Oro in His House We climbed on to the dais by some marble steps, and sat ourselves down in four curious chairs of metal that were more or less copied from that which served Oro as a throne; at least the arms ended in graven heads of snakes.These chairs were so comfortable that I concluded the seats were fixed on springs, also we noticed that they were beautifully polished.
"I wonder how they keep everything so clean," said Bastin as we mounted the dais."In this big place it must take a lot of housemaids, though I don't see any.But perhaps there is no dust here."I shrugged my shoulders while we seated ourselves, the Lady Yva and I on Oro's right, Bickley and Bastin on his left, as he indicated by pointing with his finger.
"What say you of this city?" Oro asked after a while of me.
"We do not know what to say," I replied."It amazes us.In our world there is nothing like to it.""Perchance there will be in the future when the nations grow more skilled in the arts of war," said Oro darkly.
"Be pleased, Lord Oro," I went on, "if it is your will, to tell us why the people who built this place chose to live in the bowels of the earth instead of upon its surface.""They did not choose; it was forced upon them," was the answer.
"This is a city of refuge that they occupied in time of war, not because they hated the sun.In time of peace and before the Barbarians dared to attack them, they dwelt in the city Pani which signifies Above.You may have noted some of its remaining ruins on the mount and throughout the island.The rest of them are now beneath the sea.But when trouble came and the foe rained fire on them from the air, they retreated to this town, Nyo, which signifies Beneath.""And then?"
"And then they died.The Water of Life may prolong life, but it cannot make women bear children.That they will only do beneath the blue of heaven, not deep in the belly of the world where Nature never designed that they should dwell.How would the voices of children sound in such halls as these? Tell me, you, Bickley, who are a physician.""I cannot.I cannot imagine children in such a place, and if born here they would die," said Bickley.
Oro nodded.
"They did die, and if they went above to Pani they were murdered.So soon the habit of birth was lost and the Sons of Wisdom perished one by one.Yes, they who ruled the world and by tens of thousands of years of toil had gathered into their bosoms all the secrets of the world, perished, till only a few, and among them I and this daughter of mine, were left.""And then?"
"Then, Humphrey, having power so to do, I did what long I had threatened, and unchained the forces that work at the world's heart, and destroyed them who were my enemies and evil, so that they perished by millions, and with them all their works.
Afterwards we slept, leaving the others, our subjects who had not the secret of this Sleep, to die, as doubtless they did in the course of Nature or by the hand of the foe.The rest you know.""Can such a thing happen again?" asked Bickley in a voice that did not hide his disbelief.
"Why do you question me, Bickley, you who believe nothing of what I tell you, and therefore make wrath? Still I will say this, that what I caused to happen I can cause once more--only once, Ithink--as perchance you shall learn before all is done.Now, since you do not believe, I will tell you no more of our mysteries, no, not whence this light comes nor what are the properties of the Water of Life, both of which you long to know, nor how to preserve the vital spark of Being in the grave of dreamless sleep, like a live jewel in a casket of dead stone, nor aught else.As to these matters, Daughter, I bid you also to be silent, since Bickley mocks at us.Yes, with all this around him, he who saw us rise from the coffins, still mocks at us in his heart.Therefore let him, this little man of a little day, when his few years are done go to the tomb in ignorance, and his companions with him, they who might have been as wise as I am."Thus Oro spoke in a voice of icy rage, his deep eyes glowing like coals.Hearing him I cursed Bickley in my heart for I was sure that once spoken, his decree was like to that of the Medes and Persians and could not be altered.Bickley, however, was not in the least dismayed.Indeed he argued the point.He told Oro straight out that he would not believe in the impossible until it had been shown to him to be possible, and that the law of Nature never had been and never could be violated.It was no answer, he said, to show him wonders without explaining their cause, since all that he seemed to see might be but mental illusions produced he knew not how.
Oro listened patiently, then answered:
"Good.So be it, they are illusions.I am an illusion; those savages who died upon the rock will tell you so.This fair woman before you is an illusion; Humphrey, I am sure, knows it as you will also before you have done with her.These halls are illusions.Live on in your illusions, O little man of science, who because you see the face of things, think that you know the body and the heart, and can read the soul at work within.You are a worthy child of tens of thousands of your breed who were before you and are now forgotten."Bickley looked up to answer, then changed his mind and was silent, thinking further argument dangerous, and Oro went on:
"Now I differ from you, Bickley, in this way.I who have more wisdom in my finger-point than you with all the physicians of your world added to you, have in your brains and bodies, yet desire to learn from those who can give me knowledge.Iunderstand from your words to my daughter that you, Bastin, teach a faith that is new to me, and that this faith tells of life eternal for the children of earth.Is it so?""It is," said Bastin eagerly."I will set out--"Oro cut him short with a wave of the hand.
