A GREAT resolve is magnetic: it transforms the bystanders. Jack, modest and shy by nature, suddenly became the leading personage of the group. He had not spoken rashly or without realizing what his purpose involved. A journey of near nine hundred million miles, and back again, across the void of space! Courage, faith, devotion, consciousness of resources adequate to cope with the unknown, belief that love, the moving power of the universe, was more than a match for all obstacles—these were his armor and weapons. He would follow Miriam, find her, and bring her back! The youth assumed, with the words he had uttered, the stature of a hero; and the hearts of his hearers bowed before him.
His uncle, in whose blood the hero strain was still warm, looked in the boy’s eyes and stifled the remonstrance that sprang to his lips. It was an enterprise in which any man might have been proud to perish. Old Terence Mayne stared at him speechless: then, tottering forward, leaned his gray head upon Jack’s shoulder and sobbed aloud. Finally, Mary Faust stepped up to him and took both his hands in hers.
“All power that is mine I give to you,” she said. “You are worthy of the adventure. You are worthy of her you seek. You will find her: more, I cannot promise. But you do not need more. The will of God be done!” She drew his head down and kissed him on the lips. It was the accolade of the new-made knight.
Before taking his place on the machine, Jack stood for several minutes looking down upon the form of Miriam, as if to draw into himself, through the medium of that beautiful image, the perfume of the spirit he was to pursue.
He turned at length, his face cheerful and tranquil. He exchanged a mighty grip with his uncle. To Mayne he said, as the latter grasped his other hand: “When you see us again, sir, she will be my affianced wife.”
“I love her more than life and all,” replied the old man stoutly; “but when I see her yours, I’ll love her more yet!”
Mary Faust now threw about his neck a gold chain with a pointing hand attached to it, wrought out of a sapphire. “It is the mariner’s compass of your voyage,” she said.
‘Good-by, Jim,” said Jack, enclosing the little gnome’s fingers in his large clutch. “Take care of Uncle Sam while I’m away. Did you finish cleaning the paint brushes?”
“Sure I done ’em, boss” answered the boy, in a piping tone, his black eyes sparkling like diamonds. “Good luck and happy days to yer!”
Jack stepped on the throne; as he did so, the hollow hemisphere above his head glowed like molten metal, and zigzag flashes played to and fro within it. An undertone of deep sound vibrated through the room. Jack, with a farewell glance at the others, laid his right hand upon the lever. As he was about to press it down, Jim, who had crept round to the left, made a sudden spring with his crutch and landed across his knees. The lever descended, and they were off!