Lamara shook her head. “You were misled by a fantom shaped out of your own vanity and curiosity, by an agent who sought thus to use you for purposes of his own. When your wisdom reawakes you will recognize the trick. Call upon the good and truth that I have always seen in you—I see them now, struggling to be free again!—and you will win a victory that will wipe out your shame and bring you love and honor!”
“What is it I must do?” asked the girl, paling and flushing by turns with the conflict in her heart.
“Your kinsman, Torpeon, applying his deep penetration into the hidden places of nature to ill ends, to satisfy and insane lust for power, has for a long time past used every resource of science to devise a means to unloose the ties that bind his planet to its orbit, and to set out upon a career of universal conquest and dominion. He led himself to believe that he would be able to control its course among other worlds, and to steer it to other systems, and finally to draw in his train such a retinue of subject planets as would empower him to create and control the fate of starry organisms mighty as Orion and the Pleiades.
“His spiritual blindness, which is as great as his insight into material conditions, prevented him from realizing that the laws which hold the stars are only outwardly physical, and that their spiritual causes are beyond human power to originate or modify. Yet power to destroy is given to man; and so far as the first steps of his plan are concerned, he might have succeeded had not agencies been found so humble as not to be suspected which suddenly upset his preparations.
“This reverse took place but yesterday. But Torpeon had reserved a desperate alternative, which he will now seek to put in operations. Rather than surrender to her lawful betrothed husband the woman whom he stole from him, he will violently tear apart his earth, with all its inhabitants, from its moorings, and hurl it headlong and unguided through space to what destiny he cares not; but its speedy annihilation is certain, and may possibly involve others in its ruin. This monstrous crime, unless a power greater than his can avert it, he has the means to perpetrate. That greater power must be wielded by ourselves, and I have chosen you, my trusted and loved companion, to arouse and set it in motion.”
Zarga’s eyes began to sparkle, her bosom rose, and she lifted her body erect. Lamara, steadfastly observing her, continued:
“You have studied with me the constitution of our realm, and know by what methods we can, by united efforts, achieve results beyond the reach of any individual compass, how exalted soever. Our present task is formidable; perhaps none more arduous could be imposed upon us; and every member of every society on our globe must cooperate in it. To insure this result, I now appoint you, Zarga, my ambassador to our people. No function more honorable is in my power to bestow; for, to discharge it involves energy and faithfulness beyond the limits and development of all but few. Ask your own soul whether you shall accept or decline it! It is an opportunity, not a command.”
“Such forgiveness as yours is worthy of the heart that conceived it; I pray the spirit that it may create in me power to fulfil the trust,” said Zarga after a pause. “I see in my soul only ashes; but if you can believe that in may bloom again, I will believe it, too. At least I will spend what life I have in the attempt. What am I to say to the people?”
“Tell them that, at the signal of the ring, which will be visible to all at once, each head is to marshal his society in the supreme Saturnian order. The will of all is to be made one will, in harmony with the recorded will of the spirit. Tell them that the strain will be great, but constancy will prevail. Tell them that the hands of the little children are to be laid, above all, upon the uniting cord; for innocence and love hold the universe together. Let this be done, and Tor shall not be unseated from its place.”
Lamara spoke with solemn emphasis, lifting up her arms and her face, as if addressing not so much Zarga in person as the divine qualities of helpfulness and devotion which were to be exemplified in her. Zarga knelt before her, and the arms slowly descended with the gesture of benediction. There was an interval of silence, and then the girl arose and turned to begin her long pilgrimage. Lamara gazed thoughtfully after her, and smiled to observe that violets and wood anemones unfolded their petals in the path of her footsteps; a thrush broke into song, and one or two of the small Nature people peeped out timidly from crevices of the rock.