Hic Ille Jacet

: SATURN

At daybreak the thunder-shower passed off, but was followed by a

cold, drenching rain. Supposing Ayrault had remained in the

Callisto, Bearwarden and Cortlandt did not feel anxious, and, not

wishing to be wet through, remained in the cave, keeping up a

good fire with the wood they had collected. Towards evening a

cold wind came up, and, thinking this might clear the air, they

ventured out, but, finding the ground sat rated, and that the

rain was again beginning to fall, they returned to shelter,

prepared a dinner of canned meat, and made themselves as

comfortable as possible for the night.



"I am surprised," said Cortlandt, "that Dick did not try to

return to us, since he had the mackintoshes."



"I dare say he did try," replied Bearwarden, "but finding the

course inundated, and knowing we should not need the mackintoshes

if we remained under cover, decided to put back. The Callisto

is, of course, as safe as a church."



"I hope," said Cortlandt, "no harm has come to him on the way.

It will be a weight off my mind to see him safely with us."



"Should he not turn up in the morning," replied Bearwarden, "we

must begin a search for him bright and early."



Making up the fire as near the entrance of the cave as they could

find a dry place, so that Ayrault should see it if he attempted

to return during the night, they piled on wood, and talked of

their recent experiences.



"However unwilling I was," said Cortlandt, "to believe my senses,

which I felt were misleading me, I can no longer doubt the

reality of that spirit bishop, or the truth of what be says.

When you look at the question dispassionately, it is what you

might logically expect. In my desire to disprove what is to us

supernatural, I tried to create mentally a system that would be a

substitute for the one he described, but could evolve nothing

that so perfectly filled the requirements, or that was so simple.

Nothing seems more natural than that man, having been evolved

from stone, should continue his ascent till he discards material

altogether. The metamorphism is more striking in the first

change than in the second. Granted that the soul is immaterial,

and that it leaves the body after death, what is there to keep it

on earth? Gravitation cannot affect it. What is more likely

than that it is left behind by the earth in its orbit, or that it

continues its forward motion, but in a straight line, till,

reaching the paths of the greater planets, it is drawn to them by

some affinity or attraction that the earth does not possess, and

that the souls held in that manner remain here on probation,

developing like young animals or children, till, by gradually

acquired power, resulting from their wills, they are able to rise

again into space, to revisit the earth, and in time to explore

the universe? It might easily come about that, by some

explainable sympathy, the infant good souls are drawn to this

planet, while the condemned pass on to Cassandra, which holds

them by some property peculiar to itself, until perhaps they,

too, by virtue of their wills, acquire new power, unless

involution sets in and they lose what they have. The simplicity

of the thing is what surprises me now, and that for ages

philosophers have been racking their brains with every

conceivable fancy, when, by simply extending and following

natural laws, they could discern the whole."



"It is the old story," said Bearwarden, "of Columbus and the egg.

Schopenhouer and his predecessors appear to have tried every idea

but the right one, and even Darwin and Huxley fell short in their

reasoning, because they tried to obtain more or less than four by

putting two with two."



Thus they sat and talked while the night wore on. Neither

thought of sleeping, hoping all the while that Ayrault might walk

in as he had the night before.



At last the dawn began to tint the east, and the growing light

showed them that the storm had passed. The upper strata of

Saturn's atmosphere being filled with infinitesimal particles of

dust, as a result of its numerous volcanoes, the conditions were

highly favourable to beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Soon

coloured streaks extended far into the sky, and though they knew

that when the sun's disc appeared it would seem small, it filled

the almost boundless eastern horizon with the most variegated and

gorgeous hues.



Turning away from the welcome sight--for their minds were ill at

ease--they found the light strong enough for their search to

begin. Writing on a sheet of paper, in a large hand, "Have gone

to the Callisto to look for you; shall afterwards return here,"

they pinned this in a conspicuous place and set out due west,

keeping about a hundred yards apart. The ground was wet and

slippery, but overhead all was clear, and the sun soon shone

brightly. Looking to right and left, and occasionally shouting

and discharging their revolvers, they went on for half an hour.



"I have his tracks," called Bearwarden, and Cortlandt hastened to

join him.



In the soft ground, sure enough, they saw Ayrault's footprints,

and, from the distance between them, concluded that he must have

been running or walking very fast; but the rain had washed down

the edges of the incision. The trail ascended a gentle slope,

where they lost it; but on reaching the summit they saw it again

with the feet together, as though Ayrault had paused, and about

it were many other impressions with the feet turned in, as if the

walkers or standers had surrounded Ayrault, who was in the

centre.



"I hope," said Cortlandt, "these are nothing more than the

footprints we have seen formed about ourselves."



"See," said Bearwarden, "Dick's trail goes on, and the others

vanish. They cannot have been made by savages or Indians, for

they seem to have had weight only while standing."



They then resumed their march, firing a revolver shot at

intervals of a minute. Suddenly they came upon a tall, straight

tree, uprooted by the wind and lying diagonally across their

path. Following with their eyes the direction in which it lay,

they saw a large, hollow trunk, with the bark stripped off, and

charred as if struck by lightning. Obliged to pass near this by

the uprooted tree-whose thick trunk, upheld by the branches at

the head, lay raised about two feet from the ground-- both

searchers gave a start, and stood still as if petrified. Inside

the great trunk they saw a head, and, on looking more closely,

descried Ayrault's body. Grasping it by the arms, they drew it

out. The face was pale and the limbs were stiff. Instantly

Cortlandt unfastened the collar, while Bearwarden applied a flask

to the lips. But they soon found that their efforts were vain.



"The spirit!" ejaculated Cortlandt. "Dick may be in a trance, in

which case he can help us. Let us will hard and long."



Accordingly, they threw themselves on their faces, closing their

eyes, that nothing might distract their concentration. Minutes,

which seemed like ages, passed, and there was no response.



"Now," said Bearwarden, "will together, hard."



Suddenly the stillness was broken by the spirit's voice, which

said:



"I felt more than one mind calling, but the effect was so slight

I thought first I was mistaken. I will help you in what you

want, for the young man is not dead, neither is he injured."



Saying which, he stretched himself upon Ayrault, worked his lungs

artificially, and willed with an intensity the observers could

feel where they stood. Quickly the colour returned to Ayrault's

cheeks, and with the spirit's assistance he sat up and leaned

against the tree that had protected him from the storm.



"Your promise was realized," he said, addressing the spirit. "I

have seen what I shall never forget, and lest the anguish--the

vision of which I saw--come true, let us return to the earth, and

not leave it till I have tasted in reality the joys that in the

spirit I seemed to have missed. I have often longed in this life

to be in the spirit, but never knew what longing was, till I

experienced it as a spirit, to be once more in the flesh."



"You see the mercy of God," said the spirit, "in not ordinarily

allowing the spirits of the departed to revisit earth until they

are prepared--that is, until they are sufficiently advanced to go

there unaided--by which time they have come to understand the

wisdom of God's laws. In your case the limiting laws were

partially suspended, so that you were able to return at once,

with many of the faculties and senses of spirits, but without

their accumulated experience. It speaks well for your state of

preparation that, without having had those disguised blessings,

illness or misfortune, you were not utterly crushed by what you

saw when temporarily released. While in the trance you were not

in hell, but experienced the feelings that all mortals would if

allowed to return immediately. Thus no lover can return to earth

till his fiancee has joined him here, or till, perceiving the

benevolence of God's ways, he is not distressed at what he sees,

and has the companionship of a host of kindred spirits.



"The spirits you saw in the cemetery were indeed in hell, but had

become sufficiently developed to revisit the earth, though doing

so did not relieve their distress; for neither the development of

their senses, which intensifies their capacity for remorse and

regret, nor their investigations into God's boundless mercies,

which they have deliberately thrown away, can comfort them.



"Some of your ancestors are on Cassandra, and others are in

purgatory here. Though a few faintly felt your prayer, none were

able to return and answer beside their graves. It was at your

request and prayer that He freed your spirit, but you see how

unhappy it made you."



"I see," replied Ayrault, "that no man should wish to anticipate

the workings of the Almighty, although I have been unspeakably

blessed in that He made an exception--if I may so call it--in my

favour, since, in addition to revealing the responsibilities of

life, it has shown me the inestimable value and loyalty of

woman's love. I fear, however, that my return to earth greatly

distressed the waterer of the flowers you showed me."



"She already sleeps," replied the spirit, "and I have comforted

her by a dream in which she sees that you are well."



"When shall we start?" asked Bearwarden.



"As soon as you can get ready," replied Ayrault. "I would not

risk running short of enough current to generate the apergy

needed to get us back. I dare say when I have been on earth a

few years, and have done something for the good of my

soul--which, as I take it, can be accomplished as well by

advancing science as in any other way--I shall pine for another

journey in space as I now do to return."



"How I wish I were engaged," said Bearwarden, glancing at

Cortlandt, and overjoyed at Ayrault's recovery.



Accordingly, they resumed their march in the direction in which

they had been going when they found Ayrault, and were soon beside

the Callisto. Cortlandt worked the combination lock of the lower

entrance, through which they crawled. Going to the second story,

they opened a large window and let down a ladder, on which the

spirit ascended at their invitation.



Bearwarden and Ayrault immediately set about combining the

chemicals that were to produce the force necessary to repel them

from Saturn. Bubbles of hydrogen were given off from the lead

and zinc plates, and the viscous primary batteries quickly had

the wires passing through a vacuum at a white heat.



"I see you are nearly ready to start," said the spirit, "so I

must say farewell."



"Will you not come with us?" asked Ayrault.



"No," replied the spirit. "I do not wish to be away as long as

it will take you to reach the earth. The Callisto's atmosphere

could not absorb my body, so that, should I leave you before your

arrival, you would be burdened with a corpse. I may visit you in

the spirit, though the desire and effort for communion with

spirits, to be of most good, must needs come from the earth. Ere

long, my intuition tells me, we shall meet again.



"The vision of your own grave," he continued, addressing

Cortlandt, "may not come true for many years, but however long

your lives may be, according to earthly reckoning, remember that

when they are past they will seem to have been hardly more than a

moment, for they are the personification of frailty and

evanescence."



He held up his hands and blessed them; and then repeating,

"Farewell and a happy return!" descended as he had come up.



The air was filled with misty shadows, and the pulsating hearts,

luminous brains, and centres of spiritual activity quivered with

motion. They surrounded the incarnate spirit of the bishop and

set up the soft, musical hum the travellers had heard so often

since their arrival on Saturn.



"I now understand," thought Ayrault, "why the spirits I met kept

repeating that I should be happy. They perceived I was to be

translated, and though they doubtless knew what suffering it

would cause, they also knew I should be awakened to a sense of

great realities, of which I understood but little."



They drew up the ladder and turned on the current, and the

Callisto slowly began to rise, while the three friends crowded

the window.



"Good-bye!" called the spirit's pleasant voice, to which the men

replied in chorus.



The sun had set on the surface of the planet while they made

their preparations; but as the Callisto rose higher, it seemed to

rise again, making the sides of their car shine like silver, and,

carefully closing the two open windows, they watched the

fast-receding world, so many times larger and more magnificent

than their own.