es of a room etched themselves against
the clouded background. And in the foreground Lucille's face. The girl
was bending over Jim, one hand soothing his forehead.

"Where am I?" Jim muttered.

"Back on earth, Jim, the good old earth, never again to leave it,"
answered Lucille, with a catch in her voice. With an effort she
composed herself. "You mustn't talk," she said.

"But what place is this?"

"It's Andy Lumm's house. Now rest, and I'll explain everything later."

But the first explanation came from Andy Lumm. "Well, Mr. Dent, my
wife and me sure were glad to be on the spot when you and Miss Parrish
got bogged on the edge of the Black Pool," he said. "Mean, treacherous
place it is. Thar was a cow got mired thar last month, up to her
belly. If us hadn't found her, and dragged her out with ropes, she'd
have gone clear under. Granpop Dawes says thar's underground springs
around the edge, and that it runs straight down to hell, though that
seems sorter far-fetched to me.

"Yessir, and if I hadn't heard WNYC giving Miss Parrish on the list of
missing persons, and as having been seen near here, I reckon I'd never
have found you. Made me and my wife uneasy, that did. 'Andy,' she
says. 'I got an inkling you oughter go to the Vanishing Place and see
if she ain't there.' And there I found you two, mired to the waist,
and Mr. Parrish dancing around and fretting, and his clothes burned to
cinders.

"It sure seems strange to me, to think Mr. Parrish got away safe after
that explosion five years ago, and of his wandering around with loss
of memory, till you found him, and brung him back here to restore it,
but thar's strange things in the world--yes, sir, thar surely is!"

In the happiness of being back on Earth once more, Jim was content to
let further explanations go. The return of Parrish had been duly
chronicled in the newspapers, and had provoked a mild interest, but
fortunately the public mind was so occupied at the moment with the
trial of a night club hostess that, after the first rush of newspaper
men, the three were left alone.

* * * * *

Day after day, in the brilliant autumn weather, Jim and Lucille would
roam the tinted woods, recharging themselves with the feel of Earth,
until the memory of those dread experiences grew dim.

"Well, Jim, I reckon I'd better tell you and get it over," said old
Parrish one morning--Parrish, quite his old, jaunty self again. "Tode
had got th