So having cleared the way, we may give a brief account of this visionary

world within the crystal. The things were in all cases seen by Mr. Cave,

and the method of working was invariably for him to watch the crystal

and report what he saw, while Mr. Wace (who as a science student had

learnt the trick of writing in the dark) wrote a brief note of his

report. When the crystal faded, it was put into its box in the proper

position and the electric light turned on. Mr. Wace asked questions, and

suggested observations to clear up difficult points. Nothing, indeed,

could have been less visionary and more matter-of-fact.

The attention of Mr. Cave had been speedily directed to the bird-like

creatures he had seen so abundantly present in each of his earlier

visions. His first impression was soon corrected, and he considered for

a time that they might represent a diurnal species of bat. Then he

thought, grotesquely enough, that they might be cherubs. Their heads

were round, and curiously human, and it was the eyes of one of them that

had so startled him on his second observation. They had broad, silvery

wings, not feathered, but glistening almost as brilliantly as new-killed

fish and with the same subtle play of colour, and these wings were not

built on the plan of bird-wing or bat, Mr. Wace learned, but supported

by curved ribs radiating from the body. (A sort of butterfly wing with

curved ribs seems best to express their appearance.) The body was small,

but fitted with two bunches of prehensile organs, like long tentacles,

immediately under the mouth. Incredible as it appeared to Mr. Wace, the

persuasion at last became irresistible, that it was these creatures

which owned the great quasi-human buildings and the magnificent garden

Tales of Space and Time