lp, more especially with the power of
the chemicals you have brought with you, it may be possible for us to
deal successfully with the conditions facing us."

"What are they?" asked the Very Young Man eagerly.

"Perhaps it would be better for me to tell you chronologically the
events as they have occurred. As you remember when I left you twelve
years ago----"

"Five years," interrupted the Very Young Man.

"Five or twelve, as you please," said the Chemist smiling. "It was my
intention then, as you know, to come back to you after a comparatively
short stay here."

"And bring Mrs.--er--Lylda, with you," put in the Very Young Man,
hesitating in confusion over the Christian name.

"And bring Lylda with me," finished the Chemist. "I got back here
without much difficulty, and in a very much shorter time and with less
effort than on my first trip. I tried an entirely different method; I
stayed as large as possible while descending, and diminished my size
materially only after I had reached the bottom."

"I told you----" said the Big Business Man.

"It was a dangerous method of procedure, but I made it successfully
without mishap.

"Lylda and I were married in native fashion shortly after I reached
Arite."

"How was that; what fashion?" the Very Young Man wanted to know, but the
Chemist went on.

"It was my intention to stay here only a few weeks and then return with
Lylda. She was willing to follow me anywhere I might take her,
because--well, perhaps you would hardly understand, but--women here are
different in many ways than you know them.

"I stayed several months, still planning to leave almost at any time. I
found this world an intensely interesting study. Then, when--Loto was
expected, I again postponed my departure.

"I had been here over a year before I finally gave up my intention of
ever returning to you. I have no close relatives above, you know, no one
who cares much for me or for whom I care, and my life seemed thoroughly
established here.

"I am afraid gentlemen, I am offering excuses for myself--for my
desertion of my own country in its time of need. I have no defense. As
events turned out I could not have helped probably, very much, but
still--that is no excuse. I can only say that your world up there seemed
so very--very--far away. Events up there had become to me only vague
memories as of a dream. And Lylda and my little son were so near, so
real and vital to me. Well, at any rate I stayed,