Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/150

 appeared to be the face. I spoke of this to Mr. Mirrikh and his answer confirmed my observations.

“It is so,” he said; such is the rule. The sun is the centre of all planetary life, but it is at the circumference of  every solar system that the highest intellectual development  is found.”

But there was one handle which the old lama had thus far left untouched. Odd, too, that not until now did I think of it. We had been shown no man from Mars.

I moved forward and touched it.

“And this—why was this one omitted?” I asked.

The adept smiled and said something to the lama in Hindustanee.

Approaching my side the old man pulled the coffin forward. It came easily and no wonder, for it was empty.

“My place, gentlemen,” said Mr. Mirrikh, calmly; “thank God this body will soon be in it. This is for Mars!”

But there was but one other empty. None of the planets, however, were unrepresented. The vacant coffin bore characters which the adept claimed indicated one of the asteriods, he could not speak its English name.

“And is the body which should fill it now animated by a soul and walking about this earth?” I inquired.

He answered that it was so.

Impossible, indeed, will it be for those who may read this part of my narrative to comprehend the reluctance with  which it has been penned.

Believe it no one will, of course; but believe me when I say that had it been possible to have left it unwritten and still rendered intelligible that which is to follow, it would  never have been told.

It was over. We stood beside the altar; my friend Mirrikh had begun to speak.

“Mr. Wylde, after what you have seen you have an undoubted right to the explanation which yours or any other intelligent mind will naturally demand. Here are your questions—I know them before they are uttered. The agent which is capable of producing this separation of the  spiritual and the material, of the soul and the body; what is  it? Is not that the first?”

“It is,” I replied. “You have stated it correctly.”

“You have seen those bodies—they are not phantasies—they are facts?”