“Calling men vegetables does not change the crime!” insisted I. “These creatures have souls! They are the humanity of the sphere!” “I shall tell you nothing more, Roy!” said Isabella. “You do not comfort me in my troubles! You only make me feel worse!” She turned to go. “Stay here, stay here!” I exclaimed. “It has been years since I have heard your voice till now! Stay here and talk with me!” And she stopped, dried her tears and did not go away from my side until the party broke up for the night. There were some good things about the star after all. One need not follow all the hypocrisies of Earth. If Isabella wished to remain and talk with me, she could do so! When I was alone in my apartments, listening to the heavy rain, I thought it all over. It was a murderer who wore the silver crown, the ’broidered robes, who was so kingly in his manner! A murderer was ruler of the star! Must I be one of his minions, I, Roy Lee? He was our law. Why not kill ten men? Now and then in some such disagreeable way he made us all realize his power. I was madly in love with Isabella, but, if I should marry her, Regan would possibly kill her! What would Father Renaudin think now of the monster whom he had crowned? He ought to take the crown from his head and give it to me! I was the more worthy. No blood stained my hands; my station, education and character were suited to the position. That name, or title, of king seemed very powerful with Isabella! It was no use to gnash my teeth and roll on my bed. I dashed the long curtain away for air and thought the matter over. It was Regan who made the laws. If I spoke of a republic, he laughed at me and said: “The discovery to the discoverer! A king is a fundamental law of the creation! The stars cannot whirl without a ruler!” If I wanted Regan dethroned, what of that? How was I to remedy the matter? How wonderfully the rain was falling! Was that the river roaring? The tumult was so ceaseless and singular that I rose and dressed. Scarcely had I done so when the sound of shrieks and bird voices came to me. Hastening into the long hall where we had been in the evening, I saw the floor covered with water. Just then Isabella, Regan and Father Renaudin came into the same room. “It is the sea! it is the sea!” they cried. We ran out upon the foot-hills, from where we could see, in the light of the dawn, a waste of muddy water and a shroud of cloud. We climbed into the peaks of the lava rocks and waited, drenched with storms. We were above some of the clouds and could only dimly see the demolition of all we prized. Tower after tower fell. The water washed the stones from the foundations of the cathedral. We saw the morass broken by the sea, saw masses of land as large as a farm sink from sight like lead. When we could see so far we could note the flowing columns of fire in the cloud-dark south still increasing in size and redness. We could hear the bursting of rocks in chasms where the water would not stay.