The Coming Race | Page 8

infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect- and inspiring the
same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet each countenance was mild and
tranquil, and even kindly in expression. And, strangely enough, it
seemed to me that in this very calm and benignity consisted the secret
of the dread which the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of
the lines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin,
16leave upon the faces of men, as are the faces of sculptured gods, or
as, in the eyes of Christian mourners, seem the peaceful brows of the
dead.
I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child's. In his eyes there
was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such as that with which we may
gaze on some suffering bird or butterfly. I shrank from that touch- I
shrank from that eye. I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he
so pleased, that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill a
bird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance, quitted
me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. The others
continued to converse with each other in a low tone, and by their
glances towards me I could perceive that I was the object of their
conversation. One in especial seemed to be urging some proposal
affecting me on the being whom I had first met, and this last by his
gesture seemed about to assent to it, when the child suddenly quitted
his post by the window, placed himself between me and the other forms,
as if in protection, and spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or

instinct I felt that the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in my
behalf. Ere he had ceased another stranger entered the room. He
appeared older than the rest, though not old; his countenance less
smoothly serene than theirs, though equally regular in its features,
seemed to me to have more the touch of a humanity akin to my own.
He listened quietly to the words addressed to him, first by my guide,
next by two others of the group, and lastly by the child; then turned
towards myself, and addressed me, not by words, but by signs and
gestures. These I fancied that I perfectly understood, and I was not
mistaken. I comprehended that he inquired whence I came. I extended
my arm, and pointed towards the road which had led me from the
chasm in the rock; then an idea seized me. I drew forth my pocket-book,
and sketched on one of its blank leaves a rough design of the ledge of
the rock, the rope, myself clinging to it; then of the cavernous rock
below, the head of the reptile, 17the lifeless form of my friend. I gave
this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my interrogator, who, after
inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thus passed
round the group. The being I had at first encountered then said a few
words, and the child, who approached and looked at my drawing,
nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and, returning to the window,
expanded the wings attached to his form, shook them once or twice,
and then launched himself into space without. I started up in amaze and
hastened to the window. The child was already in the air, buoyed on his
wings, which he did not flap to and fro as a bird does, but which were
elevated over his head, and seemed to bear him steadily aloft without
effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift as an eagle's; and I
observed that it was towards the rock whence I had descended, of
which the outline loomed visible in the brilliant atmosphere. In a very
few minutes he returned, skimming through the opening from which he
had gone, and dropping on the floor the rope and grappling-hooks I had
left at the descent from the chasm. Some words in a low tone passed
between the being present; one of the group touched an automaton,
which started forward and glided from the room; then the last comer,
who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took me by the hand, and led
me into the corridor. There the platform by which I had mounted
awaited us; we placed ourselves on it and were lowered into the hall
below. My new companion, still holding me by the hand, conducted me

from the building into a street (so to speak) that stretched beyond it,
with buildings on either side, separated from each other by gardens
bright with rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers. Interspersed
amidst these gardens, which were divided from each other by low walls,
or walking slowly along the