"And yet they travel fast, O Humphrey," he said."Consider then how great is their journey between the time they gather and that day when, worn-out, once more they melt to vaporous gas.You think me long-lived who compared to them exist but a tiny fraction of a second, nearly all of which I have been doomed to pass in sleep.And, Humphrey, I desire to live--I, who have great plans and would shake the world.But my day draws in; a few brief centuries and I shall be gone, and--whither, whither?""If you lived as long as those stars, the end would be the same, Oro.""Yes, but the life of the stars is very long, millions of millions of years; also, after death, they reform, as other stars.But shall I reform as another Oro? With all my wisdom, Ido not know.It is known to Fate only--Fate-the master of worlds and men and the gods they worship--Fate, whom it may please to spill my gathered knowledge, to be lost in the sands of Time.""It seems that you are great," I said, "and have lived long and learned much.Yet the end of it is that your lot is neither worse nor better than that of us creatures of an hour.""It is so, Humphrey.Presently you will die, and within a few centuries I shall die also and be as you are.You believe that you will live again eternally.It may be so because you do believe, since Fate allows Faith to shape the future, if only for a little while.But in me Wisdom has destroyed Faith and therefore I must die.Even if I sleep again for tens of thousands of years, what will it help me, seeing that sleep is unconsciousness and that I shall only wake again to die, since sleep does not restore to us our youth?"He ceased, and walked up and down the rock with a troubled mien.Then he stood in front of me and said in a triumphant voice:
"At least, while I live I will rule, and then let come what may come.I know that you do not believe, and the first victory of this new day of mine shall be to make you believe.I have great powers and you shall see them at work, and afterwards, if things go right, rule with me for a little while, perhaps, as the first of my subjects.Hearken now; in one small matter my calculations, made so long ago, have gone wrong.They showed me that at this time a day of earthquakes, such as those that again and again have rocked and split the world, would recur.But now it seems that there is an error, a tiny error of eleven hundred years, which must go by before those earthquakes come.""Are you sure," I suggested humbly, "that there is not also an error in those star-maps you hold?""I am sure, Humphrey.Some day, who knows? You may return to your world of modern men who, I gather, have knowledge of the great science of astronomy.Take now these maps with which I have done, and submit them to the most learned of those men, and let them tell you whether I was right or wrong in what I wrote upon this metal two hundred and fifty thousand years ago.Whatever else is false, at least the stars in their motions can never die."Then he handed me the maps and was gone.I have them today, and if ever this book is published, they will appear with it, that those who are qualified may judge of them and of the truth or otherwise of Oro's words.
From that night forward for quite a long time I saw Oro no more.Nor indeed did any of us, since for some reason of his own he forbade us to visit the under ground city of Nyo.Oddly enough, however, he commanded Yva to bring down the spaniel, Tommy, to be with him from time to time.When I asked her why, she said it was because he was lonely and desired the dog's companionship.It seemed to us very strange that this super-man, who had the wisdom of ten Solomons gathered in one within his breast, should yet desire the company of a little dog.What then was the worth of learning and long life, or, indeed, of anything?
Well, Solomon himself asked the question ages since, and could give no answer save that all is vanity.
I noted about this time that Yva began to grow very sad and troubled; indeed, looking at her suddenly on two or three occasions, I saw that her beautiful eyes were aswim with tears.
Also, I noted that always as she grew sadder she became, in a sense, more human.In the beginning she was, as it were, far away.One could never forget that she was the child of some alien race whose eyes had looked upon the world when, by comparison, humanity was young; at times, indeed, she might have been the denizen of another planet, strayed to earth.Although she never flaunted it, one felt that her simplest word hid secret wisdom;that to her books were open in which we could not read.Moreover, as I have said, occasionally power flamed out of her, power that was beyond our ken and understanding.
Yet with all this there was nothing elfish about her, nothing uncanny.She was always kind, and, as we could feel, innately good and gentle-hearted, just a woman made half-divine by gifts and experience that others lack.She did not, even make use of her wondrous beauty to madden men, as she might well have done had she been so minded.It is true that both Bastin and Bickley fell in love with her, but that was only because all with whom she had to do must love her, and then, when she told them that it might not be, it was in such a fashion that no soreness was left behind.They went on loving her, that was all, but as men love their sisters or their daughters; as we conceive that they may love in that land where there is no marrying or giving in marriage.
But now, in her sadness, she drew ever nearer to us, and especially to myself, more in tune with our age and thought.In truth, save for her royal and glittering loveliness in which there was some quality which proclaimed her of another blood, and for that reserve of hidden power which at times would look out of her eyes or break through her words, she might in most ways have been some singularly gifted and beautiful modern woman.
