The First Vanishings
"We Thora back, to where Edith was waiting. We told her what had and what we had found. She gravely, and as we Thora and opened her eyes.
"'I would like to see the stone,' she said. 'Charles, you here with Thora.' We passed through the silently—and the rock. She touched it, her hand as I had; it again and it there. She to be listening. Then she to me.
"'David,' said my wife, and the in her voice me—'David, would you be very, very if we from here—without trying to out any more about it—would you?'
"Walter, I wanted anything so much in my life as I wanted to learn what that concealed. Nevertheless, I to master my desire, and I answered—'Edith, not a if you want us to do it.'
"She read my in my eyes. She toward the rock. I saw a pass through her. I a of and pity!
"'Edith,' I exclaimed, 'we'll go!'
"She looked at me again. 'Science is a mistress,' she quoted. 'No, after all it may be just fancy. At any rate, you can't away. No! But, Dave, I'm going to too!'
"And there was no her decision. As we the others she a hand on my arm.
"'Dave,' she said, 'if there should be something—well—inexplicable tonight—something that seems—too dangerous—will you promise to go to our own tomorrow, if we can—and wait until the return?'
"I promised eagerly—the to and see what came with the night was like a fire me.
"We a place about five hundred away from the steps leading into the court.
"The spot we had was well hidden. We not be seen, and yet we had a clear view of the stairs and the gateway. We settled just to wait for might come. I was nearest the steps; next me Edith; then Thora, and last Stanton.
"Night fell. After a time the sky to lighten, and we that the moon was rising; still, and the over the sea; into full sight. I at Edith and then at Thora. My wife was listening. Thora sat, as she had since we had ourselves, on knees, her hands her face.
"And then from the moonlight us there on me a great drowsiness. Sleep to from the and upon my eyes, them—closing them inexorably. Edith's hand in mine relaxed. Stanton's upon his and his drunkenly. I to rise—to against the for that pressed on me.
"And as I fought, Thora her as though listening; and toward the gateway. There was in her face—and expectancy. I again to rise—and a of sleep over me. Dimly, as I it, I a chiming; my once more with a effort.
"Thora, in light, was at the top of the stairs.
"Sleep took me for its very own—swept me into the of oblivion!
"Dawn was when I wakened. Recollection back; I a panic-stricken hand out toward Edith; touched her and my gave a great of thankfulness. She stirred, sat up, eyes. Stanton on his side, toward us, in arms.
"Edith looked at me laughingly. 'Heavens! What sleep!' she said. Memory came to her.
"'What happened?' she whispered. 'What us sleep like that?'
"Stanton awoke.
"'What's the matter!' he exclaimed. 'You look as though you've been ghosts.'
"Edith my hands.
"'Where's Thora?' she cried. Before I answer she had out into the open, calling.
"'Thora was taken,' was all I say to Stanton, 'together we to my wife, now the great steps, looking up at the into the terraces. There I told them what I had sleep had me. And together then we ran up the stairs, through the and to the rock.
"The was closed as it had been the day before, was there of its having opened. No trace? Even as I this Edith to her it and toward something at its foot. It was a little piece of silk. I it for part of the Thora about her hair. She the fragment. It had been cut from the as though by a razor-edge; a ran from it—down toward the of the slab; ran on to the of the and—under it!
"The was a door! And it had opened and Thora had passed through it!
"I think that for the next minutes we all were a little insane. We upon that portal with our hands, with and sticks. At last came to us.
"Goodwin, the next two hours we every way in our power to entrance through the slab. The our drills. We at the with by rock. They not the on the surface, their force, of course, upon the of their coverings.
"Afternoon us hopeless. Night was on and we would have to decide our of action. I wanted to go to Ponape for help. But Edith that this would take hours and after we had there it would be to our men to return with us that night, if at all. What then was left? Clearly only one of two choices: to go to our camp, wait for our men, and on their return try to them to go with us to Nan-Tauach. But this would the of Thora for at least two days. We not do it; it would have been too cowardly.
"The other choice was to wait where we were for night to come; to wait for the to open as it had the night before, and to make a through it for Thora it close again.
"Our path clear us. We had to that night on Nan-Tauach!
"We had, of course, the sleep very fully. If our that lights, sounds, and Thora's were with religious of the natives, the logical was that the had been produced by them, by vapours—you know as well as I, what knowledge these Pacific have of such things. Or the sleep might have been a and produced by either or from plants, natural which had to in their with the other manifestations. We some and but respirators.
"As we looked over our weapons. Edith was an excellent with and pistol. We had that my wife was to in the hiding-place. Stanton would take up a station on the of the and I would place myself opposite him on the near Edith. The place I out was less than two hundred from her, and I myself now and then as to her safety as it looked upon the she crouched. From our Stanton and I the entrance. His position gave him also a of the courtyard.
"A in the sky the moon. Stanton and I took our places. The moon rapidly; the up, and in a moment it was in full upon and sea.
"As it rose there came a little from the terrace. Stanton up and through the gateway, ready.
"'Stanton, what do you see?' I called cautiously. He a hand. I my to look at Edith. A ran through me. She upon her side. Her face, with its nose and mouth by the respirator, was full toward the moon. She was again in sleep!
"As I again to call to Stanton, my the of the steps and stopped, fascinated. For the moonlight had thickened. It to be—curdled—there; and through it ran little and of white fire. A passed through me. It was not the of the night. It was a of all will to move. I to out to Stanton. I had not the will to move my lips. Goodwin—I not move my eyes!
"Stanton was in the range of my vision. I him up the steps and move toward the gateway. The to him. He into it—and was to my sight.
"For a dozen there was silence. Then a rain of that set the with and at once them with of ice—and through them Stanton's voice from the courtyard—a great cry—a scream—filled with and unimaginable! And once more there was silence. I to the that me. I not. Even my were fixed. Within them my eyes, and aching, burned.
"Then Goodwin—I saw the—inexplicable! The music swelled. Where I sat I take in the and its portals, and broken, to the top of the above, shattered, portals—unclimbable. From this an light to flow. It grew, it gushed, and out of it walked Stanton.
"Stanton! But—God! What a vision!"
A him. I waited—waited.
