The witching of this moonlit garden! But the moon had presently sunk, and to the east the stars were fading. "Philip! Look! Why, it's dawn already. I've got to leave you." I held her just a moment by the hand. "May I meet you here to-morrow night?" I asked. "Yes," she said simply. "Good night--Jetta." "Good night. You--you've made me very happy." She was gone, into a doorway of the opposite wing. The silent, empty garden sounded with the distant, reassuring snores of the still sleeping Spawn. I went back to my room and lay on my bed. And drifted off on a sea of magic memories. The world--my world before this night--now seemed to have been so drab. Empty. Lifeless. But now there was pulsing, living magic in it for me. I drifted into sleep, thinking of it. CHAPTER IV _The Mine in the Cauldron Depths_ I was awakened by the tinkling, buzzing call of the radio-diaphragm beneath my shirt. I had left the call open. It was Hanley. I lay down, eyeing my window which now was illumined by the flat light of dawn. Hanley's microscopic voice: "Phil? I've just raised President Markes, there in Nareda. I've been a bit worried about you." "I'm all right, Chief." "Well, you'd better see President Markes this morning." "That was my intention." "Tell him frankly what you're after. This smuggling of quicksilver from Nareda has got to stop. But take it easy, Phil; don't be reckless. Remember: one little knife thrust and I've lost a good man!" I laughed at his anxious tone. That was always Hanley's way. A devil himself, when he was on a trail, but always worried for fear one of his men would come to harm. "Right enough, Chief. I'll be careful." He cut off presently. I did not see Jetta that morning. I told Spawn I was hoping to see President Markes on my petroleum proposition. And at the proper hour I took myself to the government house. * * * * * This Lowland village by daylight seemed even more fantastic than shrouded in the shadows of night. The morning sun had dissipated the overhead mists. It was hot in the rocky streets under the weird overhanging vegetation. The settlement was quietly busy with its tropical activities. There were a few local shops; vehicles with the Highland domestic animals--horses and oxen--panting in the heat; an occasional electro-automatic car. But there were not many evidences of modernity here. The street and house tube-lights. A few radio image-finders on the house-tops. An automatic escalator bringing ore from a nearby mine past the government checkers to an aero stage for northern transportation. Cultivated fields in the village outskirts operated with modern machinery. But beyond that, it seemed primitive. Two hundred years back. Street vendors. People in primitive, ragged, tropical garb. Half naked children. I was stared at curiously. An augmenting group of children followed me as I went down the street.