," called out the emerald young woman. "He's got that
horrid disease."

The manager and a couple of waiters came up. "It's coming," shouted
Sarakoff; "I saw it sweeping over the world. See, the world is white,
like snow. They have robbed it of colour." The manager grasped his arm
firmly.

"Come with me," he said. "You are ill. I will put you in a taxi."

"You don't understand," said Sarakoff. "You are in it still. Don't you
see I'm a traveller?"

"He is mad," whispered a waiter in my ear.

"A traveller," shouted the Russian. "But I've come back. Greeting,
brothers. It was a rough journey, but now I hear and see you."

"If you do not leave the establishment at once I will get a policeman,"
said the manager with a hiss.

Sarakoff threw out his hands.

"Make ready!" he cried. "The great uprooting!" He began to laugh
unsteadily. "The end of disease and the end of desire--there's no
difference. You never knew that, brothers. I've come back to tell
you--thousands and thousands of miles--into the great dimension of hell
and heaven. It was a mistake and I'm going back. Look! She's
fading--further and further----" He pointed a shaking hand across the
room and suddenly collapsed, half supported by the manager.

"Dead drunk," remarked a neighbour.

I turned.

"No. Live drunk," I said. "The champagne has brought him back to the
world of desire."

The speaker, a clean-shaven young man, stared insolently.

"You have no business to come into a public place with that disease," he
said with a sneer.

"You are right. I have no business here. My business is to warn the
world that the end of desire is at hand." I signalled to a waiter and
together we managed to get Sarakoff into a taxi-cab.

As we drove home, all that lay behind Sarakoff's broken confused words
revealed itself with increasing distinctness to me.

Sarakoff spoke again.

"Harden," he muttered thickly, "there was a flaw--in the dream----"

"Yes," I said. "I was sure there would be a flaw. I hadn't noticed it
before----"

"We're cut off," he whispered. "Cut off."

CHAPTER XXI

JASON

Next morning the headlines of the newspapers blazed out the news of the
meeting at the Queen's Hall, and the world read the words of Sarakoff.

Strange to say, most of the papers seemed inclined to view the situation
seriously.

"If," said one in a leading article, "it really means that immortality
is coming to humanity--and there is, at least, much evidenc