than a man's hand.

"The currents of air in the upper regions first accelerated and then
retarded the progress of the vaporous island. It seemed to stop; then
it hung for an instant directly on the lower limb of the great ball of
light. A sensation of intolerable cold pervaded my entire body.
Involuntarily I shut my eyes.

"I forced myself to look. The cloud had disappeared. Its imponderable
essence had been absorbed into the clear ether as a drop of water
sizzles into nothingness on a red-hot stove. The sunlight, shining
through the third bull's-eye from the bottom, was instantly transformed
into a single concentrated beam. The heat-ray impinged upon the boss of
fusible metal. I saw the alloy begin to melt. I turned and ran into the
other room.

"Twenty minutes of silence and then I re-entered. I was horribly
afraid, but he sat there quiet and still. I unwound the cord and threw
it out of the window. It was clouding over in earnest now. These March
days are so changeable.

"It is close to two o'clock, and I must be getting ready to depart. I
have set the clock-case out in the passageway, and the lids and screws
are in readiness. The expressman will doubtless be punctual. He will
carry the case down-stairs and load it on his wagon. I shall be
delivered in due course at my destination. What is it to be? Well, I
shall have plenty of time in which to reflect upon the possibilities of
the journey that lies before me.

"One moment in which to seal up these notes, together with the bundle
of securities. Fortunately, I have a special-delivery stamp in my
pocket, and I can post the packet in the mail-chute. Best wishes, my
dear Thorp, for the future happiness of yourself and your charming
wife. You have now given a hostage to fortune and will no longer care
to sail on uncertain seas. But the Wanderlust in my blood seems to be
ineradicable. Again the gates of chance are opening before me and I am
eager to enter in. Good-bye."

Here the record ends abruptly. And there has been no sequel. Not the
slightest sound nor sign has been vouchsafed from the void. He who was
Esper Indiman is gone, like a stone dropped into the gulf, and I have
lost something that is not easily replaced--a friend. But since it is
his wish, there is nothing more to be said. He may return--a message
may come--

The gates of chance! Well, it is exactly a year and a day since that
eventful afternoon when Esper Indiman's visiting-card was thrust into
m