by Robert W. Chambers²

I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation

is — And I say there is in fact no evil;

(Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to

the land, or to me, as anything else.)

Each is not for its own sake;

I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky are

for Religion’s sake.

I say no man has ever yet been half devout⁴ enough;

None has ever adored or worshipped half enough;

None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and

how certain the future is. — WALT WHITMAN

I have heard what the Talkers were talking — the talk

Of the beginning and the end;

But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

Chapter I

Concerning Yue–Laou and the Xin I know nothing more than you shall know. I am miserably⁵ anxious to clear the matter up. Perhaps what I write may save the United Stares Government money and lives, perhaps it may arouse the scientific world to action; at any rate it will put an end to the terrible suspense⁶ of two people. Certainty is better than suspense.

If the Government dares to disregard this warning and refuses to send a thoroughly⁷ equipped expedition at once, the people of the State may take swift vengeance⁸ on the whole region and leave a blackened devastated⁹ waste where to-day forest and flowering meadow land border the lake in the Cardinal¹⁰ Woods.

You already know part of the story; the New York papers have been full of

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