But her answer, given with faltering voice, was the old, simple one: "I have promised him, Adam. I love him." Tears trembled on her thick lashes.
"So! I cannot get you in the ancient manner. Now I'll use my own."
He seized her in his arms, crushed her against him, and, laughing over her head at Northwood, bent his glistening head and kissed her on the mouth.
There, was a blinding flash of blue electric sparks—and nothing else. Both Adam and Athalia had vanished.
ADAM'S voice came in a last mocking challenge: "I shall be what no other gods before me have been—a good sport. I'll leave you both to your own devices, until I want you again."
White-lipped and trembling, Northwood groaned: "What has he done now?"
Dr. Mundson's great head drooped. "I don't know. Our bodies are electric and chemical machines; and a super intelligence has discovered new laws of which you and I are ignorant."
"But Athalia . . . ."
"She is safe; he loves her."
"Loves her!" Northwood shivered. "I cannot believe that those freezing eyes could ever look with love on a woman."
"Adam is a man. At heart he is as human as the first man-creature that wallowed in the new earth's slime." His voice dropped as though he were musing aloud. "It might be well to let him have Athalia. She will help to keep vigor in the new race, which would stop reproducing in another few generations without the injection of Black Age blood."
"Do you want to bring more creatures like Adam into the world?" Northwood flung at him. "You have tampered with life enough. Dr. Mundson. But, although Adam has my sympathy. I'm not willing to turn Athalia over to him."
"Well said! Now come to the laboratory for chemical nourishment and rest under the Life Ray."
They went to the great circular building from whose highest tower issued the golden radiance that shamed the light of the sun, hanging low in the northeast.
"John Northwood," said Dr. Mundson, "with that laboratory, which is the center of all life in New Eden, we'll have to whip Adam. He gave us what he called a 'sporting chance' because he knew that he is able to send us and all mankind to a doom more terrible than hell. Even now we might be entering some hideous trap that he has set for us."
THEY entered by a side entrance and went immediately to what Dr. Mundson called the Rest Ward. Here, in a large room, were ranged rows of cots, on many of which lay men basking in the deep orange flood of light which poured from individual lamps set above each cot.
"It is the Life Ray!" said Dr. Mundson reverently. "The source of all growth and restoration in Nature. It is the power that bursts open the seed and brings forth the shoot, that increases the shoot into a giant tree. It is the same power that enables the fertilized ovum to develop into an animal. It creates and recreates cells almost instantly; accordingly, it is the perfect substitute for sleep. Stretch out, enjoy its power; and while you rest, eat these nourishing tablets."
Northwood lay on a cot, and Dr. Mundson turned the Life Ray on him. For a few minutes a delicious drowsiness fell upon him, producing a spell of perfect peace which the cells of his being seemed to drink in. For another delirious, fleeting space, every inch of him vibrated with a thrilling sensation of freshness. He took a deep, ecstatic breath and opened his eyes.
"Enough," said Dr. Mundson, switching off the Ray. "After three minutes of rejuvenation, you are commencing again with perfect cells. All ravages from disease and wear have been corrected."
