Evanescence, then, in the northern hemisphere, and indeed in the southern also, is nothing more nor less than instantaneous transference to the South Pole. The reintegrated body is, with one most important exception, an exact reproduction of the disintegrated original. The exception is this: any bodily organ which has suffered a lesion of any kind is restored in its primitive healthy condition. Had this not been the case, many a man would have been doomed to the shocking fate of languishing in a maimed and mutilated state for evermore. The two laws of evanescence which have been observed in the north are equally valid in the south; but it should be remembered that the transference is always to the _South_ Pole, no matter in which hemisphere evanescence occurs. Hence it is obvious that, before the arrival of the submarine boat, the conditions of population in the north and in the south respectively were directly contrasted. In the former there was a constantly diminishing number which could not be increased; in the latter a constantly increasing number which could not be diminished. But it was quite plain that, assuming the return voyage of the submarine ship to be practicable, equilibrium would soon be restored. Such were the main facts communicated that evening to the astonished engineers. They all retired to rest in their new quarters half petrified with amazement and horror. The gate of exit from life was shut and barred—or rather, none such had ever existed. What was supposed to have been one had no such real significance; and if there was one anywhere it had still to be found. To their question, How had the southerners become aware of their projected submarine voyage? their hosts replied that one of the northerners who had been evanesced by an accident while the ship was building had, on arrival at the pole, communicated the plan. Indeed, in this way, by the frequent arrivals from the north, the southerners were kept well posted up as to everything which took place at the other side of the equator, and had learned all the grand results of the new astronomy. The engineers resolved to lose no time in making the return voyage; and they offered to take with them, as passengers, any, to the number of fifty, who chose to revisit their former habitations; more than fifty they could not easily accommodate. The offer was gladly accepted. Among those who returned they brought the oldest inhabitant of the south, the victim of the Hesperian Cain, whose untimely extinction, just 9997 years before, had led to the discovery of the first law of evanescence. He was now, to all appearance, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. Also three of the crew of that ill-fated ship which perished in the abortive attempt to cross the surface of the equatorial sea accompanied them. CHAPTER X. The oldest inhabitant of the South relates its history—How the awful intelligence was received in the North.