The Secret Power - Page 144/209

A thrill ran through her blood.

"I must stay!" she echoed--"Why?"

"Because you have learned the Life-Secret,"--answered the Voice--"And, as you have learned it, so must you live. I will tell you more if you care to hear--"

An inrush of energy came to her as she listened--she felt that the unseen speaker acknowledged the power which she herself knew she possessed.

"With all my soul I care to hear!" she said--"But where do you speak from? And who are you that speak?"

"I speak from the central Watch-Tower,"--the Voice replied--"The City is guarded from that point--and from there we can send messages all over the world in every known language. Sometimes they are understood--more often they are ignored,--but we, who have lived since before the coming of Christ, have no concern with such as do not or will not hear. Our business is to wait and watch while the ages go by,--wait and watch till we are called forth to the new world. Sometimes our messages cross the 'wireless' Marconi system--and some confusion happens--but generally the 'Sound Ray' carries straight to its mark. You must well understand all that is implied when you say you will come to us,--it means that you leave the human race as you have known it and unite yourself with another human race as yet unknown to the world!"

Here was an overwhelming mystery--but, nothing daunted, Morgana pursued her enquiry.

"You can talk to me on the Sound Ray"--she said--"And I understand its possibility. You should equally be able to project your own portrait--a true similitude of yourself--on a Light Ray. Let me see you!"

"You are something of a wilful spirit!" answered the Voice--"But you know many secrets of our science and their results. So--as you wish it--"

Another second, and the cabin was filled with a pearly lustre like the vapour which sweeps across the hills in an early summer dawn--and in the center of this as in an aureole stood a nobly proportioned figure, clad in gold-coloured garments fashioned after the early Greek models. Presumably this personage was human,--but never was a semblance of humanity so transfigured. The face and form were those of a beautiful youth,--the eyes were deep and brilliant,--and the expression of the features was one of fine serenity and kindliness. Morgana gazed and gazed, bending herself towards her wonderful visitor with all her soul in her eyes,--when suddenly the vision, if so it might be called, paled and vanished. She uttered a little cry.