“Why not have brought her here instead of this one?” “I meant to do so, I would have done so. I looked that night at her fair, girlish face, so frail, her divine eyes, which always smiled at me. I noted how frightened she was, how weak and like a spirit; too ethereal to be brought to such a winter, to a land not done with its own creation, where no sunlight should brighten to gold her red hair, where her face must be ever blanched with danger! I left her, Father Renaudin, where kind Destiny—” “Say God, Regan!” “Had placed her hand in mine! I put her out into that winter night of Earth—because I loved her! More dreadful than any other sound upon this star is that echo which no tumult can drown, which I ever hear—Rondah’s cry when I left her! Soul reader that you are, I don’t believe you know one tenth the torture of that remembrance! If she were here, oh! if she were here, the sea might swallow the towns, the volcanoes bury my people, but this black lava ball would be a paradise!” Was that Regan, abandoned to such grief that Father Renaudin was alarmed? Men did not die, but they might go mad! “Regan, be calmer! I have a hope for you,” cried Father Renaudin, “really a hope for you and for Rondah! I pity you! Know that I, too, have loved, have loved and lost hopelessly! You need not be hopeless! I learned a secret of importance at the Sun Island! This will be the last revolution for you to reach Rondah! At the next the star will be captured by Jupiter and will whirl as one of the satellites about it until the end of time! You can gather your people, build and adorn! There will be little more destruction, no more such winter! The heat of Jupiter will transform the star into a world of most luxuriant vegetation! The geological changes are very rapid on such a small globe. These volcanoes will cool and die, those at the south acting as the safety-valve of the sphere!” “But Rondah? What of her?” “I tell you, hope! I can say no more! Gregg Dempster, moved only by man’s curiosity, reached the star by powder mines and a detached hut of spiral springs. You are moved by a greater power. You ought to be able to reach the Earth and return once more!” CHAPTER XI. AN OLD FRIEND. More like a gorgeous dream became the life of each day. The sea of gems was rippling in its blue. The glorious islands were purple and pink in mist and bloom. The air was laden with perfume from gold, silver and purple trees. Earth came to be a great moon. In the light of the night walked Regan, pondering ever the same subject. He noticed a shade upon the silver sheet of the fountain. He looked up. Huge black and beautiful wings flapped above his head about a great bronze body. Then a bronze and shiny angel stood before him, grand and dark, but with no shade upon the radiant face, with benediction in the gaze of the great, calm eyes. There was wondrous sweetness in the voice which said: