"'Then if I overcome Perodii in fair and open combat on the morrow, will you come unto me? Volinè, let the morrow be our bridal day. Nay, urge no obstacles, my dear one. Say "Yes," and give me new strength for the fray.' "'I will tell thee to-night, when thou meetest me in the arbour of Siccoth. Now hurry thee away, for there is much that I would do before the sun hath risen on the morrow.' "On my way back I met Temple, and he was profuse in his congratulations on my happiness. "'Why, Graham, the events of the past four and twenty hours seem like a dream--even in this strange city of enchantment and wondrous surprises. Now come along and have a chat. Surely the beautiful Volinè can spare you for one hour in which you may talk with your friends! To tell the truth, I feel almost afraid of you now, if all that I have heard is true.' "'Well, Mr. Temple, and what may you have heard?' I asked, as we strolled out of the Palace together, and sat ourselves down under the cool shade of a broad-leafed shrub. "'We have heard so much that, really, I scarcely know where to begin in describing it. Briefly, it is this. That yesterday afternoon Volinè and yourself went into that three-domed Temple on the hill we saw from the _Sirius_, and that there you went through some fiendish art of sorcery, which has professed to endow you with a longer span of life. After what happened at Remagaloth, I must confess I felt a certain amount of faith in this Priest Echri's power; but that he can prolong your days, even to the extent of one, I do not believe----" "'I think you would, Mr. Temple, had you seen and experienced as much as I have. Religious ordinances in this world are, as one might expect them to be, vastly different from any now on Earth. Here in Gathma, there are Holy Men who appear to be direct agents of a Supreme Being, and through them Almighty will is manifest. After all, there is nothing so very remarkable about this; for even in our world, during the days of the Patriarchs, very similar conditions prevailed. It must be more than human sorcery or trickery that can send a man through a stream of molten fire unscathed, unsinged, as I went yesterday, although I suffered in one brief awful moment all the pain of death in that dread majestic element. Whether I live to be seventy, or ten times seventy, time alone can prove; but I have every faith in Echri's power. I can understand your scepticism; but let the solemn assurances of one who has seen his potency, and felt his power, change your opinion. How this wonder was worked, how my body escaped annihilation, or if destroyed how another so similar in all respects, that I cannot find one tittle of difference myself, was created, is as much a mystery to me as to you, as that fair Temple yonder guards its secrets well.' "'But what good have you really done yourself, Graham, in this thing, provided all be true?'