CHAPTER XXII
THE TRIAL
In a few moments more the storm had passed completely; only the wet city streets, the mist over the lake, and the moist warmth of the air remained. For some time the three visitors to this extraordinary world stood silent at the latticed windows, awed by what they had seen. The noise of the panels as the Chemist slid them back brought them to themselves.
"A curious land, gentlemen," he remarked quietly.
"It's—it's weird," the Very Young Man ejaculated.
The Chemist led them out across the roof to its other side facing the city. The street upon which the house stood sloped upwards over the hill behind. It was wet with the rain and gleamed like a sheet of burnished silver. And down its sides now ran two little streams of liquid silver fire.
The street, deserted during the storm, was beginning to fill again with people returning to their tasks. At the intersection with the next road above, they could see a line of sleighs passing. Beneath them, before the wall of the garden a little group of men stood talking; on a roof-top nearby a woman appeared with a tiny naked infant which she sat down to nurse in a corner of her garden.
"A city at work," said the Chemist with a wave of his hand. "Shall we go down and see it?"
His three friends assented readily, the Very Young Man suggesting promptly that they first visit Lylda's father and Aura.