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The following evening, after much debate with himself, Serviss, armored in scientific reflection, set forth towards the unknown country wherefro in the power of giants, pitiably ensnared by evil-minded enchanters The errand, in Kate's ht's progress was lit by the green and red lales of traffic For dragons he had but the overhead monsters of iron and brass--a his road beneath It was half-past eight of the night-watch

Serviss began to realize that his reawakened interest in this girl was not purely impersonal and scientific It had beco, intimate concern, and every step towards the West sharpened the sense of his folly Had it not been for the memory of that ride up the mountains--his keen remembrance of that day of joyous youth--he could have easily dismissed Viola's case from his mind; but as he permitted himself to dwell upon her rosy, rain-wet face, her bird-like ecstasy of voice, her splendid defiance of the sun and wind, a desire that was as fierce as anger actuated hiallantry but a duty "I will defend her froh a liar, she is still worth rede has been forced upon her"

As he s covered the adjacent carriage-block, and that so--a loo as a prison

He was about to touch the bell when the door opened and a porter softly greeted hiht in, sir This way, sir Softly, please"

Before he was fairly aware of his attendant's h a heavily curtained archway into a large roole lamp at the farther end It contained about twenty people, and he hesitated in embarrassht, on a reclining-chair, lay a woure stood Clarke in the midst of an address, every word of which was made dramatically effective by a forced calmness, an elocutionary trick

"Some of you, s Sosupernatural ever happens where I am' To you I repeat ht conditions? Here is a caravan of Arabs on the desert The road, hard-beaten, is wide and dusty, the necks of the camels sway, the drivers shout, there is the smell of sweat, of leather, of oil The alkaline dust blinds and blisters Physical weariness and suffering shut out all else This is no place to look for heavenly visitors You would be a fool to expect a deht when the beasts are at rest, when the cool, starry sky bends close, when the tent-flaps are closed, then the old men sit about and commune with their dead--as all primitive, natural peoples do