Page:Phosphor (1888).djvu/72

72 the crowd who stepped aside and let us pass back to the large cave and from there to the small one.

When we were inside she let go my hand, and throwing herself on a bed of hair, cried bitterly.

When she stopped I thanked her for saving my life.

She looked at me with her deep-set melancholy eyes and said, "Where do you come from?"

I replied, "From outside the earth."

"Where is that?" she asked.

I told her "Outside of here."

She did not understand what outside meant, but, pointing to the figure cut into the wall, she said, "She came from there." I asked, "When?" "I do not know," she answered. "Do you know anything about her?" I asked. "My mother told me about her before she died," she replied. I seated myself on one of the heaps of hair, and asked her to tell me all she knew. This is what she told me, translated as well as I was able from the bastard Latin she spoke in.