filmy
lacework shining softly in the sun, to make more lovely the delicate
flush beneath. Her eyes, shielded from the sun, were upon him with a
look half hopeful, half despairing. No, he must see it through--go on
with his play-acting--meet magic with magic. Horab had come out from
the cave, and spear in hand he stood commandingly above them on a huge
boulder. Yes, the magic must go on.

The harsh voice of the savage ripped out unintelligible words. Luhra
translated. "It is changed," she said, "and Horab fears. But the water
is there, and there is no burning death.... He says your _Tao_ is
weak."

Garry stared with thankful eyes across the blue expanse where a line
of white marked ghostly breakers on a distant shore; where hills were
reflected in the shimmering blue. But the sun was still above their
tops, so he must spar for time--

"My _Tao_ is strong," he said, and went on with whatever fantastic
thoughts came into his mind. He was talking against time. He told of
the new world his _Tao_ had built, of men harnessing the lightning and
flying through the air; of cannon that roared like the thunder and
threw death and destruction upon those that the _Tao_ would
destroy.... And his eyes watched the slow descent of the dropping sun,
while the figure above stirred impatiently and raised his spear.

"A sign!" Luhra was imploring. "He does not believe!"

The golden ball was touching now on a distant, purple peak. The
amazing magic of the desert!--its moment had come! Garry indicated as
best he could the phantom sea, so real, below.

"My _Tao_ has spoken," he shouted: "watch! The waters shall be dried
up; the seas shall become a desert of hot sand; the lands and waters
that Horab knows shall be no more! There shall be no food for his
stomach nor water for his lips where Horab wanders in torment....
Unless I save him."

* * * * *

He turned to stare at the vast mirage. He knew that the eyes of the
others had followed his, and he knew that they saw the first change
that crept over the land.

The blue that was so unmistakably a sea was dissolving; it seemed
sucked into the sand. And, while yet the hot rays cast their lingering
gold over mountain and plain, the seas faded and were gone ... and
where they had been in unquestioned reality was only yellow sand that
whirled hotly and drifted in the first breath of the coming night....

The towering figure above them stood rigid. Garry had f