he mentions was near the city ..."

"Yes--WAS!" interrupted Alwyn incredulously.

"Was and IS," continued Heliobas. "No earthquake has crumbled it,
no sea has invaded it, and no house has been 'builded' thereon. It
is, as it was then, a waste field, lying about four miles west of
the Babylonian ruins, and there is nothing whatever to hinder you
from journeying thither when you please."

Alwyn's expression as he heard this was one of stupefied
amazement. Part of his so-called "dream" had already proved itself
true--a "field of Ardath" actually existed!

"You are certain of what you say?" he demanded.

"Positively certain!" returned Heliobas.

There was a silence, during which a little tinkling bell resounded
in the outer corridor, followed by the tread of sandaled feet on
the stone pavement. Heliobas closed the Bible and returned it to
its shelf.

"That was the dinner-bell," he announced cheerfully. "Will you
accompany me to the refectory, Mr. Alwyn? ... we can talk further
of this matter afterwards." Alwyn roused himself from the fit of
abstraction into which he had fallen, and gathering together the
loose sheets of his so strangely written manuscript, he arranged
them all in an orderly heap without speaking. Then he looked up
and met the earnest eyes of Heliobas with an expression of settled