people, all that she had won from sleep and death and time; all of which might and could have been frustrated by the ruthless hand of an assassin or a thief.  Were it you, in such case would you not struggle by all means to achieve the object of your life and hope; whose possibilities grew and grew in the passing of those endless years?  Can you think that that active brain was at rest during all those weary centuries, whilst her free soul was flitting from world to world amongst the boundless regions of the stars?  Had these stars in their myriad and varied life no lessons for her; as they have had for us since we followed the glorious path which she and her people marked for us, when they sent their winged imaginations circling amongst the lamps of the night!”

Here she paused.  She too was overcome, and the welling tears ran down her cheeks.  I was myself more moved than I can say.  This was indeed my Margaret; and in the consciousness of her presence my heart leapt.  Out of my happiness came boldness, and I dared to say now what I had feared would be impossible:  something which would call the attention of Mr. Trelawny to what I imagined was the dual existence of his daughter.  As I took Margaret’s hand in mine and kissed it, I said to her father: 

“Why, sir! she couldn’t speak more eloquently if the very spirit of Queen Tera was with her to animate her and suggest thoughts!”

Mr. Trelawny’s answer simply overwhelmed me with surprise.  It manifested to me that he too had gone through just such a process of thought as my own.

“And what if it was; if it is!  I know well that the spirit of her mother is within her.  If in addition there be the spirit of that great and wondrous Queen, then she would be no less dear to me, but doubly dear!  Do not have fear for her, Malcolm Ross; at least have no more fear than you may have for the rest of us!” Margaret took up the theme, speaking so quickly that her words seemed a continuation of her father’s, rather than an interruption of them.

“Have no special fear for me, Malcolm.  Queen Tera knows, and will offer us no harm.  I know it!  I know it, as surely as I am lost in the depth of my own love for you!”

There was something in her voice so strange to me that I looked quickly into her eyes.  They were bright as ever, but veiled to my seeing the inward thought behind them as are the eyes of a caged lion.

Then the two other men came in, and the subject changed.

Chapter XVIII The Lesson of the “Ka”

That night we all went to bed early.  The next night would be an anxious one, and Mr. Trelawny thought that we should all be fortified with what sleep we could get.  The day, too, would be full of work.  Everything in connection with the Great Experiment would have to be gone over, so that at the last we might not fail from any unthought-of flaw in our working.  We made, of course, arrangements for summoning aid in case such should be needed; but I do not think that any of us had any real apprehension of danger.  Certainly we had no fear of such danger from violence as we had had to guard against in London during Mr. Trelawny’s long trance.