Universe as it was known to
the people of Kor. It is at any rate suggestive of some scientific
knowledge that these long-dead worshippers of Truth had recognised the
fact that the globe is round.

XXIV

WALKING THE PLANK

Next day the mutes woke us before the dawn; and by the time that we had
got the sleep out of our eyes, and gone through a perfunctory wash at a
spring which still welled up into the remains of a marble basin in the
centre of the North quadrangle of the vast outer court, we found _She_
standing by the litter ready to start, while old Billali and the two
bearer mutes were busy collecting the baggage. As usual, Ayesha was
veiled like the marble Truth (by the way, I wonder if she originally
got the idea of covering up her beauty from that statue?). I noticed,
however, that she seemed very depressed, and had none of that proud and
buoyant bearing which would have betrayed her among a thousand women of
the same stature, even if they had been veiled like herself. She looked
up as we came--for her head was bowed--and greeted us. Leo asked her how
she had slept.

"Ill, my Kallikrates," she answered, "ill. This night have strange and
hideous dreams come creeping through my brain, and I know not what they
may portend. Almost do I feel as though some evil overshadowed me; and
yet how can evil touch me? I wonder," she went on with a sudden outbreak
of womanly tenderness, "I wonder if, should aught happen to me, so that
I slept awhile and left thee waking, thou wouldst think gently of me? I
wonder, my Kallikrates, if thou wouldst tarry till I came again, as for
so many centuries I have tarried for thy coming?"

Then, without waiting for an answer, she went on: "Come, let us be
setting forth, for we have far to go, and before another day is born in
yonder blue should we stand in the place of Life."

In five minutes we were once more on our way through the vast ruined
city, which loomed at us on either side in the grey dawning in a way
that was at once grand and oppressive. Just as the first ray of the
rising sun shot like a golden arrow athwart this storied desolation we
gained the further gateway of the outer wall, and having given one more
glance at the hoar and pillared majesty through which we had journeyed,
and (with the exception of Job, for whom ruins had no charms) breathed
a sigh of regret that we had not had more time to explore it, passed
through the great moat, and on to the plain beyond.

As