had tied a cloth tightly over the mouth and nostrils; in another instant he threw it down and it was gone.
Breathlessly I watched him, for I knew that his time had come. It did not seem to disturb him, however. He closed the trap and wading to the altar removed the plug from the golden tube and inhaled the gas, restoring the plug before he raised himself again. Once more that mysterious process was repeated. The body of the lama sank to the floor with a splash, but his spirit—I questioned these mighty facts no longer—rose up and soared away, leaving me the sole occupant of that gloomy vault.
Now one might reasonably suppose that by this time I would have found leisure to think of my own body, but I had not done so yet. The fact is I was enjoying a delicious sense of freedom—a sensation too delicious to be disturbed.
I thought, instead, of Maurice. I desired to see him, to speak to him, to know where he was and what he was about.
Then like a flash that chamber vanished and I was repeating my former experience—I was floating among the spheres.
Sun, moon and stars innumerable were all about me, each in its proper form and place; each following its own proper motion; all of which I was, as before, in some measure able to grasp.
Was I moving?
I certainly was and with incredible rapidity; yet as I directed my eyes toward Mars, which hovered a dull, reddish globe of light above me, it seemed at a distance vast beyond all computation. It was only when I looked beyond it and caught sight of Orion and great Sirius that I comprehended something of the immensity of space. Then Mars seemed so near that I felt I had only to reach out my hand and touch it, while aeons of time lay between myself and the Dog Star. My brain reeled—I was grappling with problems comprehensible only to the Divine essence — the Lord, God Almighty, who holds countless suns and worlds without end in the hollow of his hand.
Then a voice spoke.
“Beware, George! Fix your thoughts upon your friends, lest while contemplating mysteries too deep for your natural mind, you sever the life cord and return to your proper sphere of usefulness no more!”
