nervously depressed as a result of fright. However, from all I can gather, the temperature was at times certainlyas low as 40° Fahrenheit below freezing, at which degree almost anythinly clad person might freeze to death. 

"But the hour is late, and, though I had expected to close Peters' storythis evening, such a conclusion is, owing to my prolixity, scarcelypracticable. If you still expect to start for home in three days, Ishall certainly in one more evening complete the telling of Peters'experiences in Hili-li. The day after tomorrow I shall be engaged duringthe entire evening, and if we delay our next meeting till the followingevening--your last in Bellevue--it is possible that something may happento prevent our meeting; so, if you are willing, my next and last visitto you here shall be tomorrow evening. "

I expressed my satisfaction with the arrangement, and he took his leave. 

The following morning, I gave to Arthur, in my own way, an account ofthe storm in Hili-li, meanwhile leisurely dressing--a performance which, except under pressure, I have never in the morning been able unaided toaccomplish in less than an hour. I had completed my toilet, but not mystory, when in rushed Castleton. 

After a little general conversation, I seemed naturally to return to thePeters story; and now, in a five-minute talk, I so closed it to thepoint reached by Bainbridge as to satisfy Arthur, and not weary therestless doctor. As I ended, Castleton said:

"I didn't get in to see you yesterday. The last time I was in we weretalking of names; and to tell you the truth, it was a matter of namesthat held me back yesterday at the very time I was going to come up. Yousee, I have an old friend here in town, ----; you've no doubt heard ofhim--ex-member of Congress, and as good as appointed Minister toVenezuela right now. A scholar of the deepest erudition; a speaker andwriter of great force and nicety, and of exquisite literary taste. Yesterday we met, and during our talk he told me that his book, theresult of many years of thought, was completed. Now, for my part, Inever believed that a rose would smell as sweet as it does if we calledit a turnip. If Poe had, instead of 'Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, ' namedhis story, 'Adventures of Dirk Peters, the Half-Breed, ' he would havesold twice as many books. My friend is about to publish his book. 'Itsname?' I asked him. 'There can be little choice of names for atranslation of Montesquieu's "Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans, "with notes by myself, ' he replied. 'There can't?' said I; 'well, myfriend, let me tell you there can. Now compare this name: "Montesquieu'sConsiderations on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of theRomans, with illustrative notes, " etc. , with a name like this: "TheRoman Aristocrats Ripped, Rooted, and Routed"; or, "How the RomanPlutocrats were Peppered and Pounded. " Heavens and Earth! what do themasses know about decadence? Why not name his book (and so I said tohim), "How the Rich Romans Rotted"? Half the people would think fromsuch a title that the Romans were enemies of the United States, and thatMontesquieu and my friend were after them hot and fast; and then thestory would go out that the French were helping us again. "GeneralMontesquieu" would be heard on all sides, associated with endlessrepetitions of Lafayette memories. Lord, Lord! I sometimes think a manis better under-educated than over-educated. "

Then after a pause he continued:

"Pretty good, that talk of Masusælili's through the faucet--pretty good, pretty good! But, pshaw! for me there's nothing new on earth. Why, sir, I've always drawn my best philosophy out of a spigot-hole. The verysight of a spigot inspires me, and drives away my troubles. But, manalive! We must keep this thing secret. The fellow with an exhaustlessstock of _elixir vitæ_ isn't half worked out in fiction yet--andbesides, how can a person reread his 'Wandering Jew, ' and his 'Last Daysof Pompeii, ' and his 'Zanoni, ' with such an outlandish picture as amystic under a lamp-warmed vase in mind? Why didn't Bainbridge take anot unusual historical license, and say that the aged philosopher wasfound warming himself before a crystal vase filled with magicallyglowing rubies?"

After we had laughed a little over this, he said:

"And I suppose Bainbridge tried--in fact I know by what you say that hedid try--to air his knowledge on the subject of animal heat? No doubttalked for half an hour about the effects of cold on the animal economy?Oh, he's a rapid man! You heard, sir, how idiotically he talked thatday, just before I cured old man Peters? If Bainbridge had had his way, Peters' story would have been a short one. I suppose his remedy for afrozen Hili-lite would be to send him to the North Pole! Now, sir, Iinstantly grasped the whole idea of the necessary effect of that coldwave on those Hili-lites, for I now have data in abundance for readingthose people through and through. In a word, sir--and observe mysententious brevity--their thermogenistic organization being adynamic, and their thermolysic functions being over-active owing to their thermicenvironment, and the thermotaxic balance being habitually anomalous, theemergency was not successfully encountered; and this was moreparticularly the case because the nerve-centres of vital resistance tosudden and extreme thermal abstraction were atrophied. "

This was the last remark, except a few words of farewell at the time ofmy departure for home, that I ever heard from Doctor Castleton. It washis habit, as he was about to leave the presence of an auditor orinterlocutor, to fire off, so to speak, a set speech, or a piece ofsurprising information, and then hastily to retreat--a habit displayingconsiderable sagacity, and one engendered by street-corner discussion, in which a return fire--or perhaps a troublesome question--was often tobe avoided if a dramatic climax was not to be sacrificed. On thisoccasion, as the last words left his lips he vanished through thedoorway, and we were alone. 

"Well, " said Arthur, "am I allowed to speak?"

"You are, " I replied. 

"Then tell me, " said he, "what it was he said? Why doesn't he, some daywhen he has time, dictate a dictionary? And isn't there any way to stopsuch talk by law? That man gets worse instead of better. He forgetseverything except words. Says he, the other day, 'Well, Arthur, my boy, when are you coming in to pay your doctor bill?' Now mind, I paid hima'ready, and just think of my teeth! But I told him, nice and easy, howI paid him the two dollars. Then I told him about my teeth rattlin'whenever I go down the stairs, and asked him what to do for them. Hejust laughed and gave me a half-dollar, and said, 'Bone-set tea, myboy--drink bone-set tea, and plenty of it;' and so I do. "

The TWENTIETH Chapter

"Pym left the exiles, " said Bainbridge, on the following evening, as, inaccordance with his engagement, he continued the story of the greatstorm in Hili-li; "and hastened on toward his home. Arrived there, hewent directly to the cellar, where he found the three large lampsalight, brilliantly illuminating and comfortably warming the apartment;but Lilama was missing, though he found there one of her maids. Thisgirl told Pym that Lilama had, some four hours earlier, taken with herher maid Ixza, and hastened from the house. Questioned closely, she saidthat after Pym had gone, Lilama suddenly bethought her of a formerservant, an old nurse, who for some years past had lived quite alone, and that Lilama had decided to have the poor old woman found, and caredfor. It seems that when the young wife was herself in safety and had themental leisure to think of others, the thought of her poor old servantand friend in danger grew more and more unbearable. She had waitedalmost an hour for Pym to return, and then, taking Ixza with her, hadgone forth; but where the old nurse resided, only Lilama and Ixza knew. The maid knew only that Lilama had left the cellar with the intention ofassisting, in some manner, the nurse of her babyhood. 

"In ten minutes Pym and Peters, going in different directions, hadaroused many of the exiles, who hastened in all directions, to searchthoroughly the poorer quarters of the city, and to inquire of everyonewhom they might encounter concerning the residence of the old nurse. Theexiles had already visited, or sent others to visit, about every housein the city; but in a few instances--particularly where but one personlived in a house--the occupant had been advised, and had consented, tocome to a central station and there remain till the storm abated orpassed; and then, for some purpose delaying, had been overcome by thecold, and, as the system of search included only one visit to eachhouse, had been left to die--the fact transpiring through an accidentalsecond visit, or when the city was later scoured in search of food thatmight have been overlooked. 

"An hour later, one of many messengers who were searching for Pym methim, and told him that Lilama was found. He hastened to the house inwhich they had found her--a small frame structure, the residence of herformer nurse. 

"At the entrance of this house stood Peters, waiting for his youngfriend; and as Pym felt the hand of the old sailor, put forth to stophim in his breathless haste, and as he looked into the hard, rugged faceof his old friend, he knew that he must nerve himself for a shock. Alas!His surmise was only too correct. They entered the main room of thehouse together, Peters in the rear. Drawing aside from the entrance tothe room a portière--Peters had already visited the room--Pym passed in, Peters remaining on the outer side of the curtained doorway, that hemight prevent others from following, or even from viewing the youngfriend who was now to receive one of the keenest stabs with whichDestiny ever pierces the human heart. 

"For a moment Pym would wholly have mistaken the scene before him, hadPeters not said a word of warning as the portière fell behind his youngfriend. 

"On the lounge which stood against the farther wall as he entered, layan elderly woman, apparently asleep; and covering her were the outerwraps--scanty, indeed, for such a day--of Lilama. On the left, as Pymswept at a glance the apartment, he saw the maid Ixza, reclining in alarge chair; she, also, to all appearances, was asleep. Then he saw hiswife. She crouched on the floor at the foot of the lounge, only herwealth of light golden hair at first visible. Stepping to her side, Pymsaw her, as many times in the ducal gardens he had seen her drop to theground in her girlish fashion, to rest. Her arms were intertwined uponthe foot of the lounge, her head resting upon them; and there the tired, childlike young wife had gone to sleep--forever. 

"How beautiful she was in death! The gentle hand that had never touchedthe person of another but in helpfulness--how fair, how pallid; the fondsweet eyes that knew no glance but that of love and kindness--they werealmost hidden by the drooping lids; the tenderest, loveliest face thesunlight ever kissed, smiled upward at him as he gazed--his heart feltcolder than was this dear form he dropped beside and clasped. But thelips--the ripe red lips--the rapturous, maidenly lips, the first touchof which had raised him forever from the coarse earth--the arch lipsthat had bewitched him with their own seductive smile, and could notshape themselves to harsher act than pouting--a fleeting pout, thatcaptivated ere it vanished--he could not look at them in death--he couldnot. 

"Sweet child of a weird land and a strange people! She was one of thosewhose spotless souls need not the purifying fire of a long earthly life. For Pym, now and later, the sorrow and the yearning void; for her, onlyan earlier advancement. 

"Pym's mind was shocked; but behind the shock he felt the awful anguishof such a separation. Was this the end? Could it be the end? For him, truly that day his last hope for this life died. But hereafter? Surelythis was not to be the end of all! A few more years of grovelling on theclay bosom of the cold, selfish earth, and then--only oblivion? No, no:he would not, he could not believe it. 

"As Pym stood there, where many, many other men have stood, and millionsyet will stand, did his soul rise into the heavenly atmosphere, or didit question God's decrees and sink to rise no more? This I cannotanswer. 

"After such a loss, oh, the weary weight of unutterable woe; the awfulsense that hope is dead, whilst the mourner can only stand withstreaming eyes and bleeding heart, forever chained to the ghastly corpseof every dear ambition, of every joy, and all that our universe offeeling builds on hope. But we should learn from such a loss a lesson, for the lesson if learned insures our own advancement: such losses arebut the purposes of God unfolding for those we love and for ourselves aneternity of blissful harmony. "

Thus Doctor Bainbridge closed; and, though his words were of death, andthe thoughts which he expressed were as old as the human race, I wasmuch affected by them. Young as was the speaker, his utterances conveyedto me the impression that he himself had in some way learned the lessonof which he spoke. For several moments we sat in silence; and then, though I knew that he would have a few more words to say, I thought itan appropriate time to thank him for his long, painstaking elaborationof the old sailor's disclosures, which, as I knew partly from my ownpersonal knowledge, had been gained only by untiring perseverance andinexhaustible patience. I thanked him, and complimented him as I thoughthe deserved; and he was pleased, I plainly saw, with the few words ofcommendation which he knew came from my heart. 

We sat, smoking our cigars and chatting on various topics, until it wasalmost the hour at which he usually said to me goodnight. Then hereturned to the Peters' story, saying:

"It only remains for me properly to dispose of Pym and Peters. Petersknows no more--in fact, not as much--of Pym after he returned home, asdo we. Poe, we know, in the note to his 'Narrative, ' alludes to 'thelate sudden and distressing death of Mr. Pym. ' This is all we know, andeven this fact, when I told it to Peters, was new to him; for Pym andPeters parted in the month of February, 1830, at the City of Montevideo, Uruguay; Peters, with an old sailor chum, whom he happened to meet inSouth America, shipping to Australia; and Pym, a few days later, starting for the United States. 

"It had no doubt been the policy of the Hili-lites to prevent allstrangers from returning to the outer world; but this policy was, itseems, not a firmly founded one, and many circumstances arose to modifyand finally even to reverse it. They looked upon Pym almost as one ofthemselves. When he left them, it was with the intention of returning;and they exacted of him a promise to hide, even from Peters, thelongitudes traversed during the entire journey from Hili-li until theyshould touch the land of some civilized people, or meet with a ship; towhich promise Pym rigidly adhered. And though they were in other waysvery kind to him, they would not allow him to take away a single grainof gold, of which nuggets were as plentiful in the fissures of theOlympian ranges as are pebbles in the beds of mountain streams; norwould they allow him to retain, of the many precious stones in hispossession, even the ruby which Lilama had given him; and no amount ofargument or pleading could move them to a different decision. TheHili-lites were anxious to get rid of Peters, which had much to do withtheir willingness to 'speed the parting guest. ' It seems that Pym formonths after the death of Lilama was in an extremely morbid state ofmind. He spent most of his time with Masusælili, who allowed him to seeLilama's apparition or wraith many times. The aged mystic explained toPym the scientific _modus operandi_ of the production, so that he was inno way deceived into thinking that he met Lilama in person; but we maypresume that, as it is to each of us some gratification to look at apainting or a photograph of a departed friend, it must have been a stillgreater pleasure for Pym thus to have reproduced for him the living, moving form and features of his lost darling--reproduced or simulated insuch a manner that he might see her, and touch her, and hear hervoice--even though he was told that the image was only a likeness. During Pym's abstraction, Peters was left almost entirely to himself;and his worst qualities, long inactive (partly because there had notbeen opportunity for their display, and partly because of Pym'sinfluence), now came prominently to the surface. He associated with thewildest characters on the neighboring islands, making them even wilderand more ungovernable than before his arrival. Finally, with revenge foran excuse, but in reality from sheer restlessness, he began to organizea raid on the outlying barbarians, more particularly, he still avers, because he wished 'to get even with old Too-wit' and his barbarianfollowers for having murdered his companions, as described in Pym'sdiary. This the Hili-lites thought was going too far; and as it was nowOctober, the Council of State decided to allow Pym to depart for home, taking Peters with him. 

"One bright December morning these two toys of fortune said good-by totheir kind hosts, and started on their long and perilous journey. Astrong and handsome though small sail-boat had been provided for them. Anumber of Hili-lite youths--among them some of the former exiles--wereto accompany them past the great antarctic continent; and for thispiloting party a larger boat had been built. After many days, thecontinent was passed; and Pym and Peters, alone, began their wearisomevoyage across the great Antarctic Ocean. Fortunately, in January theyencountered a large schooner, which six weeks later, in February, landedthem at Montevideo. Peters says that Montevideo was at thattime--1830--little more than a walled fortress. This scarcely harmonizeswith the fact that it was then, as now, the capital of Uruguay; butPeters appears to know what he is talking about. As I have said, at thisplace Pym and Peters parted, never to meet again. The younger manstarted for his home, and found an early grave; the older man sought newadventures, and he, at the age of eighty, still lives to tell of theiradventures had in a country strange beyond man's credulity to believe. "

These were the last words spoken by Doctor Bainbridge on the subject ofPeters' adventures. Two days later I said farewell to my Americanfriends, the memory of whom has always been dear to me, and whom it hasbeen my misfortune not again to meet. The day before my departure, Idrove to Peters' home, and said to him good-by. I called on DoctorBainbridge at his office; and Doctor Castleton I met on the streetcorner, where, from the window of my apartment in the Loomis House, Ihad first seen him. I hope that the later life of each of them has beena smooth one: I know that both were good men, and that one of them was aman of singular fascination. 

As I took my leave of Doctor Castleton, and after he had spoken of thedeath of Lilama, he said:

"I trust, young man, that you are pleased with your discovery--I knowthat Bainbridge is;" and he accompanied the remark with a searchingglance of those large black eyes, the meaning of which I could not thenfathom, and the recollection of which has often puzzled me. Then hesmiled, and said farewell. 

Doctor Bainbridge, when I had said my last words to him, spoke thus:

"May you have a pleasant journey, and a loving welcome to your home. Youwill probably never return to America--or, even if you do, not to ourlittle city. I wish I could think that some day we shall meet again, butwe probably never shall. And yet, " he continued, smilingly, "who knows!If not again in this life, or in this world, still in some new form, onsome strange planet. It may be that on Venus the beautiful our handsshall once more clasp; or on some water-way of Mars the ruddy, as wepass in our gondolas, we may call a greeting to each other--or possiblyto Poe, the bright unfortunate. I am sorry that you must leave us, and Iwish you every happiness. "

It was at the railroad station, to which his duties called him, that Isaid to Arthur good-by; and there, as the train pulled out, through thecar-window I caught a glimpse of two moist eyes looking after thedeparting train. 

And now, to the patient reader, I say farewell.