But how to explain our motives for this singular journey?
I feel that it is a case where preliminary words and finely turned phrases would be wasted, and entire frankness will pay the best.
Here it is then—make the most of it.
I, George Wylde, my friend Maurice De Veber, late American Consul at Panompin, and the ubiquitous Philpot, were supposed to be on our way to the planet Mars!
There! I have said it, and now I feel better. Laugh at us for idiots if you will; put me down as a monstrous falsifier; treat my statement in any way that best pleases you. I can only hold up my right hand and say solemnly: “It is the truth!”
Of course it is scarcely necessary for me to add that my parti-colored acquaintance, Mr. Mirrikh, was at the bottom of it. That goes without saying, I suppose.
I will mention, however, that the beginning of our folly dates from that night when we found ourselves storm bound in the old Siamese tower; from the moment when that levitating individual gravely announced himself as a man from Mars.
And the rest of his story?
Reader, I dare not tell it; but I will mention that at this time I did not know it. It is, however, too utterly improbable to excite belief, even in the mind of a full-fledged 19th Century Buddhist, who, if you were to claim to have been transported bodily from Benares to Boston in twenty seconds, would not doubt your statement in the least.
Yet Mr. Mirrikh made his assertion with such quiet dignity, that while he spoke he almost carried me away with him; almost made me believe in a vast realm of disembodied spirits all about us, controlling our every action, our very thoughts,
“It is quite useless to talk to you Europeans about these things Wylde”—I remember distinctly the very intonations of his voice as he said it—“quite useless, I assure you, for the reason that you look upon this world as the world of causes, while in reality it is only the world of effects, a mere shadowy reflection of the vast realm of the unseen.”
“But,” I answered, “you must make us some explanation. Here you have boldly asserted something which to our minds seems an utter impossibility; that you are an inhabitant of another planet; not satisfied with this, you tell us that
