Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/151

 “Either facts or I am hopelessly mad.”

“You are the same level headed American you were when I astonished you at Panompin, my friend. Now what you most wish to know is why those bodies do not follow the  law of nature and decay?”

“You have said it.”

“And know you shall. Listen. You, in that truly liberal spirit which I have from the first admired; have been willing  to admit the existence of natural forces of which your western  science may be ignorant.”

“I have never denied the possibility of such forces.”

“No; more liberal than the so-called learned of your race you never have. Mr. Wylde you now stand face to face with the workings of just such a force. It is an invisible, imponderable gas; as elementary as oxygen, but utterly unknown outside of adept lore. This gas is generated under certain natural conditions within the earth itself, and is of  such rare occurrence on this particular planet that the knowledge of its existence has hitherto been confined to the few. In fact it occurs in two places only, so far as is known, the cavern within which we are now standing being one.

This aroused the Doctor whose dazed condition had scarcely changed.

“You are speaking of the unknown and deadly gas mentioned by Huc, as occurring in the valley of Bourhan-bota,” he exclaimed suddenly.

“It is the same,” replied the adept. “That is the other place referred to; doubtless it is but another outlet for the  same deposit—at least it is so believed. The good Abbe heard of it, but by the common people its peculiar properties  are quite unknown. Whoever ventures near that valley dies to all appearance. In truth the unfortunate is in the same condition as those bodies we have just seen.”

“Alive?” I cried. “They cannot be alive?”

“They are not alive nor are they dead. They are the bodies of lamas who have inhaled the gas during the centuries the lamasery has been consecrated to this lofty purpose. The souls which left them to seek other planets have long since passed beyond the realm of matter into the realm  of spirit—they will never return. Since then most of these bodies have many times been animated by other souls. One may be thus animated at any moment and spend years on