Not until then was there a stir among the Rhamdas.  Chick glanced over at the Aradna.  She was listening eagerly, her chin cupped in her hand, her blue eyes full of interest and wonder, and natural, unfeigned, child-like delight.

Then the Bar caught Chick’s glance; the newcomer felt the cold chill of calculation, the cynical weight of the sceptic, and a queer foreboding of the future; no light glance, but one like fire and ice and iron.  He wondered at the man’s beauty and genius, and at his emotional preponderance manifest even here before the Rhamdas.

The Geos went on.  His words, now, were simple and direct.  Watson felt himself almost deified by that reverent manner.  The Rhamdas listened with visibly growing interest; the Aradna leaned slightly forward; even the Bar dropped his interest in Watson to pay closer attention to the speaker.  For Geos had come to the Jarados; he was an orator as well as a mystic, and he was advancing Chick’s words with all the skill of a master of language, ascending effect—­ climax—­the Jarados had come among them, and—­They had missed him!

For a moment there was silence, then a rustle of general comment.  Chick watched the Rhamdas, leaning over to whisper to each other.  Could he stand up against them?

But none of them spoke.  After the first murmur of comment they lapsed into silence again.  It was the Bar Senestro who broke the tension.

“May I ask, Rhamda Geos, why you make such an assertion?  What proof have you, to begin with, that this man,” indicating Watson with a nod, “is not merely one of ourselves:  a D’Hartian or a Kospian?”

The Geos replied instantly:  “You know the manner of his discovery, Bar Senestro.  Have you not eyes?” Geos seemed to think he had said the last word.

“Surely,” rejoined the Bar good-humouredly.  “I have very good eyes, Rhamda Geos.  Likewise I have a mind to reason with; but my imagination, I fear, is defective.  What I behold is just such a creature as myself; not otherwise.  How hold you that this one is proof out of the occult?”

“You are sceptical,” returned the Rhamda, evenly.  “Even as you behold him, you are full of doubt.  But do you not recall the words of the great Avec?  Do you not know the Prophecy of the Jarados?”

“Truly, Geos; I remember them both.  Especially the writing on the wall of the temple.  Does not the prophet himself say:  ’And behold, in the last days there shall come among ye—­the false ones.  Them ye shall slay’?”

“All very true, Bar Senestro.  But you well know—­we all know—­that the true prophecy was to be fulfilled when the Spot was opened.  Did not the fulfilment begin when the Avec and the Nervina passed through to the other side?”

“The fulfilment, Geos?  Perhaps it was the sign of the coming of impostors!  The end may not be until all the conditions are complied with!”

But at this moment Aradna saw fit to speak.