" The message that now
startled my ears began with an exact answer to that trans-abysmal
despatch:
"My son, the thought of your death fills me with happiness. Surely you
will come to this wonderful and unspeakable world, you will see me
again, and I you, but under such new circumstances! My heart yearns for
you immeasurably. Come! Come quickly! To press you to my heart, to speak
with you, to teach you the new things, and Oh! more than all, to bring
you to your mother. For, Tony, she is found; my search is ended. I have
discovered her whom the cruel mystery of Death on earth so sharply
removed from us, in youth and radiance. I have not yet revealed myself.
The joy of anticipation surpasses thought or words. I have hastened back
from seeing her, whom to leave in this paradise imparts the one pang I
have known in this new life, hastened again to the Hill of Observation
that now looks on the cruel ruin, the emptiness of desolation, where
once was the City of Scandor. Let me tell you all:
"When I sent you my last message I was at the Tower of Observation. As
the last wave was emitted from the transmitter, the hand of
Superintendent Alca, whom I met at the mines, was laid upon my shoulder.
I looked up in surprise. He answered my questioning glance: 'I did not
return with Chapman. There was no need of it. A barge going to the City
of Light took the body. I explained everything in a letter to the
Council. I was distressed over the news I had received of the approach
of the cometary mass, which I have detected myself, and I hurried after
you in my own kil-chow (the name of the little porcelain steamers),
anxious to see this terrible thing.
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