with eyes which seemed to look through me, beyond me, far away into the bright realms of the unseen!
But the Doctor held on like a Trojan, while I, with all my strength, pulled her up; raised her until he could grasp her other arm, and somehow we managed to lay her on the rocks.
“She’s a goner, poor thing! That blow on the temple did it!”
Thus the Doctor; but I scarcely heard him. I staggered back a few steps, stretched out my hands toward Maurice, whose face I could dimly discern upon the other side of the rift; and then—why then I had no existence—I was obliterated. Chaos had come once more!
CHAPTER XXIX.
“BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY!”
I was dreaming of Hope! I was at her side; together we were floating through realms of boundless space.
But it was not as it had been before. It was just as vivid, just as real, and yet there was a difference. I gazed into her eyes, I stretched out my hands to grasp her, but clutched at the empty air.
“No, George; not now!” I heard her say. “All danger has passed, and many useful years lie before you. Return to your work, but before I remove my power from your brain I would have you behold the workings of a mighty mystery—a mystery which concerns that mightiest of all mysteries—the human soul.”
Then I thought she bent forward and kissed me, but when once more I tried to throw my arms about her, she was not there.
Nor was I the light and airy being which in fancy I had thought myself.
I was lying upon the rocks looking at the Doctor, powerless to move or speak.
Evidently he considered me simply in a faint, and had left me to look out for myself while he attended to Walla.