e of the bearded men in loin-cloths entered, and he and the
girl talked together, quite evidently about their patient. The man's
voice had the same strange metallic quality to it as that of the girl,
but was deeper, so that it boomed with the rich notes of a bell.

At the sight of the man, young Abbot's memory swept back, and he
remembered the adventure of his diving-sphere, and its capture, one
mile down, by the strange shark-fish with human hands and arms. But
how he had reached the surface of the earth again, he couldn't figure
out. Nor did he particularly care.

The strange man withdrew, and the girl sat down beside the bed and
smiled at Abbot. He smiled back at her.

Presently another girl entered and called, "Milli!"

The girl beside the bed started, and looking up asked some question,
to which the other replied.

The newcomer brought in some strange warm food in a covered dish and
then withdrew. The first girl proceeded to feed her patient.

After the meal, which tasted unlike anything which the young man had
ever eaten before, the beautiful nurse again essayed conversation with
him. She seemed perplexed and a bit frightened that he could not
understand her words. Somehow, the young man sensed that this girl had
never heard any other language than her own, and that she did not even
know that other languages existed.

* * * * *

Strengthened by his food, he determined to set about learning her
language as soon as possible. So he pointed at her and asked, "Milli?"

She nodded, and spoke some word which he took for "yes."

Then he pointed to himself and said, "George."

She understood, but the word was a difficult one for her to duplicate
in the metallic tongue of her people. She made several attempts, until
he laughingly spoke her word for "yes."

Then he pointed to other objects about the room. She gave him the
names of these, but he could easily see that she felt that, if he did
not know the names for all these common things, there must be
something the matter with him.

He wondered how he could make her understand that there were other
languages in the world than her own; and then he remembered the sharks
with their hands and what he had taken to be their sign language.
Perhaps Milli at least knew of the existence of the sign language.
This would afford a parallel; for if she realized that there were two
languages in the world, might there not be three?

So Abbot m