I remembered the prediction of our guest, and rushed to his hut. He was not there; nor could I conjecture whither he had gone. I thought he had taken shelter in the bush from the storm. Three days it lasted, and then we were able to go out and search the drenched forest. We followed up every track that he had been accustomed to take. We went to all his favourite haunts. But no trace could we find of him, though days were spent on the search. Then we forced our way through the dense undergrowth in several directions we had never seen him take; and at last we came upon a yawning chasm, which had every appearance of being newly opened. The precipitous side of the mountain had split, and a vast landslip had swept down it and filled the bottom of the gulf. We could not resist the natural conclusion; this was the tomb of our guest. After all his wanderings he had found appropriate resting-place. The earth he knew so well had taken him to her bosom. BOOK II The Limanorans The Inner Life of a Self-Selected People CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE 291 GLOSSARY 295 I.--DISCOVERIES 299 II.--AN ACCIDENT 339 III.--DEATH 354 IV.--AN EPIDEMIC 392 V.--LITERATURE 407 VI.--INSPIRATION 419 VII.--PIONEERING 436 VIII.--ANOTHER THREAT 487 IX.--POLITY 507 X.--THE MANORA AND THE IMANORA 538 XI.--ETHICS 554 XII.--A WARNING 629 XIII.--RELIGION 654 XIV.--THE LAST FLIGHT 694 EPILOGUE 707 PREFACE LATE in the autumn, when the memory of the stranger who had told us so many wonderful things had begun to lose its sharpness and we had almost ceased to talk of him, we were startled by his reappearance.