"The extension of spiritual knowledge and the widening of life," she answered. "The link with the 'unearthly kingdom' wherein this ancient system went forever searching, would be re-established. Complete rehabilitation might follow. Portions--little portions of these Powers--expressed themselves naturally once in certain animal types, instinctive life that did not deny or reject them. The worship of sacred animals was the relic of a once gigantic system of evocation--not of monsters," and she smiled sadly, "but of Powers that were willing and ready to descend when worship summoned them." Again, beneath his breath, Henriot heard himself murmur--his own voice startled him as he whispered it: "Actual bodily shape and outline?" "Material for bodies is everywhere," she answered, equally low; "dust to which we all return; sand, if you prefer it, fine, fine sand. Life moulds it easily enough, when that life is potent." A certain confusion spread slowly through his mind as he heard her. He lit a cigarette and smoked some minutes in silence. Lady Statham and her nephew waited for him to speak. At length, after some inner battling and hesitation, he put the question that he knew they waited for. It was impossible to resist any longer. "It would be interesting to know the method," he said, "and to revive, perhaps, by experiment--" Before he could complete his thought, she took him up: "There are some who claim to know it," she said gravely--her eyes a moment masterful. "A clue, thus followed, might lead to the entire reconstruction I spoke of." "And the method?" he repeated faintly. "Evoke the Power by ceremonial evocation--the ritual is obtainable--and note the form it assumes. Then establish it. This shape or outline once secured, could then be made permanent--a mould for its return at will--its natural physical expression here on earth." "Idol!" he exclaimed. "Image," she replied at once. "Life, before we can know it, must have a body. Our souls, in order to manifest here, need a material vehicle." "And--to obtain this form or outline?" he began; "to fix it, rather?" "Would be required the clever pencil of a fearless looker-on--some one not engaged in the actual evocation. This form, accurately made permanent in solid matter, say in stone, would provide a channel always open. Experiment, properly speaking, might then begin. The cisterns of Power behind would be accessible." "An amazing proposition!" Henriot exclaimed. What surprised him was that he felt no desire to laugh, and little even to doubt. "Yet known to every religion that ever deserved the name," put in Vance like a voice from a distance. Blackness came somehow with his interruption--a touch of darkness. He spoke eagerly.