The End of the Journey
"Say Doc!" It was Larry's voice at me. "I was about that frog. I think it was her pet. Damn me if I see any a and a snake, and one of the I had two that her around like kittens. Not such a of choice a and a snake—except on the of the frog? What? Anyway, any that girl wants is hers, I don't if it's a twelve-toed or a whale-bodied scorpion. Get me?"
By which I that our upon the woman were still O'Keefe.
"He thinks of like the sailor!" Marakinoff, in his words. "What are their to—this?" He out a hand and as though at a the car itself for an instant, then dipped, into space; in what was flight, rose as upon a and then to its speed.
Far ahead a point of light showed; steadily; we were it—and all movement ceased. How had been the of our I did not until I to stand—and back, leg-muscles too to my weight. The car rested in a in the centre of a twenty square. The us was by a low through which we see a of steps leading downward.
The light through a small opening, the of which was twice a tall man's from the floor. A of broad, low steps up to it. And now it came to my brain that there was something puzzling, peculiar, about this light. It was silvery, with a and with a rose; but a rose that from that of the of the Pool Chamber as the rose the from that the pearl. In it were tiny, points like the in a sunbeam, but white like the of diamonds, and with a quality of vitality; they were as though they were alive. The light no shadows!
A little came through the and played about us. It was with what the of flowers and pines. It was vivifying, and in it the of light and danced.
I out of the car, the Russian following, and to the steps toward the opening, at the top of which O'Keefe and Olaf already stood. As they looked out I saw their change—Olaf's with awe, O'Keefe's with amaze. I to their side.
At all that I see was space—a space with the same that about me. I upward, that of earth that them the sky for of light. There was no sky—at least no sky such as we know—all was a into as the above the day-world to all the heavens—through it ran and that were like of the aurora; echoes, lower, of those and that play about the poles. My its splendour; I outward.
Miles away, from the limits of a were of milky opalescence. It was from these that the came, out from all their surfaces. To left and to right, as as the see, they stretched—and they in the on high!
"Look at that!" Larry. I his pointing finger. On the of the wall, two columns, an veil; prismatic, with all the of the spectrum. It was like a of by the of the of the Jinn. In of it and a little at each was a semi-circular pier, or, better, a of what appeared to be glistening, pale-yellow ivory. At each end of its half-circle a low-walled, rose-stone structures, each of them by a number of high, pinnacles.
We looked at each other, I think, a helplessly—and again through the opening. We were standing, as I have said, at its base. The in which it was set was at least ten thick, and so, of course, all that we see of that which was without were the that themselves above the of the oval.
"Let's take a look at what's under us," said Larry.
He out upon the and down, the of us following. A hundred yards us gardens that must have been like those of many-columned Iram, which the Addite King had for his the deluge, and which Allah, so the Arab tells, took and from man, the Sahara, all of finding—jealous they were more than his in paradise. Within them flowers and of laced, trees, nestled.
The of the trees were of emerald, of vermilion, and of azure-blue, and the blossoms, was to us, like jewels. The were delicately. I noted that the were double—in a way, two-storied—and that they were with circles, with squares, and with of—opacity; noted too that over many this like a roof; yet it did not material; was it—impenetrable shadow!
Down through this city of gardens ran a green thoroughfare, like and at regular with graceful, bridges. The road to a wide square, where rose, from a of that same that the lip of the Moon Pool, a of seven terraces; and along it objects that a to the of the Nautilus. Within them were—human figures! And upon tree-bordered on each walked others!
Far to the right we the of another emerald-paved road.
And the two the gardens to the of that water across which were the and the of mystery.
Thus it was that we saw the city of the Dweller; and as no place on earth, or under or above earth has been—or, that which some call God, again shall be!
"Chert!" Marakinoff. "Incredible!"
"Trolldom!" Olaf Huldricksson. "It is Trolldom!"
"Listen, Olaf!" said Larry. "Cut out that Trolldom stuff! There's no Trolldom, or fairies, Ireland. Get that! And this isn't Ireland. And, up, Professor!" This to Marakinoff. "What you see there are people—just plain people. And there's people is where I live. Get me?
"There's no way in but in—and no way out but out," said O'Keefe. "And there's the stairway. Eggs are eggs no how they're cooked—and people are just people, travellers, no what dish they are in," he concluded. "Come on!"
With the three of us close him, he toward the entrance.
