himself encircled by a pair of arms. Bryce was near by, and there were
other men by the engines, but the owner of those arms thought nothing of
this.

"Margaret!" cried Clewe, "how came you here?"

"I have been here all the time," she exclaimed; "or, at least, nearly
all the time." And as she spoke she drew back and looked at him, her
eyes full of happy tears. "Mr. Bryce telegraphed to me the instant
he knew you were going down, and I was here before you had descended
half-way."

"What!" he cried. "And all those messages came from you?"

"Nearly all," she answered. "But tell me, Roland--tell me; have you been
successful? What have you discovered?"

"I am successful," he answered. "I have discovered everything!"

Mr. Bryce came forward.

"I will speak to you all very soon," said Clewe. "I can't tell you
anything now. Margaret, let us go. I shall want to talk to you directly,
but not until I have been to my office. I will meet you at your house in
a very few minutes." And with that he left the building and fairly ran
to his office.

A quarter of an hour later Roland entered Margaret's library, where she
sat awaiting him. He carefully closed the doors and windows. They sat
side by side upon the sofa.

"Now, Roland," she said, "I cannot wait one second longer. What is it
that you have discovered?"

"Margaret," said he, "I am afraid you will have to wait a good many
seconds. If I were to tell you directly what I have discovered, you
would not understand it. I am the possessor of wonderful facts, but I
believe also that I am the master of a theory more wonderful. The facts
I found out when I got to the bottom of the shaft, but the theory I
worked out coming up."

"But give them to me quickly!" she cried. "The facts first--I can wait
for the theory."

"No," he said, "I cannot do it; I must tell you the whole thing as
I have it, arranged in my mind. Now, in the first place, you must
understand that this earth was once a comet."

"Oh, bother your astronomy, I really can't understand it! What did you
find in the bottom of that hole?"

"You must listen to me," he said. "You cannot comprehend a thing I say
if I do not give it to you in the proper order. There have been a great
many theories about comets, but there is only one of them in which I
have placed any belief. You know that as a comet passes around the sun,
its tail is always pointed away from the sun, so that no matter how
rapidly the head shall be mov