Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/177

 off at a gap in the mountain range which flanked the  lamasery on the north. “There are several of these lakes, Padma tells me, and it is the one nearest, which is also on  the lowest level, that has broken away. Into this the upper lakes are pouring their contents steadily, and until they are  drained off, the water will continue to rise. A hard frost may save us, but in the event of soft weather for the next  forty-eight hours we shall be drowned out to a dead certainty. In fact there don’t seem to be much help for us anyhow, as the temperature has been on the rise since midnight, and if  those clouds mean anything it is rain before noon.”

You see the Doctor had been questioning Padma and now drew near to tell me the result.

I saw the waters come.

We were all at the top of the tower within five minutes after the startling cry which burst from the lips of Ni-fan-lu,  as he came rushing down the stairs.

When we first reached our point of observation I could see nothing which I had not seen already.

There were the mountains, there at our feet lay the snow-white plains glistening in the moonlight; above us were more stars than I ever imagined the firmament contained previous  to my entrance into this desolate land; and there, half way  between the zenith and the snowy peaks, was Mars.

Instinctively my gaze became riveted upon the planet. I forgot our danger; I heard not the Doctor’s violent exclamations, I was deaf even to Walla’s weeping; I could think  only of Maurice—Maurice and the man Mirrikh—of the  mighty mystery in which I had become involved.

Were they there? Were they actually there? Had I been there? Had I seen what I had seen, or was it all the outcome of the fearful strain to which my nervous system  had been subjected? Perhaps it was hypnotism. Perhaps Padma to pacify me had made me see it? But no. There was the Doctor. He had seen it too.

Thus I pondered as I gazed, the voices of the lamas sounding like the confused murmur of a distant crowd, when  all at once a wild shout went up.

“Look! Look!” roared the Doctor, “there it comes! There it comes at last!”

He caught my arm and pointed to the gap in the snow-clad range, which before had been but a dark blot upon the endless wall of white, and there I saw something flash;