For some moments the old man did not reply. He stood with bowed
head, buried in deep thought. But at last he spoke.

"David," he said, "I am not so sure that we are ON earth."

"What do you mean Perry?" I cried. "Do you think that we are dead,
and this is heaven?" He smiled, and turning, pointing to the nose
of the prospector protruding from the ground at our backs.

"But for that, David, I might believe that we were indeed come to
the country beyond the Styx. The prospector renders that theory
untenable--it, certainly, could never have gone to heaven. However
I am willing to concede that we actually may be in another world
from that which we have always known. If we are not ON earth,
there is every reason to believe that we may be IN it."

"We may have quartered through the earth's crust and come out upon
some tropical island of the West Indies," I suggested. Again Perry
shook his head.

"Let us wait and see, David," he replied, "and in the meantime
suppose we do a bit of exploring up and down the coast--we may find
a native who can enlighten us."

As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and earnestly across
the water. Evidently he was wrestling with a mighty problem.

"David," he said abruptly, "do you perceive anything unusual about
the horizon?"