A burning wave of color flushed Alwyn’s face, but he was silent.  Heliobas went on gently: 

“At a very early period of their formation, these Fraternities I tell you of were in possession of most of the material scientific facts of the present day,—­such things as the electric wire and battery, the phonograph, the telephone, and other ‘new’ discoveries, being perfectly familiar to them.  The spiritual manifestations of Nature were more intricate and difficult to penetrate,—­and though they knew that material effects could only be produced by spiritual causes, they worked in the dark, as it were, only groping toward the light.  However, the wisdom and purity of the lives they led was not without its effect,—­emperors and kings sought their advice, and gave them great stores of wealth, which they divided, according to rule, into equal portions, and used for the benefit of those in need, willing the remainder to their successors; so that, at the present time, the few brotherhoods that are left hold immense treasures accumulated through many centuries,—­treasures which are theirs to share with one another in prosecution of discoveries and the carrying on of good works in secret.  Ages before the coming of Christ, one Aselzion, a man of austere and strict life, belonging to a Fraternity stationed in Syria, was engaged in working out a calculation of the average quantity of heat and light provided per minute by the sun’s rays, when, glancing upward at the sky, the hour being clear noonday, he beheld a Cross of crimson hue suspended in the sky, whereon hung the cloudy semblance of a human figure.  Believing himself to be the victim of some optical delusion, he hastened to fetch some of his brethren, who at a glance perceived the self-same marvel,—­which presently was viewed with reverent wonder by the whole assembled community.  For one entire hour the Symbol stayed—­then vanished suddenly, a noise like thunder accompanying its departure.  Within a few months of its appearance, messages came from all the other Fraternities stationed in Egypt, in Spain, in Greece, in Etruria, stating that they also had seen this singular sight, and suggesting that from henceforth the Cross should be adopted by the united Brotherhoods as a holy sign of some Deity unrevealed,—­a proposition that was at once agreed to.  This happened some five thousand years before Christ,—­and hence the Sign of the Cross became known in all, or nearly all, the ancient rites of worship, the multitude considering that because it was the emblem of the Philosophical Fraternities, it must have some sacred meaning.  So it was used in the service of Serapis and the adoration of the Nile-god,—­it has been found carved on Egyptian disks and obelisks, and it was included among the numerous symbols of Saturn.”

He paused.  Alwyn was listening with eager, almost breathless, attention.