ating an apple and thereby bringing down
God's curse upon the whole innocent human race is but a figment of
little minds, and an insult to divine intelligence. But, as
symbolizing the dire penalty we pay for a belief in the reality of
both good and evil--ah, that is a note just beginning to be sounded in
the world at large. And it may account for the presence of the world's
evil."

"Yet, our experience certainly shows that evil is just as real and
just as immanent as good! And, indeed, more powerful in this life."

"If so," replied the explorer gravely, "then God created or instituted
it. And in that case I must break with God."

"Then you think it is all a question of our own individual idea of
God?"

"Entirely. And human concepts of Him have been many and varied. But
that worst of Old Testament interpreters of the first century, Philo,
came terribly close to the truth, I think, when, in a burst of
inspiration, he one day wrote: 'Heaven is mind, and earth is
sensation.' Matthew Arnold, I think, likewise came very close to the
truth when he said that the only God we can recognize is 'that
something not ourselves that makes for righteousness.' And, as for
evil, up in the United States there are some who are now lumping it
all under the head of 'mortal mind,' considering it all but the 'one
lie' which Jesus so often referred to, and regarding it as the
'suppositional opposite' of the mind that is God, and so, powerless.
Not a bad idea, I think. But whether the money-loving Yankee will ever
leave his mad chase for gold long enough to live this premise and so
demonstrate it, is a question. I'm watching its development with
intense interest. We in the States have wonderful, exceptional
opportunities for study and research. We ought to uncover the truth,
if any people should."

He fell into thoughtfulness again. Jose drew a long sigh. "I wish--I
wish," he murmured, "that I might go there--that I might live and work
and search up there."

The explorer roused up. "And why not?" he asked abruptly. "Look here,
come with me and spend a year or so digging around for buried Inca
towns. Then we will go back to the States. Why, man! it would make you
over. I'll take you as interpreter. And in the States I'll find a
place for you. Come. Will you?"

For a moment the doors of imagination swung wide, and in the burst of
light from within Jose saw the dreams of a lifetime fulfilled.
Emancipation lay that way. Freedom, soul-expans