ensation. A strange detachment possessed him. Dark forests, lakes, and
a mighty river appeared to the south--the Moisie--and they followed it
as a fishhawk might have done, until the wilderness broke away before
them and they saw the broad reach of the St. Lawrence streaked with the
smoke of ocean liners.

And then he lost control of himself for the first time and sobbed like a
woman--not from fear, nor weariness, nor excitement, but for joy--the
joy of the true scientist who has sought the truth and found it, has
achieved that for mankind which but for him it would have lacked,
perchance, forever. And he looked up at Burke and smiled.

The latter nodded.

"Yes," he remarked prosaically, "this is sure a little bit of all right!
All to the good!"

EPILOGUE

Meanwhile, during the weeks that Hooker had been engaged in finding the
valley of the Ring, unbelievable things had happened in world politics.
In spite of the fact that Pax, having decreed the shifting of the Pole
and the transformation of Central Europe into the Arctic zone, had
refused further communication with mankind, all the nations--and none
more zealously than the German Republic--had proceeded immediately to
withdraw their armies within their own borders, and under the personal
supervision of a General Commission to destroy all their armaments and
munitions of war. The lyddite bombs, manufactured in vast quantities by
the Krupps for the Relay Gun and all other high explosives, were used to
demolish the fortresses upon every frontier of Europe. The contents of
every arsenal was loaded upon barges and sunk in mid-Atlantic. And every
form of military organization, rank, service, and even uniform, was
abolished throughout the world.

A coalition of nations was formed under a single general government,
known as the United States of Europe, which in cooeperation with the
United States of North and South America, of Asia, and of Africa,
arranged for an annual world congress at The Hague, and which enforced
its decrees by means of an International Police. In effect all the
inhabitants of the globe came under a single control, as far as language
and geographical boundaries would permit. Each state enforced local
laws, but all were obedient to the higher law--the Law of
Humanity--which was uniform through the earth. If an individual offended
against the law of one nation, he was held to have offended against all,
and was dealt with as such. The internat