He raised her face to his, noble despite all its grotesque
disfigurements; he looked into her eyes as though to read the very
soul of her, to judge whether she could share this fight, could brave
this coming struggle.

"All these things may yet be answered. Once I get the proper data for
this series of phenomena, I can find the solution, never fear!

"Some vast world-duty may be ours, far greater, infinitely more vital
than anything that either of us has ever dreamed. It's not our place,
now, to mourn or fear! Rather it is to read this mystery, to meet it
and to conquer!"

Through her tears the girl smiled up at him, trustingly, confidingly.
And in the last declining rays of the sun that glinted through the
window-pane, her eyes were very beautiful.



CHAPTER V

EXPLORATION


Came now the evening, as they sat and talked together, talked
long and earnestly, there within that ruined place. Too eager for some
knowledge of the truth, they, to feel hunger or to think of their lack
of clothing.