"Then he is indeed perished. But tell me—how came you to find the cabinet? And from what ancient era came you? Rudra found many signs of life in the ages he traversed, but never a race of Earthmen cultured as yourselves."
"We are not from the Past, my Lord, but the Future."
"Future! But my brother's machine could not safely move forward in Time! He told me so. Only into the Past—"
"Nevertheless, he must have tried. For we found his cabinet in an age five thousands of years later than this."
Sugriva nodded dolefully.
"Now I can guess why he returned not. He was daring, my brother. Too daring. But—the future, you say? Tell me, then—is my small colony a great and beautiful metropolis in the period whence you came hither?"
"Not so, my Lord Sugriva," answered Dr. Aiken regretfully. "Somewhere in the centuries which span between now and our era, an evilness has befallen this colony of yours. For in the world we left behind us, these mighty halls and temples are but a haunting wonder lost in the slumbering sea of leafy jungles."
Sugriva's sadness deepened.
"This is grievous news you bring me, my friends. If what you say is true, if fifty centuries hence this colony is vanished, its people scattered, then my labors here are of no avail. And my mission on Earth has failed. But—why?"
It was a question for which the time-exiles knew no answer. Its solution lay yet in Sugriva's future, and was so far buried in their world's past as to be a forgotten secret. But they were spared the necessity of answering. For at that moment came an interruption. There wakened a flurry of action at the central gate, the doorway opened, and through its great portals swept a woman.