ask you. First, tell me where we are,--where this strange country is on
the map of the world."

"It is a long story," she replied, "and it would greatly incense the
king if he should find out that I had told you, for one of his chief
pleasures is to note the surprise and admiration of new-comers over what
they see here. But if you will promise to gratify his vanity in this
particular I will try to explain it all."

"I promise, and you can depend on my not getting you into trouble,"
replied Thorndyke. "I never was so puzzled in my life, with that sullen
sky overhead, the wonderful changing sunlight, and the remarkable
atmosphere. I am both bewildered and entranced. Every moment I see
something new and startling. Where are we?"

"Far beneath the ocean and the surface of the earth. I only know what
the king has let fall in my hearing in his conferences with his men of
science and inventors; but I shall try to make you understand how it all
came about."

"It was a long time ago, two hundred years back, I suppose, that one of
my ancestors discovered a little isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean.
He was forced in a storm to land there with his ship and crew to make
some repairs in his vessel. In wandering about over the island he
discovered a narrow entrance to a cave, and, with two or three of his
men, he began to explore it. When they had gone for a mile or two down
into the interior of the cavern, which seemed to lead straight down
toward the centre of the earth, they began to find small pieces of gold.
The further they went the more they found, till at last the very cavern
walls seemed lined with it.

"They were at first wildly excited over their sudden good fortune and
were about to load their ship with it and return to Europe at once, but
the better judgment of my ancestor prevailed. He explained that, if the
world were informed of the discovery of such an inexhaustible mine of
gold, that the value of the precious metal would decline till it would
be worth little more than some grosser metal, and that if they would
only keep their secret to themselves they could in time control the
finances of the world. So, acting on this suggestion, they only dug out
a few thousand pounds and took part of it to Europe and part of it to
America and turned it into money.

"Then, to curtail my story, they elected my ancestor as ruler, and, with
ships loaded with every available convenience that inexhaustible wealth
could procur