“Man of Earth, that is the last of this kind of revelation,” said the man of might. “Remember well all I shall show you, for after the gate closes when you return to the outer star it will never be again unbarred! It will be a barrier as impassable as the gulf which separates the lost from happiness! I, under the star, you, upon it, will have our separate existences from now forever! When I depart, you will not know, you will never hear a whisper of our life again! Therefore learn now. The island shall take you to volcanic south or to north no longer arctic. It shall carry your colonists to every land where Jupiter shines.
“See the faint remembrances of my former life! I have made all the models very much smaller than they were of old!”
Then they entered a great building and looked on mysteries innumerable, and on devices for purposes unknown, superseding all earthly art. Machines were there which walked through mountains to tunnel them, others for lifting a continent, if the feat were necessary; machines for flying, contrivances for communicating with other spheres. These were a few among the many of which they could comprehend the use, but not the principle. There were walls of lace-work in gold, temples of lace-work in amber, masses of gem-sheened fabrics, piles of jewels, long lines of golden statuary, and marvels of wind harps with pipes to make mystic music without hands.
When they were weary the man said: “Come float on the sea!”
A circular boat of silver and sailed with pink clouds came to meet them. Around the circular edge sat fifty red-robed oarsmen, wearing high white caps all glinting with gems; they moved the boat across the sea by means of paddles of circular sheets of hammered silver, fastened upon the ends of long staves of blue pearl. The craft was in two sections. The central part was a half-sphere of amber separate from the rest and merely floated by its encircling. On this was a silver canopy where they reposed to watch the scene.
They paused before a length of smooth rising shore, and there were assembled the shimmering multitudes, hailing in earthly voices the advent of the earth-king, Regan. Each one was in robes of jeweled cloth, for it was a gala day. Twelve were to be chosen to go outside the gates, and each one desired to be one of the twelve. They had been happy there for ages, in their constantly expanding kingdom, but they were human and they wanted change. And another thing, they wanted the glory of building a world, for they were of the Atlantean race. They moved like flashes of light.
A group of seers was admitted upon the craft to bring to Father Renaudin books of great importance, sealed bottles of amber, curious flasks of medicines and boxes of precious perfumes. These were laid most reverently at his feet, and, amid his thanks, the seers, with obeisance, moved away.
“I would there were more of these compounds and mixtures,” said the man of the old world. “They are powerful and most necessary. I have not been able to remember a millionth part of the alchemy of old, there were so many things to do, there was so much which I did not prepare. If I had only had more time, it would have been better!”
“And were you,” asked Rondah, “you, who lived for cycles, hurried in your lifetime?”
“Oh, yes! I could not do half. I left all my noblest dreams unrealized; my highest hopes proved fruitless!”