ade vital by the fact that as the meal progressed strange, sudden
exaltations in my mind and tinglings in my limbs proclaimed that the
invisible tide of death was slowly and gently rising around us. Once I
saw Lord John put his hand suddenly to his eyes, and once Summerlee
dropped back for an instant in his chair. Each breath we breathed was
charged with strange forces. And yet our minds were happy and at ease.
Presently Austin laid the cigarettes upon the table and was about to
withdraw.

"Austin!" said his master.

"Yes, sir?"

"I thank you for your faithful service." A smile stole over the
servant's gnarled face.

"I've done my duty, sir."

"I'm expecting the end of the world to-day, Austin."

"Yes, sir. What time, sir?"

"I can't say, Austin. Before evening."

"Very good, sir."

The taciturn Austin saluted and withdrew. Challenger lit a cigarette,
and, drawing his chair closer to his wife's, he took her hand in his.

"You know how matters stand, dear," said he. "I have explained it also
to our friends here. You're not afraid are you?"

"It won't be painful, George?"

"No more than laughing-gas at the dentist's. Every time you have had it
you have practically died."

"But that is a pleasant sensation."

"So may death be. The worn-out bodily machine can't record its
impression, but we know the mental pleasure which lies in a dream or a
trance. Nature may build a beautiful door and hang it with many a gauzy
and shimmering curtain to make an entrance to the new life for our
wondering souls. In all my probings of the actual, I have always found
wisdom and kindness at the core; and if ever the frightened mortal needs
tenderness, it is surely as he makes the passage perilous from life to
life. No, Summerlee, I will have none of your materialism, for I, at
least, am too great a thing to end in mere physical constituents, a
packet of salts and three bucketfuls of water. Here--here"--and he beat
his great head with his huge, hairy fist--"there is something which uses
matter, but is not of it--something which might destroy death, but which
death can never destroy."

"Talkin' of death," said Lord John. "I'm a Christian of sorts, but it
seems to me there was somethin' mighty natural in those ancestors of ours
who were buried with their axes and bows and arrows and the like, same as
if they were livin' on just the same as they used to. I don't know," he
added, looking round the table in a sham