"Why not? I am merely proving my statement, that you have seen interesting places which you have never visited. Either Trinity spire or the moon might hold this diamond." "But Trinity spire does not fit your description of the country." Again Cyrus seemed amused. "But the moon fits it." William laughed. "Well, Cyrus, you are just the same boy in an argument that you were at school. And how mad I used to get! But this mysterious land that you are concealing so successfully, the land we have all seen but never touched--or even heard about, apparently--must be a God-forsaken district. Is it a desert--like Sahara, for instance?" "No, quite different. This is rock, with plains of lava from volcanic mountains and everywhere, in all directions, dust and ashes: the dried bones of its own past--whatever it was. The whole surface of the country seems upheaved and torn, all on a gigantic scale, as if it was baked too much, then split and sundered in the cooling. A fantastic, solemn region." "Well, by Jove!" said William, at last, "I still maintain that I have never seen the place--nor anything like it." "I said from a distance." "Must have been a mighty long distance." [Illustration: "----THE DRIED BONES OF ITS OWN PAST, WHATEVER IT WAS"--_Page 212_] "It was." "And a mighty unusual country!" "It is. Scattered about are high mountains, once volcanoes. And in the craters of these old volcanoes some of them many miles across, I saw the ruins of cities. There must be hundreds of these mountains, and hundreds of ruined cities." "Then you traveled over the whole country." "No, indeed! But I looked down on it as I approached, and could take in a vast area." William straightened up, and his eyes opened wider. "Oho! Then you went there in an air-ship!" Cyrus nodded. "That accounts for no water on the voyage, and all that other stuff you gave us." Again Cyrus nodded. And, with a broad smile of amusement: "It might also account for Trinity spire and the moon." But his audience was too much in earnest to be thwarted by jokes. "Yes, yes!" said Mr. Bressani. "That explains much that you have said. Please continue." William, however, with a frown, leaned back against the desk. "Cyrus, I still believe you are lying to us." "No, truly I am not. I don't pretend to give you the whole truth, but what I do tell you is the truth and nothing else." "Go on, Mr. Alton," said the Senior Partner. "We interrupted you. It certainly is an amazing country." Cyrus continued. "The whole country is cracked and broken with chasms. From one volcano cañons radiate in all directions. They are miles in width, and they seem bottomless. And even in these cañons, on projecting ledges, are the ruins of cities." "But why should they build their cities in those sunless chasms?" [Illustration: "BUT WHY BUILD THEIR CITIES IN THOSE SUNLESS CHASMS?"--_Page 214_]