saw, his wonder rose to the point of a passion. He went about his

business listless and distraught, thinking only of the time when he

should be able to return to his watching. And then a few weeks after his

first sight of the valley came the two customers, the stress and

excitement of their offer, and the narrow escape of the crystal from

sale, as I have already told.

Now, while the thing was Mr. Cave's secret, it remained a mere wonder, a

thing to creep to covertly and peep at, as a child might peep upon a

forbidden garden. But Mr. Wace has, for a young scientific investigator,

a particularly lucid and consecutive habit of mind. Directly the crystal

and its story came to him, and he had satisfied himself, by seeing the

phosphorescence with his own eyes, that there really was a certain

evidence for Mr. Cave's statements, he proceeded to develop the matter

systematically. Mr. Cave was only too eager to come and feast his eyes

on this wonderland he saw, and he came every night from half-past eight

until half-past ten, and sometimes, in Mr. Wace's absence, during the

day. On Sunday afternoons, also, he came. From the outset Mr. Wace made

copious notes, and it was due to his scientific method that the relation

between the direction from which the initiating ray entered the crystal

and the orientation of the picture were proved. And, by covering the

crystal in a box perforated only with a small aperture to admit the

exciting ray, and by substituting black holland for his buff blinds, he

greatly improved the conditions of the observations; so that in a little

while they were able to survey the valley in any direction they desired.

Tales of Space and Time