“But my victory would be barren,” he continued, halting in his walk and stretching out his arms, “if it had to be enjoyed alone! For this reason have I till now only played with the great idea, instead of putting it to the proof. An Everlasting of loneliness would have been a dungeon of intolerable light! I saw it and I shrank from it. Seeking through the worlds I found none fit to share an adventure with me till now! But she is my companion of eternity; fate and circumstance, the dead drag of matter, could not keep us apart. And it was no blind chance that united us. The sources of the rivers of her being and mine were remote from each other, small and feeble; but within them was the hidden force which turned their flow to the point of meeting; they gathered strength as they proceeded; their tide was irresistible; they penetrated the mountains, they flooded the gulfs, space could not stay them; even the illusions of false persuasions fought against them in vain; and she is here! And her coming is the symbol and assurance that the circle shall be completed, and that I have not dreamed and wrought in vain!
“Miriam, my mate! Be proud and reluctant as you will; I love you but the more, and the fire of your love will burn only the clearer and more intensely when the error that confuses you has been burned away. You and I shall sit at our ease and smile at each other as we behold the phantasmagory of Creation pass in review at our feet! The great stars shall wither and crumble into dust, and we will arise in the freshness of our youth and summon others to bloom before us in the glory of their prime. The comets, as they pass, shall bring us tidings from afar, and bear our commands to regions yet unborn. Hand in hand we will pace through the avenues of infinity and determine the epochs of eternity with a kiss!”
In the midst of the room a small sphere of white light appeared and passed successively into yellow, green, rose, and purple. It disappeared slowly.
“Already, Miriam!” he exclaimed with a proud and joyful look; and catching up a scarlet mantle he opened the door and passed out.
CHAPTER XXI
CAVE MEN
KROTOX and Asgar had killed a goat and were eating it. They squatted at the entrance of their habitation, with the skinned carcass between them, and cut strips of flesh from it with their sharp stone knives. These they toasted over the red flames that flickered up from a crevice in the rocky platform which was their feeding place. Their cave was half-way up the side of a crag, at whose foot, several hundred feet below, ran a hot river from the lake that filled the basin further up the gorge. The path to the cave was a narrow footway formed partly by zigzag cracks in the face of the cliff, and partly of steps or holes made by hand. It was secure even from the big serpents and lizards, but not convenient for ordinary household purposes.
“You forgot the salt. It was your turn to get it,” remarked Krotox.
“I had enough to do, killing the goat,” returned Asgar. “You were down in the gorge and might have fetched up salt enough for a month from the pocket beside the basin. You’d like to doze here and let me run about and wait on you, I suppose!”
Krotox cracked a marrowbone between his jaws. “I had important business,” he said. “You remember Yolgu? Well, he came over from the other side to-day.”
“I didn’t think he had the spirit for it,” remarked Asgar. “Of course, he’s planning to raise and army and capture Torpeon!” he added with a sneer.