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As we looked, a strange bird, like a heron, arose with a hoarse cry from the foot of the great image and flew toward the city. "What does it all mean?" I cried. "Where are we?" "Where indeed!" said Nofuhl. "If I knew but that, O Prince, I could tell the rest! No traveller has mentioned these ruins. Persian history contains no record of such a people.
And men could love these things?" exclaimed Lev-el-Hedyd with much feeling. "So it appears." "But I should say the Mehrikan bride had much the freshness of a dried fig." "So she had," said Nofuhl; "but those who know only the dried fig have no regret for the fresh fruit. But the fault was not with the maidens.
Then looking upon me as if about to laugh, and yet with a grave face, he uttered something in an unmusical voice which I failed to understand. Upon this Nofuhl, who had caught the meaning of one or two words, stepped hastily forward and addressed him in his own language.
Nofuhl alone is without enthusiasm. The old man's heart seems dead. We can see the land plainly, a dim strip along the western horizon. A fair wind blows from the northeast, but we get on with cruel hindrance, for the Zlotuhb is a heavy ship, her bluff bow and voluminous bottom ill fitting her for speed. 11th May Sighted a fine harbor this afternoon, and are now at anchor in it.
Lev-el-Hedyd and I still think them caricatures, but Nofuhl is positive they were serious efforts, and says the Mehrikans were easily pleased in matters of art. We lost our way in this park, having nothing to guide us as in the streets of the city. This was most happy, as otherwise we should have missed a surprising discovery. It occurred in this wise.
We all saluted her, and the Mehrikan spoke a few words which we interpreted as a presentation. He filled the cups from the stone vase, and then saying something which Nofuhl failed to catch, he held his cup before his face with a peculiar movement and put it to his lips. As he did this Lev-el-Hedyd clutched my arm and exclaimed: "The very gesture of the ghost!"
Thereupon Nofuhl informed us that this statue in ancient times held aloft a torch illuminating the whole harbor, and he requested Ad-el-pate to try and discover how the light was accomplished.
Beyond, from behind this statue, came the broad river upon whose waters we were floating, its surface all a-glitter with the rising sun. To the East, where Nofuhl was pointing, his fingers trembling with excitement, lay the ruins of an endless city. It stretched far away into the land beyond, further even than our eyes could see.
And how many ships did the Mehrikans lose? Nofuhl. Reports are contradictory. According to one of their own writers of the period they suffered no loss whatever in vessels. Yet at the same time he asserts, "We gave them Haleklumbya," which must be the name of a ship. Khan-li. A gallant fight! But can you explain how such an inferior people could become heroic of a sudden? Nofuhl.
I inquired. "And what compassed their destruction? Was it a battle?" Nofuhl. A battle of whose magnitude no Persian has conception; a conflict in which the sea was tossed and the heavens rent by thunderings of iron monsters. Any one of them would have blown to atoms a fleet of Zlotuhbs. Ad-el-pate. Verily! A tale easier told than believed.
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