第49章

"It is lifted so far"--he held his forefinger and thumb less than a sixteenth of an inch apart--"above it."And perhaps here is the best place to explain the activa-tion of the shells or coria.The force utilized was atomic energy.Passing from the whirling ball the ions darted through the cylinder to two bands of a peculiar metal affixed to the base of the vehicles somewhat like skids of a sled.

Impinging upon these they produced a partial negation of gravity, lifting the shell slightly, and at the same time creat-ing a powerful repulsive force or thrust that could be di-rected backward, forward, or sidewise at the will of the driver.The creation of this energy and the mechanism of its utilization were, briefly, as follows:

[Dr.Goodwin's lucid and exceedingly comprehensive description of this extraordinary mechanism has been deleted by the Executive Council of the International Association of Science as too dangerously suggestive to scientists of the Central European Powers with which we were so recently at war.It is allowable, however, to state that his observations are in the possession of ex-perts in this country, who are, unfortunately, hampered in their research not only by the scarcity of the radio-active elements that we know, but also by the lack of the element or elements unknown to us that entered into the formation of the fiery ball within the cube of black crystal.Nevertheless, as the principle is so clear, it is believed that these difficulties will ultimately be over-come."--J.B.K., President, I.A.of S.]

The wide, glistening road was gay with the coria.They darted in and out of the gardens; within them the fair-haired, extraordinarily beautiful women on their cushions were like princesses of Elfland, caught in gorgeous fairy webs, resting within the hearts of flowers.In some shells were flaxen-haired dwarfish men of Lugur's type; sometimes black-polled brother officers of Rador; often raven-tressed girls, plainly hand-maidens of the women; and now and then beauties of the lower folk went by with one of the blond dwarfs.

We swept around the turn that made of the jewel-like roadway an enormous horseshoe and, speedily, upon our right the cliffs through which we had come in our journey from the Moon Pool began to march forward beneath their mantles of moss.They formed a gigantic abutment, a titanic salient.It had been from the very front of this salient's in-vading angle that we had emerged; on each side of it the precipices, faintly glowing, drew back and vanished into distance.

The slender, graceful bridges under which we skimmed ended at openings in the upflung, far walls of verdure.Each had its little garrison of soldiers.Through some of the open-ings a rivulet of the green obsidian river passed.These were roadways to the farther country, to the land of the ladala, Rador told me; adding that none of the lesser folk could cross into the pavilioned city unless summoned or with pass.

We turned the bend of the road and flew down that farther emerald ribbon we had seen from the great oval.Before us rose the shining cliffs and the lake.A half-mile, perhaps, from these the last of the bridges flung itself.It was more massive and about it hovered a spirit of ancientness lacking in the other spans; also its garrison was larger and at its base the tangent way was guarded by two massive struc-tures, somewhat like blockhouses, between which it ran.

Something about it aroused in me an intense curiosity.

"Where does that road lead, Rador?" I asked.

"To the one place above all of which I may not tell you, Goodwin," he answered.And again I wondered.

We skimmed slowly out upon the great pier.Far to the left was the prismatic, rainbow curtain between the Cyclo-pean pillars.On the white waters graceful shells--lacustrian replicas of the Elf chariots--swam, but none was near that distant web of wonder.

"Rador--what is that?" I asked.

"It is the Veil of the Shining One!" he answered slowly.

Was the Shining One that which we named the Dweller?

"What is the Shining One?" I cried, eagerly.Again he was silent.Nor did he speak until we had turned on our home-ward way.

And lively as my interest, my scientific curiosity, were--I was conscious suddenly of acute depression.Beautiful, wondrously beautiful this place was--and yet in its wonder dwelt a keen edge of menace, of unease--of inexplicable, inhuman woe; as though in a secret garden of God a soul should sense upon it the gaze of some lurking spirit of evil which some way, somehow, had crept into the sanctuary and only bided its time to spring.