Part 29 (1/2)
Also, you know it is solasses in Orofena”
”The man was you,” went on Bickley with conviction ”If I were superstitious I should think it a queer sort of omen But as I am not, I know that I must be mad”
”Why? After all, an ancient ht reserees in resemblance,” said Bickley with one of his contemptuous snorts ”It won't do, Humphrey, my boy,” he added ”I can only think of one possible explanation--outside of the obvious one ofLady produced what Bastin called that cineraph show in some way or other, did she not? She said that in order to do this she loosed so of the sort”
”Then whence did the pictures come and why?”
”From her own brain, in order to impress us with a cock-and-bull, fairy-book story If this were so she would quite naturally fill the role of the lover of the piece with the last man who had happened to ireat deal, Bickley, including supernatural cunning and unexampled hypnotic influence I don't know, first, why she should be so anxious to add another impression to the many we have received in this place; and, secondly, if she was, how she e but totally different s My explanation is that you were deceived as to the likeness, which, nise; nor, apparently, did Bastin”
”Bastin never recognises anything But if you are in doubt, ask Yva herself She ought to kno I'm off to try to analyse that confounded Life-water, which I suspect is of the ordinary spring variety, lightened up with natural carbonic acid gas and possibly not uninfluenced by radium The trouble is that here I can only apply some very elementary tests”
So he went also, in an opposite direction to Bastin, and I was left alone with To continually to wander off into the cave, whence I must recall him I suppose that my experiences of the day, reviewed beneath the sweet influences of the wonderful tropical night, affected me At any rate, that mystical side ofof this record, sprang into active and, in a sense, unholy life The normal vanished, the abnormal took possession, and that is unholy to most of us creatures of habit and tradition, at any rate, if we are British I lost e places; of course, always supposing that we have a spirit, which Bickley would deny
I gave up reason; I surrendered myself to unreason; it is a not unpleasant process, occasionally Supposing now that all we see and accept is but the ment of the truth, or perhaps only a refraction thereof? Supposing that we do live again and again, and that our aniht be, does inhabit various bodies, which, naturally enough, it would shape to its own taste and likeness? Would that taste and likeness vary so very much over, let us say, a million years or so, which, after all, is but an hour, or a minute, in the aeons of Eternity?
On this hypothesis, which is so wild that one begins to suspect that it may be true, was it impossible that I and that murdered man of the far past were in fact identical? If the woulf in some unknown fashi+on, why should not her lover be the same? What did I say--her lover? Was I her lover? No, I was the lover of one who had died--ain, why should not--why should not that Sleeper--have lived again during her long sleep? Through all those years the spirit must have had some home, and, if so, in what shapes did it live? There were points, similarities, which rushed in upon ht We were allOro had declared that ere at ith Gere would presuiven to man I could not believe that he possessed these; as Bickley said, it would be past experience Yet it was e that he as uninforers, should have hit upon a country hich we ain I was bewildered and overcome My brain rocked I would seek sleep, and in it escape, or at any rate rest fro we despatched Bastin to keep his rendezvous in the sepulchre at the proper tiotten it, for on this occasion he was for once an unwilling missioner He tried to persuade one of us to come with him--even Bickley would have been welcome; but we both declared that we could not drea in such a professional matter; also that our presence was forbidden, and would certainly distract the attention of his pupil
”What you loomy Bastin, ”is that you intend to enjoy yourselves up here in the fe Lady whilst I sit thousands of feet underground attehten the darkness of a violent old sinner whoue with Satan”
”With whom you should be proud to break a lance,” said Bickley
”So I aht For instance, when he uses your uments Bickley, but this is another ain you will know that I died in a good cause, and, I hope, try to recover ht inforet an opportunity, which is more than doubtful”
”Hurry up, Bastin, hurry up!” said the unfeeling Bickley, ”or you will be late for your appointment and put your would-be neophyte into a bad tee Bible printed in the language of the South Sea Islands
A little while later Yva appeared, arrayed in her wondrous robes which, being a man, it is quite i at these, and, after greeting us both, also To, asked us how the ladies of our country attired the success
”You are as stupid about such matters as were theher head and laughing ”I thought that you had with you pictures of ladies you have knohich would show raph of -dress, also a miniature of her head and bust painted on ivory, a beautiful piece of work done by a master hand, which I alore
These, after a moment's hesitation, I produced and showed to her, Bickley having gone away for a little while to see about so connected with his attereat eagerness, and as she did so I noted that her face grew tender and troubled
”This was your wife,” she said as one who states what she knows to be a fact I nodded, and she went on:
”She eet and beautiful as a flower, but not so tall as I aiven that she would have been a lovely wolad you think that wo at her shadow ”The eyes were such as mine, were they not--in colour, I er”
”That is a beautiful way of wearing the hair Would you be angry if I tried it? I weary of this old fashi+on”