“Jim is the captain of the watch,” Miriam replied with a smile.
“We’s neutral, miss, in dis here scrimmage,” Jim informed her, assuming the gravity of a commander. “De more Torpy an’ dat bunch lams de life out o’ each odder, de more us gives ’em de merry ha-ha! When dey gits t’rough, we deals wid de remains; we rides the whirlwin’ an’ direcks de storm! Dere’s one o’ my boys now!” he exclaimed—“dat fat duck wid his pants gone—Asgar—dat’s him! He’s hoopin’ it up to beat de band! What’s gone wrong wid Krotox? Mebbe he’s fell by de wayside!”
“Oh, if Jack were here!” thought Miriam, as a fresh volley of stones crashed against the walls. “No!” she added in the same breath; “thank God he isn’t!”
The next moment she faced about with a violent start and a leap of the heart. Had she heard Jack’s voice speak her name, close to her ear? But no one was there!
She was about to call out his name—to shriek it out; but she silenced it on her lips. Was it not, rather, as if a hand—his hand—touched her mouth in warning? Assuredly he was here. She could not be mistaken in the sense of his neighborhood. Never, even in his more physical presence, had she been more convinced of it. And yet, save for Jim and Jenny, who were absorbed in the scene outside the window, the room was empty. What did this mean?
It was, somehow, different from the physical invisibility of the Saturnians. The influence was not like that; it was a spiritual vibration. Was Jack dead, then?
She felt, on the contrary, that he had never been more alive.
CHAPTER XXIX
PARADISE POSTPONED
SOLARION caught the crystal cup as it dropped from Jack’s hand, and with his other arm supported his body as it fell. Argon uttered a cry of dismay. But meeting the other’s eyes, which were now filled with a soft but almost insupportable light, he recognized the benign significance behind the apparent calamity.
“We will let the body rest in the plinth,” Solarion said, lifting it as he spoke into the cavity, and replacing the cup and its golden receptacle. “He is honest and brave, all will go well with him. Tell Lamara he stood the test, and that I will meet her here on the hour appointed.”