tween him and Jacob Meyer,
while, lamp in hand, she stood near them like a strengthless ghost.

"If you dare to wake her," hissed Jacob, "I tell you that she will die,
and afterwards you shall die," and he fingered the pistol at his belt.
"No harm shall come to her--I swear it! Follow and see. Man, man, be
silent; our fortunes hang on it."

Then, overcome also by the strange fierceness of that voice and gaze, he
followed.

On they go to the winding neck of the cavern, first Jacob walking
backwards like the herald of majesty; then majesty itself in the shape
of this long-haired, death-like woman, cloaked and bearing in her hand
the light; and last, behind, the old, white-bearded man, like Time
following Beauty to the grave. Now they were in the great cavern, and
now, avoiding the open tombs, the well mouth and the altar, they stood
beneath the crucifix.

"Be seated," said Meyer, and the entranced Benita sat herself down
upon the steps at the foot of the cross, placing the lamp on the rock
pavement before her, and bowing her head till her hair fell upon her
naked feet and hid them. He held his hands above her for a while, then
asked:

"Do you sleep?"

"I sleep," came the strange, slow answer.

"Is your spirit awake?"

"It is awake."

"Command it to travel backwards through the ages to the beginning, and
tell me what you see here."

"I see a rugged cave and wild folk dwelling in it; an old man is dying
yonder," and she pointed to the right; "and a black woman with a babe
at her breast tends him. A man, it is her husband, enters the cave. He
holds a torch in one hand, and with the other drags a buck."

"Cease," said Meyer. "How long is this ago?"

"Thirty-three thousand two hundred and one years," came the answer,
spoken without any hesitation.

"Pass on," he said, "pass on thirty thousand years, and tell me what you
see."

For a long while there was silence.

"Why do you not speak?" he asked.

"Be patient; I am living through those thirty thousand years; many a
life, many an age, but none may be missed."

Again there was silence for a long while, till at length she spoke:

"They are done, all of them, and now three thousand years ago I see this
place changed and smoothly fashioned, peopled by a throng of worshippers
clad in strange garments with clasps upon them. Behind me stands the
graven statue of a goddess with a calm and cruel face, in front of the
altar burns a fire, and on the altar white-ro