sufficient for two persons for the space of four years, together with
seeds, weapons, and all such other matters as were deemed fit.

"Out of all this vast country it has been decreed by the High Gods that
two shall not perish. Two shall be chosen, a man and a woman, who are
fit and proper persons to carry away with them the ancient learning to
dispose of it as they see best, and afterwards to rear up a race who
shall in time build another kingdom and do honour to our Lord the
Sun and the other Gods in another place. The woman is within the Ark
already, and seated in the place appointed for her, and though she is a
daughter of mine, the burden of her choosing is with you. For the man,
the choice has fallen upon yourself."

I was half numb with the shock of what was befalling. "I do not know
that I care to be a survivor."

"You are not asked for your wishes," said the old man. "You are given an
order from the High Gods, who know you to be Their faithful servant."

Habit rode strong upon me. I made salutation in the required form, and
said that I heard and would obey.

"Then it remains to raise you to the sublime degree of the Three, and if
your learning is so small that you will not understand the keys to many
of the Powers, and the highest of the Mysteries, when they are handed to
you, that fault cannot be remedied now."

Certainly the time remaining was short enough. The fight still raged
down at the gate in the pass, though it was a wonder how the handful of
Priests had held their ground so long. But the ocean rolled in upon the
land in an ever-increasing flood, and the mountains smoked and belched
forth more volleys of rock as the weight increased on their lower parts,
and presently those that besieged the Mountain could not fail to see
the fate that threatened them. Then there would be no withholding their
rush. In their mad fury and panic they would sweep all obstruction
resistlessly before them, and those who stood in their path might look
to themselves.

But there was no hurrying Zaemon and his fellow sage. They were without
temple for the ceremony, without sacrifice or incense to decorate it.
They had but the sky for a roof to make their echoes, and the Gods
themselves for witnesses. But they went through the work of raising
me to their own degree, with all the grand and majestic form which has
gathered dignity from the ages, and by no one sentence did they curtail
it. A burning mountain burst with a bel