f the grave, and we call it
Hope. Without Hope we should suffer moral death, and by the help of Hope
we yet may climb to Heaven, or at the worst, if she also prove but a
kindly mockery given to hold us from despair, be gently lowered into the
abysses of eternal sleep.

Then I fell to reflecting upon the undertaking on which we were bent,
and what a wild one it was, and yet how strangely the story seemed to
fit in with what had been written centuries ago upon the sherd. Who
was this extraordinary woman, Queen over a people apparently as
extraordinary as herself, and reigning amidst the vestiges of a lost
civilisation? And what was the meaning of this story of the Fire that
gave unending life? Could it be possible that any fluid or essence
should exist which might so fortify these fleshy walls that they
should from age to age resist the mines and batterings of decay? It was
possible, though not probable. The infinite continuation of life would
not, as poor Vincey said, be so marvellous a thing as the production of
life and its temporary endurance. And if it were true, what then? The
person who found it could no doubt rule the world. He could accumulate
all the wealth in the world, and all the power, and all the wisdom that
is power. He might give a lifetime to the study of each art or science.
Well, if that were so, and this _She_ were practically immortal, which
I did not for one moment believe, how was it that, with all these things
at her feet, she preferred to remain in a cave amongst a society
of cannibals? This surely settled the question. The whole story was
monstrous, and only worthy of the superstitious days in which it was
written. At any rate I was very sure that _I_ would not attempt to
attain unending life. I had had far too many worries and disappointments
and secret bitternesses during my forty odd years of existence to wish
that this state of affairs should be continued indefinitely. And yet I
suppose that my life has been, comparatively speaking, a happy one.

And then, reflecting that at the present moment there was far more
likelihood of our earthly careers being cut exceedingly short than of
their being unduly prolonged, I at last managed to get to sleep, a fact
for which anybody who reads this narrative, if anybody ever does, may
very probably be thankful.

When I woke again it was just dawning, and the guard and bearers were
moving about like ghosts through the dense morning mists, getting ready
f