Part 31 (1/2)
”Ungrateful little devil!” said Bickley ”Here we've fed and petted him from puppyhood, or at least you have, and yet he skips off with the first stranger I never saw him behave like that to any woman, except your poor wife”
”I know,” I answered ”I cannot understand it Hullo! here co much the worse for wear, also ue
”Well, how have you been getting on?” said Bickley
”I should like so there is to eat”
We supplied him with these necessaries, and after a while he said slowly and sole of a childish story which Bickley told or invented one night at your house at houment with my wife, which he said put him in mind of it, I am sure I don't knohy It was about a ether under a sofa for a long while, where they were so quiet that everybody forgot them Then the parrot came out with only one feather left in its tail and none at all on its body, saying, 'I've had no end of a time!'
after which it dropped down and died Do you know, I feel just like that parrot, only I don't ood as he gave me!”
”What happened?” I asked, intensely interested
”Oh! the Glittering Lady tooklike a spider in a web, and left ot to work at once He was much interested in the Old Testament stories and said there were points of truth about theh they had evidently come down to the endary forht his re so Leaving the story of the Deluge and all that, I spoke of otherhim of eternal life and Heaven and hell, of which the poor benighted man had never heard I pointed out especially that unless he repented, his life, by all accounts, had been so wicked, that he was certainly destined to the latter place”
”What did he say to that?” I asked
”Do you know, I think it frightened hihtened At any rate he reent matter for him, as he could not expect to live ht prolong the period by another spell of sleep Then he asked ht him so wicked I replied because he himself said that he had drowned millions of people, which showed an evil heart and intention even if it were not a fact He thought a long while and asked what could be done in the circumstances I replied that repentance and reparation were the only courses open to him”
”Reparation!” I exclaih I think I made a mistake there, as you will see As nearly as I can re to repent, as froathered that the races which had arisen as a consequence of his action, orse than those which he had destroyed As regards reparation, what he had done once he could do again He would think the matter over seriously, and see if it were possible and advisable to raise those parts of the world which had been sunk, and sink those which had been raised If so, he thought that would make very handsoht with any superior Power, if such a thing existed What are you laughing at, Bickley? I don't think it a laughing matter, since such ree in Oro's heart, which is what I was trying to effect”
Bickley, as convulsed with merriment, wiped his eyes and said:
”You dear old donkey, don't you see what you have done, or rather would have done if there were a word of truth in all this ridiculous story about a deluge? You would be in the way ofyour precious pupil, who certainly is the most masterly old liar in the world, repeat his offence and send Europe to the bottom of the sea”
”That did occur to me, but it doesn'twould never be allowed Of course there was a real deluge once, but Oro had no ree, Arbuthnot?”
”I think so,” I answered cautiously, ”but really in this place I a to lose count of what is or is not possible Also, of course, there es; indeed the history of the world shows that this was so; it is written in its geological strata What was the end of it?”
”The end was that he took the South Sea Bible and, after I had explained a little about our letters, seemed to be able to read it at once I suppose he was acquainted with the art of printing in his youth At any rate he said that he would study it, I don't kno, unless he can read, and that in two days' tiht about the o I said that I did not know the way and was afraid of losing myself Thereupon he waved his hand, and I really can't say what happened”
”Did you levitate up here,” asked Bickley, ”like the late lamented Mr
Home at the spiritualistic seances?”
”No, I did not exactly levitate, but soet a hold ofin aI kneas that I was standing at the door of that sepulchre, though I have no recollection of going up in the lift, or whatever it is I believe those beastly caves are full of ghosts, or devils, and the worst of it is that they have keptthat it would be useless there”
”The Lady Yva's Fourth Diested, ”only it wouldn't work on solar-topes”
”I don't knohat you are talking about,” said Bastin, ”but if aroodness I haven't got to go down there toh of me for the present, so I vote we all pay a visit to the shi+p It will be a very pleasant change
I couldn't stand two days running with that old fiend, and his ghosts or devils in the cave”