Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/273

 with eyes which seemed to look through me, beyond me, far  away into the bright realms of the unseen!

But the Doctor held on like a Trojan, while I, with all my strength, pulled her up; raised her until he could grasp  her other arm, and somehow we managed to lay her on the  rocks.

“She’s a goner, poor thing! That blow on the temple did it!”

Thus the Doctor; but I scarcely heard him. I staggered back a few steps, stretched out my hands toward Maurice, whose face I could dimly discern upon the other  side of the rift; and then—why then I had no existence—I  was obliterated. Chaos had come once more!

dreaming of Hope! I was at her side; together we were floating through realms of boundless space.

But it was not as it had been before. It was just as vivid, just as real, and yet there was a difference. I gazed into her eyes, I stretched out my hands to grasp her, but clutched at  the empty air.

“No, George; not now!” I heard her say. “All danger has passed, and many useful years lie before you. Return to your work, but before I remove my power from your brain  I would have you behold the workings of a mighty mystery—a mystery which concerns that mightiest of all mysteries—the human soul.”

Then I thought she bent forward and kissed me, but when once more I tried to throw my arms about her, she  was not there.

Nor was I the light and airy being which in fancy I had thought myself.

I was lying upon the rocks looking at the Doctor, powerless to move or speak.

Evidently he considered me simply in a faint, and had left me to look out for myself while he attended to Walla.