Understand, I had no idea of the great discovery I was about to
make; I merely wanted to see. And I found something almost as
impossible as the blue stone itself-a green one, heavier than any
known mineral, answering to no known classification but of an
entirely new element. It was no larger than a pea, but of
incredible weight.
"Coming upstairs I found the old lady a bit perturbed. I had told
her my name; she had recognised me as well.
"'Come with me,' she said.
"With that she opened a door. She was very old and very uncertain;
yet she was scarcely afraid.
"'In there," she said, and pointed through the door.
"I entered an ordinary room, furnished as a parlour. There was a
sofa, a table, a few chairs; little else.
"'What do you mean?' I asked.
"'The man!'
"'The man! What man?"
"'Oh!' she exclaimed, 'he came here one night when the moon was
shining. He sat down on the doorstep. He was just the kind of a
lad that's in need of a mother. So I asked him to lie on the sofa.
He was tired, you see, and--I once had a son of my own.'
"She stopped, and it was a moment before she continued. I could
feel the pressure of her hand on my arm, pitiful, beseeching.
"'So I took him in there. In there; see? On that sofa. I saw it!
They took him! Oh, sir; it was terrible!'
"She was weird, uncanny, strangely interesting.
"'He just lay down there.
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