of the ground. With an expression of surprise I turned and looked

at Perry--it was broad daylight without!

"Something seems to have gone wrong either with our calculations

or the chronometer," I said. Perry shook his head--there was a

strange expression in his eyes.

"Let's have a look beyond that door, David," he cried.

Together we stepped out to stand in silent contemplation of a

landscape at once weird and beautiful. Before us a low and level

shore stretched down to a silent sea. As far as the eye could reach

the surface of the water was dotted with countless tiny isles--some

of towering, barren, granitic rock--others resplendent in gorgeous

trappings of tropical vegetation, myriad starred with the magnificent

splendor of vivid blooms.

Behind us rose a dark and forbidding wood of giant arborescent

ferns intermingled with the commoner types of a primeval tropical

forest. Huge creepers depended in great loops from tree to tree,

dense under-brush overgrew a tangled mass of fallen trunks and

branches. Upon the outer verge we could see the same splendid

coloring of countless blossoms that glorified the islands, but

within the dense shadows all seemed dark and gloomy as the grave.

And upon all the noonday sun poured its torrid rays out of a

cloudless sky.

"Where on earth can we be?" I asked, turning to Perry.

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,

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