A sarmolan too was invented which had greater strength, and at the same time greater nicety of adjustment. It could be left in the space beyond the atmosphere, untended for nights together; for it was self-recording, and as long as its parts were kept clear of extraneous matter or force, it was incapable of derangement. Not that it was to be left to itself for a moment; even though it now regularly telegraphed all its changes to Rimla and to the locality of the pirakno, meteorological observers were near it night and day to watch and interpret its signals. To guard against any possible assault of accident, other sarmolans were ballooned into space whose indications were mutually corrective; where one went astray, the others would be right. When Tamarna was completely restored to health and it was made certain by the medical tests that every organ and tissue of her system was fit for its task, her marriage with Omirlo was accorded; and the two entered on their career of parentage. Their duties were made lighter, in order that their energy might pass unimpaired into posterity. They still had their round of work, that their tissues might not grow flaccid, or their life tend to excessive solitude. But Omirlo did for both all that needed great exertion of mental or physical faculty. CHAPTER III DEATH THE accident drew the two together, strengthening their affinities into irrevocable bonds. And now that all was well with them, their sense of the joy of life welled through their whole nature. Those who came near them felt its contagion. Yet there was one in their family who felt it only to smile at it. The aged Amiralno had seen so many centuries fleet past him that the passage of time with its triumphs had grown stale. He was battling with this nausea of life when the new age of discovery and invention had come upon them. And it so far renewed his energy that he was willing to live through it and take his share in the additional duties which it laid upon his generation. He had seen the infancy of the science over which he now presided pass into lusty youth and thence into manhood; and was he to cut his terrene roots before he had seen its greatest triumphs? Meteorology seemed about to take as wide regions of space within its scope as astronomy had; it seemed about to master secrets that would drive mere chance out of its calculations. The curiosity and wonder of youth were again stirred within him. He longed to advance with the new age into spheres that had so long lain under the horizon, only half-guessed at. Before he closed his eyes on Limanora what wonders might not yet be revealed to them? His blood had tingled with the thought, and his organs were filled with the old energy. He would resume the direction of his science for many a year to come.