Part 25 (1/2)

We entered through hty metal doors, one of which stood ajar, into a vestibule which frouard, or perhaps an assembly-room It was about forty feet deep by a hundred wide Thence she led us through a smaller door into the hall itself It was a vast place without columns, for there was no roof to support The walls of yptian teh of this I ao near to the the middle, up which alked, the area was filled with marble benches that would, I presume, have accommodated several thousand people But they were empty--empty, and oh! the loneliness of it all

Far away at the head of the hall was a dais enclosed, and, as it were, roofed in by a towering structure that ree It was e shell The base of the shell was the platfor lip of the shell On this platform was a throne of silvery metal It was supported on the arched coils of snakes, whereof the tails formed the back and the heads the areous robes, sat the Lord Oro, his white beard flowing over them, and a jewelled cap upon his head In front of hiraven sheets of e ball of crystal

There he sat, sole in very truth like a God, as we conceive such a being to appear

Ss, he seemed yet to dominate it, in a sense to fill the emptiness which was accentuated by his presence I know that the sight of hiht of day, not even when he arose froh I were really in the presence of a Being Supernatural Doubtless the surroundings heightened this ihty edifices in the bowels of the world? Whence caht, whereof we could see no origin? Whither had vanished those who had reared and inhabited them? How did it happen that of them all, this man, if he were a ht trust my senses and instincts, was certainly a woman, alone survived of their departedI looked at Bickley for encourageot none, for he only shook his head Even Bastin, now that the first effects of the Life-water had departed, see about the halls of Hades

Only the little dog Tommy remained quite cheerful He trotted down the hall, jumped on to the dais and sat hireet you,” Oro said in his slow, resonant voice ”Daughter, lead these strangers to me; I would speak with them”

Chapter XV Oro in His House

We climbed on to the dais by some marble steps, and sat ourselves down in four curious chairs of metal that were more or less copied from that which served Oro as a throne; at least the arraven heads of snakes These chairs were so cos, also we noticed that they were beautifully polished

”I wonder how they keep everything so clean,” said Bastin as weplace it h I don't see any But perhaps there is no dust here”

I shrugged my shoulders while we seated ourselves, the Lady Yva and I on Oro's right, Bickley and Bastin on his left, as he indicated by pointing with his finger

”What say you of this city?” Oro asked after a while of me

”We do not knohat to say,” I replied ”It a like to it”

”Perchance there will be in the future when the nations grow more skilled in the arts of war,” said Oro darkly

”Be pleased, Lord Oro,” I went on, ”if it is your will, to tell us why the people who built this place chose to live in the bowels of the earth instead of upon its surface”

”They did not choose; it was forced upon thee that they occupied in time of war, not because they hated the sun In time of peace and before the Barbarians dared to attack thenifies Above Youruins on the hout the island The rest of them are now beneath the sea But when trouble came and the foe rained fire on thenifies Beneath”

”And then?”

”And then they died The Water of Lifelife, but it cannot make women bear children That they will only do beneath the blue of heaven, not deep in the belly of the world where Nature never designed that they should dwell Hoould the voices of children sound in such halls as these? Tell me, you, Bickley, who are a physician”

”I cannot I cannot iine children in such a place, and if born here they would die,” said Bickley

Oro nodded

”They did die, and if they went above to Pani they were murdered So soon the habit of birth was lost and the Sons of Wisdom perished one by one Yes, they who ruled the world and by tens of thousands of years of toil had gathered into their bosoms all the secrets of the world, perished, till only a few, and ahter of mine, were left”

”And then?”

”Then, Hu I had threatened, and unchained the forces that work at the world's heart, and destroyed them ere my enemies and evil, so that they perished by millions, and with the the others, our subjects who had not the secret of this Sleep, to die, as doubtless they did in the course of Nature or by the hand of the foe

The rest you know”

”Can such a thing happen again?” asked Bickley in a voice that did not hide his disbelief