“You speak wisely, Priest, but the Power you name may use instruments to accomplish its decrees. I am such an instrument.”
“Quite so,” said Bastin, “just like anybody else. You have more knowledge of the truth than I thought. But pray, how did you destroy the world?”
“Using my wisdom to direct the forces that are at work in the heart of this great globe, I drowned it with a deluge, causing one part to sink and another to rise, also changes of climate which completed the work.”
“That’s quite right,” exclaimed Bastin delightedly. “We know all about the Deluge, only you are not mentioned in connection with the matter. A man, Noah, had to do with it when he was six hundred years old.”
“Six hundred?” said Oro. “That is not very old. I myself had seen more than a thousand years when I lay down to sleep.”
“A thousand!” remarked Bastin, mildly interested. “That is unusual, though some of these mighty men of renown we know lived over nine hundred.”
Here Bickley snorted and exclaimed:
“Nine hundred moons, he means.”
“I did not know Noah,” went on Oro. “Perhaps he lived after my time and caused some other local deluge. Is there anything else you wish to ask me before I leave you that I may study this map writing?”
“Yes,” said Bastin. “Why were you allowed to drown your world?”