eam about, what scientists struggle to fathom, what
the keenest philosophers and economists among you can not formulate.
We are," said Prince Tabnit serenely, "what the world will be a
thousand years from now."

"Well, I'm sure," Mrs. Hastings broke in plaintively, "that I hope
your servant, for instance, is not a sample of what the world is
coming to!"

The prince smiled indulgently, as if a child had laid a little,
detaining hand upon his sleeve.

"Be that as it may," he said evenly, "the throne of Yaque was still
empty. Many stood near to the crown, but there seemed no reason for
choosing one more than another. One party wished to name the head of
the House of the Litany, in Med, the King's city, who was the chief
administrator of justice. Another, more democratic than these,
wished to elevate to the throne a man from whose family we had won
knowledge of both perpetual motion and the Fourth Dimension--"

St. George smiled angelically, as one who resignedly sees the last
fragments of a shining hope float away. This quite settled it. The
olive prince was crazy. Did not St. George remember the old man in
the frayed neckerchief and bagging pockets who had brought to the
office of the _Sentinel_ chart after chart about perpetual motion,
until St. George and Amory had one day told him gravely that they
had a machine inside the office then that could make more things go
for ever than he had ever dreamed of, though they had _not_ said
that the machine was named Chillingworth.

"You have knowledge of both these things?" asked St. George
indulgently.

"Yaque understood both those laws," said the prince quietly, "when
William the Conqueror came to England."

He hesitated for a moment and then, regardless of another soft
explosion from Mr. Frothingham's lips, he added:

"Do you not see? Will you not understand? It is our knowledge of the
Fourth Dimension which has enabled us to keep our island a secret."

St. George suddenly thrilled from head to foot. What if he were
speaking the truth? What if this man were speaking the truth?

"Moreover," resumed the prince, "there were those among us who had
long believed that new strength would come to my people by the
introduction of an inhabitant of one of the continents. His coming
would, however, necessitate his sovereignty among us, in fulfilment
of an ancient Phoenician law, providing that the state, and every
satrapy therein, shall receive no service, either of blood or