he night
on the face of another world and venturing, perhaps, into the jaws of
a danger which human experience could not measure!

But on we went, and in a little while we had emerged from the tall grass
and were somewhat startled by the discovery that we had got close to
the wall of the building.

Carefully we crept around toward the open door.

As we neared it we suddenly stopped as if we had been stricken with
instantaneous paralysis.

Out of the door floated, on the soft night air, the sweetest music I
have ever listened to.

A Monstrous Surprise.

It carried me back in an instant to my own world. It was the music of
the earth. It was the melodious expression of a human soul. It thrilled
us both to the heart's core.

"My God!" exclaimed Colonel Smith. "What can that be? Are we dreaming,
or where in heaven's name are we?"

Still the enchanting harmony floated out upon the air.

What the instrument was I could not tell; but the sound seemed more nearly
to resemble that of a violin than of anything else I could think of.

Magnificent Music.

When we first heard it the strains were gentle, sweet, caressing and
full of an infinite depth of feeling, but in a little while its tone
changed, and it became a magnificent march, throbbing upon the air in
stirring notes that set our hearts beating in unison with its stride
and inspiring in us a courage that we had not felt before.

Then it drifted into a wild fantasia, still inexpressibly sweet, and from
that changed again into a requiem or lament, whose mellifluous tide of
harmony swept our thoughts back again to the earth.

"I can endure this no longer," I said. "I must see who it is that makes
that music. It is the product of a human heart and must come from the
touch of human fingers."

We carefully shifted our position until we stood in the blaze of light
that poured out of the door.

The doorway was an immense arched opening, magnificently ornamented,
rising to a height of, I should say, not less than twenty or twenty-five
feet and broad in proportion. The door itself stood widely open and it,
together with all of its fittings and surroundings, was composed of the
same beautiful red metal.

A Beautiful Girl!

Stepping out a little way into the light I could see within the door
an immense apartment, glittering on all sides with metallic ornaments
and gems and lighted from the centre by a great chandelier of electric
candles.

In the middle of