[Illustration] When the World Shook Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot by H. Rider Haggard Contents CHAPTER I. Arbuthnot Describes Himself CHAPTER II. Bastin and Bickley CHAPTER III. Natalie CHAPTER IV. Death and Departure CHAPTER V. The Cyclone CHAPTER VI. Land CHAPTER VII. The Orofenans CHAPTER VIII. Bastin Attempts the Martyr’s Crown CHAPTER IX. The Island in the Lake CHAPTER X. The Dwellers in the Tomb CHAPTER XI. Resurrection CHAPTER XII. Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Years! CHAPTER XIII. Oro Speaks and Bastin Argues CHAPTER XIV. The Under-world CHAPTER XV. Oro in His House CHAPTER XVI. Visions of the Past CHAPTER XVII. Yva Explains CHAPTER XVIII. The Accident CHAPTER XIX. The Proposals of Bastin and Bickley CHAPTER XX. Oro and Arbuthnot Travel by Night CHAPTER XXI. Love’s Eternal Altar CHAPTER XXII. The Command CHAPTER XXIII. In the Temple of Fate CHAPTER XXIV. The Chariot of the Pit CHAPTER XXV. Sacrifice CHAPTER XXVI. Tommy CHAPTER XXVII. Bastin Discovers a Resemblance NOTE By J. R. Bickley, M.R.C.S. DEDICATION Ditchingham, 1918. MY DEAR CURZON, More than thirty years ago you tried to protect me, then a stranger to you, from one of the falsest and most malignant accusations ever made against a writer. So complete was your exposure of the methods of those at work to blacken a person whom they knew to be innocent, that, as you will remember, they refused to publish your analysis which destroyed their charges and, incidentally, revealed their motives. Although for this reason vindication came otherwise, your kindness is one that I have never forgotten, since, whatever the immediate issue of any effort, in the end it is the intention that avails. Therefore in gratitude and memory I ask you to accept this romance, as I know that you do not disdain the study of romance in the intervals of your Imperial work. The application of its parable to our state and possibilities—beneath or beyond these glimpses of the moon—I leave to your discernment. Believe me, Ever sincerely yours, H. RIDER HAGGARD. To The Earl Curzon of Kedleston, K.G. WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK CHAPTER I. Arbuthnot Describes Himself I suppose that I, Humphrey Arbuthnot, should begin this history in which Destiny has caused me to play so prominent a part, with some short account of myself and of my circumstances.