Then he remarked very quietly that all was in order, and handing the plate he held to Yva, said: 

“The calculations made so long ago are correct, nor have the stars varied in their proper motions during what is after all but an hour of time.  If you, Stranger, who, I understand, are named Humphrey, should be, as I gather, a heaven-master, naturally you will ask me how I could fix an exact date by the stars without an error of, let us say, from five to ten thousand years.  I answer you that by the proper motion of the stars alone it would have been difficult.  Therefore I remember that in order to be exact, I calculated the future conjunctions of those two planets,” and he pointed to Saturn and Jupiter.  “Finding that one of these occurred near yonder star,” and he indicated the bright orb, Spica, “at a certain time, I determined that then I would awake.  Behold!  There are the stars as I engraved them from my foreknowledge, upon this chart, and there those two great planets hang in conjunction.  Daughter Yva, my wisdom has not failed me.  This world of ours has travelled round the sun neither less nor more than two hundred and fifty thousand times since we laid ourselves down to sleep.  It is written here, and yonder,” and he pointed, first to the engraved plates and then to the vast expanse of the starlit heavens.

Awe fell on me; I think that even Bickley and Bastin were awed, at any rate for the moment.  It was a terrible thing to look on a being, to all appearance more or less human, who alleged that he had been asleep for two hundred and fifty thousand years, and proceeded to prove it by certain ancient star charts.  Of course at the time I could not check those charts, lacking the necessary knowledge, but I have done so since and found that they are quite accurate.  However this made no difference, since the circumstances and something in his manner convinced me that he spoke the absolute truth.

He and his daughter had been asleep for two hundred and fifty thousand years.  Oh!  Heavens, for two hundred and fifty thousand years!

Chapter XIII

Oro Speaks and Bastin Argues

The reader of what I have written, should there ever be such a person, may find the record marvelous, and therefore rashly conclude that because it is beyond experience, it could not be.  It is not a wise deduction, as I think Bickley would admit today, because without doubt many things are which surpass our extremely limited experience.  However, those who draw the veil from the Unknown and reveal the New, must expect incredulity, and accept it without grumbling.  Was that not the fate, for instance, of those who in the Middle Ages, a few hundred years ago, discovered, or rather rediscovered the mighty movements of those constellations which served Oro for an almanac?

But the point I want to make is that if the sceptic plays a Bickleyan part as regards what has been written, it seems probable that his attitude will be accentuated as regards that which it still remains for me to write.  If so, I cannot help it, and must decline entirely to water down or doctor facts and thus pander to his prejudice and ignorance.  For my part I cannot attempt to explain these occurrences; I only know that they happened and that I set down what I saw, heard and felt, neither more nor less.