undone nothing that I can imagine right to be done; and I have done nothing that I know of to clash with Queen Tera’s arrangement.  I want her Great Experiment to succeed.  To this end I have not spared labour or time or money—­or myself.  I have endured hardship, and braved danger.  All my brains; all my knowledge and learning, such as they are; all my endeavours such as they can be, have been, are, and shall be devoted to this end, till we either win or lose the great stake that we play for.”

“The great stake?” I repeated; “the resurrection of the woman, and the woman’s life?  The proof that resurrection can be accomplished; by magical powers; by scientific knowledge; or by use of some force which at present the world does not know?”

Then Mr. Trelawny spoke out the hopes of his heart which up to now he had indicated rather than expressed.  Once or twice I had heard Corbeck speak of the fiery energy of his youth; but, save for the noble words of Margaret when she had spoken of Queen Tera’s hope—­which coming from his daughter made possible a belief that her power was in some sense due to heredity—­I had seen no marked sign of it.  But now his words, sweeping before them like a torrent all antagonistic thought, gave me a new idea of the man.

“‘A woman’s life!’ What is a woman’s life in the scale with what we hope for!  Why, we are risking already a woman’s life; the dearest life to me in all the world, and that grows more dear with every hour that passes.  We are risking as well the lives of four men; yours and my own, as well as those two others who have been won to our confidence.  ’The proof that resurrection can be accomplished!’ That is much.  A marvellous thing in this age of science, and the scepticism that knowledge makes.  But life and resurrection are themselves but items in what may be won by the accomplishment of this Great Experiment.  Imagine what it will be for the world of thought—­the true world of human progress—­the veritable road to the Stars, the itur ad astra of the Ancients—­if there can come back to us out of the unknown past one who can yield to us the lore stored in the great Library of Alexandria, and lost in its consuming flames.  Not only history can be set right, and the teachings of science made veritable from their beginnings; but we can be placed on the road to the knowledge of lost arts, lost learning, lost sciences, so that our feet may tread on the indicated path to their ultimate and complete restoration.  Why, this woman can tell us what the world was like before what is called ‘the Flood’; can give us the origin of that vast astounding myth; can set the mind back to the consideration of things which to us now seem primeval, but which were old stories before the days of the Patriarchs.  But this is not the end!  No, not even the beginning!  If the story of this woman be all that we think—­ which some of us most firmly believe; if her powers and the restoration