"Perhaps it would be better for me to tell you chronologically the events as they have occurred. As you remember when I left you twelve years ago----" "Five years," interrupted the Very Young Man. "Five or twelve, as you please," said the Chemist smiling. "It was my intention then, as you know, to come back to you after a comparatively short stay here." "And bring Mrs.--er--Lylda, with you," put in the Very Young Man, hesitating in confusion over the Christian name. "And bring Lylda with me," finished the Chemist. "I got back here without much difficulty, and in a very much shorter time and with less effort than on my first trip. I tried an entirely different method; I stayed as large as possible while descending, and diminished my size materially only after I had reached the bottom." "I told you----" said the Big Business Man. "It was a dangerous method of procedure, but I made it successfully without mishap. "Lylda and I were married in native fashion shortly after I reached Arite." "How was that; what fashion?" the Very Young Man wanted to know, but the Chemist went on. "It was my intention to stay here only a few weeks and then return with Lylda. She was willing to follow me anywhere I might take her, because--well, perhaps you would hardly understand, but--women here are different in many ways than you know them. "I stayed several months, still planning to leave almost at any time. I found this world an intensely interesting study. Then, when--Loto was expected, I again postponed my departure. "I had been here over a year before I finally gave up my intention of ever returning to you. I have no close relatives above, you know, no one who cares much for me or for whom I care, and my life seemed thoroughly established here. "I am afraid gentlemen, I am offering excuses for myself--for my desertion of my own country in its time of need. I have no defense. As events turned out I could not have helped probably, very much, but still--that is no excuse. I can only say that your world up there seemed so very--very--far away. Events up there had become to me only vague memories as of a dream. And Lylda and my little son were so near, so real and vital to me. Well, at any rate I stayed, deciding definitely to make my home and to end my days here." "What did you do about the drugs?" asked the Doctor. "I kept them hidden carefully for nearly a year," the Chemist replied. "Then fearing lest they should in some way get loose, I destroyed them. They possess a diabolical power, gentlemen; I am afraid of it." "They called you the Master," suggested the Very Young Man, after a pause. "Why was that?" The Chemist smiled. "They do call me the Master. That has been for several years. I suppose I am the most important individual in the nation to-day." "I should think you would be," said the Very Young Man quickly. "What you did, and with the knowledge you have."