Not far from our car, with her flowing garments nearly torn from her in
the fierceness of the gale, was a young girl, stretching out her hands
imploringly toward us and pouring forth her voice in that exquisite song.
We soon discovered it was not for herself that she was anxious, but for
us; for when she observed that she had attracted our attention she smiled
and turned to go back the way she had come, beckoning us with hand and eye
to follow her, and still singing her sweet but unintelligible words.
Perhaps I flattered myself, but I thought she was looking at me more than
at my companion, and I began with great eagerness to unfasten the door of
the car.

"Wait!" cried the doctor. "Where are you going?"

I could not stop an instant, but answered with feeling:

"Going? I am going wherever she is going. I'll follow her to the end of
the moon if necessary, though the surface be everywhere as bleak as our
own north pole."

"Well," he replied, "if it is such a desperate case as that, I'll have to
go along to take care of you."

I found that when such a woman beckons and such a voice calls there is but
one thing to do. The sirens were not to be mentioned in comparison. Twenty
thousand hurricanes could not have prevented me from attempting to follow
where she led as long as I had breath.

We reached the ground in safety, and with the greatest difficulty made our
way in the footsteps of our guide, leaving all our possessions behind us,