such
things are not without danger. He who travels far out of the body may
chance to return there no more."

"But were they journeyings, or dreams?" I asked.

She evaded a direct answer.

"I cannot say. My father has great powers. I do not know them all. It is
possible that they were neither journeyings nor dreams. Mayhap he used
you as the sorcerers in the old days used the magic glass, and after
he had put his spell upon you, read in your mind that which passes
elsewhere."

I understood her to refer to what we call clairvoyance, when the person
entranced reveals secret or distant things to the entrancer. This is
a more or less established phenomenon and much less marvelous than the
actual transportation of the spiritual self through space. Only I never
knew of an instance in which the seer, on awaking, remembered the things
that he had seen, as in my case. There, however, the matter rested, or
rests, for I could extract nothing more from Yva, who appeared to me to
have her orders on the point.

Nor did Oro ever talk of what I had seemed to see in his company,
although he continued from time to time to visit me at night. But now
our conversation was of other matters. As Bastin had discovered, by some
extraordinary gift he had soon learned how to read the English language,
although he never spoke a single word in that tongue. Among our
reference books that we brought from the yacht, was a thin paper edition
of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which he borrowed when he discovered
that it contained compressed information about the various countries of
the world, also concerning almost every other matter. My belief is
that within a month or so that marvelous old man not only read this
stupendous work from end to end, but that he remembered everything of
interest which it contained. At least, he would appear and show the
fullest acquaintance with certain subjects or places, seeking further
light from me concerning them, which very often I was quite unable to
give him.

An accident, as it chanced, whereof I need not set out the details,
caused me to discover that his remarkable knowledge was limited. Thus,
at one period, he knew little about any modern topic which began with a
letter later in the alphabet than, let us say, C. A few days afterwards
he was acquainted with those up to F, or G; and so on till he reached Z,
when he appeared to me to know everything, and returned the book. Now,
indeed, he was a monument of lea