hed into various objects, but without success.
Finally I came upon this bit of rock." The Chemist adjusted it carefully
under the microscope with the light shining brilliantly upon it.

"You see I have marked one place; I am going to let you look into it
there."

The Doctor stepped forward. As he looked they heard his quick intake of
breath. After a moment he raised his head. On his face was an expression
of awe too deep for words. He made place for the others, and stood
silent.

When the Very Young Man's turn came he looked into the eyepiece
awkwardly. His heart was beating fast; for some reason he felt
frightened.

At first he saw nothing. "Keep the other eye open," said the Chemist.

The Very Young Man did as he was directed. After a moment there appeared
before him a vast stretch of open country. As from a great height he
stared down at the scene spread out below him. Gradually it became
clearer. He saw water, with the sunlight--his own kind of sunlight it
seemed--shining upon it. He stared for a moment more, dazzled by the
light. Then, nearer to him, he saw a grassy slope, that seemed to be on
a mountain-side above the water. On this slope he saw animals grazing,
and beside them a man, formed like himself.

The Chemist's voice came to him from far away. "We are all of us here in
a world that only occupies a portion of one little atom of the gold of a
wedding-ring. Yet what you see there in that stone----"

The Very Young Man raised his head. Before him stood the microscope,
with its fragment of stone gleaming in the blue light of the burning
wire. He wanted to say something to show them how he felt, but no words
came. He looked up into the Chemist's smiling face, and smiled back a
little foolishly.

"Every day I look," said Reoh, breaking the silence. "And I
see--wonderful things. But never really--can I believe."

At this moment there came a violent rapping upon the outer door. As Reoh
left the room to open it, the Very Young Man picked up the bit of stone
that the Chemist had just taken from the microscope.

"I wish--may I keep it?" he asked impulsively.

The Chemist smiled and nodded, and the Very Young Man was about to slip
it into the pocket of his robe when Reoh hastily reentered the room,
followed by Oteo. The youth was breathing heavily, as though he had been
running, and on his face was a frightened look.

"Bad; very bad," said the old man, in a tone of deep concern, as they
came through the