Part 18 (2/2)
”Yes, my Leo, the iron ore is rich”
”Iron ore?” and he looked at her
”Surely,” she answered, ”for froreat old, which soon shall serve us in our need”
Now Leo stared and I groaned, for I did not believe that it was gold, and still less that she could ht, with one of those sudden changes of ry
”By Nature's self!” she cried; ”wert thou not my friend, Holly, the fool whoht hand of thine in those secret rays till the very bones within it were turned to gold Nay, why should I be vexed with thee, who art both blind and deaf? Yet thou shalt be persuaded,” and leaving us, she passed down the passages, called so in the workshop, then returned to us
Presently they followed her, carrying on a kind of stretcher between theot of iron ore that seemed to be as much as they could lift
”Now,” she said, ”hoilt thou that I mark this n of Life? Good,” and at her bidding the priests took cold-chisels and hahly cut upon its surface the symbol of the looped cross-the crux ansata
”It is not enough,” she said when they had finished ”Holly, lend me that knife of thine, to-morroill return it to thee, and ofknife, an Indian-ave it her
”Thou knowest the marks on it,” and she pointed to various dents and to the h the hilt was Indian work the steel was of Sheffield manufacture
I nodded Then she bade the priests put on the ray-proof aro without the chae with our faces against the floor
This we did, and reain We rose and returned into the chaar the salve upon their eyes; to find also that the luone Next she coold-colouredit with theh those priests were both of theht
”How came it,” said Leo, ”that thou, a woman, couldst carry what these men find so heavy?”
”It is one of the properties of that force which thou callest fire,” she answered sweetly, ”to make what has been exposed to it, if for a little while only, as light as thistle-down Else, how could I, who aold?”
”Quite so! I understand now,” answered Leo
Well, that was the end of it The lump of metal was hid away in a kind of rock pit, with an iron cover, and we returned to Ayesha's apartments
”So all wealth is thine, as well as all power,” said Leo, presently, for re Ayesha's awful threat I scarcely dared to open my mouth
”It seeo I discovered that great secret, though until ye came I had put it to no use Holly here, after his coic, but I tell thee again that there is no e which I have chanced to win”
”Of course,” said Leo, ”looked at in the right way, that is in thy way, the thing is si,” but as the phrase would have involved explanations, did not ”Yet, Ayesha,” he went on, ”hast thou thought that this discovery of thine reck the world?”
”Leo,” she answered, ”is there then nothing that I can do which will not wreck this world, for which thou hast such tender care, who shouldst keep all thy care-forin ti lest that also er her, made my countenance as blank as possible
”If so,” she continued, ”well, let the world be wrecked But what ive ht-I who have lived these many years alone, without converse with nobler minds, or even those to which mine own is equal”
”It pleases thee to mock me,” said Leo, in a vexed voice, ”and that is not too brave”
Now Ayesha turned on him fiercely, and I looked towards the door But he did not shrink, only folded his arht in the face She contereat ordained reason which thou dost not know, I think, Leo, that why I love thee so madly is that thou alone art not afraid of me Not like Holly there, who, ever since I threatened to turn his bones to gold-which, indeed, I was hed-”trelance
”Oh! ood thou art to me, how patient with h she were about to e herself, with a little start that soesture, she pointed to the couch in token that he should seat himself When he had done so she drew a footstool to his feet and sank upon it, looking up into his face with attentive eyes, like a child who listens for a story
”Thy reasons, Leo, give ood, and, oh! be sure I'll weigh them well”
”Here they are in brief,” he answered ”The world, as thou knewest in thy-” and he stopped
”Thy earlier wanderings there,” she suggested
”Yes-thy earlier wanderings there, has set up gold as the standard of its wealth On it all civilizations are founded Make it as common as it seems thou canst, and these e forefathers, men must once more take to barter to supply their needs as they do in Kaloon to-day”
”Why not?” she asked ”It would be ood and knew not luxury and greed”
”And smashed in each other's heads with stone axes,” added Leo
”Who now pierce each other's hearts with steel, or those leaden missiles of which thou hast told olden God is dohen the usurer and the fat merchant tremble and turn white as chalk because their hoards are but useless dross; when I have h across the ruin of its richest e again?
”What of it if I do discoe and of virtue; those who, as that Hebrew prophet wrote, lay field to field and house to house, until the wretched whom they have robbed find no place left whereon to dwell? What if I proved your sagest chapold that they desire until they loathe its very sight and touch? What if I uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed against the ravening lusts of Mammon? Why, will not this world of yours be happier then?”
”I do not know,” answered Leo ”All that I know is that it would be a different world, one shaped upon a new plan, governed by untried laws and seeking other ends In so strange a place who can say what ht not chance?”
”That we shall learn in its season, Leo Or, rather, if it be against thy wish, ill not turn this hidden page Since thou dost desire it, that old evil, the love of lucre, shall still hold its , I'll not crown another in his place, as I waseternally but now; that Pohereof I ae the character of metals, and in truth, if I so desire, obedient to my word, destroy a city or rend this Mountain from its roots
”But see, Holly is wearied withand needs his rest Oh, Holly! thou wast born a critic of things done, not a doer of thees of Alexandria echoed with their wranglings and already the winds blew thick with the dust of their forgotten bones Holly, I tell thee that at times those who create and act are is Yet fear not, old friend, nor take old without alloy, so what need have I to gild thy bones?”
I thanked Ayesha for her co which was real, her kindness or her wrath, or if both were but assumed Also I wondered in ay she had fallen foul of the critics of Alexandria Perhaps once she had published a poehly handled by them! It is quite possible, only if Ayesha had ever written poetry I think that it would have endured, like Sappho's
In the ht be false, Ayesha was a true chereatest, I suppose, who ever lived For as I dressed gered into the roo between them a heavy burden, that was covered with a cloth, and, directed by Oros, placed it upon the floor
”What is that?” I asked of Oros
”A peace-offering sent by the Hesea,” he said, ”hom, as I am told, you dared to quarrel yesterday”
Then he withdrew the cloth, and there beneath it shone that great lump of metal which, in the presence of myself and Leo, had been marked with the Symbol of Life, that still appeared upon its surface Only noas gold, not iron, gold so good and soft that I could write my name upon it with a nail My knife lay with it also, and of that too the handle, though not the blade, had been changed froold
Ayesha asked to see this afterwards and was but ill-pleased with the result of her experiold ran for an inch or more down the substance of the steel, which she feared that they ht weaken or distemper, whereas it had been her purpose that the hilt only should be altered[]
[] I proved in after days how real were Ayesha's alchee which enabled her to solve the secret that chemists have hunted for in vain, and, like Nature's self, to transmute the commonest into the most precious of the metals At the first town that I reached on the frontiers of India, I took this knife to a jeweller, a native, as as clever as he proved dishonest, and asked him to test the handle He did so with acids and by other old, twenty-four carats, I think he said Also he pointed out that this gold becaed into the steel of the blade in a hich was quite inexplicable to him, and asked me to clear up the matter Of course I could not, but at his request I left the knife in his shop to give hi it further
The next day I was taken ill with one of the heart-attacks to which I have been liable of late, and when I becaain a while afterwards, I found that this jeweller had gone, none knehither So had my knife-L
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