ed and I saw a sadder scene than any yet. In a hollow of the bare
mountains a little knot of men in dark-blue uniforms were centred about
their commander, whose long locks floated from beneath his broad hat.
Around this small band of no more than a score of soldiers, thousands
of red Indians were raging, with exultant hate in their eyes. The
bodies of dead comrades lay in narrowing circles about the thinning
group of blue-coats. The red men were picking off their few surviving
foes, one by one; and the white men could do nothing, for their
cartridges were all gone. They stood at bay, valiant and defiant,
despite their many wounds; but the line of their implacable foemen was
drawn tighter and tighter about them, and one after another they fell
forward dying or dead, until at last only the long-haired commander was
left, sore wounded but unconquered in spirit.

When this picture of strong men facing death fearlessly was at last
dissolved into darkness like the others that had gone before, I had an
inward monition that it was the last that would be shown me; and so it
was, for although I kept my place at the stand for two or three minutes
more, no warning sparks dispersed the opaque depth.

When I raised my head from the eye-pieces, I became conscious that I
was not alone. Almost in the centre of the circular hall stood a
middle-aged man of distinguished appearance, whose eyes were fixed upon
me. I wondered who he was, and whence he had come, and how he had
entered, and what it might be that he wished with me. I caught a
glimpse of a smile that lurked vaguely on his lips. Neither this smile
nor the expression of his eyes was forbidding, though both were uncanny
and inexplicable. He seemed to be conscious of a remoteness which would
render futile any effort of his towards friendliness.

How long we stood thus staring the one at the other I do not know. My
heart beat heavily and my tongue refused to move when at last I tried
to break the silence.

Then he spoke, and his voice was low and strong and sweet.

"You are welcome," he began, and I noted that the accent was slightly
foreign, Italian perhaps, or it might be French. "I am glad always to
show the visions I have under my control to those who will appreciate
them."

I tried to stammer forth a few words of thanks and of praise for what I
had seen.

"Did you recognize the strange scenes shown to you by these two
instruments?" he asked, after bowing gently in acknow