it lies athwart my memory, black and amazing still, to this day.
Clayton had, indeed, passed into the world that lies so near to
and so far from our own, and he had gone thither by the only road
that mortal man may take. But whether he did indeed pass there
by that poor ghost's incantation, or whether he was stricken suddenly
by apoplexy in the midst of an idle tale--as the coroner's jury would
have us believe--is no matter for my judging; it is just one of those
inexplicable riddles that must remain unsolved until the final solution
of all things shall come. All I certainly know is that, in the very
moment, in the very instant, of concluding those passes, he changed,
and staggered, and fell down before us--dead!


7. JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD

"It isn't every one who's been a god," said the sunburnt man. "But
it's happened to me. Among other things."

I intimated my sense of his condescension.

"It don't leave much for ambition, does it?" said the sunburnt man.

"I was one of those men who were saved from the Ocean Pioneer.
Gummy! how time flies! It's twenty years ago. I doubt if you'll
remember anything of the Ocean Pioneer?"

The name was familiar, and I tried to recall when and where I had
read it. The Ocean Pioneer? "Something about gold dust," I said
vaguely, "but the precise--"