Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/314

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310
MEDA:

I replied, "I am ready.—Am I to be allowed to see my wife before I leave?"

He said: "The law forbids any women to be present at such scenes as this."

"Then," I said, "bring it to a close with all speed."

The executioner now advanced towards me, putting on the same apparatus that I had on before, but no cord was tied to my feet this time. His four assistants laid hold of me, and at a word from the leading elder, he turned the handle of the exciter, and I darted into the air, the earth whirling past me at the rate of a thousand miles per hour. At first I was quite dazed, but gradually I began to regain consciousness, I saw land, and hills, and lakes, and valleys, and oceans passing beneath me in quick succession, and gradually growing more and more indistinct. Sometimes I was lost in clouds; sometimes I was in pure, pure atmosphere; I seemed to float onward and upwards. At times I imagined that some one situated like myself followed in my path, but I could not