William laughed. "Well, Cyrus, you are just the same boy in an argument
that you were at school. And how mad I used to get! But this mysterious
land that you are concealing so successfully, the land we have all
seen but never touched--or even heard about, apparently--must be a
God-forsaken district. Is it a desert--like Sahara, for instance?"
"No, quite different. This is rock, with plains of lava from volcanic
mountains and everywhere, in all directions, dust and ashes: the dried
bones of its own past--whatever it was. The whole surface of the
country seems upheaved and torn, all on a gigantic scale, as if it was
baked too much, then split and sundered in the cooling. A fantastic,
solemn region."
"Well, by Jove!" said William, at last, "I still maintain that I have
never seen the place--nor anything like it."
"I said from a distance."
"Must have been a mighty long distance."
[Illustration: "----THE DRIED BONES OF ITS OWN PAST, WHATEVER IT
WAS"--_Page 212_]
"It was."
"And a mighty unusual country!"
"It is. Scattered about are high mountains, once volcanoes. And in the
craters of these old volcanoes some of them many miles across, I saw
the ruins of cities. There must be hundreds of these mountains, and
hundreds of ruined cities."
"Then you traveled over the whole country."
"No, indeed! But I looked down on it as I approached, and could take in
a vast area."
William straightened up, and his eyes opened wider. "Oho! Then you went
there in an air-ship!"
Cyrus nodded.
"That accounts for no water on the voyage, and all that other stuff you
gave us."
Again Cyrus nodded. And, with a broad smile of amusement: "It might
also account for Trinity spire and the moon."
But his audience was too much in earnest to be thwarted by jokes. "Yes,
yes!" said Mr. Bressani. "That explains much that you have said. Please
continue."
William, however, with a frown, leaned back against the desk. "Cyrus, I
still believe you are lying to us."
"No, truly I am not. I don't pretend to give you the whole truth, but
what I do tell you is the truth and nothing else."
"Go on, Mr. Alton," said the Senior Partner. "We interrupted you. It
certainly is an amazing country."
Cyrus continued. "The whole country is cracked and broken with chasms.
From one volcano cañons radiate in all directions. They are miles
in width, and they seem bottomless. And even in these cañons, on
projecting ledges, are the ruins of cities."
"But why should they build their cities in those sunless chasms?"
[Illustration: "BUT WHY BUILD THEIR CITIES IN THOSE SUNLESS
CHASMS?"--_Page 214_]
"My belief is that the moisture evaporated, then the surface of all
that country became so unbearably hot--with no atmosphere as protection
from the sun's rays--that the inhabitants were driven to the cañons."
"What a life! No wonder they all died!"
"That portion of the universe," said Cyrus, "is the desolation of
desolation, the tragedy of tragedies. It is a world of ashes. And
over everything an awful silence, a silence that frightens you. The
stillness of death, compared to it, is a merry waltz."
[Illustration: "AND OVER EVERYTHING AN AWFUL SILENCE"--_Page 214_]
[Illustration: "----A WORLD OF DUST AND ASHES"--_Page 214_]
"How did you happen to find this country?"
"I had heard of it. You all know about it in a general way, as I have
already said. But I tried to get there and happened to succeed."
William shook his head. "Sorry to contradict you, Cyrus, but I never
heard of such a place."
Cyrus laughed. "Oh, yes, you have! Excuse me, but you have all read
about it, and seen many pictures of it."
Mr. Bressani took up the diamond. As he caressed the glistening marvel
he asked: "Do other people know of these ruins?"
"I think not."
"You have never heard of any one else who has been there?"
"Never."
"Is the district difficult to reach?"
"Very--almost impossible. In fact the trip is so long and risky that
you need have no fear of other explorers. I tell you this merely that
you may know the chances are small of the market being flooded with
diamonds--at least from that quarter. Nobody else will try it. You may
be sure of that. The diamonds are there, however, and plenty of them."
[Illustration: "THE DIAMONDS ARE THERE, AND PLENTY OF THEM"--_Page
215_]
"Plenty of them!"
"Plenty--by the cart-load."
William whistled. And the two older men whistled--in spirit--and raised
their eyebrows. With the Bressani eyebrows still in the air their owner
inquired: "You say this was lying on the top of the ground?"
"Yes; among other fragments."
"Fragments of what?"
For a moment the visitor closed his eyes. "That is hard to answer.
I was there at dusk. The light was peculiar, and uncertain--and
changing. I should say there were fragments of cups and vases, of
carved capitals, scraps of metal that might be architectural ornaments,
all mingled with blocks of some white material, perhaps marble, or
alabaster. And all finely carved."
"These things were scattered about the ground?"
"Scattered about, but not literally on the ground. Many were lying on a
pavement of different colored stones--the floor of a building I should
say. The outer walls and several columns were still standing."
"It might have been a palace, a temple, a forum,--almost anything of
size and importance."
"You know nothing of the history of those people, of their manners and
customs?"
"Nothing, whatever."
"Where could I find out? That is, of course, if we had your permission."
"Nowhere. Nobody knows. It is all forgotten--long ago forgotten--with
no records, no memories--not even a tradition."
There was a silence. Cyrus knew that his hearers were having more
or less difficulty in digesting his statements. However, he smiled
pleasantly, as he said: "My sympathies are with you, gentlemen, and my
thanks for your courteous reception of my absurd story. But there is
one thing I do know about these people. Although their buildings were
often as high as ours, I know their legs were shorter. All their stone
steps, in every case, had risers about half the size of ours."
"Ah! Then they were a race of pigmies."
"I should think so, and with long arms and very short legs. They were
evidently strong on sculpture, as there are fragments of statues,
heads, bas reliefs, monuments, etc., all scattered about. And the
people represented are very much like ourselves, in some ways."
[Illustration: "WITH LONG ARMS AND VERY SHORT LEGS"--_Page 216_]
"You say you were there at dusk. Why didn't you see it by day light?"
"Well, the--er--climate is peculiar. The air, if you can call it air,
is so very rarefied as to be no protection whatever against the heat of
the sun. And the surface of the ground, by daylight, would burn your
feet. And by night, there being no atmosphere twixt you and space, the
temperature is about 300 degrees below zero."
"Three hundred degrees!"
Cyrus smiled and nodded. "That's what the scientists say. I had no
thermometer with me."
"But no human being could live in such a temperature!"
"That is why I stuck to the twilight. And I suspect that is why the
cities were built in the cañons."
"Why, of course! That explains it. I was wondering what on earth could
induce anybody to want to live in those God-forsaken chasms."
Mr. Bressani, however, had a deeper interest in abnormal gems than
in climatic conditions. "Did you find this piece all alone, by
itself,--apart from others?"
"No; other pieces were near it."
"But not so large as this."
"Oh, yes! Some were much larger."