Spellbound he waited for the sequel. If any one had told him that the Viking's treasure was lying upon the roadway outside to be his own for the mere trouble of walking thither, he would not have stirred from his position.
Beatrice had been silent for some time, when Lorelie, speaking in the same tone of authority that she had used throughout, said:—
"What comes next?"
"The dropping of moisture from the roof."
"What next?"
"Silence and darkness."
Idris began to think that he was doomed to disappointment. Each scene described by Beatrice had been followed by an interval, sometimes long, sometimes short, apparently proportionate to the actual length of time that had elapsed between each event. How many minutes were to serve as a measure of the space that separated the age of Orm from the date of the removal of the treasure? Not so many, he trusted, as to cause Lorelie to bring her experiment to a close.
"How much time is passing?"
"Centuries—long centuries—centuries of silence and darkness."
For a long time Beatrice continued to sit without speaking. At length, to Idris' satisfaction, she resumed her monologue.