ass
which we stole from the Home of the Scholars; but we had been taught,
when still a child, that the loadstone points to the north and this is
a law which nothing can change; yet our new power defies all laws. We
found that it causes lightning, and never have men known what causes
lightning. In thunderstorms, we raised a tall rod of iron by the side
of our hole, and we watched it from below. We have seen the lightning
strike it again and again. And now we know that metal draws the power of
the sky, and that metal can be made to give it forth.

We have built strange things with this discovery of ours. We used for
it the copper wires which we found here under the ground. We have walked
the length of our tunnel, with a candle lighting the way. We could go
no farther than half a mile, for earth and rock had fallen at both ends.
But we gathered all the things we found and we brought them to our work
place. We found strange boxes with bars of metal inside, with many
cords and strands and coils of metal. We found wires that led to strange
little globes of glass on the walls; they contained threads of metal
thinner than a spider's web.

These things help us in our work. We do not understand them, but we
think that the men of the Unmentionable Times had known our power of the
sky, and these things had some relation to it. We do not know, but we
shall learn. We cannot stop now, even though it frightens us that we are
alone in our knowledge.

No single one can possess greater wisdom than the many Scholars who are
elected by all men for their wisdom. Yet we can. We do. We have fought
against saying it, but now it is said. We do not care. We forget all
men, all laws and all things save our metals and our wires. So much is
still to be learned! So long a road lies before us, and what care we if
we must travel it alone!

Chapter Four

Many days passed before we could speak to the Golden One again. But
then came the day when the sky turned white, as if the sun had burst and
spread its flame in the air, and the fields lay still without breath,
and the dust of the road was white in the glow. So the women of the
field were weary, and they tarried over their work, and they were far
from the road when we came. But the Golden One stood alone at the hedge,
waiting. We stopped and we saw that their eyes, so hard and scornful to
the world, were looking at us as if they would obey any word we might
speak.

And we said:

"We have g