Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/148

 of a man who died of jaundice, I would have found it easier to believe than Padma’s next words.

“This, my children, is the body used by the dwellers on the planet Mercury, the character you see here imprinted indicates that fact; and here in this compartment we have one  from the planet next nearest to the sun.”

“Thought Mercury was nearest the sun,” groaned the Doctor helplessly.

Padma pulled the next handle above, returning the unfortunate Mercurian to his place.

I looked again. Maurice, who still held my arm, displayed the most intense eagerness as the coffin came out.

“I saw all this last night, George,” he whispered. “Ain’t it wonderful? What is there that man cannot accomplish after this?”

“What indeed?” I thought. “If man can wipe out the vast distances of interplanetary space, who is to say that his  ambition shall pause even there? That it shall not aspire to a similar extinction of the stupendous breaks between our  solar system and its neighbors. Clearly nothing! The thought, however, was paralysing. Was I yielding to the influences about me and becoming a believer in the claims of my friend Mirrikh? Not yet!

But to the second coffin—I might almost say sarcophagus, for it was as heavy as stone.

The adept had the lamp now, and he held it in such a manner that its light fell full upon the still, cold face before  us. The heavily bearded features were of a deep bronze tint, verging toward that reddish patination which one sometimes finds on the coins of ancient Greece and Rome. The nose was aquiline and very prominent, the mouth large and  sensual, while the forehead was contracted in a curious manner, giving the head a pointed appearance, strongly reminding one of the heads on the mysterious monuments in the  ruined palace at Palenque.

“Of this race we have admitted none for many years,” said the old lama quietly. “They are a fierce and vicious people. The last that occupied this body wrought so much evil that our gracious lord, the Tale Lama, sent imperative orders that they should in future be prohibited from taking  on the earthly form.

He pushed the coffin back into place and moved to the next handle beyond.