-as perchance you
shall learn before all is done. Now, since you do not believe, I will
tell you no more of our mysteries, no, not whence this light comes nor
what are the properties of the Water of Life, both of which you long
to know, nor how to preserve the vital spark of Being in the grave of
dreamless sleep, like a live jewel in a casket of dead stone, nor aught
else. As to these matters, Daughter, I bid you also to be silent, since
Bickley mocks at us. Yes, with all this around him, he who saw us rise
from the coffins, still mocks at us in his heart. Therefore let him,
this little man of a little day, when his few years are done go to the
tomb in ignorance, and his companions with him, they who might have been
as wise as I am."

Thus Oro spoke in a voice of icy rage, his deep eyes glowing like
coals. Hearing him I cursed Bickley in my heart for I was sure that once
spoken, his decree was like to that of the Medes and Persians and could
not be altered. Bickley, however, was not in the least dismayed. Indeed
he argued the point. He told Oro straight out that he would not believe
in the impossible until it had been shown to him to be possible, and
that the law of Nature never had been and never could be violated. It
was no answer, he said, to show him wonders without explaining their
cause, since all that he seemed to see might be but mental illusions
produced he knew not how.

Oro listened patiently, then answered:

"Good. So be it, they are illusions. I am an illusion; those savages who
died upon the rock will tell you so. This fair woman before you is an
illusion; Humphrey, I am sure, knows it as you will also before you have
done with her. These halls are illusions. Live on in your illusions,
O little man of science, who because you see the face of things, think
that you know the body and the heart, and can read the soul at work
within. You are a worthy child of tens of thousands of your breed who
were before you and are now forgotten."

Bickley looked up to answer, then changed his mind and was silent,
thinking further argument dangerous, and Oro went on:

"Now I differ from you, Bickley, in this way. I who have more wisdom in
my finger-point than you with all the physicians of your world added to
you, have in your brains and bodies, yet desire to learn from those who
can give me knowledge. I understand from your words to my daughter that
you, Bastin, teach a faith that is new to me, and that this faith tel