ation, of which you know the
result."

Had its theme been yet more incredible, the circumstantiality of this
narrative, as well as the impressive manner and personality of the
narrator, might have staggered a listener, and I had begun to feel
very strangely, when, as he closed, I chanced to catch a glimpse of my
reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall of the room. I rose and
went up to it. The face I saw was the face to a hair and a line and
not a day older than the one I had looked at as I tied my cravat
before going to Edith that Decoration Day, which, as this man would
have me believe, was celebrated one hundred and thirteen years before.
At this, the colossal character of the fraud which was being attempted
on me, came over me afresh. Indignation mastered my mind as I realized
the outrageous liberty that had been taken.

"You are probably surprised," said my companion, "to see that,
although you are a century older than when you lay down to sleep in
that underground chamber, your appearance is unchanged. That should
not amaze you. It is by virtue of the total arrest of the vital
functions that you have survived this great period of time. If your
body could have undergone any change during your trance, it would long
ago have suffered dissolution."

"Sir," I replied, turning to him, "what your motive can be in reciting
to me with a serious face this remarkable farrago, I am utterly unable
to guess; but you are surely yourself too intelligent to suppose that
anybody but an imbecile could be deceived by it. Spare me any more of
this elaborate nonsense and once for all tell me whether you refuse to
give me an intelligible account of where I am and how I came here. If
so, I shall proceed to ascertain my whereabouts for myself, whoever
may hinder."

"You do not, then, believe that this is the year 2000?"

"Do you really think it necessary to ask me that?" I returned.

"Very well," replied my extraordinary host. "Since I cannot convince
you, you shall convince yourself. Are you strong enough to follow me
upstairs?"

"I am as strong as I ever was," I replied angrily, "as I may have to
prove if this jest is carried much farther."

"I beg, sir," was my companion's response, "that you will not allow
yourself to be too fully persuaded that you are the victim of a trick,
lest the reaction, when you are convinced of the truth of my
statements, should be too great."

The tone of concern, mingled with commiseration, w