第 29 页

the rings shone in their glory.

"Well," said Ayrault, finally, "since we have nothing but

motions to lay on the table, I move we adjourn."

"The only motion I shall make," said Cortlandt, who was already

undressed, "will be that of getting into bed," saying which, he

rolled himself in his blanket and soon was fast asleep.

Having decided that, on account of the proximity of the dragons,

a man must in any event be on the watch, they did not set the

protection-wires. From the shortness of the nights, they divided

them into only two watches of from two hours to two and a half

each, so that, even when constant watch duty was necessary, each

man had one full night's sleep in three. On this occasion

Ayrault and Cortlandt were the watchers, Cortlandt having the

morning and Ayrault the evening watch. Many curious quadruped

birds, about the size of large bears, and similar in shape,

having bear-shaped heads, and several creatures that looked like

the dragons, flew about them in the moonlight; but neither

watcher fired a shot, as the creatures showed no desire to make

an attack. All these species seemed to belong to the owl or bat

tribe, for they roamed abroad at night.

CHAPTER V.

AYRAULT'S VISION.

When Ayrault's watch was ended, he roused Cortlandt, who took his

place, and feeling a desire for solitude and for a last long look

at the earth, he crossed the top of the ridge on the slope of

which they had camped, and lay down on the farther side. The

South wind in the upper air rushed along in the mighty whirl,

occasionally carrying filmy clouds across the faces of the moons;

but about Ayrault all was still, and he felt a quiet and serene

repose. He had every intention of remaining awake, and was

pondering on the steadfastness of the human heart and the

constancy of love, when his meditations began to wander, and,

with his last thoughts on Sylvia, he fell asleep. Not a branch

moved, nor did a leaf fall, yet before Ayrault's, sleeping eyes a

strange scene was enacted. A figure in white came near and stood

before him, and he recognized in it one Violet Slade, a very

attractive girl to whom he had been attentive in his college

days. She was at that time just eighteen, and people believed

that she loved him, but for some reason, he knew not why, he had

not proposed.

"I thought you had died," he said, as she gazed at him, "but you

are now looking better than ever."

"From the world's point of view I AM dead," she replied. "I died

and was buried. It is therefore permissible that I should show

you the truth. You never believed I loved you. I have wished

earnestly to see you, and to have you know that I did."

"I did you an injustice," Ayrault answered, perceiving all that

was in her heart. "Could mortals but see as spirits do, there

would be no misunderstandings."

"I am so glad to see you," she continued, "and to know you are

well. Had you not come here, we could probably not have met

until after your death; for I shall not be sufficiently advanced

to return to earth for a long time, though my greatest solace

while there was my religion, which is all that brought me here.

We, however, know that as our capacity for true happiness

increases we shall be happier, and that after the resurrection

there will be no more tears. Farewell," she whispered, while her

eyes were filled with love.

Ayrault's sleep was then undisturbed for some time, when suddenly

an angel, wreathed in light, appeared before him and spoke these

words: "He that walked with Adam and talked with Moses has sent

me to guard you while you sleep. No plague or fever, wild beast

or earthquake, can molest you, for you are equally protected from

the most powerful monster and the most insidious disease-germ.

'Blessed is the man whose offences are covered and whose sins are

forgiven.' Sleep on, therefore, and be refreshed, for the body

must have rest."

"A man may rest indeed," replied Ayrault, "when he has a guardian

angel. I had the most unbounded faith in your existence before I

saw you, and believe and know that you or others have often

shielded me from danger and saved my life. Why am I worthy of so

much care?"

"'Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High shall abide

under the shadow of the Almighty,'" answered the angel, and

thereupon he became invisible, a diffused light taking his place.

Shortly afterwards this paled and completely vanished.

"Not only am I in paradise," thought Ayrault; "I believe I am

also in the seventh heaven. Would I might hear such words

again!"

A group of lilies then appeared before the sleeper's eyes. In

the midst was one lily far larger than the rest, and of a

dazzling white. This spoke in a gentle voice, but with the tones

of a trombone:

"Thy thoughts and acts are a pleasure to me. Thou hast raised no

idols within thy heart, and thy faith is as incense before me.

Thy name is now in the Book of Life. Continue as thou hast

begun, and thou shalt live and reign forever."

Hereupon the earth shook, and Ayrault was awakened. Great

boulders were rolling and crashing down the slope about him,

while the dawn was already in the east.

"My mortal eyes and senses are keener here while I sleep than

when I wake," he thought, as he looked about him, "for spirits,

unable to affect me while waking, have made themselves felt in my

more sensitive state while I was asleep. Nevertheless, this is

none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

"The boulders were still in motion when I opened my eyes," he

mused; "can it be that there is hereabouts such a flower as in my

dreams I seemed to see?" and looking beyond where his head had

lain, he beheld the identical lily surrounded by the group that

his closed eyes had already seen. Thereupon he uncovered his

head and departed quickly. Crossing the divide, he descended to

camp, where he found Cortlandt in deep thought.

"I cannot get over the dreams," said the doctor, "I had in the

first part of the night. Notwithstanding yesterday's excitement

and fatigue, my sleep was most disturbed, and I was visited by

visions of my wife, who died long ago. She warned me against

skepticism, and seemed much distressed at my present spiritual

state."

"I," said Bearwarden, who had been out early, and had succeeded

in bringing in half a dozen birds, "was so disturbed I could not

sleep. It seemed to me as though half the men I have ever known

came and warned me against agnosticism and my materialistic

tendencies. They kept repeating, 'You are losing the reality for

the shadow.'"

"I am convinced," said Ayrault, "that they were not altogether

dreams, or, if dreams indeed, that they were superinduced by a

higher will. We know that angels have often appeared to men in

the past. May it not be that, as our appreciativeness increases,

these communications will recur?" Thereupon he related his own

experiences.

"The thing that surprised me," said Cortlandt, as they finished

breakfast, "was the extraordinary realism of the scene. We must

see if our visions return on anything but an empty stomach."

CHAPTER VI.

A GREAT VOID AND A GREAT LONGING.

Resuming their march, the travellers proceeded along the

circumference of a circle having a radius of about three miles,

with the Callisto in the centre. In crossing soft places they

observed foot-prints forming in the earth all around them. The

impressions were of all sizes, and ceased when they reached

rising or hard ground, only to reappear in the swamps, regulating

their speed by that of the travellers. The three men were greatly

surprised at this.

"You may observe," said Cortlandt, "that the surface of the

impression is depressed as you watch it, as though by a weight,

and you can see, and even hear, the water being squeezed out,

though whatever is doing it is entirely invisible. They must be

made by spirits sufficiently advanced to have weight, but not

advanced enough to make themselves visible."

Moved by a species of vandalism, Bearwarden raised his

twelve-bore, and fired an ordinary cartridge that he had not

prepared for the dragons, at the space directly over the nearest

forming prints. There was a brilliant display of prismatic

colours, as in a rainbow, and though the impressions already made

remained, no new ones were formed.

"Now you have done it!" said Cortlandt. "I hoped to be able to

investigate this further."

"We shall doubtless see other and perhaps more wonderful things,"

replied Bearwarden. "I must say this gives me an uncanny

feeling."

When they had completed a little over half their circle, they

came upon another of the groves with which Saturn seemed to

abound, at the edge of which, in a side-hill, was a cave, the

entrance of which was composed of rocky masses that had

apparently fallen together, the floor being but little higher

than the surface outside. The arched roof of the vestibule was

rendered watertight by the soil that had formed upon it, which

again was overgrown by vines and bushes.

"This," said Bearwarden, "will be a good place to camp, for the

cave will protect us from dragons, unless they should take a

notion to breathe at us from the outside, and it will keep us dry

in case of rain. To-morrow we can start with this as a centre,

and make another circuit."

"We can explore Saturn on foot," said Cortlandt, "and far more

thoroughly than Jupiter, on account of its comparative freedom

from monsters. Not even the dragons can trouble us, unless we

meet them in large numbers."

Thereupon they set about getting fuel for their fire. Besides

collecting some of the dead wood that was lying all about, they

split up a number of resinous pine and fir trees with explosive

bullets from their revolvers, so that soon they not only had a

roaring fire, but filled the back part of the cave with logs to

dry, in case they should camp there again at some later day.

Neither Cortlandt nor Bearwarden felt much like sleeping, and so,

after finishing the birds the president had brought down that

morning, they persuaded Ayrault to sit up and smoke with them.

Wrapping themselves in their blankets--for there was a chill in

the air--they sat about the camp-fire they had built in the mouth

of the cave. Two moons that were at the full rose rapidly in the

clear, cold sky. On account of their distance from the sun, they

were less bright than the terrestrial moon, but they shone with a

marvellously pure pale light. The larger contained the exact

features of a man. There was the somewhat aquiline nose, a

clear-cut and expressive mouth, and large, handsome eyes, which

were shaded by well- marked eyebrows. The whole face was very

striking, but was a personification of the most intense grief.

The expression was indeed sadder than that of any face they had

ever seen. The other contained the profile of a surpassingly

beautiful young woman. The handsome eyes, shaded by lashes,

looked straight ahead. The nose was perfect, and the ear small,

while the hair was artistically arranged at the top and back of

the head. This moon also reflected a pure white ray. The former

appeared about once and a quarter, the latter but three quarters,

the size of the terrestrial moon, and the travellers immediately

recognized them by their sizes and relative positions as Tethys

and Dione, discovered by J. D. Cassini in March, 1684. The sad

face was turned slightly towards that of its companion, and it

looked as if some tale of the human heart, some romance, had been

engraved and preserved for all time on the features of these dead

bodies, as they silently swung in their orbits forever and anon

were side by side.

"In all the ages," said Cortlandt, "that these moons have

wandered with Saturn about the sun, and with the solar system in

its journey through space, they can never have gazed upon the

scene they now behold, for we may be convinced that no mortal man

has been here before."

"We may say," said Ayrault, "that they see in our bodies a type

of the source from which come all the spiritual beings that are

here."

"If, as the writers of mythology supposed," replied Cortlandt,

"inanimate objects were endowed with senses, these moons would

doubtless be unable to perceive the spiritual beings here; for

the satellites, being material, should, to be consistent, have

only those senses possessed by ourselves, so that to them this

planet would ordinarily appear deserted."

"I shall be glad," said Bearwarden, gloomily, "when those moons

wane and are succeeded by their fellows, for one would give me an

attack of the blues, while the other would subject me to the

inconvenience of falling in love."

As he spoke, the upper branches of the trees in the grove began

to sway as a cold gust from the north sighed among them. "Lose

no more opportunities," it seemed to cry, "for life is short and

uncertain. Soon you will all be colder than I, and your future,

still as easily moulded as clay, will be set as Marpesian marble,

more fixed than the hardest rock."

"Paradise," said Cortlandt, "contains sights and sounds that

might, I should think, arouse sad reminiscences without the aid

of the waters of Lethe, unless the joy of its souls in their new

resources and the sense of forgiveness outweigh all else."

With a parting look at the refined, silvery moon, and its

sorrow-laden companion, they retired to the sheltering cave,