vereign under whose dominion you are about to enter forever."

"Sir," Morhange with the most exquisite courtesy, "it would be only a
natural anxiety which would urge us to inquire the reasons and the end
of this dominion. But behold to what extent your revelation interests
me; I defer this question of private interest. Of late, in two
caverns, it has been my fortune to discover Tifinar inscriptions of
this name, Antinea. My comrade is witness that I took it for a Greek
name. I understand now, thanks to you and the divine Plato, that I
need no longer feel surprised to hear a barbarian called by a Greek
name. But I am no less perplexed as to the etymology of the word. Can
you enlighten me?"

"I shall certainly not fail you there, sir," said M. Le Mesge. "I may
tell you, too, that you are not the first to put to me that question.
Most of the explorers that I have seen enter here in the past ten
years have been attracted in the same way, intrigued by this Greek
work reproduced in Tifinar. I have even arranged a fairly exact
catalogue of these inscriptions and the caverns where they are to be
met with. All, or almost all, are accompanied by this legend:
_Antinea. Here commences her domain_. I myself have had repainted with
ochre such as were beginning to be effaced. But, to return to what I
was telling you before, none of the Europeans who have followed this
epigraphic mystery here, have kept their anxiety to solve this
etymology once they found themselves in Antinea's palace. They all
become otherwise preoccupied. I might make many disclosures as to the
little real importance which purely scientific interests possess even
for scholars, and the quickness with which they sacrifice them to the
most mundane considerations--their own lives, for instance."

"Let us take that up another time, sir, if it is satisfactory to you,"
said Morhange, always admirably polite.

"This digression had only one point, sir: to show you that I do not
count you among these unworthy scholars. You are really eager to know
the origin of this name, _Antinea_, and that before knowing what kind
of woman it belongs to and her motives for holding you and this
gentleman as her prisoners."

I stared hard at the little old man. But he spoke with profound
seriousness.

"So much the better for you, my boy," I thought. "Otherwise it
wouldn't have taken me long to send you through the window to air your
ironies at your ease. The law of gravity ought not t