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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
+under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voyage to Arcturus
+
+Author: David Lindsay
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1329]
+[Last updated: September 22, 2021]
+
+Last Updated: March 5, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.
+
+By David Lindsay
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE
+
+Chapter 2. IN THE STREET
+
+Chapter 3. STARKNESS
+
+Chapter 4. THE VOICE
+
+Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+
+Chapter 6. JOIWIND
+
+Chapter 7. PANAWE
+
+Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN
+
+Chapter 9. OCEAXE
+
+Chapter 10. TYDOMIN
+
+Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN
+
+Chapter 12. SPADEVIL
+
+Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+
+Chapter 14. POLECRAB
+
+Chapter 15. SWAYLONE’S ISLAND
+
+Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE
+
+Chapter 17. CORPANG
+
+Chapter 18. HAUNTE
+
+Chapter 19. SULLENBODE
+
+Chapter 20. BAREY
+
+Chapter 21. MUSPEL
+
+
+
+Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE
+
+On a March evening, at eight o’clock, Backhouse, the medium—a fast-
+rising star in the psychic world—was ushered into the study at Prolands,
+the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was illuminated only
+by the light of a blazing fire. The host, eying him with indolent
+curiosity, got up, and the usual conventional greetings were exchanged.
+Having indicated an easy chair before the fire to his guest, the South
+American merchant sank back again into his own. The electric light was
+switched on. Faull’s prominent, clear-cut features, metallic-looking
+skin, and general air of bored impassiveness, did not seem greatly to
+impress the medium, who was accustomed to regard men from a special
+angle. Backhouse, on the contrary, was a novelty to the merchant. As he
+tranquilly studied him through half closed lids and the smoke of a
+cigar, he wondered how this little, thickset person with the pointed
+beard contrived to remain so fresh and sane in appearance, in view of
+the morbid nature of his occupation.
+
+“Do you smoke?” drawled Faull, by way of starting the conversation. “No?
+Then will you take a drink?”
+
+“Not at present, I thank you.”
+
+A pause.
+
+“Everything is satisfactory? The materialisation will take place?”
+
+“I see no reason to doubt it.”
+
+“That’s good, for I would not like my guests to be disappointed. I have
+your check written out in my pocket.”
+
+“Afterward will do quite well.”
+
+“Nine o’clock was the time specified, I believe?”
+
+“I fancy so.”
+
+The conversation continued to flag. Faull sprawled in his chair, and
+remained apathetic.
+
+“Would you care to hear what arrangements I have made?”
+
+“I am unaware that any are necessary, beyond chairs for your guests.”
+
+“I mean the decoration of the siance room, the music, and so forth.”
+
+Backhouse stared at his host. “But this is not a theatrical
+performance.”
+
+“That’s correct. Perhaps I ought to explain.... There will be ladies
+present, and ladies, you know, are aesthetically inclined.”
+
+“In that case I have no objection. I only hope they will enjoy the
+performance to the end.”
+
+He spoke rather dryly.
+
+“Well, that’s all right, then,” said Faull. Flicking his cigar into the
+fire, he got up and helped himself to whisky.
+
+“Will you come and see the room?”
+
+“Thank you, no. I prefer to have nothing to do with it till the time
+arrives.”
+
+“Then let’s go to see my sister, Mrs. Jameson, who is in the drawing
+room. She sometimes does me the kindness to act as my hostess, as I am
+unmarried.”
+
+“I will be delighted,” said Backhouse coldly.
+
+They found the lady alone, sitting by the open pianoforte in a pensive
+attitude. She had been playing Scriabin and was overcome. The medium
+took in her small, tight, patrician features and porcelain-like hands,
+and wondered how Faull came by such a sister. She received him bravely,
+with just a shade of quiet emotion. He was used to such receptions at
+the hands of the sex, and knew well how to respond to them.
+
+“What amazes me,” she half whispered, after ten minutes of graceful,
+hollow conversation, “is, if you must know it, not so much the
+manifestation itself—though that will surely be wonderful—as your
+assurance that it will take place. Tell me the grounds of your
+confidence.”
+
+“I dream with open eyes,” he answered, looking around at the door, “and
+others see my dreams. That is all.”
+
+“But that’s beautiful,” responded Mrs. Jameson. She smiled rather
+absently, for the first guest had just entered.
+
+It was Kent-Smith, the ex-magistrate, celebrated for his shrewd judicial
+humour, which, however, he had the good sense not to attempt to carry
+into private life. Although well on the wrong side of seventy, his eyes
+were still disconcertingly bright. With the selective skill of an old
+man, he immediately settled himself in the most comfortable of many
+comfortable chairs.
+
+“So we are to see wonders tonight?”
+
+“Fresh material for your autobiography,” remarked Faull.
+
+“Ah, you should not have mentioned my unfortunate book. An old public
+servant is merely amusing himself in his retirement, Mr. Backhouse. You
+have no cause for alarm—I have studied in the school of discretion.”
+
+“I am not alarmed. There can be no possible objection to your publishing
+whatever you please.”
+
+“You are most kind,” said the old man, with a cunning smile.
+
+“Trent is not coming tonight,” remarked Mrs. Jameson, throwing a curious
+little glance at her brother.
+
+“I never thought he would. It’s not in his line.”
+
+“Mrs. Trent, you must understand,” she went on, addressing the ex-
+magistrate, “has placed us all under a debt of gratitude. She has
+decorated the old lounge hall upstairs most beautifully, and has secured
+the services of the sweetest little orchestra.”
+
+“But this is Roman magnificence.”
+
+“Backhouse thinks the spirits should be treated with more deference,”
+laughed Faull.
+
+“Surely, Mr. Backhouse—a poetic environment...”
+
+“Pardon me. I am a simple man, and always prefer to reduce things to
+elemental simplicity. I raise no opposition, but I express my opinion.
+Nature is one thing, and art is another.”
+
+“And I am not sure that I don’t agree with you,” said the ex-magistrate.
+“An occasion like this ought to be simple, to guard against the
+possibility of deception—if you will forgive my bluntness, Mr.
+Backhouse.”
+
+“We shall sit in full light,” replied Backhouse, “and every opportunity
+will be given to all to inspect the room. I shall also ask you to submit
+me to a personal examination.”
+
+A rather embarrassed silence followed. It was broken by the arrival of
+two more guests, who entered together. These were Prior, the prosperous
+City coffee importer, and Lang, the stockjobber, well known in his own
+circle as an amateur prestidigitator. Backhouse was slightly acquainted
+with the latter. Prior, perfuming the room with the faint odour of wine
+and tobacco smoke, tried to introduce an atmosphere of joviality into
+the proceedings. Finding that no one seconded his efforts, however, he
+shortly subsided and fell to examining the water colours on the walls.
+Lang, tall, thin, and growing bald, said little, but stared at Backhouse
+a good deal.
+
+Coffee, liqueurs, and cigarettes were now brought in. Everyone partook,
+except Lang and the medium. At the same moment, Professor Halbart was
+announced. He was the eminent psychologist, the author and lecturer on
+crime, insanity, genius, and so forth, considered in their mental
+aspects. His presence at such a gathering somewhat mystified the other
+guests, but all felt as if the object of their meeting had immediately
+acquired additional solemnity. He was small, meagre-looking, and mild in
+manner, but was probably the most stubborn-brained of all that mixed
+company. Completely ignoring the medium, he at once sat down beside
+Kent-Smith, with whom he began to exchange remarks.
+
+At a few minutes past the appointed hour Mrs. Trent entered,
+unannounced. She was a woman of about twenty-eight. She had a white,
+demure, saintlike face, smooth black hair, and lips so crimson and full
+that they seemed to be bursting with blood. Her tall, graceful body was
+most expensively attired. Kisses were exchanged between her and Mrs.
+Jameson. She bowed to the rest of the assembly, and stole a half glance
+and a smile at Faull. The latter gave her a queer look, and Backhouse,
+who lost nothing, saw the concealed barbarian in the complacent gleam of
+his eye. She refused the refreshment that was offered her, and Faull
+proposed that, as everyone had now arrived, they should adjourn to the
+lounge hall.
+
+Mrs. Trent held up a slender palm. “Did you, or did you not, give me
+carte blanche, Montague?”
+
+“Of course I did,” said Faull, laughing. “But what’s the matter?”
+
+“Perhaps I have been rather presumptuous. I don’t know. I have invited a
+couple of friends to join us. No, no one knows them.... The two most
+extraordinary individuals you ever saw. And mediums, I am sure.”
+
+“It sounds very mysterious. Who are these conspirators?”
+
+“At least tell us their names, you provoking girl,” put in Mrs. Jameson.
+
+“One rejoices in the name of Maskull, and the other in that of
+Nightspore. That’s nearly all that I know about them, so don’t overwhelm
+me with any more questions.”
+
+“But where did you pick them up? You must have picked them up
+somewhere.”
+
+“But this is a cross-examination. Have I sinned against convention? I
+swear I will tell you not another word about them. They will be here
+directly, and then I will deliver them to your tender mercy.”
+
+“I don’t know them,” said Faull, “and nobody else seems to, but, of
+course, we will all be very pleased to have them.... Shall we wait, or
+what?”
+
+“I said nine, and it’s past that now. It’s quite possible they may not
+turn up after all.... Anyway, don’t wait.”
+
+“I would prefer to start at once,” said Backhouse.
+
+The lounge, a lofty room, forty feet long by twenty wide, had been
+divided for the occasion into two equal parts by a heavy brocade curtain
+drawn across the middle. The far end was thus concealed. The nearer half
+had been converted into an auditorium by a crescent of armchairs. There
+was no other furniture. A large fire was burning halfway along the wall,
+between the chairbacks and the door. The room was brilliantly lighted by
+electric bracket lamps. A sumptuous carpet covered the floor.
+
+Having settled his guests in their seats, Faull stepped up to the
+curtain and flung it aside. A replica, or nearly so, of the Drury Lane
+presentation of the temple scene in The Magic Flute was then exposed to
+view: the gloomy, massive architecture of the interior, the glowing sky
+above it in the background, and, silhouetted against the latter, the
+gigantic seated statue of the Pharaoh. A fantastically carved wooden
+couch lay before the pedestal of the statue. Near the curtain, obliquely
+placed to the auditorium, was a plain oak armchair, for the use of the
+medium.
+
+Many of those present felt privately that the setting was quite
+inappropriate to the occasion and savoured rather unpleasantly of
+ostentation. Backhouse in particular seemed put out. The usual
+compliments, however, were showered on Mrs. Trent as the deviser of so
+remarkable a theatre. Faull invited his friends to step forward and
+examine the apartment as minutely as they might desire. Prior and Lang
+were the only ones to accept. The former wandered about among the
+pasteboard scenery, whistling to himself and occasionally tapping a part
+of it with his knuckles. Lang, who was in his element, ignored the rest
+of his party and commenced a patient, systematic search, on his own
+account, for secret apparatus. Faull and Mrs. Trent stood in a corner of
+the temple, talking together in low tones; while Mrs. Jameson,
+pretending to hold Backhouse in conversation, watched them as only a
+deeply interested woman knows how to watch.
+
+Lang, to his own disgust, having failed to find anything of a suspicious
+nature, the medium now requested that his own clothing should be
+searched.
+
+“All these precautions are quite needless and beside the matter in hand,
+as you will immediately see for yourselves. My reputation demands,
+however, that other people who are not present would not be able to say
+afterward that trickery has been resorted to.”
+
+To Lang again fell the ungrateful task of investigating pockets and
+sleeves. Within a few minutes he expressed himself satisfied that
+nothing mechanical was in Backhouse’s possession. The guests reseated
+themselves. Faull ordered two more chairs to be brought for Mrs. Trent’s
+friends, who, however, had not yet arrived. He then pressed an electric
+bell, and took his own seat.
+
+The signal was for the hidden orchestra to begin playing. A murmur of
+surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning, the
+beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart’s “temple” music pulsated through
+the air. The expectation of everyone was raised, while, beneath her
+pallor and composure, it could be seen that Mrs. Trent was deeply moved.
+It was evident that aesthetically she was by far the most important
+person present. Faull watched her, with his face sunk on his chest,
+sprawling as usual.
+
+Backhouse stood up, with one hand on the back of his chair, and began
+speaking. The music instantly sank to pianissimo, and remained so for as
+long as he was on his legs.
+
+“Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a materialisation. That
+means you will see something appear in space that was not previously
+there. At first it will appear as a vaporous form, but finally it will
+be a solid body, which anyone present may feel and handle—and, for
+example, shake hands with. For this body will be in the human shape. It
+will be a real man or woman—which, I can’t say—but a man or woman
+without known antecedents. If, however, you demand from me an
+explanation of the origin of this materialised form—where it comes from,
+whence the atoms and molecules composing its tissues are derived—I am
+unable to satisfy you. I am about to produce the phenomenon; if anyone
+can explain it to me afterward, I shall be very grateful.... That is all
+I have to say.”
+
+He resumed his seat, half turning his back on the assembly, and paused
+for a moment before beginning his task.
+
+It was precisely at this minute that the manservant opened the door and
+announced in a subdued but distinct voice: “Mr. Maskull, Mr.
+Nightspore.”
+
+Everyone turned round. Faull rose to welcome the late arrivals.
+Backhouse also stood up, and stared hard at them.
+
+The two strangers remained standing by the door, which was closed
+quietly behind them. They seemed to be waiting for the mild sensation
+caused by their appearance to subside before advancing into the room.
+Maskull was a kind of giant, but of broader and more robust physique
+than most giants. He wore a full beard. His features were thick and
+heavy, coarsely modelled, like those of a wooden carving; but his eyes,
+small and black, sparkled with the fires of intelligence and audacity.
+His hair was short, black, and bristling. Nightspore was of middle
+height, but so tough-looking that he appeared to be trained out of all
+human frailties and susceptibilities. His hairless face seemed consumed
+by an intense spiritual hunger, and his eyes were wild and distant. Both
+men were dressed in tweeds.
+
+Before any words were spoken, a loud and terrible crash of falling
+masonry caused the assembled party to start up from their chairs in
+consternation. It sounded as if the entire upper part of the building
+had collapsed. Faull sprang to the door, and called to the servant to
+say what was happening. The man had to be questioned twice before he
+gathered what was required of him. He said he had heard nothing. In
+obedience to his master’s order, he went upstairs. Nothing, however, was
+amiss there, neither had the maids heard anything.
+
+In the meantime Backhouse, who almost alone of those assembled had
+preserved his sangfroid, went straight up to Nightspore, who stood
+gnawing his nails.
+
+“Perhaps you can explain it, sir?”
+
+“It was supernatural,” said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled voice,
+turning away from his questioner.
+
+“I guessed so. It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard it so
+loud.”
+
+He then went among the guests, reassuring them. By degrees they settled
+down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-humoured
+interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained watchfulness.
+Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to them. Mrs. Trent kept
+stealing uneasy glances at them. Throughout the entire incident,
+Mozart’s hymn continued to be played. The orchestra also had heard
+nothing.
+
+Backhouse now entered on his task. It was one that began to be familiar
+to him, and he had no anxiety about the result. It was not possible to
+effect the materialisation by mere concentration of will, or the
+exercise of any faculty; otherwise many people could have done what he
+had engaged himself to do. His nature was phenomenal—the dividing wall
+between himself and the spiritual world was broken in many places.
+Through the gaps in his mind the inhabitants of the invisible, when he
+summoned them, passed for a moment timidly and awfully into the solid,
+coloured universe.... He could not say how it was brought about.... The
+experience was a rough one for the body, and many such struggles would
+lead to insanity and early death. That is why Backhouse was stern and
+abrupt in his manner. The coarse, clumsy suspicion of some of the
+witnesses, the frivolous aestheticism of others, were equally obnoxious
+to his grim, bursting heart; but he was obliged to live, and, to pay his
+way, must put up with these impertinences.
+
+He sat down facing the wooden couch. His eyes remained open but seemed
+to look inward. His cheeks paled, and he became noticeably thinner. The
+spectators almost forgot to breathe. The more sensitive among them began
+to feel, or imagine, strange presences all around them. Maskull’s eyes
+glittered with anticipation, and his brows went up and down, but
+Nightspore appeared bored.
+
+After a long ten minutes the pedestal of the statue was seen to become
+slightly blurred, as though an intervening mist were rising from the
+ground. This slowly developed into a visible cloud, coiling hither and
+thither, and constantly changing shape. The professor half rose, and
+held his glasses with one hand further forward on the bridge of his
+nose.
+
+By slow stages the cloud acquired the dimensions and approximate outline
+of an adult human body, although all was still vague and blurred. It
+hovered lightly in the air, a foot or so above the couch. Backhouse
+looked haggard and ghastly. Mrs. Jameson quietly fainted in her chair,
+but she was unnoticed, and presently revived. The apparition now settled
+down upon the couch, and at the moment of doing so seemed suddenly to
+grow dark, solid, and manlike. Many of the guests were as pale as the
+medium himself, but Faull preserved his stoical apathy, and glanced once
+or twice at Mrs. Trent. She was staring straight at the couch, and was
+twisting a little lace handkerchief through the different fingers of her
+hand. The music went on playing.
+
+The figure was by this time unmistakably that of a man lying down. The
+face focused itself into distinctness. The body was draped in a sort of
+shroud, but the features were those of a young man. One smooth hand fell
+over, nearly touching the floor, white and motionless. The weaker
+spirits of the company stared at the vision in sick horror; the rest
+were grave and perplexed. The seeming man was dead, but somehow it did
+not appear like a death succeeding life, but like a death preliminary to
+life. All felt that he might sit up at any minute.
+
+“Stop that music!” muttered Backhouse, tottering from his chair and
+facing the party. Faull touched the bell. A few more bars sounded, and
+then total silence ensued.
+
+“Anyone who wants to may approach the couch,” said Backhouse with
+difficulty.
+
+Lang at once advanced, and stared awestruck at the supernatural youth.
+
+“You are at liberty to touch,” said the medium.
+
+But Lang did not venture to, nor did any of the others, who one by one
+stole up to the couch—until it came to Faull’s turn. He looked straight
+at Mrs. Trent, who seemed frightened and disgusted at the spectacle
+before her, and then not only touched the apparition but suddenly
+grasped the drooping hand in his own and gave it a powerful squeeze.
+Mrs. Trent gave a low scream. The ghostly visitor opened his eyes,
+looked at Faull strangely, and sat up on the couch. A cryptic smile
+started playing over his mouth. Faull looked at his hand; a feeling of
+intense pleasure passed through his body.
+
+Maskull caught Mrs. Jameson in his arms; she was attacked by another
+spell of faintness. Mrs. Trent ran forward, and led her out of the room.
+Neither of them returned.
+
+The phantom body now stood upright, looking about him, still with his
+peculiar smile. Prior suddenly felt sick, and went out. The other men
+more or less hung together, for the sake of human society, but
+Nightspore paced up and down, like a man weary and impatient, while
+Maskull attempted to interrogate the youth. The apparition watched him
+with a baffling expression, but did not answer. Backhouse was sitting
+apart, his face buried in his hands.
+
+It was at this moment that the door was burst open violently, and a
+stranger, unannounced, half leaped, half strode a few yards into the
+room, and then stopped. None of Faull’s friends had ever seen him
+before. He was a thick, shortish man, with surprising muscular
+development and a head far too large in proportion to his body. His
+beardless yellow face indicated, as a first impression, a mixture of
+sagacity, brutality, and humour.
+
+“Aha-i, gentlemen!” he called out loudly. His voice was piercing, and
+oddly disagreeable to the ear. “So we have a little visitor here.”
+
+Nightspore turned his back, but everyone else stared at the intruder in
+astonishment. He took another few steps forward, which brought him to
+the edge of the theatre.
+
+“May I ask, sir, how I come to have the honour of being your host?”
+asked Faull sullenly. He thought that the evening was not proceeding as
+smoothly as he had anticipated.
+
+The newcomer looked at him for a second, and then broke into a great,
+roaring guffaw. He thumped Faull on the back playfully—but the play was
+rather rough, for the victim was sent staggering against the wall before
+he could recover his balance.
+
+“Good evening, my host!”
+
+“And good evening to you too, my lad!” he went on, addressing the
+supernatural youth, who was now beginning to wander about the room, in
+apparent unconsciousness of his surroundings. “I have seen someone very
+like you before, I think.”
+
+There was no response.
+
+The intruder thrust his head almost up to the phantom’s face. “You have
+no right here, as you know.”
+
+The shape looked back at him with a smile full of significance, which,
+however, no one could understand.
+
+“Be careful what you are doing,” said Backhouse quickly.
+
+“What’s the matter, spirit usher?”
+
+“I don’t know who you are, but if you use physical violence toward that,
+as you seem inclined to do, the consequences may prove very unpleasant.”
+
+“And without pleasure our evening would be spoiled, wouldn’t it, my
+little mercenary friend?”
+
+Humour vanished from his face, like sunlight from a landscape, leaving
+it hard and rocky. Before anyone realised what he was doing, he
+encircled the soft, white neck of the materialised shape with his hairy
+hands and, with a double turn, twisted it completely round. A faint,
+unearthly shriek sounded, and the body fell in a heap to the floor. Its
+face was uppermost. The guests were unutterably shocked to observe that
+its expression had changed from the mysterious but fascinating smile to
+a vulgar, sordid, bestial grin, which cast a cold shadow of moral
+nastiness into every heart. The transformation was accompanied by a
+sickening stench of the graveyard.
+
+The features faded rapidly away, the body lost its consistence, passing
+from the solid to the shadowy condition, and, before two minutes had
+elapsed, the spirit-form had entirely disappeared.
+
+The short stranger turned and confronted the party, with a long, loud
+laugh, like nothing in nature.
+
+The professor talked excitedly to Kent-Smith in low tones. Faull
+beckoned Backhouse behind a wing of scenery, and handed him his check
+without a word. The medium put it in his pocket, buttoned his coat, and
+walked out of the room. Lang followed him, in order to get a drink.
+
+The stranger poked his face up into Maskull’s.
+
+“Well, giant, what do you think of it all? Wouldn’t you like to see the
+land where this sort of fruit grows wild?”
+
+“What sort of fruit?”
+
+“That specimen goblin.”
+
+Maskull waved him away with his huge hand. “Who are you, and how did you
+come here?”
+
+“Call up your friend. Perhaps he may recognise me.” Nightspore had moved
+a chair to the fire, and was watching the embers with a set, fanatical
+expression.
+
+“Let Krag come to me, if he wants me,” he said, in his strange voice.
+
+“You see, he does know me,” uttered Krag, with a humorous look. Walking
+over to Nightspore, he put a hand on the back of his chair.
+
+“Still the same old gnawing hunger?”
+
+“What is doing these days?” demanded Nightspore disdainfully, without
+altering his attitude.
+
+“Surtur has gone, and we are to follow him.”
+
+“How do you two come to know each other, and of whom are you speaking?”
+asked Maskull, looking from one to the other in perplexity.
+
+“Krag has something for us. Let us go outside,” replied Nightspore. He
+got up, and glanced over his shoulder. Maskull, following the direction
+of his eye, observed that the few remaining men were watching their
+little group attentively.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2. IN THE STREET
+
+The three men gathered in the street outside the house. The night was
+slightly frosty, but particularly clear, with an east wind blowing. The
+multitude of blazing stars caused the sky to appear like a vast scroll
+of hieroglyphic symbols. Maskull felt oddly excited; he had a sense that
+something extraordinary was about to happen. “What brought you to this
+house tonight, Krag, and what made you do what you did? How are we
+understand that apparition?”
+
+“That must have been Crystalman’s expression on its face,” muttered
+Nightspore.
+
+“We have discussed that, haven’t we, Maskull? Maskull is anxious to
+behold that rare fruit in its native wilds.”
+
+Maskull looked at Krag carefully, trying to analyse his own feelings
+toward him. He was distinctly repelled by the man’s personality, yet
+side by side with this aversion a savage, living energy seemed to spring
+up in his heart that in some strange fashion was attributable to Krag.
+
+“Why do you insist on this simile?” he asked.
+
+“Because it is apropos. Nightspore’s quite right. That was Crystalman’s
+face, and we are going to Crystalman’s country.”
+
+“And where is this mysterious country?”
+
+“Tormance.”
+
+“That’s a quaint name. But where is it?”
+
+Krag grinned, showing his yellow teeth in the light of the street lamp.
+
+“It is the residential suburb of Arcturus.”
+
+“What is he talking about, Nightspore?... Do you mean the star of that
+name?” he went on, to Krag.
+
+“Which you have in front of you at this very minute,” said Krag,
+pointing a thick finger toward the brightest star in the south-eastern
+sky. “There you see Arcturus, and Tormance is its one inhabited planet.”
+
+Maskull looked at the heavy, gleaming star, and again at Krag. Then he
+pulled out a pipe, and began to fill it.
+
+“You must have cultivated a new form of humour, Krag.”
+
+“I am glad if I can amuse you, Maskull, if only for a few days.”
+
+“I meant to ask you—how do you know my name?”
+
+“It would be odd if I didn’t, seeing that I only came here on your
+account. As a matter of fact, Nightspore and I are old friends.”
+
+Maskull paused with his suspended match. “You came here on my account?”
+
+“Surely. On your account and Nightspore’s. We three are to be fellow
+travellers.”
+
+Maskull now lit his pipe and puffed away coolly for a few moments.
+
+“I’m sorry, Krag, but I must assume you are mad.”
+
+Krag threw his head back, and gave a scraping laugh. “Am I mad,
+Nightspore?”
+
+“Has Surtur gone to Tormance?” ejaculated Nightspore in a strangled
+voice, fixing his eyes on Krag’s face.
+
+“Yes, and he requires that we follow him at once.”
+
+Maskull’s heart began to beat strangely. It all sounded to him like a
+dream conversation.
+
+“And since how long, Krag, have I been required to do things by a total
+stranger.... Besides, who is this individual?”
+
+“Krag’s chief,” said Nightspore, turning his head away.
+
+“The riddle is too elaborate for me. I give up.”
+
+“You are looking for mysteries,” said Krag, “so naturally you are
+finding them. Try and simplify your ideas, my friend. The affair is
+plain and serious.”
+
+Maskull stared hard at him and smoked rapidly.
+
+“Where have you come from now?” demanded Nightspore suddenly.
+
+“From the old observatory at Starkness.... Have you heard of the famous
+Starkness Observatory, Maskull?”
+
+“No. Where is it?”
+
+“On the north-east coast of Scotland. Curious discoveries are made there
+from time to time.”
+
+“As, for example, how to make voyages to the stars. So this Surtur turns
+out to be an astronomer. And you too, presumably?”
+
+Krag grinned again. “How long will it take you to wind up your affairs?
+When can you be ready to start?”
+
+“You are too considerate,” said Maskull, laughing outright. “I was
+beginning to fear that I would be hauled away at once.... However, I
+have neither wife, land, nor profession, so there’s nothing to wait
+for.... What is the itinerary?”
+
+“You are a fortunate man. A bold, daring heart, and no encumbrances.”
+Krag’s features became suddenly grave and rigid. “Don’t be a fool, and
+refuse a gift of luck. A gift declined is not offered a second time.”
+
+“Krag,” replied Maskull simply, returning his pipe to his pocket. “I ask
+you to put yourself in my place. Even if I were a man sick for
+adventures, how could I listen seriously to such an insane proposition
+as this? What do I know about you, or your past record? You may be a
+practical joker, or you may have come out of a madhouse—I know nothing
+about it. If you claim to be an exceptional man, and want my
+cooperation, you must offer me exceptional proofs.”
+
+“And what proofs would you consider adequate, Maskull?”
+
+As he spoke he gripped Maskull’s arm. A sharp, chilling pain immediately
+passed through the latter’s body and at the same moment his brain caught
+fire. A light burst in upon him like the rising of the sun. He asked
+himself for the first time if this fantastic conversation could by any
+chance refer to real things.
+
+“Listen, Krag,” he said slowly, while peculiar images and conceptions
+started to travel in rich disorder through his mind. “You talk about a
+certain journey. Well, if that journey were a possible one, and I were
+given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come back.
+For twenty-four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give my life.
+That is my attitude toward that journey.... Now prove to me that you’re
+not talking nonsense. Produce your credentials.”
+
+Krag stared at him all the time he was speaking, his face gradually
+resuming its jesting expression.
+
+“Oh, you will get your twenty-four hours, and perhaps longer, but not
+much longer. You’re an audacious fellow, Maskull, but this trip will
+prove a little strenuous, even for you.... And so, like the unbelievers
+of old, you want a sign from heaven?”
+
+Maskull frowned. “But the whole thing is ridiculous. Our brains are
+overexcited by what took place in there. Let us go home, and sleep it
+off.”
+
+Krag detained him with one hand, while groping in his breast pocket with
+the other. He presently fished out what resembled a small folding lens.
+The diameter of the glass did not exceed two inches.
+
+“First take a peep at Arcturus through this, Maskull. It may serve as a
+provisional sign. It’s the best I can do, unfortunately. I am not a
+travelling magician.... Be very careful not to drop it. It’s somewhat
+heavy.”
+
+Maskull took the lens in his hand, struggled with it for a minute, and
+then looked at Krag in amazement. The little object weighed at least
+twenty pounds, though it was not much bigger than a crown piece.
+
+“What stuff can this be, Krag?”
+
+“Look through it, my good friend. That’s what I gave it to you for.”
+
+Maskull held it up with difficulty, directed it toward the gleaming
+Arcturus, and snatched as long and as steady a glance at the star as the
+muscles of his arm would permit. What he saw was this. The star, which
+to the naked eye appeared as a single yellow point of light, now became
+clearly split into two bright but minute suns, the larger of which was
+still yellow, while its smaller companion was a beautiful blue. But this
+was not all. Apparently circulating around the yellow sun was a
+comparatively small and hardly distinguishable satellite, which seemed
+to shine, not by its own, but by reflected light.... Maskull lowered and
+raised his arm repeatedly. The same spectacle revealed itself again and
+again, but he was able to see nothing else. Then he passed back the lens
+to Krag, without a word, and stood chewing his underlip.
+
+“You take a glimpse too,” scraped Krag, proffering the glass to
+Nightspore.
+
+Nightspore turned his back and began to pace up and down. Krag laughed
+sardonically, and returned the lens to his pocket. “Well, Maskull, are
+you satisfied?”
+
+“Arcturus, then, is a double sun. And is that third point the planet
+Tormance?”
+
+“Our future home, Maskull.”
+
+Maskull continued to ponder. “You inquire if I am satisfied. I don’t
+know, Krag. It’s miraculous, and that’s all I can say about it.... But
+I’m satisfied of one thing. There must be very wonderful astronomers at
+Starkness and if you invite me to your observatory I will surely come.”
+
+“I do invite you. We set off from there.”
+
+“And you, Nightspore?” demanded Maskull.
+
+“The journey has to be made,” answered his friend in indistinct tones,
+“though I don’t see what will come of it.”
+
+Krag shot a penetrating glance at him. “More remarkable adventures than
+this would need to be arranged before we could excite Nightspore.”
+
+“Yet he is coming.”
+
+“But not con amore. He is coming merely to bear you company.”
+
+Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary might,
+in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart swelled with
+grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was unable to account
+to his own intellect. He felt that his destiny was in some way bound up
+with this gigantic, far-distant sun. But still he did not dare to admit
+to himself Krag’s seriousness.
+
+He heard his parting remarks in deep abstraction, and only after the
+lapse of several minutes, when, alone with Nightspore, did he realise
+that they referred to such mundane matters as travelling routes and
+times of trains.
+
+“Does Krag travel north with us, Nightspore? I didn’t catch that.”
+
+“No. We go on first, and he joins us at Starkness on the evening of the
+day after tomorrow.”
+
+Maskull remained thoughtful. “What am I to think of that man?”
+
+“For your information,” replied Nightspore wearily, “I have never known
+him to lie.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 3. STARKNESS
+
+A couple of days later, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Maskull and
+Nightspore arrived at Starkness Observatory, having covered the seven
+miles from Haillar Station on foot. The road, very wild and lonely, ran
+for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty cliffs,
+within sight of the North Sea. The sun shone, but a brisk east wind was
+blowing and the air was salt and cold. The dark green waves were flecked
+with white. Throughout the walk, they were accompanied by the plaintive,
+beautiful crying of the gulls.
+
+The observatory presented itself to their eyes as a self-contained
+little community, without neighbours, and perched on the extreme end of
+the land. There were three buildings: a small, stone-built dwelling
+house, a low workshop, and, about two hundred yards farther north, a
+square tower of granite masonry, seventy feet in height.
+
+The house and the shop were separated by an open yard, littered with
+waste. A single stone wall surrounded both, except on the side facing
+the sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the cliff. No
+one appeared. The windows were all closed, and Maskull could have sworn
+that the whole establishment was shut up and deserted.
+
+He passed through the open gate, followed by Nightspore, and knocked
+vigorously at the front door. The knocker was thick with dust and had
+obviously not been used for a long time. He put his ear to the door, but
+could hear no movements inside the house. He then tried the handle; the
+door was looked.
+
+They walked around the house, looking for another entrance, but there
+was only the one door.
+
+“This isn’t promising,” growled Maskull. “There’s no one here..... Now
+you try the shed, while I go over to that tower.”
+
+Nightspore, who had not spoken half a dozen words since leaving the
+train, complied in silence, and started off across the yard. Maskull
+passed out of the gate again. When he arrived at the foot of the tower,
+which stood some way back from the cliff, he found the door heavily
+padlocked. Gazing up, he saw six windows, one above the other at equal
+distances, all on the east face—that is, overlooking the sea. Realising
+that no satisfaction was to be gained here, he came away again, still
+more irritated than before. When he rejoined his friend, Nightspore
+reported that the workshop was also locked.
+
+“Did we, or did we not, receive an invitation?” demanded Maskull
+energetically.
+
+“The house is empty,” replied Nightspore, biting his nails. “Better
+break a window.”
+
+“I certainly don’t mean to camp out till Krag condescends to come.”
+
+He picked up an old iron bolt from the yard and, retreating to a safe
+distance, hurled it against a sash window on the ground floor. The lower
+pane was completely shattered. Carefully avoiding the broken glass,
+Maskull thrust his hand through the aperture and pushed back the frame
+fastening. A minute later they had climbed through and were standing
+inside the house.
+
+The room, which was a kitchen, was in an indescribably filthy and
+neglected condition. The furniture scarcely held together, broken
+utensils and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap,
+everything was covered with a deep deposit of dust. The atmosphere was
+so foul that Maskull judged that no fresh air had passed into the room
+for several months. Insects were crawling on the walls.
+
+They went into the other rooms on the lower floor—a scullery, a barely
+furnished dining room, and a storing place for lumber. The same dirt,
+mustiness, and neglect met their eyes. At least half a year must have
+elapsed since these rooms were last touched, or even entered.
+
+“Does your faith in Krag still hold?” asked Maskull. “I confess mine is
+at vanishing point. If this affair isn’t one big practical joke, it has
+every promise of being one. Krag never lived here in his life.”
+
+“Come upstairs first,” said Nightspore.
+
+The upstairs rooms proved to consist of a library and three bedrooms.
+All the windows were tightly closed, and the air was insufferable. The
+beds had been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never been
+made since. The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually preserved the
+impressions of the sleepers. There was no doubt that these impressions
+were ancient, for all sorts of floating dirt had accumulated on the
+sheets and coverlets.
+
+“Who could have slept here, do you think?” interrogated Maskull. “The
+observatory staff?”
+
+“More likely travellers like ourselves. They left suddenly.”
+
+Maskull flung the windows wide open in every room he came to, and held
+his breath until he had done so. Two of the bedrooms faced the sea; the
+third, the library, the upward-sloping moorland. This library was now
+the only room left unvisited, and unless they discovered signs of recent
+occupation here Maskull made up his mind to regard the whole business as
+a gigantic hoax.
+
+But the library, like all the other rooms, was foul with stale air and
+dust-laden. Maskull, having flung the window up and down, fell heavily
+into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.
+
+“Now what is your opinion of Krag?”
+
+Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the window.
+“He may still have left a message for us.”
+
+“What message? Why? Do you mean in this room?—I see no message.”
+
+Nightspore’s eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
+upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old bottles on
+one of the shelves and nothing else. Maskull glanced at him and at the
+cupboard. Then, without a word, he got up to examine the bottles.
+
+There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest. The
+smaller ones were about eight inches long. All were torpedo-shaped, but
+had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand upright. Two of the
+smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the others contained a
+colourless liquid, and possessed queer-looking, nozzle-like stoppers
+that were connected by a thin metal rod with a catch halfway down the
+side of the bottle. They were labelled, but the labels were yellow with
+age and the writing was nearly undecipherable. Maskull carried the
+filled bottles with him to the table in front of the window, in order to
+get better light. Nightspore moved away to make room for him.
+
+He now made out on the larger bottle the words “Solar Back Rays”; and on
+the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could distinguish
+something like “Arcturian Back Rays.”
+
+He looked up, to stare curiously at his friend. “Have you been here
+before, Nightspore?”
+
+“I guessed Krag would leave a message.”
+
+“Well, I don’t know—it may be a message, but it means nothing to us, or
+at all events to me. What are ‘back rays’?”
+
+“Light that goes back to its source,” muttered Nightspore.
+
+“And what kind of light would that be?”
+
+Nightspore seemed unwilling to answer, but, finding Maskull’s eyes still
+fixed on him, he brought out: “Unless light pulled, as well as pushed,
+how would flowers contrive to twist their heads around after the sun?”
+
+“I don’t know. But the point is, what are these bottles for?”
+
+While he was still talking, with his hand on the smaller bottle, the
+other, which was lying on its side, accidentally rolled over in such a
+manner that the metal caught against the table. He made a movement to
+stop it, his hand was actually descending, when—the bottle suddenly
+disappeared before his eyes. It had not rolled off the table, but had
+really vanished—it was nowhere at all.
+
+Maskull stared at the table. After a minute he raised his brows, and
+turned to Nightspore with a smile. “The message grows more intricate.”
+
+Nightspore looked bored. “The valve became unfastened. The contents have
+escaped through the open window toward the sun, carrying the bottle with
+them. But the bottle will be burned up by the earth’s atmosphere, and
+the contents will dissipate, and will not reach the sun.”
+
+Maskull listened attentively, and his smile faded. “Does anything
+prevent us from experimenting with this other bottle?”
+
+“Replace it in the cupboard,” said Nightspore. “Arcturus is still below
+the horizon, and you would succeed only in wrecking the house.”
+
+Maskull remained standing before the window, pensively gazing out at the
+sunlit moors.
+
+“Krag treats me like a child,” he remarked presently. “And perhaps I
+really am a child.... My cynicism must seem most amusing to Krag. But
+why does he leave me to find out all this by myself—for I don’t include
+you, Nightspore.... But what time will Krag be here?”
+
+“Not before dark, I expect,” his friend replied.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4. THE VOICE
+
+It was by this time past three o’clock. Feeling hungry, for they had
+eaten nothing since early morning, Maskull went downstairs to forage,
+but without much hope of finding anything in the shape of food. In a
+safe in the kitchen he discovered a bag of mouldy oatmeal, which was
+untouchable, a quantity of quite good tea in an airtight caddy, and an
+unopened can of ox tongue. Best of all, in the dining-room cupboard he
+came across an uncorked bottle of first-class Scotch whisky. He at once
+made preparations for a scratch meal.
+
+A pump in the yard ran clear after a good deal of hard working at it,
+and he washed out and filled the antique kettle. For firewood, one of
+the kitchen chairs was broken up with a chopper. The light, dusty wood
+made a good blaze in the grate, the kettle was boiled, and cups were
+procured and washed. Ten minutes later the friends were dining in the
+library.
+
+Nightspore ate and drank little, but Maskull sat down with good
+appetite. There being no milk, whisky took the place of it; the nearly
+black tea was mixed with an equal quantity of the spirit. Of this
+concoction Maskull drank cup after cup, and long after the tongue had
+disappeared he was still imbibing.
+
+Nightspore looked at him queerly. “Do you intend to finish the bottle
+before Krag comes?”
+
+“Krag won’t want any, and one must do something. I feel restless.”
+
+“Let us take a look at the country.”
+
+The cup, which was on its way to Maskull’s lips, remained poised in the
+air. “Have you anything in view, Nightspore?”
+
+“Let us walk out to the Gap of Sorgie.”
+
+“What’s that?”
+
+“A showplace,” answered Nightspore, biting his lip.
+
+Maskull finished off the cup, and rose to his feet. “Walking is better
+than soaking at any time, and especially on a day like this.... How far
+is it?”
+
+“Three or four miles each way.”
+
+“You probably mean something,” said Maskull, “for I’m beginning to
+regard you as a second Krag. But if so, so much the better. I am growing
+nervous, and need incidents.”
+
+They left the house by the door, which they left ajar, and immediately
+found themselves again on the moorland road that had brought them from
+Haillar. This time they continued along it, past the tower.
+
+Maskull, as they went by, regarded the erection with puzzled interest.
+“What is that tower, Nightspore?”
+
+“We sail from the platform on the top.”
+
+“Tonight?”—throwing him a quick look.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave. “Then we are looking at the
+gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it.”
+
+“You no longer think it impossible, I fancy,” mumbled Nightspore.
+
+After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
+sharply inland, across the hills. With Nightspore as guide, they left it
+and took to the grass. A faint sheep path marked the way along the cliff
+edge for some distance, but at the end of another mile it vanished. The
+two men then had some rough walking up and down hillsides and across
+deep gullies. The sun disappeared behind the hills, and twilight
+imperceptibly came on. They soon reached a spot where further progress
+appeared impossible. The buttress of a mountain descended at a steep
+angle to the very edge of the cliff, forming an impassable slope of
+slippery grass. Maskull halted, stroked his beard, and wondered what the
+next step was to be.
+
+“There’s a little scrambling here,” said Nightspore. “We are both used
+to climbing, and there is not much in it.”
+
+He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice a
+few yards beneath where they were standing. It averaged from fifteen to
+thirty inches in width. Without waiting for Maskull’s consent to the
+undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and started walking along
+this ledge at a rapid pace. Maskull, seeing that there was no help for
+it, followed him. The shelf did not extend for above a quarter of a
+mile, but its passage was somewhat unnerving; there was a sheer drop to
+the sea, four hundred feet below. In a few places they had to sidle
+along without placing one foot before another. The sound of the breakers
+came up to them in a low, threatening roar.
+
+Upon rounding a corner, the ledge broadened out into a fair-sized
+platform of rock and came to a sudden end. A narrow inlet of the sea
+separated them from the continuation of the cliffs beyond.
+
+“As we can’t get any further,” said Maskull, “I presume this is your Gap
+of Sorgie?”
+
+“Yes,” answered his friend, first dropping on his knees and then lying
+at full length, face downward. He drew his head and shoulders over the
+edge and began to stare straight down at the water.
+
+“What is there interesting down there, Nightspore?”
+
+Receiving no reply, however, he followed his friend’s example, and the
+next minute was looking for himself. Nothing was to be seen; the gloom
+had deepened, and the sea was nearly invisible. But, while he was
+ineffectually gazing, he heard what sounded like the beating of a drum
+on the narrow strip of shore below. It was very faint, but quite
+distinct. The beats were in four-four time, with the third beat slightly
+accented. He now continued to hear the noise all the time he was lying
+there. The beats were in no way drowned by the far louder sound of the
+surf, but seemed somehow to belong to a different world....
+
+When they were on their feet again, he questioned Nightspore. “We came
+here solely to hear that?”
+
+Nightspore cast one of his odd looks at him. “It’s called locally ‘The
+Drum Taps of Sorgie.’ You will not hear that name again, but perhaps you
+will hear the sound again.”
+
+“And if I do, what will it imply?” demanded Maskull in amazement.
+
+“It bears its own message. Only try always to hear it more and more
+distinctly.... Now it’s growing dark, and we must get back.”
+
+Maskull pulled out his watch automatically, and looked at the time. It
+was past six.... But he was thinking of Nightspore’s words, and not of
+the time.
+
+*****
+
+
+Night had already fallen by the time they regained the tower. The black
+sky was glorious with liquid stars. Arcturus was a little way above the
+sea, directly opposite them, in the east. As they were passing the base
+of the tower, Maskull observed with a sudden shock that the gate was
+open. He caught hold of Nightspore’s arm violently. “Look! Krag is
+back.”
+
+“Yes, we must make haste to the house.”
+
+“And why not the tower? He’s probably in there, since the gate is open.
+I’m going up to look.”
+
+Nightspore grunted, but made no opposition.
+
+All was pitch-black inside the gate. Maskull struck a match, and the
+flickering light disclosed the lower end of a circular flight of stone
+steps. “Are you coming up?” he asked.
+
+“No, I’ll wait here.”
+
+Maskull immediately began the ascent. Hardly had he mounted half a dozen
+steps, however, before he was compelled to pause, to gain breath. He
+seemed to be carrying upstairs not one Maskull, but three. As he
+proceeded, the sensation of crushing weight, so far from diminishing,
+grew worse and worse. It was nearly physically impossible to go on; his
+lungs could not take in enough oxygen, while his heart thumped like a
+ship’s engine. Sweat coursed down his face. At the twentieth step he
+completed the first revolution of the tower and came face to face with
+the first window, which was set in a high embrasure.
+
+Realising that he could go no higher, he struck another match, and
+climbed into the embrasure, in order that he might at all events see
+something from the tower. The flame died, and he stared through the
+window at the stars. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that it
+was not a window at all but a lens.... The sky was not a wide expanse of
+space containing a multitude of stars, but a blurred darkness, focused
+only in one part, where two very bright stars, like small moons in size,
+appeared in close conjunction; and near them a more minute planetary
+object, as brilliant as Venus and with an observable disk. One of the
+suns shone with a glaring white light; the other was a weird and awful
+blue. Their light, though almost solar in intensity, did not illuminate
+the interior of the tower.
+
+Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was gazing
+was what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus.... He had seen the
+sight before, through Krag’s glass, but then the scale had been smaller,
+the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in their naked reality....
+These colors seemed to him most marvellous, as if, in seeing them
+through earth eyes, he was not seeing them correctly.... But it was at
+Tormance that he stared the longest and the most earnestly. On that
+mysterious and terrible earth, countless millions of miles distant, it
+had been promised him that he would set foot, even though he might leave
+his bones there. The strange creatures that he was to behold and touch
+were already living, at this very moment.
+
+A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard
+away. “Don’t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an instrument,
+to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when he wakes
+you must die. You will go, but he will return.”
+
+Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was
+in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
+
+The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he
+redescended to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his
+sensation of weight was instantly removed, but he continued panting and
+palpitating, like a man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
+
+Nightspore’s dark form came forward. “Was Krag there?”
+
+“If he was, I didn’t see him. But I heard someone speak.”
+
+“Was it Krag?”
+
+“It was not Krag—but a voice warned me against you.”
+
+“Yes, you will hear these voices too,” said Nightspore enigmatically.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+
+When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and
+the door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not
+there. Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every
+room—at the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the man
+they were expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the premises.
+Groping their way into the library, they sat down in the total darkness
+to wait, for nothing else remained to be done. Maskull lit his pipe, and
+began to drink the remainder of the whisky. Through the open window
+sounded in their ears the trainlike grinding of the sea at the foot of
+the cliffs.
+
+“Krag must be in the tower after all,” remarked Maskull, breaking the
+silence.
+
+“Yes, he is getting ready.”
+
+“I hope he doesn’t expect us to join him there. It was beyond my
+powers—but why, heaven knows. The stairs must have a magnetic pull of
+some sort.”
+
+“It is Tormantic gravity,” muttered Nightspore.
+
+“I understand you—or, rather, I don’t—but it doesn’t matter.”
+
+He went on smoking in silence, occasionally taking a mouthful of the
+neat liquor. “Who is Surtur?” he demanded abruptly.
+
+“We others are gropers and bunglers, but he is a master.”
+
+Maskull digested this. “I fancy you are right, for though I know nothing
+about him his mere name has an exciting effect on me.... Are you
+personally acquainted with him?”
+
+“I must be... I forget...” replied Nightspore in a choking voice.
+
+Maskull looked up, surprised, but could make nothing out in the
+blackness of the room.
+
+“Do you know so many extraordinary men that you can forget some of
+them?... Perhaps you can tell me this... will we meet him, where we are
+going?”
+
+“You will meet death, Maskull.... Ask me no more questions—I can’t
+answer them.”
+
+“Then let us go on waiting for Krag,” said Maskull coldly.
+
+Ten minutes later the front door slammed, and a light, quick footstep
+was heard running up the stairs. Maskull got up, with a beating heart.
+
+Krag appeared on the threshold of the door, bearing in his hand a feebly
+glimmering lantern. A hat was on his head, and he looked stern and
+forbidding. After scrutinising the two friends for a moment or so, he
+strode into the room and thrust the lantern on the table. Its light
+hardly served to illuminate the walls.
+
+“You have got here, then, Maskull?”
+
+“So it seems—but I shan’t thank you for your hospitality, for it has
+been conspicuous by its absence.”
+
+Krag ignored the remark. “Are you ready to start?”
+
+“By all means—when you are. It is not so entertaining here.”
+
+Krag surveyed him critically. “I heard you stumbling about in the tower.
+You couldn’t get up, it seems.”
+
+“It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore informs me that the start
+takes place from the top.”
+
+“But your other doubts are all removed?”
+
+“So far, Krag, that I now possess an open mind. I am quite willing to
+see what you can do.”
+
+“Nothing more is asked.... But this tower business. You know that until
+you are able to climb to the top you are unfit to stand the gravitation
+of Tormance?”
+
+“Then I repeat, it’s an awkward obstacle, for I certainly can’t get up.”
+
+Krag hunted about in his pockets, and at length produced a clasp knife.
+
+“Remove your coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve,” he directed.
+
+“Do you propose to make an incision with that?”
+
+“Yes, and don’t start difficulties, because the effect is certain, but
+you can’t possibly understand it beforehand.”
+
+“Still, a cut with a pocket-knife—” began Maskull, laughing.
+
+“It will answer, Maskull,” interrupted Nightspore.
+
+“Then bare your arm too, you aristocrat of the universe,” said Krag.
+“Let us see what your blood is made of.”
+
+Nightspore obeyed.
+
+Krag pulled out the big blade of the knife, and made a careless and
+almost savage slash at Maskull’s upper arm. The wound was deep, and
+blood flowed freely.
+
+“Do I bind it up?” asked Maskull, scowling with pain.
+
+Krag spat on the wound. “Pull your shirt down, it won’t bleed any more.”
+
+He then turned his attention to Nightspore, who endured his operation
+with grim indifference. Krag threw the knife on the floor.
+
+An awful agony, emanating from the wound, started to run through
+Maskull’s body, and he began to doubt whether he would not have to
+faint, but it subsided almost immediately, and then he felt nothing but
+a gnawing ache in the injured arm, just strong enough to make life one
+long discomfort.
+
+“That’s finished,” said Krag. “Now you can follow me.”
+
+Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door. The others hastened
+after him, to take advantage of the light, and a moment later their
+footsteps, clattering down the uncarpeted stairs, resounded through the
+deserted house. Krag waited till they were out, and then banged the
+front door after them with such violence that the windows shook.
+
+While they were walking swiftly across to the tower, Maskull caught his
+arm. “I heard a voice up those stairs.”
+
+“What did it say?”
+
+“That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return.”
+
+Krag smiled. “The journey is getting notorious,” he remarked, after a
+pause. “There must be ill-wishers about.... Well, do you want to
+return?”
+
+“I don’t know what I want. But I thought the thing was curious enough to
+be mentioned.”
+
+“It is not a bad thing to hear voices,” said Krag, “but you mustn’t for
+a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you out of the night
+world.”
+
+When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he immediately
+set foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and ran nimbly up,
+bearing the lantern. Maskull followed him with some trepidation, in view
+of his previous painful experience on these stairs, but when, after the
+first half-dozen steps, he discovered that he was still breathing
+freely, his dread changed to relief and astonishment, and he could have
+chattered like a girl.
+
+At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stopping, but
+Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his acquaintance
+with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group. The lens had lost
+its magic property. It had become a common sheet of glass, through which
+the ordinary sky field appeared.
+
+The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again
+mounted and stared out, but still the common sights presented
+themselves. After that, he gave up and looked through no more windows.
+
+Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so that
+he had to complete the ascent in darkness. When he was near the top, he
+saw yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened door. His
+companions were standing just inside a small room, shut off from the
+staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely furnished and
+contained nothing of astronomical interest. The lantern was resting on a
+table.
+
+Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity. “Are we at the
+top?”
+
+“Except for the platform over our heads,” replied Krag.
+
+“Why didn’t that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in the
+evening?”
+
+“Oh, you missed your opportunity,” said Krag, grinning. “If you had
+finished your climb then, you would have seen heart-expanding sights.
+From the fifth window, for example, you would have seen Tormance like a
+continent in relief; from the sixth you would have seen it like a
+landscape.... But now there’s no need.”
+
+“Why not—and what has need got to do with it?”
+
+“Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours. For the same
+reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there was no
+necessity to stop and gape at illusions en route.”
+
+“Very well,” said Maskull, not quite understanding what he meant. “But
+is this Surtur’s den?”
+
+“He has spent time here.”
+
+“I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag. We may not
+get another chance.”
+
+“What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur. There’s no need
+to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately going on
+to the reality.”
+
+“Then let us go.” He pressed his eyeballs wearily.
+
+“Do we strip?” asked Nightspore.
+
+“Naturally,” answered Krag, and he began to tear off his clothes with
+slow, uncouth movements.
+
+“Why?” demanded Maskull, following, however, the example of the other
+two men.
+
+Krag thumped his vast chest, which was covered with thick hairs, like an
+ape’s. “Who knows what the Tormance fashions are like? We may sprout
+limbs—I don’t say we shall.”
+
+“A-ha!” exclaimed Maskull, pausing in the middle of his undressing.
+
+Krag smote him on the back. “New pleasure organs possible, Maskull. You
+like that?”
+
+The three men stood as nature made them. Maskull’s spirits rose fast, as
+the moment of departure drew near.
+
+“A farewell drink to success!” cried Krag, seizing a bottle and breaking
+its head off between his fingers. There were no glasses, but he poured
+the amber-coloured wine into some cracked cups.
+
+Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull tossed off his cupful. It was
+as if he had swallowed a draught of liquid electricity.... Krag dropped
+onto the floor and rolled around on his back, kicking his legs in the
+air. He tried to drag Maskull down on top of him, and a little horseplay
+went on between the two. Nightspore took no part in it, but walked to
+and fro, like a hungry caged animal.
+
+Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged, piercing
+wail, such as a banshee might be imagined to utter. It ceased abruptly,
+and was not repeated.
+
+“What’s that?” called out Maskull, disengaging himself impatiently from
+Krag.
+
+Krag rocked with laughter. “A Scottish spirit trying to reproduce the
+bagpipes of its earth life—in honour of our departure.”
+
+Nightspore turned to Krag. “Maskull will sleep throughout the journey?”
+
+“And you too, if you wish, my altruistic friend. I am pilot, and you
+passengers can amuse yourselves as you please.”
+
+“Are we off at last?” asked Maskull.
+
+“Yes, you are about to cross your Rubicon, Maskull. But what a
+Rubicon!... Do you know that it takes light a hundred years or so to
+arrive here from Arcturus? Yet we shall do it in nineteen hours.”
+
+“Then you assert that Surtur is already there?”
+
+“Surtur is where he is. He is a great traveller.”
+
+“Won’t I see him?”
+
+Krag went up to him and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t forget that you
+have asked for it, and wanted it. Few people in Tormance will know more
+about him than you do, but your memory will be your worst friend.”
+
+*****
+
+He led the way up a short iron ladder, mounting through a trap to the
+flat roof above. When they were up, he switched on a small electric
+torch.
+
+Maskull beheld with awe the torpedo of crystal that was to convey them
+through the whole breadth of visible space. It was forty feet long,
+eight wide, and eight high; the tank containing the Arcturian back rays
+was in front, the car behind. The nose of the torpedo was directed
+toward the south-eastern sky. The whole machine rested upon a flat
+platform, raised about four feet above the level of the roof, so as to
+encounter no obstruction on starting its flight.
+
+Krag flashed the light on to the door of the car, to enable them to
+enter. Before doing so, Maskull gazed sternly once again at the
+gigantic, far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now onward.
+He frowned, shivered slightly, and got in beside Nightspore. Krag
+clambered past them onto his pilot’s seat. He threw the flashlight
+through the open door, which was then carefully closed, fastened, and
+screwed up.
+
+He pulled the starting lever. The torpedo glided gently from its
+platform, and passed rather slowly away from the tower, seaward. Its
+speed increased sensibly, though not excessively, until the approximate
+limits of the earth’s atmosphere were reached. Krag then released the
+speed valve, and the car sped on its way with a velocity more nearly
+approaching that of thought than of light.
+
+Maskull had no opportunity of examining through the crystal walls the
+rapidly changing panorama of the heavens. An extreme drowsiness
+oppressed him. He opened his eyes violently a dozen times, but on the
+thirteenth attempt he failed. From that time forward he slept heavily.
+
+The bored, hungry expression never left Nightspore’s face. The
+alterations in the aspect of the sky seemed to possess not the least
+interest for him.
+
+Krag sat with his hand on the lever, watching with savage intentness his
+phosphorescent charts and gauges.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6. JOIWIND
+
+IT WAS DENSE NIGHT when Maskull awoke from his profound sleep. A wind
+was blowing against him, gentle but wall-like, such as he had never
+experienced on earth. He remained sprawling on the ground, as he was
+unable to lift his body because of its intense weight. A numbing pain,
+which he could not identify with any region of his frame, acted from now
+onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his other sensations. It
+gnawed away at him continuously; sometimes it embittered and irritated
+him, at other times he forgot it.
+
+He felt something hard on his forehead. Putting his hand up, he
+discovered there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum, having
+a cavity in the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom. Then he
+also became aware of a large knob on each side of his neck, an inch
+below the ear.
+
+From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded. It was as long as
+his arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.
+
+As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new organs,
+his heart began to pump. Whatever might, or might not, be their use,
+they proved one thing—that he was in a new world.
+
+One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest. Maskull cried
+out to his companions, but received no response. This frightened him. He
+went on shouting out, at irregular intervals—equally alarmed at the
+silence and at the sound of his own voice. Finally, as no answering hail
+came, he thought it wiser not to make too much noise, and after that he
+lay quiet, waiting in cold blood for what might happen.
+
+In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were not
+his friends.
+
+A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black night,
+while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one would have
+said that day was breaking. The brightness went on imperceptibly
+increasing for a very long time.
+
+Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the
+sand was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with
+black stems and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.
+
+The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before long
+the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the midday
+sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull welcomed it—it
+relieved his pain and diminished his sense of crushing weight. The wind
+had dropped with the rising of the sun.
+
+He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling. He
+was unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially dissolved,
+and all that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of red sand dotted
+with ten or twenty bushes.
+
+He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started forward
+in nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the sand. Looking
+up over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see a woman standing
+beside him.
+
+She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
+classically draped. According to earth standards she was not beautiful,
+for, although her face was otherwise human, she was endowed—or
+afflicted—with the additional disfiguring organs that Maskull had
+discovered in himself. She also possessed the heart tentacle. But when
+he sat up, and their eyes met and remained in sympathetic contact, he
+seemed to see right into a soul that was the home of love, warmth,
+kindness, tenderness, and intimacy. Such was the noble familiarity of
+that gaze, that he thought he knew her. After that, he recognised all
+the loveliness of her person. She was tall and slight. All her movements
+were as graceful as music. Her skin was not of a dead, opaque colour,
+like that of an earth beauty, but was opalescent; its hue was
+continually changing, with every thought and emotion, but none of these
+tints was vivid—all were delicate, half-toned, and poetic. She had very
+long, loosely plaited, flaxen hair. The new organs, as soon as Maskull
+had familiarised himself with them, imparted something to her face that
+was unique and striking. He could not quite define it to himself, but
+subtlety and inwardness seemed added. The organs did not contradict the
+love of her eyes or the angelic purity of her features, but nevertheless
+sounded a deeper note—a note that saved her from mere girlishness.
+
+Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely
+any humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless. She realised
+his plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had been carrying
+over her arm. It was similar to the one she was wearing, but of a
+darker, more masculine colour.
+
+“Do you think you can put it on by yourself?”
+
+He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not
+sounded.
+
+He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
+complications of the drapery.
+
+“Poor man—how you are suffering!” she said, in the same inaudible
+language. This time he discovered that the sense of what she said was
+received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.
+
+“Where am I? Is this Tormance?” he asked. As he spoke, he staggered.
+
+She caught him, and helped him to sit down. “Yes. You are with friends.”
+
+Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in
+English. Her voice somehow reminded him of an April day, it was so
+fresh, nervous, and girlish. “I can now understand your language. It was
+strange at first. In the future I’ll speak to you with my mouth.”
+
+“This is extraordinary! What is this organ?” he asked, touching his
+forehead.
+
+“It is named the ‘breve.’ By means of it we read one another’s thoughts.
+Still, speech is better, for then the heart can be read too.”
+
+He smiled. “They say that speech is given us to deceive others.”
+
+“One can deceive with thought, too. But I’m thinking of the best, not
+the worst.”
+
+“Have you seen my friends?”
+
+She scrutinised him quietly, before answering. “Did you not come alone?”
+
+“I came with two other men, in a machine. I must have lost consciousness
+on arrival, and I haven’t seen them since.”
+
+“That’s very strange! No, I haven’t seen them. They can’t be here, or we
+would have known it. My husband and I—”
+
+“What is your name, and your husband’s name?”
+
+“Mine is Joiwind—my husband’s is Panawe. We live a very long way from
+here; still, it came to us both last night that you were lying here
+insensible. We almost quarrelled about which of us should come to you,
+but in the end I won.” Here she laughed. “I won, because I am the
+stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in perception.”
+
+“Thanks, Joiwind!” said Maskull simply.
+
+The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. “Oh, why do you
+say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at
+the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood.”
+
+“What is this?” he demanded, rather puzzled.
+
+“It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.
+Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up.”
+
+Maskull flushed. “I feel like a complete ignoramus here.... Won’t it
+hurt you?”
+
+“If your blood pains you, I suppose it will pain me. But we will share
+the pain.”
+
+“This is a new kind of hospitality to me,” he muttered.
+
+“Wouldn’t you do the same for me?” asked Joiwind, half smiling, half
+agitated.
+
+“I can’t answer for any of my actions in this world. I scarcely know
+where I am.... Why, yes—of course I would, Joiwind.”
+
+While they were talking it had become full day. The mists had rolled
+away from the ground, and only the upper atmosphere remained fog-
+charged. The desert of scarlet sand stretched in all directions, except
+one, where there was a sort of little oasis—some low hills, clothed
+sparsely with little purple trees from base to summit. It was about a
+quarter of a mile distant.
+
+Joiwind had brought with her a small flint knife. Without any trace of
+nervousness, she made a careful, deep incision on her upper arm. Maskull
+expostulated.
+
+“Really, this part of it is nothing,” she said, laughing. “And if it
+were—a sacrifice that is no sacrifice—what merit is there in that?...
+Come now—your arm!”
+
+The blood was streaming down her arm. It was not red blood, but a milky,
+opalescent fluid.
+
+“Not that one!” said Maskull, shrinking. “I have already been cut
+there.” He submitted the other, and his blood poured forth.
+
+Joiwind delicately and skilfully placed the mouths of the two wounds
+together, and then kept her arm pressed tightly against Maskull’s for a
+long time. He felt a stream of pleasure entering his body through the
+incision. His old lightness and vigour began to return to him. After
+about five minutes a duel of kindness started between them; he wanted to
+remove his arm, and she to continue. At last he had his way, but it was
+none too soon—she stood there pale and dispirited.
+
+She looked at him with a more serious expression than before, as if
+strange depths had opened up before her eyes.
+
+“What is your name?”
+
+“Maskull.”
+
+“Where have you come from, with this awful blood?”
+
+“From a world called Earth.... The blood is clearly unsuitable for this
+world, Joiwind, but after all, that was only to be expected. I am sorry
+I let you have your way.”
+
+“Oh, don’t say that! There was nothing else to be done. We must all help
+one another. Yet, somehow—forgive me—I feel polluted.”
+
+“And well you may, for it’s a fearful thing for a girl to accept in her
+own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet. If I had not
+been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it.”
+
+“But I would have insisted. Are we not all brothers and sisters? Why did
+you come here, Maskull?”
+
+He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment. “Will you think it
+foolish if I say I hardly know?—I came with those two men. Perhaps I was
+attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of adventure.”
+
+“Perhaps,” said Joiwind. “I wonder... These friends of yours must be
+terrible men. Why did they come?”
+
+“That I can tell you. They came to follow Surtur.”
+
+Her face grew troubled. “I don’t understand it. One of them at least
+must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur—or Shaping, as he
+is called here—he can’t be really bad.”
+
+“What do you know of Surtur?” asked Maskull in astonishment.
+
+Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain moved
+restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. “I see.... and
+yet I don’t see,” she said at last. “It is very difficult.... Your God
+is a dreadful Being—bodyless, unfriendly, invisible. Here we don’t
+worship a God like that. Tell me, has any man set eyes on your God?”
+
+“What does all this mean, Joiwind? Why speak of God?”
+
+“I want to know.”
+
+“In ancient times, when the earth was young and grand, a few holy men
+are reputed to have walked and spoken with God, but those days are
+past.”
+
+“Our world is still young,” said Joiwind. “Shaping goes among us and
+converses with us. He is real and active—a friend and lover. Shaping
+made us, and he loves his work.”
+
+“Have you met him?” demanded Maskull, hardly believing his ears.
+
+“No. I have done nothing to deserve it yet. Some day I may have an
+opportunity to sacrifice myself, and then I may be rewarded by meeting
+and talking with Shaping.”
+
+“I have certainly come to another world. But why do you say he is the
+same as Surtur?”
+
+“Yes, he is the same. We women call him Shaping, and so do most men, but
+a few name him Surtur.”
+
+Maskull bit his nail. “Have you ever heard of Crystalman?”
+
+“That is Shaping once again. You see, he has many names—which shows how
+much he occupies our minds. Crystalman is a name of affection.”
+
+“It’s odd,” said Maskull. “I came here with quite different ideas about
+Crystalman.”
+
+Joiwind shook her hair. “In that grove of trees over there stands a
+desert shrine of his. Let us go and pray there, and then we’ll go on our
+way to Poolingdred. That is my home. It’s a long way off, and we must
+get there before Blodsombre.”
+
+“Now, what is Blodsombre?”
+
+“For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell’s rays are so
+hot that no one can endure them. We call it Blodsombre.”
+
+“Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?”
+
+Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed. “Naturally we don’t take
+our names from you, Maskull. I don’t think our names are very poetic,
+but they follow nature.”
+
+She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
+tree-covered hills. As they went along, the sun broke through the upper
+mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from a
+furnace, struck Maskull’s head. He involuntarily looked up, but lowered
+his eyes again like lightning. All that he saw in that instant was a
+glaring ball of electric white, three times the apparent diameter of the
+sun. For a few minutes he was quite blind.
+
+“My God!” he exclaimed. “If it’s like this in early morning you must be
+right enough about Blodsombre.” When he had somewhat recovered himself
+he asked, “How long are the days here, Joiwind?”
+
+Again he felt his brain being probed.
+
+“At this time of the year, for every hour’s daylight that you have in
+summer, we have two.”
+
+“The heat is terrific—and yet somehow I don’t feel so distressed by it
+as I would have expected.”
+
+“I feel it more than usual. It’s not difficult to account for it; you
+have some of my blood, and I have some of yours.”
+
+“Yes, every time I realise that, I—Tell me, Joiwind, will my blood
+alter, if I stay here long enough?—I mean, will it lose its redness and
+thickness, and become pure and thin and light-coloured, like yours?”
+
+“Why not? If you live as we live, you will assuredly grow like us.”
+
+“Do you mean food and drink?”
+
+“We eat no food, and drink only water.”
+
+“And on that you manage to sustain life?”
+
+“Well, Maskull, our water is good water,” replied Joiwind, smiling.
+
+As soon as he could see again he stared around at the landscape. The
+enormous scarlet desert extended everywhere to the horizon, excepting
+where it was broken by the oasis. It was roofed by a cloudless, deep
+blue, almost violet, sky. The circle of the horizon was far larger than
+on earth. On the skyline, at right angles to the direction in which they
+were walking, appeared a chain of mountains, apparently about forty
+miles distant. One, which was higher than the rest, was shaped like a
+cup. Maskull would have felt inclined to believe he was travelling in
+dreamland, but for the intensity of the light, which made everything
+vividly real.
+
+Joiwind pointed to the cup-shaped mountain. “That’s Poolingdred.”
+
+“You didn’t come from there!” he exclaimed, quite startled.
+
+“Yes, I did indeed. And that is where we have to go to now.”
+
+“With the single object of finding me?”
+
+“Why, yes.”
+
+The colour mounted to his face. “Then you are the bravest and noblest of
+all girls,” he said quietly, after a pause. “Without exception. Why,
+this is a journey for an athlete!”
+
+She pressed his arm, while a score of unpaintable, delicate hues stained
+her cheeks in rapid transition. “Please don’t say any more about it,
+Maskull. It makes me feel unpleasant.”
+
+“Very well. But can we possibly get there before midday?”
+
+“Oh, yes. And you mustn’t be frightened at the distance. We think
+nothing of long distances here—we have so much to think about and feel.
+Time goes all too quickly.”
+
+During their conversation they had drawn near the base of the hills,
+which sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height. Maskull
+now began to see strange specimens of vegetable life. What looked like a
+small patch of purple grass, above five feet square, was moving across
+the sand in their direction. When it came near enough he perceived that
+it was not grass; there were no blades, but only purple roots. The roots
+were revolving, for each small plant in the whole patch, like the spokes
+of a rimless wheel. They were alternately plunged in the sand, and
+withdrawn from it, and by this means the plant proceeded forward. Some
+uncanny, semi-intelligent instinct was keeping all the plants together,
+moving at one pace, in one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in
+flight.
+
+Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
+dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air. Joiwind
+caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm, and showed
+it to Maskull. It had roots and presumably lived in the air and fed on
+the chemical constituents of the atmosphere. But what was peculiar about
+it was its colour. It was an entirely new colour—not a new shade or
+combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid as blue, red, or yellow,
+but quite different. When he inquired, she told him that it was known as
+“ulfire.” Presently he met with a second new colour. This she designated
+“jale.” The sense impressions caused in Maskull by these two additional
+primary colors can only be vaguely hinted at by analogy. Just as blue is
+delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and unsubtle, and red sanguine and
+passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild and painful, and jale
+dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
+
+The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
+shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured, covered
+the slopes and top. Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and through. Some
+hard fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a large apple, and
+shaped like an egg, was lying in profusion underneath the trees.
+
+“Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don’t you eat it?” asked Maskull.
+
+She looked at him tranquilly. “We don’t eat living things. The thought
+is horrible to us.”
+
+“I have nothing to say against that, theoretically. But do you really
+sustain your bodies on water?”
+
+“Supposing you could find nothing else to live on, Maskull—would you eat
+other men?”
+
+“I would not.”
+
+“Neither will we eat plants and animals, which are our fellow creatures.
+So nothing is left to us but water, and as one can really live on
+anything, water does very well.”
+
+Maskull picked up one of the fruits and handled it curiously. As he did
+so another of his newly acquired sense organs came into action. He found
+that the fleshy knobs beneath his ears were in some novel fashion
+acquainting him with the inward properties of the fruit. He could not
+only see, feel, and smell it, but could detect its intrinsic nature.
+This nature was hard, persistent and melancholy.
+
+Joiwind answered the questions he had not asked.
+
+“Those organs are called ‘poigns.’ Their use is to enable us to
+understand and sympathise with all living creatures.”
+
+“What advantage do you derive from that, Joiwind?”
+
+“The advantage of not being cruel and selfish, dear Maskull.”
+
+He threw the fruit away and flushed again.
+
+Joiwind looked into his swarthy, bearded face without embarrassment and
+slowly smiled. “Have I said too much? Have I been too familiar? Do you
+know why you think so? It’s because you are still impure. By and by you
+will listen to all language without shame.”
+
+Before he realised what she was about to do, she threw her tentacle
+round his neck, like another arm. He offered no resistance to its cool
+pressure. The contact of her soft flesh with his own was so moist and
+sensitive that it resembled another kind of kiss. He saw who it was that
+embraced him—a pale, beautiful girl. Yet, oddly enough, he experienced
+neither voluptuousness nor sexual pride. The love expressed by the
+caress was rich, glowing, and personal, but there was not the least
+trace of sex in it—and so he received it.
+
+She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and
+penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul.
+
+“Yes, I wish to be pure,” he muttered. “Without that what can I ever be
+but a weak, squirming devil?”
+
+Joiwind released him. “This we call the ‘magn,’” she said, indicating
+her tentacle. “By means of it what we love already we love more, and
+what we don’t love at all we begin to love.”
+
+“A godlike organ!”
+
+“It is the one we guard most jealously,” said Joiwind.
+
+The shade of the trees afforded a timely screen from the now almost
+insufferable rays of Branchspell, which was climbing steadily upward to
+the zenith. On descending the other side of the little hills, Maskull
+looked anxiously for traces of Nightspore and Krag, but without result.
+After staring about him for a few minutes he shrugged his shoulders; but
+suspicions had already begun to gather in his mind.
+
+A small, natural amphitheatre lay at their feet, completely circled by
+the tree-clad heights. The centre was of red sand. In the very middle
+shot up a tall, stately tree, with a black trunk and branches, and
+transparent, crystal leaves. At the foot of this tree was a natural,
+circular well, containing dark green water.
+
+When they had reached the bottom, Joiwind took him straight over to the
+well.
+
+Maskull gazed at it intently. “Is this the shrine you talked about?”
+
+“Yes. It is called Shaping’s Well. The man or woman who wishes to invoke
+Shaping must take up some of the gnawl water, and drink it.”
+
+“Pray for me,” said Maskull. “Your unspotted prayer will carry more
+weight.”
+
+“What do you wish for?”
+
+“For purity,” answered Maskull, in a troubled voice.
+
+Joiwind made a cup of her hand, and drank a little of the water. She
+held it up to Maskull’s mouth. “You must drink too.” He obeyed. She then
+stood erect, closed her eyes, and, in a voice like the soft murmurings
+of spring, prayed aloud.
+
+“Shaping, my father, I am hoping you can hear me. A strange man has come
+to us weighed down with heavy blood. He wishes to be pure. Let him know
+the meaning of love, let him live for others. Don’t spare him pain, dear
+Shaping, but let him seek his own pain. Breathe into him a noble soul.”
+
+Maskull listened with tears in his heart.
+
+As Joiwind finished speaking, a blurred mist came over his eyes, and,
+half buried in the scarlet sand, appeared a large circle of dazzlingly
+white pillars. For some minutes they flickered to and fro between
+distinctness and indistinctness, like an object being focused. Then they
+faded out of sight again.
+
+“Is that a sign from Shaping?” asked Maskull, in a low, awed tone.
+
+“Perhaps it is. It is a time mirage.”
+
+“What can that be, Joiwind?”
+
+“You see, dear Maskull, the temple does not yet exist but it will do so,
+because it must. What you and I are now doing in simplicity, wise men
+will do hereafter in full knowledge.”
+
+“It is right for man to pray,” said Maskull. “Good and evil in the world
+don’t originate from nothing. God and Devil must exist. And we should
+pray to the one, and fight the other.”
+
+“Yes, we must fight Krag.”
+
+“What name did you say?” asked Maskull in amazement.
+
+“Krag—the author of evil and misery—whom you call Devil.”
+
+He immediately concealed his thoughts. To prevent Joiwind from learning
+his relationship to this being, he made his mind a blank.
+
+“Why do you hide your mind from me?” she demanded, looking at him
+strangely and changing colour.
+
+“In this bright, pure, radiant world, evil seems so remote, one can
+scarcely grasp its meaning.” But he lied.
+
+Joiwind continued gazing at him, straight out of her clean soul. “The
+world is good and pure, but many men are corrupt. Panawe, my husband,
+has travelled, and he has told me things I would almost rather have not
+heard. One person he met believed the universe to be, from top to
+bottom, a conjurer’s cave.”
+
+“I should like to meet your husband.”
+
+“Well, we are going home now.”
+
+Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children, but
+was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.
+
+She read the mental question. “What need is there? Is not the whole
+world full of lovely children? Why should I want selfish possessions?”
+
+An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
+distinct notes. It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body,
+paddled by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees.
+
+Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. “I love that beast, grotesque as
+it is—perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had children
+of my own, would I still love it? Which is best—to love two or three, or
+to love all?”
+
+“Every woman can’t be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to have a few
+like you. Wouldn’t it be as well,” he went on, “since we’ve got to walk
+through that sun-baked wilderness, to make turbans for our heads out of
+some of those long leaves?”
+
+She smiled rather pathetically. “You will think me foolish, but every
+tearing off of a leaf would be a wound in my heart. We have only to
+throw our robes over our heads.”
+
+“No doubt that will answer the same purpose, but tell me—weren’t these
+very robes once part of a living creature?”
+
+“Oh, no—no, they are the webs of a certain animal, but they have never
+been in themselves alive.”
+
+“You reduce life to extreme simplicity,” remarked Maskull meditatively,
+“but it is very beautiful.”
+
+Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began
+their march across the desert.
+
+They walked side by side. Joiwind directed their course straight toward
+Poolingdred. From the position of the sun, Maskull judged their way to
+lie due north. The sand was soft and powdery, very tiring to his naked
+feet. The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him semi-blind. He was hot,
+parched, and tormented with the craving to drink; his undertone of pain
+emerged into full consciousness.
+
+“I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer.”
+
+“Yes, it is queer—if it is accidental,” said Joiwind, with a peculiar
+intonation.
+
+“Exactly!” agreed Maskull. “If they had met with a mishap, their bodies
+would still be there. It begins to look like a piece of bad work to me.
+They must have gone on, and left me.... Well, I am here, and I must make
+the best of it. I will trouble no more about them.”
+
+“I don’t wish to speak ill of anyone,” said Joiwind, “but my instinct
+tells me that you are better away from those men. They did not come here
+for your sake, but for their own.”
+
+They walked on for a long time. Maskull was beginning to feel faint. She
+twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current of
+confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.
+
+“Thanks, Joiwind! But am I not weakening you?”
+
+“Yes,” she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance. “But not much—and it
+gives me great happiness.”
+
+Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-born
+lamb, waltzing along on three legs. Each leg in turn moved to the front,
+and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a series of complete
+rotations. It was vividly coloured, as though it had been dipped into
+pots of bright blue and yellow paint. It looked up with small, shining
+eyes, as they passed.
+
+Joiwind nodded and smiled to it. “That’s a personal friend of mine,
+Maskull. Whenever I come this way, I see it. It’s always waltzing, and
+always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere.”
+
+“It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is no
+need for anyone to get anywhere. What I don’t quite understand is how
+you manage to pass your days without ennui.”
+
+“That’s a strange word. It means, does it not, craving for excitement?”
+
+“Something of the kind,” said Maskull.
+
+“That must be a disease brought on by rich food.”
+
+“But are you never dull?”
+
+“How could we be? Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh is
+clean and unclogged, inside and out.... Before long I hope you will
+understand what sort of question you have asked.”
+
+Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon. In the heart of the
+desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air, with a
+cool and pleasant hissing sound. It differed, however, from a fountain
+in this respect—that the water of which it was composed did not return
+to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at the summit. It was
+in fact a tall, graceful column of dark green fluid, with a capital of
+coiling and twisting vapours.
+
+When they came closer, Maskull perceived that this water column was the
+continuation and termination of a flowing brook, which came down from
+the direction of the mountains. The explanation of the phenomenon was
+evidently that the water at this spot found chemical affinities in the
+upper air, and consequently forsook the ground.
+
+“Now let us drink,” said Joiwind.
+
+She threw herself unaffectedly at full length on the sand, face
+downward, by the side of the brook, and Maskull was not long in
+following her example. She refused to quench her thirst until she had
+seen him drink. He found the water heavy, but bubbling with gas. He
+drank copiously. It affected his palate in a new way—with the purity and
+cleanness of water was combined the exhilaration of a sparkling wine,
+raising his spirits—but somehow the intoxication brought out his better
+nature, and not his lower.
+
+“We call it ‘gnawl water’,” said Joiwind. “This is not quite pure, as
+you can see by the colour. At Poolingdred it is crystal clear. But we
+would be ungrateful if we complained. After this you’ll find we’ll get
+along much better.”
+
+Maskull now began to realise his environment, as it were for the first
+time. All his sense organs started to show him beauties and wonders that
+he had not hitherto suspected. The uniform glaring scarlet of the sands
+became separated into a score of clearly distinguished shades of red.
+The sky was similarly split up into different blues. The radiant heat of
+Branchspell he found to affect every part of his body with unequal
+intensities. His ears awakened; the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the
+sands hummed, even the sun’s rays had a sound of their own—a kind of
+faint Aeolian harp. Subtle, puzzling perfumes assailed his nostrils. His
+palate lingered over the memory of the gnawl water. All the pores of his
+skin were tickled and soothed by hitherto unperceived currents of air.
+His poigns explored actively the inward nature of everything in his
+immediate vicinity. His magn touched Joiwind, and drew from her person a
+stream of love and joy. And lastly by means of his breve he exchanged
+thoughts with her in silence. This mighty sense symphony stirred him to
+the depths, and throughout the walk of that endless morning he felt no
+more fatigue.
+
+When it was drawing near to Blodsombre, they approached the sedgy margin
+of a dark green lake, which lay underneath Poolingdred.
+
+Panawe was sitting on a dark rock, waiting for them.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7. PANAWE
+
+The husband got up to meet his wife and their guest. He was clothed in
+white. He had a beardless face, with breve and poigns. His skin, on face
+and body alike, was so white, fresh, and soft, that it scarcely looked
+skin at all—it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh,
+extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the
+artificially whitened skin of an over-civilised woman. Its whiteness and
+delicacy aroused no voluptuous thoughts; it was obviously the
+manifestation of a cold and almost cruel chastity of nature. His hair,
+which fell to the nape of his neck, also was white; but again, from
+vigour, not decay. His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was
+still a young man, but so stern were his features that he had the
+appearance of a lawgiver, and this in spite of their great beauty and
+harmony.
+
+His magn and Joiwind’s intertwined for a single moment and Maskull saw
+his face soften with love, while she looked exultant. She put him in her
+husband’s arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and smiling.
+Maskull felt rather embarrassed at being embraced by a man, but
+submitted to it; a sense of cool, pleasant languor passed through him in
+the act.
+
+“The stranger is red-blooded, then?”
+
+He was startled by Panawe’s speaking in English, and the voice too was
+extraordinary. It was absolutely tranquil, but its tranquillity seemed
+in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of
+thoughts and feelings so great that their motion could not be detected.
+How this could be, he did not know.
+
+“How do you come to speak in a tongue you have never heard before?”
+demanded Maskull.
+
+“Thought is a rich, complex thing. I can’t say if I am really speaking
+your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are translating my thoughts
+into your tongue as I utter them.”
+
+“Already you see that Panawe is wiser than I am,” said Joiwind gaily.
+
+“What is your name?” asked the husband.
+
+“Maskull.”
+
+“That name must have a meaning—but again, thought is a strange thing. I
+connect that name with something—but with what?”
+
+“Try to discover,” said Joiwind.
+
+“Has there been a man in your world who stole something from the Maker
+of the universe, in order to ennoble his fellow creatures?”
+
+“There is such a myth. The hero’s name was Prometheus.”
+
+“Well, you seem to be identified in my mind with that action—but what it
+all means I can’t say, Maskull.”
+
+“Accept it as a good omen, for Panawe never lies, and never speaks
+thoughtlessly.”
+
+“There must be some confusion. These are heights beyond me,” said
+Maskull calmly, but looking rather contemplative.
+
+“Where do you come from?”
+
+“From the planet of a distant sun, called Earth.”
+
+“What for?”
+
+“I was tired of vulgarity,” returned Maskull laconically. He
+intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyagers, in order that
+Krag’s name should not come to light.
+
+“That’s an honourable motive,” said Panawe. “And what’s more, it may be
+true, though you spoke it as a prevarication.”
+
+“As far as it goes, it’s quite true,” said Maskull, staring at him with
+annoyance and surprise.
+
+The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were
+standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds
+showed themselves here and there through the shallows. The water was
+dark green. Maskull did not see how they were going to cross it.
+
+Joiwind caught his arm. “Perhaps you don’t know that the lake will bear
+us?”
+
+Panawe walked onto the water; it was so heavy that it carried his
+weight. Joiwind followed with Maskull. He instantly started to slip
+about—nevertheless the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by
+watching and imitating Panawe, that he was soon able to balance himself
+without assistance. After that he found the sport excellent.
+
+For the same reason that women excel in dancing, Joiwind’s half falls
+and recoveries were far more graceful and sure than those of either of
+the men. Her slight, draped form—dipping, bending, rising, swaying,
+twisting, upon the surface of the dark water—this was a picture Maskull
+could not keep his eyes away from.
+
+The lake grew deeper. The gnawl water became green-black. The crags,
+gullies, and precipices of the shore could now be distinguished in
+detail. A waterfall was visible, descending several hundred feet. The
+surface of the lake grew disturbed—so much so that Maskull had
+difficulty in keeping his balance. He therefore threw himself down and
+started swimming on the face of the water. Joiwind turned her head, and
+laughed so joyously that all her teeth flashed in the sunlight.
+
+They landed in a few more minutes on a promontory of black rock. The
+water on Maskull’s garment and body evaporated very quickly. He gazed
+upward at the towering mountain, but at that moment some strange
+movements on the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was
+working convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his
+hand to his mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured
+pebble. He looked at it carefully for some seconds. Joiwind also looked,
+over his shoulder, with quickly changing colors. After this inspection,
+Panawe let the object—whatever it was—fall to the ground, and took no
+more interest in it.
+
+“May I look?” asked Maskull; and, without waiting for permission, he
+picked it up. It was a delicately beautiful egg-shaped crystal of pale
+green.
+
+“Where did this come from?” he asked queerly.
+
+Panawe turned away, but Joiwind answered for him. “It came out of my
+husband.”
+
+“That’s what I thought, but I couldn’t believe it. But what is it?”
+
+“I don’t know that it has either name or use. It is merely an
+overflowing of beauty.”
+
+“Beauty?”
+
+Joiwind smiled. “If you were to regard nature as the husband, and Panawe
+as the wife, Maskull, perhaps everything would be explained.”
+
+Maskull reflected.
+
+“On Earth,” he said after a minute, “men like Panawe are called artists,
+poets, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and out of them
+again. The only distinction is that their productions are more human and
+intelligible.”
+
+“Nothing comes from it but vanity,” said Panawe, and, taking the crystal
+out of Maskull’s hand, he threw it into the lake.
+
+The precipice they now had to climb was several hundred feet in height.
+Maskull was more anxious for Joiwind than for himself. She was evidently
+tiring, but she refused all help, and was in fact still the nimbler of
+the two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet
+thoughts. The rock was sound, and did not crumble under their weight.
+The heat of Branchspell, however, was by this time almost killing, the
+radiance was shocking in its white intensity, and Maskull’s pain
+steadily grew worse.
+
+When they got to the top, a plateau of dark rock appeared, bare of
+vegetation, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see.
+It was of a nearly uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of
+the cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills
+varied in height. The cup-shaped Poolingdred was approximately a
+thousand feet above them. The upper part of it was covered with a kind
+of glittering vegetation which he could not comprehend.
+
+Joiwind put her hand on Maskull’s shoulder, and pointed upward. “Here
+you have the highest peak in the whole land—that is, until you come to
+the Ifdawn Marest.”
+
+On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable
+sensation of wild vigour and restlessness—but it passed away.
+
+Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside. The lower
+half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb. Halfway up, however, it
+grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growth
+became thicker as they continued to ascend, and when they neared the
+summit, tall forest trees appeared.
+
+These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the
+small twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal. They cast no
+shadows from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and
+branches were fantastically shaped. What surprised Maskull the most,
+however, was the fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two
+plants belonged to the same species.
+
+“Won’t you help Maskull out of his difficulty?” said Joiwind, pulling
+her husband’s arm.
+
+He smiled. “If he’ll forgive me for again trespassing in his brain. But
+the difficulty is small. Life on a new planet, Maskull, is necessarily
+energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is still
+fluid—not yet rigid—and matter is plastic. The will forks and sports
+incessantly, and thus no two creatures are alike.”
+
+“Well, I understand all that,” replied Maskull, after listening
+attentively. “But what I don’t grasp is this—if living creatures here
+sport so energetically, how does it come about that human beings wear
+much the same shape as in my world?”
+
+“I’ll explain that too,” said Panawe. “All creatures that resemble
+Shaping must of necessity resemble one another.”
+
+“Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?”
+
+“Exactly.”
+
+“It is most wonderful,” said Maskull. “Then the brotherhood of man is
+not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact.”
+
+Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour. Panawe relapsed into
+sternness.
+
+Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon. The jale-coloured
+blossoms of a crystal bush were emitting mental waves, which with his
+breve he could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, “To me! To
+me!” While he looked, a flying worm guided itself through the air to one
+of these blossoms and began to suck its nectar. The floral cry
+immediately ceased.
+
+They now gained the crest of the mountain, and looked down beyond. A
+lake occupied its crater-like cavity. A fringe of trees partly
+intercepted the view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this
+mountain lake was nearly circular and perhaps a quarter of a mile
+across. Its shore stood a hundred feet below them.
+
+Observing that his hosts did not propose to descend, he begged them to
+wait for him, and scrambled down to the surface. When he got there, he
+found the water perfectly motionless and of a colourless transparency.
+He walked onto it, lay down at full length, and peered into the depths.
+It was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance,
+without arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out
+of reach of his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very faint and
+mysterious, seemed to come up through the gnawl water from an immense
+depth. It was like the rhythm of a drum. There were four beats of equal
+length, but the accent was on the third. It went on for a considerable
+time, and then ceased.
+
+The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that in
+which he was travelling. The latter was mystical, dreamlike, and
+unbelievable—the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality. It
+resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only
+occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.
+
+He rejoined Panawe and Joiwind, but said nothing to them about his
+experience. They all walked round the rim of the crater, and gazed down
+on the opposite side. Precipices similar to those that had overlooked
+the desert here formed the boundary of a vast moorland plain, whose
+dimensions could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he
+could not make out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of
+transparent glass, but it did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in
+it could be distinguished, except a rolling river in the far distance,
+and, farther off still, on the horizon, a line of dark mountains, of
+strange shapes. Instead of being rounded, conical, or hogbacked, these
+heights were carved by nature into the semblance of castle battlements,
+but with extremely deep indentations.
+
+The sky immediately above the mountains was of a vivid, intense blue. It
+contrasted in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the
+heavens. It seemed more luminous and radiant, and was in fact like the
+afterglow of a gorgeous blue sunset.
+
+Maskull kept on looking. The more he gazed, the more restless and noble
+became his feelings.
+
+“What is that light?”
+
+Panawe was sterner than usual, while his wife clung to his arm. “It is
+Alppain—our second sun,” he replied. “Those hills are the Ifdawn
+Marest.... Now let us get to our shelter.”
+
+“Is it imagination, or am I really being affected—tormented by that
+light?”
+
+“No, it’s not imagination—it’s real. How can it be otherwise when two
+suns, of different natures, are drawing you at the same time? Luckily
+you are not looking at Alppain itself. It’s invisible here. You would
+need to go at least as far as Ifdawn, to set eyes on it.”
+
+“Why do you say ‘luckily’?”
+
+“Because the agony caused by those opposing forces would perhaps be more
+than you could bear.... But I don’t know.”
+
+For the short distance that remained of their walk, Maskull was very
+thoughtful and uneasy. He understood nothing. Whatever object his eye
+chanced to rest on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and
+stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and waiting.
+Panawe gave him a friendly, anxious look, and without further delay led
+the way down a little track, which traversed the side of the mountain
+and terminated in the mouth of a cave.
+
+This cave was the home of Panawe and Joiwind. It was dark inside. The
+host took a shell and, filling it with liquid from a well, carelessly
+sprinkled the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent
+light gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, and
+continued to illuminate it for the whole time they were there. There was
+no furniture. Some dried, fernlike leaves served for couches.
+
+The moment she got in, Joiwind fell down in exhaustion. Her husband
+tended her with calm concern. He bathed her face, put drink to her lips,
+energised her with his magn, and finally laid her down to sleep. At the
+sight of the noble woman thus suffering on his account, Maskull was
+distressed.
+
+Panawe, however, endeavoured to reassure him. “It’s quite true this has
+been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will
+lighten all her other journeys for her.... Such is the nature of
+sacrifice.”
+
+“I can’t conceive how I have walked so far in a morning,” said Maskull,
+“and she has been twice the distance.”
+
+“Love flows in her veins, instead of blood, and that’s why she is so
+strong.”
+
+“You know she gave me some of it?”
+
+“Otherwise you couldn’t even have started.”
+
+“I shall never forget that.”
+
+The languorous heat of the day outside, the bright mouth of the cavern,
+the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, invited
+Maskull to sleep. But curiosity got the better of his lassitude.
+
+“Will it disturb her if we talk?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“But how do you feel?”
+
+“I require little sleep. In any case, it’s more important that you
+should hear something about your new life. It’s not all as innocent and
+idyllic as this. If you intend to go through, you ought to be instructed
+about the dangers.”
+
+“Oh, I guessed as much. But how shall we arrange—shall I put questions,
+or will you tell me what you think is most essential?”
+
+Panawe motioned to Maskull to sit down on a pile of ferns, and at the
+same time reclined himself, leaning on one arm, with outstretched legs.
+
+“I will tell some incidents of my life. You will begin to learn from
+them what sort of place you have come to.”
+
+“I shall be grateful,” said Maskull, preparing himself to listen.
+
+Panawe paused for a moment or two, and then started his narrative in
+tranquil, measured, yet sympathetic tones.
+
+PANAWE’S STORY
+
+“My earliest recollection is of being taken, when three years old
+(that’s equivalent to fifteen of your years, but we develop more slowly
+here), by my father and mother, to see Broodviol, the wisest man in
+Tormance. He dwelt in the great Wombflash Forest. We walked through
+trees for three days, sleeping at night. The trees grew taller as we
+went along, until the tops were out of sight. The trunks were of a dark
+red colour and the leaves were of pale ulfire. My father kept stopping
+to think. If left uninterrupted, he would remain for half a day in deep
+abstraction. My mother came out of Poolingdred, and was of a different
+stamp. She was beautiful, generous, and charming—but also active. She
+kept urging him on. This led to many disputes between them, which made
+me miserable. On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest
+which bordered on the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water
+that will not bear a man’s weight, and as these light parts don’t differ
+in appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed
+out a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone’s Island.
+Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same
+day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest,
+surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big
+gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a
+hundred and twenty of our years, or nearly six hundred of yours. His
+body was trilateral: he had three legs, three arms, and six eyes, placed
+at equal distances all around his head. This gave him an aspect of great
+watchfulness and sagacity. He was standing in a sort of trance. I
+afterward heard this saying of his: ‘To lie is to sleep, to sit is to
+dream, to stand is to think.’ My father caught the infection, and fell
+into meditation, but my mother roused them both thoroughly. Broodviol
+scowled at her savagely, and demanded what she required. Then I too
+learned for the first time the object of our journey. I was a
+prodigy—that is to say, I was without sex. My parents were troubled over
+this, and wished to consult the wisest of men.
+
+“Old Broodviol smoothed his face, and said, ‘This perhaps will not be so
+difficult. I will explain the marvel. Every man and woman among us is a
+walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the female
+who was born in the same body with him—if a female, she has killed the
+male. But in this child the struggle is still continuing.’
+
+“‘How shall we end it?’ asked my mother.
+
+“‘Let the child direct its will to the scene of the combat, and it will
+be of whichever sex it pleases.’
+
+“‘You want, of course, to be a man, don’t you?’ said my mother to me
+earnestly.
+
+“‘Then I shall be slaying your daughter, and that would be a crime.’
+
+“Something in my tone attracted Broodviol’s notice.
+
+“‘That was spoken, not selfishly, but magnanimously. Therefore the male
+must have spoken it, and you need not trouble further. Before you arrive
+home, the child will be a boy.’
+
+“My father walked away out of sight. My mother bent very low before
+Broodviol for about ten minutes, and he remained all that time looking
+kindly at her.
+
+“I heard that shortly afterward Alppain came into that land for a few
+hours daily. Broodviol grew melancholy, and died.
+
+“His prophecy came true—before we reached home, I knew the meaning of
+shame. But I have often pondered over his words since, in later years,
+when trying to understand my own nature; and I have come to the
+conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite
+straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in
+one body, there never was any struggle, but instinctive reverence for
+life withheld both of us from fighting for existence. Hers was the
+stronger temperament, and she sacrificed herself—though not
+consciously—for me.
+
+“As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or destroy
+anything that contained life—and I have kept it ever since.
+
+“While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died. My mother’s death
+followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land. I
+therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother’s country, where, as
+she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
+
+“One hot morning I came to Shaping’s Causeway. It is so called either
+because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous character.
+It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which links the mountains
+bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest. The valley lies below at a
+depth varying from eight to ten thousand feet—a terrible precipice on
+either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not much over a
+foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley on my right
+hand was plunged in shadow—that on my left was sparkling with sunlight
+and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for some miles.
+Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland, connecting
+the two chains of mountains, but overtopping even the most towering
+pinnacles. This is called the Sant Levels. I was never there, but I have
+heard two curious facts concerning the inhabitants. The first is that
+they have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to
+travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples with
+whom they reside.
+
+“Presently I turned giddy, and lay at full length for a great while,
+clutching the two edges of the path with both hands, and staring at the
+ground I was lying on with wide-open eyes. When that passed I felt like
+a different man and grew conceited and gay. About halfway across I saw
+someone approaching me a long way off. This put fear into my heart
+again, for I did not see how we could very well pass. However, I went
+slowly on, and presently we drew near enough together for me to
+recognise the walker. It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had
+never met him before, but I knew him by his peculiarities of person. He
+was of a bright gamboge colour and possessed a very long, proboscis-like
+nose, which appeared to be a useful organ, but did not add to his
+beauty, as I knew beauty. He was dubbed ‘sorcerer’ from his wondrous
+skill in budding limbs and organs. The tale is told that one evening he
+slowly sawed his leg off with a blunt stone and then lay for two days in
+agony while his new leg was sprouting. He was not reputed to be a
+consistently wise man, but he had periodical flashes of penetration and
+audacity that none could equal.
+
+“We sat down and faced one another, about two yards apart.
+
+“‘Which of us walks over the other?’ asked Slofork. His manner was as
+calm as the day itself, but, to my young nature, terrible with hidden
+terrors. I smiled at him, but did not wish for this humiliation. We
+continued sitting thus, in a friendly way, for many minutes.
+
+“‘What is greater than Pleasure?’ he asked suddenly.
+
+“I was at an age when one wishes to be thought equal to any emergency,
+so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to the conversation, as if
+it were for that purpose we had met.
+
+“‘Pain,’ I replied, ‘for pain drives out pleasure.’
+
+“‘What is greater than Pain?’
+
+“I reflected. ‘Love. Because we will accept our loved one’s share of
+pain.’
+
+“‘But what is greater than Love?’ he persisted.
+
+“‘Nothing, Slofork.’
+
+“‘And what is Nothing?’
+
+“‘That you must tell me.’
+
+“‘Tell you I will. This is Shaping’s world. He that is a good child
+here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards. But there’s
+another world—not Shaping’s—and there all this is unknown, and another
+order of things reigns. That world we call Nothing—but it is not
+Nothing, but Something.’
+
+“There was a pause.
+
+“‘I have heard,’ said I, ‘that you are good at growing and ungrowing
+organs?’
+
+“‘That’s not enough for me. Every organ tells me the same story. I want
+to hear different stories.’
+
+“‘Is it true, what men say, that your wisdom flows and ebbs in pulses?’
+
+“‘Quite true,’ replied Slofork. ‘But those you had it from did not add
+that they have always mistaken the flow for the ebb.’
+
+“‘My experience is,’ said I sententiously, ‘that wisdom is misery.’
+
+“‘Perhaps it is, young man, but you have never learned that, and never
+will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful face. You
+will never rise above mysticism.... But be happy in your own way.’
+
+“Before I realised what he was doing, he jumped tranquilly from the
+path, down into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum
+toward the valley below. I screeched, flung myself down on the ground,
+and shut my eyes.
+
+“Often have I wondered which of my ill-considered, juvenile remarks it
+was that caused this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide.
+Whichever it might be, since then I have made it a rigid law never to
+speak for my own pleasure, but only to help others.
+
+“I came eventually to the Marest. I threaded its mazes in terror for
+four days. I was frightened of death, but still more terrified at the
+possibility of losing my sacred attitude toward life. When I was nearly
+through, and was beginning to congratulate myself, I stumbled across the
+third extraordinary personage of my experience—the grim Muremaker. It
+was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I
+saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was
+hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff—a yawning gulf, a
+thousand feet deep, lay beneath his feet. I climbed as near as I could,
+and looked on. He saw me, and made a wry grimace, like one who wishes to
+turn his humiliation into humour. The spectacle so astounded me that I
+could not even grasp what had happened.
+
+“‘I am Muremaker,’ he cried in a scraping voice which shocked my ears.
+‘All my life I have sorbed others—now I am sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell
+out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like this. While the strength
+of his will lasts I shall remain suspended; but when he gets tired—and
+it can’t be long now—I drop into those depths.’
+
+“Had it been another man, I would have tried to save him, but this ogre-
+like being was too well known to me as one who passed his whole
+existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbing others, for the sake
+of his own delight. I hurried away, and did not pause again that day.
+
+“In Poolingdred I met Joiwind. We walked and talked together for a
+month, and by that time we found that we loved each other too well to
+part.”
+
+Panawe stopped speaking.
+
+“That is a fascinating story,” remarked Maskull. “Now I begin to know my
+way around better. But one thing puzzles me.”
+
+“What’s that?”
+
+“How it happens that men here are ignorant of tools and arts, and have
+no civilisation, and yet contrive to be social in their habits and wise
+in their thoughts.”
+
+“Do you imagine, then, that love and wisdom spring from tools? But I see
+how it arises. In your world you have fewer sense organs, and to make up
+for the deficiency you have been obliged to call in the assistance of
+stones and metals. That’s by no means a sign of superiority.”
+
+“No, I suppose not,” said Maskull, “but I see I have a great deal to
+unlearn.”
+
+They talked together a little longer, and then gradually fell asleep.
+Joiwind opened her eyes, smiled, and slumbered again.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN
+
+Maskull awoke before the others. He got up, stretched himself, and
+walked out into the sunlight. Branchspell was already declining. He
+climbed to the top of the crater edge and looked away toward Ifdawn. The
+afterglow of Alppain had by now completely disappeared. The mountains
+stood up wild and grand.
+
+They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are
+widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and
+adventure seemed to call to him from them. It was at that moment that
+the determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and
+explore its dangers.
+
+He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts.
+
+Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes. “Is this
+selfishness, Maskull?” she asked, “or are you drawn by something
+stronger than yourself?”
+
+“We must be reasonable,” he answered, smiling. “I can’t settle down in
+Poolingdred before I have found out something about this surprising new
+planet of yours. Remember what a long way I have come.... But very
+likely I shall come back here.”
+
+“Will you make me a promise?”
+
+Maskull hesitated. “Ask nothing difficult, for I hardly know my powers
+yet.”
+
+“It is not hard, and I wish it. Promise this—never to raise your hand
+against a living creature, either to strike, pluck, or eat, without
+first recollecting its mother, who suffered for it.”
+
+“Perhaps I won’t promise that,” said Maskull slowly, “but I’ll undertake
+something more tangible. I will never lift my hand against a living
+creature without first recollecting you, Joiwind.”
+
+She turned a little pale. “Now if Panawe knew that Panawe existed, he
+might be jealous.”
+
+Panawe put his hand on her gently. “You would not talk like that in
+Shaping’s presence,” he said.
+
+“No. Forgive me! I’m not quite myself. Perhaps it is Maskull’s blood in
+my veins.... Now let us bid him adieu. Let us pray that he will do only
+honourable deeds, wherever he may be.”
+
+“I’ll set Maskull on his way,” said Panawe.
+
+“There’s no need,” replied Maskull. “The way is plain.”
+
+“But talking shortens the road.”
+
+Maskull turned to go.
+
+Joiwind pulled him around toward her softly. “You won’t think badly of
+other women on my account?”
+
+“You are a blessed spirit,” answered he.
+
+She trod quietly to the inner extremity of the cave and stood there
+thinking. Panawe and Maskull emerged into the open air. Halfway down the
+cliff face a little spring was encountered. Its water was colourless,
+transparent, but gaseous. As soon as Maskull had satisfied his thirst he
+felt himself different. His surroundings were so real to him in their
+vividness and colour, so unreal in their phantom-like mystery, that he
+scrambled downhill like one in a winter’s dream.
+
+When they reached the plain he saw in front of them an interminable
+forest of tall trees, the shapes of which were extraordinarily foreign
+looking. The leaves were crystalline and, looking upward, it was as if
+he were gazing through a roof of glass. The moment they got underneath
+the trees the light rays of the sun continued to come through—white,
+savage, and blazing—but they were gelded of heat. Then it was not hard
+to imagine that they were wandering through cool, bright elfin glades.
+
+Through the forest, beginning at their very feet an avenue, perfectly
+straight and not very wide, went forward as far as the eye could see.
+
+Maskull wanted to talk to his travelling companion, but was somehow
+unable to find words. Panawe glanced at him with an inscrutable
+smile—stern, yet enchanting and half feminine. He then broke the
+silence, but, strangely enough, Maskull could not make out whether he
+was singing or speaking. From his lips issued a slow musical recitative,
+exactly like a bewitching adagio from a low toned stringed
+instrument—but there was a difference. Instead of the repetition and
+variation of one or two short themes, as in music, Panawe’s theme was
+prolonged—it never came to an end, but rather resembled a conversation
+in rhythm and melody. And, at the same time, it was no recitative, for
+it was not declamatory. It was a long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
+
+Maskull listened entranced, yet agitated. The song, if it might be
+termed song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear and
+intelligible—not with the intelligibility of words, but in the way one
+sympathises with another’s moods and feelings; and Maskull felt that
+something important was about to be uttered, which would explain all
+that had gone before. But it was invariably postponed, he never
+understood—and yet somehow he did understand.
+
+Late in the afternoon they came to a clearing, and there Panawe ceased
+his recitative. He slowed his pace and stopped, in the fashion of a man
+who wishes to convey that he intends to go no farther.
+
+“What is the name of this country?” asked Maskull.
+
+“It is the Lusion Plain.”
+
+“Was that music in the nature of a temptation—do you wish me not to go
+on?”
+
+“Your work lies before you, and not behind you.”
+
+“What was it, then? What work do you allude to?”
+
+“It must have seemed like something to you, Maskull.”
+
+“It seemed like Shaping music to me.”
+
+The instant he had absently uttered these words, Maskull wondered why he
+had done so, as they now appeared meaningless to him.
+
+Panawe, however, showed no surprise. “Shaping you will find everywhere.”
+
+“Am I dreaming, or awake?”
+
+“You are awake.”
+
+Maskull fell into deep thought. “So be it,” he said, rousing himself.
+“Now I will go on. But where must I sleep tonight?”
+
+“You will reach a broad river. On that you can travel to the foot of the
+Marest tomorrow; but tonight you had better sleep where the forest and
+river meet.”
+
+“Adieu, then, Panawe! But do you wish to say anything more to me?”
+
+“Only this, Maskull—wherever you go, help to make the world beautiful,
+and not ugly.”
+
+“That’s more than any of us can undertake. I am a simple man, and have
+no ambitions in the way of beautifying life—But tell Joiwind I will try
+to keep myself pure.”
+
+They parted rather coldly. Maskull stood erect where they had stopped,
+and watched Panawe out of sight. He sighed more than once.
+
+He became aware that something was about to happen. The air was
+breathless. The late-afternoon sunshine, unobstructed, wrapped his frame
+in voluptuous heat. A solitary cloud, immensely high, raced through the
+sky overhead.
+
+A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance from somewhere behind
+him. It gave him an impression of being several miles away at first; but
+then it slowly swelled, and came nearer and nearer at the same time that
+it increased in volume. Still the same note sounded, but now it was as
+if blown by a giant trumpeter immediately over his head. Then it
+gradually diminished in force, and travelled away in front of him. It
+ended very faintly and distantly.
+
+He felt himself alone with Nature. A sacred stillness came over his
+heart. Past and future were forgotten. The forest, the sun, the day did
+not exist for him. He was unconscious of himself—he had no thoughts and
+no feelings. Yet never had Life had such an altitude for him.
+
+A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path. He was so clothed
+that his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered. He was young
+rather than old. Maskull observed that his countenance possessed none of
+the special organs of Tormance, to which he had not even yet become
+reconciled. He was smooth-faced. His whole person seemed to radiate an
+excess of life, like the trembling of air on a hot day. His eyes had
+such force that Maskull could not meet them.
+
+He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice. It had a double
+tone. The primary one sounded far away; the second was an undertone,
+like a sympathetic tanging string.
+
+Maskull felt a rising joy, as he continued standing in the presence of
+this individual. He believed that something good was happening to him.
+He found it physically difficult to bring any words out. “Why do you
+stop me?”
+
+“Maskull, look well at me. Who am I?”
+
+“I think you are Shaping.”
+
+“I am Surtur.”
+
+Maskull again attempted to meet his eyes, but felt as if he were being
+stabbed.
+
+“You know that this is my world. Why do you think I have brought you
+here? I wish you to serve me.”
+
+Maskull could no longer speak.
+
+“Those who joke at my world,” continued the vision, “those who make a
+mock of its stern, eternal rhythm, its beauty and sublimity, which are
+not skin-deep, but proceed from fathomless roots—they shall not escape.”
+
+“I do not mock it.”
+
+“Ask me your questions, and I will answer them.”
+
+“I have nothing.”
+
+“It is necessary for you to serve me, Maskull. Do you not understand?
+You are my servant and helper.”
+
+“I shall not fail.”
+
+“This is for my sake, and not for yours.”
+
+These last words had no sooner left Surtur’s mouth than Maskull saw him
+spring suddenly upward and outward. Looking up at the vault of the sky,
+he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur’s form—not as a
+concrete man, but as a vast, concave cloud image, looking down and
+frowning at him. Then the spectacle vanished, as a light goes out.
+
+Maskull stood inactive, with a thumping heart. Now he again heard the
+solitary trumpet note. The sound began this time faintly in the far
+distance in front of him, travelled slowly toward him with regularly
+increasing intensity, passed overhead at its loudest, and then grew more
+and more quiet, wonderful, and solemn, as it fell away in the rear,
+until the note was merged in the deathlike silence of the forest. It
+appeared to Maskull like the closing of a marvellous and important
+chapter.
+
+Simultaneously with the fading away of the sound, the heavens seemed to
+open up with the rapidity of lightning into a blue vault of immeasurable
+height. He breathed a great breath, stretched all his limbs, and looked
+around him with a slow smile.
+
+After a while he resumed his journey. His brain was all dark and
+confused, but one idea was already beginning to stand out from the
+rest—huge, shapeless, and grand, like the growing image in the soul of a
+creative artist: the staggering thought that he was a man of destiny.
+
+The more he reflected upon all that had occurred since his arrival in
+this new world—and even before leaving Earth—the clearer and more
+indisputable it became, that he could not be here for his own purposes,
+but must be here for an end. But what that end was, he could not
+imagine.
+
+Through the forest he saw Branchspell at last sinking in the west. It
+looked a stupendous ball of red fire—now he could realise at his ease
+what a sun it was! The avenue took an abrupt turn to the left and began
+to descend steeply.
+
+A wide, rolling river of clear and dark water was visible in front of
+him, no great way off. It flowed from north to south. The forest path
+led him straight to its banks. Maskull stood there, and regarded the
+lapping, gurgling waters pensively. On the opposite bank, the forest
+continued. Miles to the south, Poolingdred could just be distinguished.
+On the northern skyline the Ifdawn Mountains loomed up—high, wild,
+beautiful, and dangerous. They were not a dozen miles away.
+
+Like the first mutterings of a thunderstorm, the first faint breaths of
+cool wind, Maskull felt the stirrings of passion in his heart. In spite
+of his bodily fatigue, he wished to test his strength against something.
+This craving he identified with the crags of the Marest. They seemed to
+have the same magical attraction for his will as the lodestone for iron.
+He kept biting his nails, as he turned his eyes in that
+direction—wondering if it would not be possible to conquer the heights
+that evening. But when he glanced back again at Poolingdred, he
+remembered Joiwind and Panawe, and grew more tranquil. He decided to
+make his bed at this spot, and to set off as soon after daybreak as he
+should awake.
+
+He drank at the river, washed himself, and lay down on the bank to
+sleep. By this time, so far had his idea progressed, that he cared
+nothing for the possible dangers of the night—he confided in his star.
+
+Branchspell set, the day faded, night with its terrible weight came on,
+and through it all Maskull slept. Long before midnight, however, he was
+awakened by a crimson glow in the sky. He opened his eyes, and wondered
+where he was. He felt heaviness and pain. The red glow was a terrestrial
+phenomenon; it came from among the trees. He got up and went toward the
+source of the light.
+
+Away from the river, not a hundred feet off, he nearly stumbled across
+the form of a sleeping woman. The object which emitted the crimson rays
+was lying on the ground, several yards away from her. It was like a
+small jewel, throwing off sparks of red light. He barely threw a glance
+at that, however.
+
+The woman was clothed in the large skin of an animal. She had big,
+smooth, shapely limbs, rather muscular than fat. Her magn was not a thin
+tentacle, but a third arm, terminating in a hand. Her face, which was
+upturned, was wild, powerful, and exceedingly handsome. But he saw with
+surprise that in place of a breve on her forehead, she possessed another
+eye. All three were closed. The colour of her skin in the crimson glow
+he could not distinguish.
+
+He touched her gently with his hand. She awoke calmly and looked up at
+him without stirring a muscle. All three eyes stared at him; but the two
+lower ones were dull and vacant—mere carriers of vision. The middle,
+upper one alone expressed her inner nature. Its haughty, unflinching
+glare had yet something seductive and alluring in it. Maskull felt a
+challenge in that look of lordly, feminine will, and his manner
+instinctively stiffened.
+
+She sat up.
+
+“Can you speak my language?” he asked. “I wouldn’t put such a question,
+but others have been able to.”
+
+“Why should you imagine that I can’t read your mind? Is it so extremely
+complex?”
+
+She spoke in a rich, lingering, musical voice, which delighted him to
+listen to.
+
+“No, but you have no breve.”
+
+“Well, but haven’t I a sorb, which is better?” And she pointed to the
+eye on her brow.
+
+“What is your name?”
+
+“Oceaxe.”
+
+“And where do you come from?”
+
+“Ifdawn.”
+
+These contemptuous replies began to irritate him, and yet the mere sound
+of her voice was fascinating.
+
+“I am going there tomorrow,” he remarked.
+
+She laughed, as if against her will, but made no comment.
+
+“My name is Maskull,” he went on. “I am a stranger—from another world.”
+
+“So I should judge, from your absurd appearance.”
+
+“Perhaps it would be as well to say at once,” said Maskull bluntly, “are
+we, or are we not, to be friends?”
+
+She yawned and stretched her arms, without rising. “Why should we be
+friends? If I thought you were a man, I might accept you as a lover.”
+
+“You must look elsewhere for that.”
+
+“So be it, Maskull! Now go away, and leave me in peace.”
+
+She dropped her head again to the ground, but did not at once close her
+eyes.
+
+“What are you doing here?” he interrogated.
+
+“Oh, we Ifdawn folk occasionally come here to sleep, for there often
+enough it is a night for us which has no next morning.”
+
+“Being such a terrible place, and seeing that I am a total stranger, it
+would be merely courteous if you were to warn me what I have to expect
+in the way of dangers.”
+
+“I am perfectly and utterly indifferent to what becomes of you,”
+retorted Oceaxe.
+
+“Are you returning in the morning?” persisted Maskull.
+
+“If I wish.”
+
+“Then we will go together.”
+
+She got up again on her elbow. “Instead of making plans for other
+people, I would do a very necessary thing.”
+
+“Pray, tell me.”
+
+“Well, there’s no reason why I should, but I will. I would try to
+convert my women’s organs into men’s organs. It is a man’s country.”
+
+“Speak more plainly.”
+
+“Oh, it’s plain enough. If you attempt to pass through Ifdawn without a
+sorb, you are simply committing suicide. And that magn too is worse than
+useless.”
+
+“You probably know what you are talking about, Oceaxe. But what do you
+advise me to do?”
+
+She negligently pointed to the light-emitting stone lying on the ground.
+
+“There is the solution. If you hold that drude to your organs for a good
+while, perhaps it will start the change, and perhaps nature will do the
+rest during the night. I promise nothing.”
+
+Oceaxe now really turned her back on Maskull.
+
+He considered for a few minutes, and then walked over to where the stone
+was lying, and took it in his hand. It was a pebble the size of a hen’s
+egg, radiant with crimson light, as though red-hot, and throwing out a
+continuous shower of small, blood-red sparks.
+
+Finally deciding that Oceaxe’s advice was good, he applied the drude
+first to his magn, and then to his breve. He experienced a cauterising
+sensation—a feeling of healing pain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9. OCEAXE
+
+Maskull’s second day on Tormance dawned. Branchspell was already above
+the horizon when he awoke. He was instantly aware that his organs had
+changed during the night. His fleshy breve was altered into an eyelike
+sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third arm, springing
+from the breast. The arm gave him at once a sense of greater physical
+security, but with the sorb he was obliged to experiment, before he
+could grasp its function.
+
+As he lay there in the white sunlight, opening and shutting each of his
+three eyes in turn, he found that the two lower ones served his
+understanding, the upper one his will. That is to say, with the lower
+eyes he saw things in clear detail, but without personal interest; with
+the sorb he saw nothing as self-existent—everything appeared as an
+object of importance or non-importance to his own needs.
+
+Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked about
+him. He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she
+were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he made up his
+mind to bathe in the river.
+
+It was a glorious morning. The hot white sun already began to glare, but
+its heat was tempered by a strong wind, which whistled through the
+trees. A host of fantastic clouds filled the sky. They looked like
+animals, and were always changing shape. The ground, as well as the
+leaves and branches of the forest trees, still held traces of heavy dew
+or rain during the night. A poignantly sweet smell of nature entered his
+nostrils. His pain was quiescent, and his spirits were high.
+
+Before he bathed, he viewed the mountains of the Ifdawn Marest. In the
+morning sunlight they stood out pictorially. He guessed that they were
+from five to six thousand feet high. The lofty, irregular, castellated
+line seemed like the walls of a magic city. The cliffs fronting him were
+composed of gaudy rocks—vermilion, emerald, yellow, ulfire, and black.
+As he gazed at them, his heart began to beat like a slow, heavy drum,
+and he thrilled all over—indescribable hopes, aspirations, and emotions
+came over him. It was more than the conquest of a new world which he
+felt—it was something different....
+
+He bathed and drank, and as he was reclothing himself, Oceaxe strolled
+indolently up.
+
+He could now perceive the colour of her skin—it was a vivid, yet
+delicate mixture of carmine, white, and jale. The effect was startlingly
+unearthly. With these new colors she looked like a genuine
+representative of a strange planet. Her frame also had something curious
+about it. The curves were womanly, the bones were characteristically
+female—yet all seemed somehow to express a daring, masculine underlying
+will. The commanding eye on her forehead set the same puzzle in plainer
+language. Its bold, domineering egotism was shot with undergleams of sex
+and softness.
+
+She came to the river’s edge and reviewed him from top to toe. “Now you
+are built more like a man,” she said, in her lovely, lingering voice.
+
+“You see, the experiment was successful,” he answered, smiling gaily.
+
+Oceaxe continued looking him over. “Did some woman give you that
+ridiculous robe?”
+
+“A woman did give it to me”—dropping his smile—“but I saw nothing
+ridiculous in the gift at the time, and I don’t now.”
+
+“I think I’d look better in it.”
+
+As she drawled the words, she began stripping off the skin, which suited
+her form so well, and motioned to him to exchange garments. He obeyed,
+rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed exchange was in
+fact more appropriate to his sex. He found the skin a freer dress.
+Oceaxe in her drapery appeared more dangerously feminine to him.
+
+“I don’t want you to receive gifts at all from other women,” she
+remarked slowly.
+
+“Why not? What can I be to you?”
+
+“I have been thinking about you during the night.” Her voice was
+retarded, scornful, viola-like. She sat down on the trunk of a fallen
+tree, and looked away.
+
+“In what way?”
+
+She returned no answer to his question, but began to pull off pieces of
+the bark.
+
+“Last night you were so contemptuous.”
+
+“Last night is not today. Do you always walk through the world with your
+head over your shoulder?”
+
+It was now Maskull’s turn to be silent.
+
+“Still, if you have male instincts, as I suppose you have, you can’t go
+on resisting me forever.”
+
+“But this is preposterous,” said Maskull, opening his eyes wide.
+“Granted that you are a beautiful woman—we can’t be quite so primeval.”
+
+Oceaxe sighed, and rose to her feet. “It doesn’t matter. I can wait.”
+
+“From that I gather that you intend to make the journey in my society. I
+have no objection—in fact I shall be glad—but only on condition that you
+drop this language.”
+
+“Yet you do think me beautiful?”
+
+“Why shouldn’t I think so, if it is the fact? I fail to see what that
+has to do with my feelings. Bring it to an end, Oceaxe. You will find
+plenty of men to admire—and love you.”
+
+At that she blazed up. “Does love pick and choose, you fool? Do you
+imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for lovers? Is not
+Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?”
+
+“Very well. I am sorry to have hurt your feelings. Now carry the
+temptation no farther—for it is a temptation, where a lovely woman is
+concerned. I am not my own master.”
+
+“I’m not proposing anything so very hateful, am I? Why do you humiliate
+me so?”
+
+Maskull put his hands behind his back. “I repeat, I am not my own
+master.”
+
+“Then who is your master?”
+
+“Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving him.”
+
+“Did you speak with him?” she asked curiously.
+
+“I did.”
+
+“Tell me what he said.”
+
+“No, I can’t—I won’t. But whatever he said, his beauty was more
+tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and that’s why I can look at you in cold
+blood.”
+
+“Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?”
+
+Maskull frowned. “Is love such a manly sport, then? I should have
+thought it effeminate.”
+
+“It doesn’t matter. You won’t always be so boyish. But don’t try my
+patience too far.”
+
+“Let us talk about something else—and, above all, let us get on our
+road.”
+
+She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he
+grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms. “Oh,
+Maskull, Maskull—what a fool you are!”
+
+“In what way am I a fool?” he demanded, scowling—not at her words, but
+at his own weakness.
+
+“Isn’t the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of lovers? And
+yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly away from nature,
+but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?”
+
+“Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality: persistence.”
+
+“Read me well, and then it is natural law that you’ll think twice and
+three times before throwing me away.... And now, before we go, we had
+better eat.”
+
+“Eat?” said Maskull thoughtfully.
+
+“Don’t you eat? Is food in the same category as love?”
+
+“What food is it?”
+
+“Fish from the river.”
+
+Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind. At the same time, he felt
+hungry.
+
+“Is there nothing milder?”
+
+She pulled her mouth scornfully. “You came through Poolingdred, didn’t
+you? All the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked
+at, and not lived. Now that you are visiting Ifdawn, you will have to
+change your notions.”
+
+“Go catch your fish,” he returned, pulling down his brows.
+
+The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations, from
+the direction of the mountains. Oceaxe knelt down on the bank, and
+peered into the depths. Presently her look became tense and
+concentrated; she dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little
+monster. It was more like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates
+and teeth. She threw it on the ground, and it started crawling about.
+Suddenly she darted all her will into her sorb. The creature leaped into
+the air, and fell down dead.
+
+She picked up a sharp-edged slate, and with it removed the scales and
+entrails. During this operation, her hands and garment became stained
+with the light scarlet blood.
+
+“Find the drude, Maskull,” she said, with a lazy smile. “You had it last
+night.”
+
+He searched for it. It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown dull
+and feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it. Oceaxe placed it in
+the interior of the monster, and left the body lying on the ground.
+
+“While it’s cooking, I’ll wash some of this blood away, which frightens
+you so much. Have you never seen blood before?”
+
+Maskull gazed at her in perplexity. The old paradox came back—the
+contrasting sexual characteristics in her person. Her bold, masterful,
+masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous with the
+fascinating and disturbing femininity of her voice. A startling idea
+flashed into his mind.
+
+“In your country I’m told there is an act of will called ‘absorbing.’
+What is that?”
+
+She held her red, dripping hands away from her draperies, and uttered a
+delicious, clashing laugh. “You think I am half a man?”
+
+“Answer my question.”
+
+“I’m a woman through and through, Maskull—to the marrowbone. But that’s
+not to say I have never absorbed males.”
+
+“And that means...”
+
+“New strings for my harp, Maskull. A wider range of passions, a stormier
+heart...”
+
+“For you, yes—But for them?...”
+
+“I don’t know. The victims don’t describe their experiences. Probably
+unhappiness of some sort—if they still know anything.”
+
+“This is a fearful business!” he exclaimed, regarding her gloomily. “One
+would think Ifdawn a land of devils.”
+
+Oceaxe gave a beautiful sneer as she took a step toward the river.
+“Better men than you—better in every sense of the word—are walking about
+with foreign wills inside them. You may be as moral as you like,
+Maskull, but the fact remains, animals were made to be eaten, and simple
+natures were made to be absorbed.”
+
+“And human rights count for nothing!”
+
+She had bent over the river’s edge, to wash her arms and hands, but
+glanced up over her shoulder to answer his remark. “They do count. But
+we only regard a man as human for just as long as he’s able to hold his
+own with others.”
+
+The flesh was soon cooked, and they breakfasted in silence. Maskull cast
+heavy, doubtful glances from time to time toward his companion. Whether
+it was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long
+abstention, he did not know, but the meal tasted nauseous, and even
+cannibalistic. He ate little, and the moment he got up he felt defiled.
+
+“Let me bury this drude, where I can find it some other time,” said
+Oceaxe. “On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Maskull with me,
+to shock.... Now we have to take to the river.”
+
+They stepped off the land onto the water. It flowed against them with a
+sluggish current, but the opposition, instead of hindering them, had the
+contrary effect—it caused them to exert themselves, and they moved
+faster. They climbed the river in this way for several miles. The
+exercise gradually improved the circulation of Maskull’s blood, and he
+began to look at things in a far more cheerful way. The hot sunshine,
+the diminished wind, the marvellous cloud scenery, the quiet, crystal
+forests—all was soothing and delightful. They approached nearer and
+nearer to the gaily painted heights of Ifdawn.
+
+There was something enigmatic to him in those bright walls. He was
+attracted by them, yet felt a sort of awe. They looked real, but at the
+same time very supernatural. If one could see the portrait of a ghost,
+painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial colors, the feelings
+produced by such a sight would be exactly similar to Maskull’s
+impressions as he studied the Ifdawn precipices.
+
+He broke the long silence. “Those mountains have most extraordinary
+shapes. All the lines are straight and perpendicular—no slopes or
+curves.”
+
+She walked backward on the water, in order to face him. “That’s typical
+of Ifdawn. Nature is all hammer blows with us. Nothing soft and
+gradual.”
+
+“I hear you, but I don’t understand you.”
+
+“All over the Marest you’ll find patches of ground plunging down or
+rushing up. Trees grow fast. Women and men don’t think twice before
+acting. One may call Ifdawn a place of quick decisions.”
+
+Maskull was impressed. “A fresh, wild, primitive land.”
+
+“How is it where you come from?” asked Oceaxe.
+
+“Oh, mine is a decrepit world, where nature takes a hundred years to
+move a foot of solid land. Men and animals go about in flocks.
+Originality is a lost habit.”
+
+“Are there women there?”
+
+“As with you, and not very differently formed.”
+
+“Do they love?”
+
+He laughed. “So much so that it has changed the dress, speech, and
+thoughts of the whole sex.”
+
+“Probably they are more beautiful than I?”
+
+“No, I think not,” said Maskull.
+
+There was another rather long silence, as they travelled unsteadily
+onward.
+
+“What is your business in Ifdawn?” demanded Oceaxe suddenly.
+
+He hesitated over his answer. “Can you grasp that it’s possible to have
+an aim right in front of one, so big that one can’t see it as a whole?”
+
+She stole a long, inquisitive look at him, “What sort of aim?”
+
+“A moral aim.”
+
+“Are you proposing to set the world right?”
+
+“I propose nothing—I am waiting.”
+
+“Don’t wait too long, for time doesn’t wait—especially in Ifdawn.”
+
+“Something will happen,” said Maskull.
+
+Oceaxe threw a subtle smile. “So you have no special destination in the
+Marest?”
+
+“No, and if you’ll permit me, I will come home with you.”
+
+“Singular man!” she said, with a short, thrilling laugh. “That’s what I
+have been offering all the time. Of course you will come home with me.
+As for Crimtyphon...”
+
+“You mentioned that name before. Who is he?”
+
+“Oh! My lover, or, as you would say, my husband.”
+
+“This doesn’t improve matters,” said Maskull.
+
+“It leaves them exactly where they were. We merely have to remove him.”
+
+“We are certainly misunderstanding each other,” said Maskull, quite
+startled. “Do you by any chance imagine that I am making a compact with
+you?”
+
+“You will do nothing against your will. But you have promised to come
+home with me.”
+
+“Tell me, how do you remove husbands in Ifdawn?”
+
+“Either you or I must kill him.”
+
+He eyed her for a full minute. “Now we are passing from folly to
+insanity.”
+
+“Not at all,” replied Oceaxe. “It is the too-sad truth. And when you
+have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it.”
+
+“I’m aware I am on a strange planet,” said Maskull slowly, “where all
+sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where the very laws of
+morality may be different. Still as far as I am concerned, murder is
+murder, and I’ll have no more to do with a woman who wants to make use
+of me, to get rid of her husband.”
+
+“You think me wicked?” demanded Oceaxe steadily.
+
+“Or mad.”
+
+“Then you had better leave me, Maskull—only—”
+
+“Only what?”
+
+“You wish to be consistent, don’t you? Leave all other mad and wicked
+people as well. Then you’ll find it easier to reform the rest.”
+
+Maskull frowned, but said nothing.
+
+“Well?” demanded Oceaxe, with a half smile.
+
+“I’ll come with you, and I’ll see Crimtyphon—if only to warn him.”
+
+Oceaxe broke into a cascade of rich, feminine laughter, but whether at
+the image conjured up by Maskull’s last words, or from some other cause,
+he did not know. The conversation dropped.
+
+At a distance of a couple of miles from the now towering cliffs, the
+river made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no longer of
+use to them on their journey. Maskull stared up doubtfully.
+
+“It’s a stiff climb for a hot morning.”
+
+“Let’s rest here a little,” said she, indicating a smooth flat island of
+black rock, standing up just out of the water in the middle of the
+river.
+
+They accordingly went to it, and Maskull sat down. Oceaxe, however,
+standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward the cliffs opposite,
+and uttered a piercing and peculiar call.
+
+“What is that for?” She did not answer. After waiting a minute, she
+repeated the call. Maskull now saw a large bird detach itself from the
+top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down toward them. It was
+followed by two others. The flight of these birds was exceedingly slow
+and clumsy.
+
+“What are they?” he asked.
+
+She still returned no answer, but smiled rather peculiarly and sat down
+beside him. Before many minutes he was able to distinguish the shapes
+and colors of the flying monsters. They were not birds, but creatures
+with long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating
+in fins which acted as wings. The bodies were of bright blue, the legs
+and fins were yellow. They were flying, without haste, but in a somewhat
+ominous fashion, straight toward them. He could make out a long, thin
+spike projecting from each of the heads.
+
+“They are shrowks,” explained Oceaxe at last. “If you want to know their
+intention, I’ll tell you. To make a meal of us. First of all their
+spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are really suckers,
+will drain us dry of blood—pretty thoroughly too; there are no half
+measures with shrowks. They are toothless beasts, so don’t eat flesh.”
+
+“As you show such admirable sangfroid,” said Maskull dryly, “I take it
+there’s no particular danger.”
+
+Nevertheless he instinctively tried to get on to his feet and failed. A
+new form of paralysis was chaining him to the ground.
+
+“Are you trying to get up?” asked Oceaxe smoothly.
+
+“Well, yes, but those cursed reptiles seem to be nailing me down to the
+rock with their wills. May I ask if you had any special object in view
+in waking them up?”
+
+“I assure you the danger is quite real, Maskull. Instead of talking and
+asking questions, you had much better see what you can do with your
+will.”
+
+“I seem to have no will, unfortunately.”
+
+Oceaxe was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, but it was still rich and
+beautiful. “It’s obvious you aren’t a very heroic protector, Maskull. It
+seems I must play the man, and you the woman. I expected better things
+of your big body. Why, my husband would send those creatures dancing all
+around the sky, by way of a joke, before disposing of them. Now watch
+me. Two of the three I’ll kill; the third we will ride home on. Which
+one shall we keep?”
+
+The shrowks continued their slow, wobbling flight toward them. Their
+bodies were of huge size. They produced in Maskull the same sensation of
+loathing as insects did. He instinctively understood that as they hunted
+with their wills, there was no necessity for them to possess a swift
+motion.
+
+“Choose which you please,” he said shortly. “They are equally
+objectionable to me.”
+
+“Then I’ll choose the leader, as it is presumably the most energetic
+animal. Watch now.”
+
+She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire. Maskull felt
+something snap inside his brain. His limbs were free once more. The two
+monsters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost toward the
+earth, one after the other. He watched them crash on the ground, and
+then lie motionless. The leader still came toward them, but he fancied
+that its flight was altered in character; it was no longer menacing, but
+tame and unwilling.
+
+Oceaxe guided it with her will to the mainland shore opposite their
+island rock. Its vast bulk lay there extended, awaiting her pleasure.
+They immediately crossed the water.
+
+Maskull viewed the shrowk at close quarters. It was about thirty feet
+long. Its bright-coloured skin was shining, slippery, and leathery; a
+mane of black hair covered its long neck. Its face was awesome and
+unnatural, with its carnivorous eyes, frightful stiletto, and blood-
+sucking cavity. There were true fins on its back and tail.
+
+“Have you a good seat?” asked Oceaxe, patting the creature’s flank. “As
+I have to steer, let me jump on first.”
+
+She pulled up her gown, then climbed up and sat astride the animal’s
+back, just behind the mane, which she clutched. Between her and the fin
+there was just room for Maskull. He grasped the two flanks with his
+outer hands; his third, new arm pressed against Oceaxe’s back, and for
+additional security he was compelled to encircle her waist with it.
+
+Directly he did so, he realised that he had been tricked, and that this
+ride had been planned for one purpose only—to inflame his desires.
+
+The third arm possessed a function of its own, of which hitherto he had
+been ignorant. It was a developed magn. But the stream of love which was
+communicated to it was no longer pure and noble—it was boiling,
+passionate, and torturing. He gritted his teeth, and kept quiet, but
+Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious of his
+feelings. She looked around, with a golden, triumphant smile. “The ride
+will last some time, so hold on well!” Her voice was soft like a flute,
+but rather malicious.
+
+Maskull grinned, and said nothing. He dared not remove his arm.
+
+The shrowk straddled on to its legs. It jerked itself forward, and rose
+slowly and uncouthly in the air. They began to paddle upward toward the
+painted cliffs. The motion was swaying, rocking, and sickening; the
+contact of the brute’s slimy skin was disgusting. All this, however, was
+merely background to Maskull, as he sat there with closed eyes, holding
+on to Oceaxe. In the front and centre of his consciousness was the
+knowledge that he was gripping a fair woman, and that her flesh was
+responding to his touch like a lovely harp.
+
+They climbed up and up. He opened his eyes, and ventured to look around
+him. By this time they were already level with the top of the outer
+rampart of precipices. There now came in sight a wild archipelago of
+islands, with jagged outlines, emerging from a sea of air. The islands
+were mountain summits; or, more accurately speaking, the country was a
+high tableland, fissured everywhere by narrow and apparently bottomless
+cracks. These cracks were in some cases like canals, in others like
+lakes, in others merely holes in the ground, closed in all round. The
+perpendicular sides of the islands—that is, the upper, visible parts of
+the innumerable cliff faces—were of bare rock, gaudily coloured; but the
+level surfaces were a tangle of wild plant life. The taller trees alone
+were distinguishable from the shrowk’s back. They were of different
+shapes, and did not look ancient; they were slender and swaying but did
+not appear very graceful; they looked tough, wiry, and savage.
+
+As Maskull continued to explore the landscape, he forgot Oceaxe and his
+passion. Other strange feelings came to the front. The morning was gay
+and bright. The sun scorched down, quickly-changing clouds sailed across
+the sky, the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely. Yet he experienced no
+aesthetic sensations—he felt nothing but an intense longing for action
+and possession. When he looked at anything, he immediately wanted to
+deal with it. The atmosphere of the land seemed not free, but sticky;
+attraction and repulsion were its constituents. Apart from this wish to
+play a personal part in what was going on around and beneath him, the
+scenery had no significance for him.
+
+So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp. Oceaxe
+turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied with what
+she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
+
+“Cold again so quickly, Maskull?”
+
+“What do you want?” he asked absently, still looking over the side.
+“It’s extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this.”
+
+“You wish to take a hand?”
+
+“I wish to get down.”
+
+“Oh, we have a good way to go yet.... So you really feel different?”
+
+“Different from what? What are you talking about?” said Maskull, still
+lost in abstraction.
+
+Oceaxe laughed again. “It would be strange if we couldn’t make a man of
+you, for the material is excellent.”
+
+After that, she turned her back once more.
+
+The air islands differed from water islands in another way. They were
+not on a plane surface, but sloped upward, like a succession of broken
+terraces, as the journey progressed. The shrowk had hitherto been flying
+well above the ground; but now, when a new line of towering cliffs
+confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast upward, but caused it to
+enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the mountains like a channel.
+They were instantly plunged into deep shade. The canal was not above
+thirty feet wide; the walls stretched upward on both sides for many
+hundred feet. It was as cool as an ice chamber. When Maskull attempted
+to plumb the chasm with his eyes, he saw nothing but black obscurity.
+
+“What is at the bottom?” he asked.
+
+“Death for you, if you go to look for it.”
+
+“We know that. I mean, is there any kind of life down there?”
+
+“Not that I have ever heard of,” said Oceaxe, “but of course all things
+are possible.”
+
+“I think very likely there is life,” he returned thoughtfully.
+
+Her ironical laugh sounded out of the gloom. “Shall we go down and see?”
+
+“You find that amusing?”
+
+“No, not that. What I do find amusing is the big stranger with the
+beard, who is so keenly interested in everything except himself.”
+
+Maskull then laughed too. “I happen to be the only thing in Tormance
+which is not a novelty for me.”
+
+“Yes, but I am a novelty for you.”
+
+The channel went zigzagging its way through the belly of the mountain,
+and all the time they were gradually rising.
+
+“At least I have heard nothing like your voice before,” said Maskull,
+who, since he had no longer anything to look at, was at last ready for
+conversation.
+
+“What’s the matter with my voice?”
+
+“It’s all that I can distinguish of you now; that’s why I mentioned it.”
+
+“Isn’t it clear—don’t I speak distinctly?”
+
+“Oh, it’s clear enough, but—it’s inappropriate.”
+
+“Inappropriate?”
+
+“I won’t explain further,” said Maskull, “but whether you are speaking
+or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest and strangest instrument
+I have ever listened to. And yet I repeat, it is inappropriate.”
+
+“You mean that my nature doesn’t correspond?”
+
+He was just considering his reply, when their talk was abruptly broken
+off by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising up from the
+gulf directly underneath them. It was a low, grinding, roaring thunder.
+
+“The ground is rising under us!” cried Oceaxe.
+
+“Shall we escape?”
+
+She made no answer, but urged the shrowk’s flight upward, at such a
+steep gradient that they retained their seats with difficulty. The floor
+of the canyon, upheaved by some mighty subterranean force, could be
+heard, and almost felt, coming up after them, like a gigantic landslip
+in the wrong direction. The cliffs cracked, and fragments began to fall.
+A hundred awful noises filled the air, growing louder and louder each
+second—splitting, hissing, cracking, grinding, booming, exploding,
+roaring. When they had still fifty feet or so to go, to reach the top, a
+sort of dark, indefinite sea of broken rocks and soil appeared under
+their feet, ascending rapidly, with irresistible might, accompanied by
+the most horrible noises. The canal was filled up for two hundred yards,
+before and behind them. Millions of tons of solid matter seemed to be
+raised. The shrowk in its ascent was caught by the uplifted debris.
+Beast and riders experienced in that moment all the horrors of an
+earthquake—they were rolled violently over, and thrown among the rocks
+and dirt. All was thunder, instability, motion, confusion.
+
+Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the
+sunlight. The upheaval still continued. In another minute or two the
+valley floor had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher
+than the old. Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as
+if by magic; not a rock moved. Oceaxe and Maskull picked themselves up
+and examined themselves for cuts and bruises. The shrowk lay on its
+side, panting violently, and sweating with fright.
+
+“That was a nasty affair,” said Maskull, flicking the dirt off his
+person.
+
+Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.
+
+“It might have been far worse.... I mean, it’s bad enough to come up,
+but it’s death to go down, and that happens just as often.”
+
+“Whatever induces you to live in such a country?”
+
+“I don’t know, Maskull. Habit, I suppose. I have often thought of moving
+out of it.”
+
+“A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
+place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
+another.”
+
+“You will learn by degrees,” she answered, smiling.
+
+She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.
+
+“Get on again, Maskull!” she directed, climbing back to her perch. “We
+haven’t too much time to waste.”
+
+He obeyed. They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
+mountains, and in full sunlight. Maskull settled down again to his
+thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into
+his brain. His will became so restless and uneasy that merely to sit
+there in inactivity was a torture. He could scarcely endure not to be
+doing something.
+
+“How secretive you are, Maskull!” said Oceaxe quietly, without turning
+her head.
+
+“What secrets—what do you mean?”
+
+“Oh, I know perfectly well what’s passing inside you. Now I think it
+wouldn’t be amiss to ask you—is friendship still enough?”
+
+“Oh, don’t ask me anything,” growled Maskull. “I’ve far too many
+problems in my head already. I only wish I could answer some of them.”
+
+He stared stonily at the landscape. The beast was winging its way toward
+a distant mountain, of singular shape. It was an enormous natural
+quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and terminating in a
+broad, flat top, on which what looked like green snow still lingered.
+
+“What mountain is that?” he asked.
+
+“Disscourn. The highest point in Ifdawn.”
+
+“Are we going there?”
+
+“Why should we go there? But if you were going on farther, it might be
+worth your while to pay a visit to the top. It commands the whole land
+as far as the Sinking Sea and Swaylone’s Island—and beyond. You can also
+see Alppain from it.”
+
+“That’s a sight I mean to see before I have finished.”
+
+“Do you, Maskull?” She turned around and put her hand on his wrist.
+“Stay with me, and one day we’ll go to Disscourn together.”
+
+He grunted unintelligibly.
+
+There were no signs of human existence in the country under their feet.
+While Maskull was still grimly regarding it, a large tract of forest not
+far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful
+roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf. What was solid land one
+minute became a clean-cut chasm the next. He jumped violently up with
+the shock. “This is frightful.”
+
+Oceaxe remained unmoved.
+
+“Why, life here must be absolutely impossible,” he went on, when he had
+somewhat recovered himself. “A man would need nerves of steel.... Is
+there no means at all of foreseeing a catastrophe like this?”
+
+“Oh, I suppose we wouldn’t be alive if there weren’t,” replied Oceaxe,
+with composure. “We are more or less clever at it—but that doesn’t
+prevent our often getting caught.”
+
+“You had better teach me the signs.”
+
+“We’ll have many things to go over together. And among them, I expect,
+will be whether we are to stay in the land at all.... But first let us
+get home.”
+
+“How far is it now?”
+
+“It is right in front of you,” said Oceaxe, pointing with her
+forefinger. “You can see it.”
+
+He followed the direction of the finger and, after a few questions, made
+out the spot she was indicating. It was a broad peninsula, about two
+miles distant. Three of its sides rose sheer out of a lake of air, the
+bottom of which was invisible; its fourth was a bottleneck, joining it
+to the mainland. It was overgrown with bright vegetation, distinct in
+the brilliant atmosphere. A single tall tree, shooting up in the middle
+of the peninsula, dwarfed everything else; it was wide and shady with
+sea-green leaves.
+
+“I wonder if Crimtyphon is there,” remarked Oceaxe. “Can I see two
+figures, or am I mistaken?”
+
+“I also see something,” said Maskull.
+
+In twenty minutes they were directly above the peninsula, at a height of
+about fifty feet. The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth on the
+mainland, exactly at the gateway of the isthmus. They both
+descended—Maskull with aching thighs.
+
+“What shall we do with the monster?” asked Oceaxe. Without waiting for a
+suggestion, she patted its hideous face with her hand. “Fly away home! I
+may want you some other time.”
+
+It gave a stupid grunt, elevated itself on its legs again, and, after
+half running, half flying for a few yards, rose awkwardly into the air,
+and paddled away in the same direction from which they had come. They
+watched it out of sight, and then Oceaxe started to cross the neck of
+land, followed by Maskull.
+
+Branchspell’s white rays beat down on them with pitiless force. The sky
+had by degrees become cloudless, and the wind had dropped entirely. The
+ground was a rich riot of vividly coloured ferns, shrubs, and grasses.
+Through these could be seen here and there the golden chalky soil—and
+occasionally a glittering, white metallic boulder. Everything looked
+extraordinary and barbaric. Maskull was at last walking in the weird
+Ifdawn Marest which had created such strange feelings in him when seen
+from a distance.... And now he felt no wonder or curiosity at all, but
+only desired to meet human beings—so intense had grown his will. He
+longed to test his powers on his fellow creatures, and nothing else
+seemed of the least importance to him.
+
+On the peninsula all was coolness and delicate shade. It resembled a
+large copse, about two acres in extent. In the heart of the tangle of
+small trees and undergrowth was a partially cleared space—perhaps the
+roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed off the smaller
+fry all around it. By the side of the tree sparkled a little, bubbling
+fountain, whose water was iron-red. The precipices on all sides,
+overhung with thorns, flowers, and creepers, invested the enclosure with
+an air of wild and charming seclusion—a mythological mountain god might
+have dwelt here.
+
+Maskull’s restless eye left everything, to fall on the two men who
+formed the centre of the picture.
+
+One was reclining, in the ancient Grecian fashion of banqueters on a
+tall couch of mosses, sprinkled with flowers; he rested on one arm, and
+was eating a kind of plum, with calm enjoyment. A pile of these plums
+lay on the couch beside him. The over-spreading branches of the tree
+completely sheltered him from the sun. His small, boyish form was clad
+in a rough skin, leaving his limbs naked. Maskull could not tell from
+his face whether he were a young boy or a grown man. The features were
+smooth, soft, and childish, their expression was seraphically tranquil;
+but his violet upper eye was sinister and adult. His skin was of the
+colour of yellow ivory. His long, curling hair matched his sorb—it was
+violet. The second man was standing erect before the other, a few feet
+away from him. He was short and muscular, his face was broad, bearded,
+and rather commonplace, but there was something terrible about his
+appearance. The features were distorted by a deep-seated look of pain,
+despair, and horror.
+
+Oceaxe, without pausing, strolled lightly and lazily up to the outermost
+shadows of the tree, some distance from the couch.
+
+“We have met with an uplift,” she remarked carelessly, looking toward
+the youth.
+
+He eyed her, but said nothing.
+
+“How is your plant man getting on?” Her tone was artificial but
+extremely beautiful. While waiting for an answer, she sat down on the
+ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and pulled down the
+skirt of her robe. Maskull remained standing just behind her, with
+crossed arms.
+
+There was silence for a minute.
+
+“Why don’t you answer your mistress, Sature?” said the boy on the couch,
+in a calm, treble voice.
+
+The man addressed did not alter his expression, but replied in a
+strangled tone, “I am getting on very well, Oceaxe. There are already
+buds on my feet. Tomorrow I hope to take root.”
+
+Maskull felt a rising storm inside him. He was perfectly aware that
+although these words were uttered by Sature, they were being dictated by
+the boy.
+
+“What he says is quite true,” remarked the latter. “Tomorrow roots will
+reach the ground, and in a few days they ought to be well established.
+Then I shall set to work to convert his arms into branches, and his
+fingers into leaves. It will take longer to transform his head into a
+crown, but still I hope—in fact I can almost promise that within a month
+you and I, Oceaxe, will be plucking and enjoying fruit from this new and
+remarkable tree.”
+
+“I love these natural experiments,” he concluded, putting out his hand
+for another plum. “They thrill me.”
+
+“This must be a joke,” said Maskull, taking a step forward.
+
+The youth looked at him serenely. He made no reply, but Maskull felt as
+if he were being thrust backward by an iron hand on his throat.
+
+“The morning’s work is now concluded, Sature. Come here again after
+Blodsombre. After tonight you will remain here permanently, I expect, so
+you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for your roots.
+Never forget—however fresh and charming these plants appear to you now,
+in the future they will be your deadliest rivals and enemies. Now you
+may go.”
+
+The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight. Oceaxe
+yawned.
+
+Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall. “Are you joking,
+or are you a devil?”
+
+“I am Crimtyphon. I never joke. For that epithet of yours, I will devise
+a new punishment for you.”
+
+The duel of wills commenced without ceremony. Oceaxe got up, stretched
+her beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to witness the
+struggle between her old lover and her new. Crimtyphon smiled too; he
+reached out his hand for more fruit, but did not eat it. Maskull’s self-
+control broke down and he dashed at the boy, choking with red fury—his
+beard wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with whom he had
+to deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a
+terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull staggered. He
+gathered together all the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight
+continued his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch, trying
+to get away.... His opposition suddenly collapsed. Maskull stumbled
+forward, recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the high pile of
+mosses, to get at his antagonist. He fell on top of him with all his
+bulk. Grasping his throat, he pulled his little head completely around,
+so that the neck was broken. Crimtyphon immediately died.
+
+The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull
+viewed it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder
+came into his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon’s face
+had undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal
+character had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask
+which expressed nothing.
+
+He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had seen
+the brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face
+of the apparition at the siance, after Krag had dealt with it.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10. TYDOMIN
+
+Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the
+plums.
+
+“You see, you had to kill him, Maskull,” she said, in a rather quizzical
+voice.
+
+He came away from the corpse and regarded her—still red, and still
+breathing hard. “It’s no joking matter. You especially ought to keep
+quiet.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because he was your husband.”
+
+“You think I ought to show grief—when I feel none?”
+
+“Don’t pretend, woman!”
+
+Oceaxe smiled. “From your manner one would think you were accusing me of
+some crime.”
+
+Maskull literally snorted at her words. “What, you live with filth—you
+live in the arms of a morbid monstrosity and then—”
+
+“Oh, now I grasp it,” she said, in a tone of perfect detachment.
+
+“I’m glad.”
+
+“Well, Maskull,” she proceeded, after a pause, “and who gave you the
+right to rule my conduct? Am I not mistress of my own person?”
+
+He looked at her with disgust, but said nothing. There was another long
+interval of silence.
+
+“I never loved him,” said Oceaxe at last, looking at the ground.
+
+“That makes it all the worse.”
+
+“What does all this mean—what do you want?”
+
+“Nothing from you—absolutely nothing—thank heaven!”
+
+She gave a hard laugh. “You come here with your foreign preconceptions
+and expect us all to bow down to them.”
+
+“What preconceptions?”
+
+“Just because Crimtyphon’s sports are strange to you, you murder him—and
+you would like to murder me.”
+
+“Sports! That diabolical cruelty.”
+
+“Oh, you’re sentimental!” said Oceaxe contemptuously. “Why do you need
+to make such a fuss over that man? Life is life, all the world over, and
+one form is as good as another. He was only to be made a tree, like a
+million other trees. If they can endure the life, why can’t he?”
+
+“And this is Ifdawn morality!”
+
+Oceaxe began to grow angry. “It’s you who have peculiar ideas. You rave
+about the beauty of flowers and trees—you think them divine. But when
+it’s a question of taking on this divine, fresh, pure, enchanting
+loveliness yourself, in your own person, it immediately becomes a cruel
+and wicked degradation. Here we have a strange riddle, in my opinion.”
+
+“Oceaxe, you’re a beautiful, heartless wild beast—nothing more. If you
+weren’t a woman—”
+
+“Well”—curling her lip—“let us hear what would happen if I weren’t a
+woman?”
+
+Maskull bit his nails.
+
+“It doesn’t matter. I can’t touch you—though there’s certainly not the
+difference of a hair between you and your boy-husband. For this you may
+thank my ‘foreign preconceptions.’... Farewell!”
+
+He turned to go. Oceaxe’s eyes slanted at him through their long lashes.
+
+“Where are you off to, Maskull?”
+
+“That’s a matter of no importance, for wherever I go it must be a change
+for the better. You walking whirlpools of crime!”
+
+“Wait a minute. I only want to say this. Blodsombre is just starting,
+and you had better stay here till the afternoon. We can quickly put that
+body out of sight, and, as you seem to detest me so much, the place is
+big enough—we needn’t talk, or even see each other.”
+
+“I don’t wish to breathe the same air.”
+
+“Singular man!” She was sitting erect and motionless, like a beautiful
+statue. “And what of your wonderful interview with Surtur, and all the
+undone things which you set out to do?”
+
+“You aren’t the one I shall speak to about that. But”—he eyed her
+meditatively—“while I’m still here you can tell me this. What’s the
+meaning of the expression on that corpse’s face?”
+
+“Is that another crime, Maskull? All dead people look like that. Ought
+they not to?”
+
+“I once heard it called ‘Crystalman’s face.’”
+
+“Why not? We are all daughters and sons of Crystalman. It is doubtless
+the family resemblance.”
+
+“It has also been told me that Surtur and Crystalman are one and the
+same.”
+
+“You have wise and truthful acquaintances.”
+
+“Then how could it have been Surtur whom I saw?” said Maskull, more to
+himself than to her. “That apparition was something quite different.”
+
+She dropped her mocking manner and, sliding imperceptibly toward him,
+gently pulled his arm.
+
+“You see—we have to talk. Sit down beside me, and ask me your questions.
+I’m not excessively smart, but I’ll try to be of assistance.”
+
+Maskull permitted himself to be dragged down with soft violence. She
+bent toward him, as if confidentially, and contrived that her sweet,
+cool, feminine breath should fan his cheek.
+
+“Aren’t you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull? Then what does
+it matter who sent you?”
+
+“What can you possibly know of good and evil?”
+
+“Are you only instructing the initiated?”
+
+“Who am I, to instruct anybody? However, you’re quite right. I wish to
+do what I can—not because I am qualified, but because I am here.”
+
+Oceaxe’s voice dropped to a whisper. “You’re a giant, both in body and
+soul. What you want to do, you can do.”
+
+“Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own
+ends?”
+
+She sighed. “Don’t you see how difficult you are making the
+conversation? Let’s talk about your work, not about ourselves.”
+
+Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern
+sky. It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills. While
+he was observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a disquieting
+nature, passed through him. He looked at Oceaxe, and it struck him for
+the first time that he was being unnecessarily brutal to her. He had
+forgotten that she was a woman, and defenceless.
+
+“Won’t you stay?” she asked all of a sudden, quite openly and frankly.
+
+“Yes, I think I’ll stay,” he replied slowly. “And another thing,
+Oceaxe—if I’ve misjudged your character, pray forgive me. I’m a hasty,
+passionate man.”
+
+“There are enough easygoing men. Hard knocks are a good medicine for
+vicious hearts. And you didn’t misjudge my character, as far as you
+went—only, every woman has more than one character. Don’t you know
+that?”
+
+During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and both
+looked around, startled. They saw a woman stepping slowly across the
+neck that separated them from the mainland.
+
+“Tydomin,” muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice. She
+immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.
+
+The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful. She was no
+longer quite young. Her face wore the composure of a woman who knows her
+way about the world. It was intensely pale, and under its quiescence
+there just was a glimpse of something strange and dangerous. It was
+curiously alluring, though not exactly beautiful. Her hair was
+clustering and boyish, reaching only to the neck. It was of a strange
+indigo colour. She was quaintly attired in a tunic and breeches, pieced
+together from the square, blue-green plates of some reptile. Her small,
+ivory-white breasts were exposed. Her sorb was black and sad—rather
+contemplative.
+
+Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided
+straight toward Crimtyphon’s corpse. When she arrived within a few feet
+of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.
+
+Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, “It’s Crimtyphon’s
+other wife, who lives under Disscourn. She’s a most dangerous woman. Be
+careful what you say. If she asks you to do anything, refuse it
+outright.”
+
+“The poor soul looks harmless enough.”
+
+“Yes, she does—but the poor soul is quite capable of swallowing up Krag
+himself.... Now, play the man.”
+
+The murmur of their voices seemed to attract Tydomin’s notice, for she
+now slowly turned her eyes toward them.
+
+“Who killed him?” she demanded.
+
+Her voice was so soft, low, and refined, that Maskull hardly was able to
+catch the words. The sounds, however, lingered in his ears, and
+curiously enough seemed to grow stronger, instead of fainter.
+
+Oceaxe whispered, “Don’t say a word, leave it all to me.” Then she swung
+her body around to face Tydomin squarely, and said aloud, “I killed
+him.”
+
+Tydomin’s words by this time were ringing in Maskull’s head like an
+actual physical sound. There was no question of being able to ignore
+them; he had to make an open confession of his act, whatever the
+consequences might be. Quietly taking Oceaxe by the shoulder and putting
+her behind him, he said in a low, but perfectly distinct voice, “It was
+I that killed Crimtyphon.”
+
+Oceaxe looked both haughty and frightened. “Maskull says that so as to
+shield me, as he thinks. I require no shield, Maskull. I killed him,
+Tydomin.”
+
+“I believe you, Oceaxe. You did murder him. Not with your own strength,
+for you brought this man along for the purpose.”
+
+Maskull took a couple of steps toward Tydomin. “It’s of little
+consequence who killed him, for he’s better dead than alive, in my
+opinion. Still, I did it. Oceaxe had no hand in the affair.”
+
+Tydomin appeared not to hear him—she looked beyond him at Oceaxe
+musingly. “When you murdered him, didn’t it occur to you that I would
+come here, to find out?”
+
+“I never once thought of you,” replied Oceaxe, with an angry laugh. “Do
+you really imagine that I carry your image with me wherever I go?”
+
+“If someone were to murder your lover here, what would you do?”
+
+“Lying hypocrite!” Oceaxe spat out. “You never were in love with
+Crimtyphon. You always hated me, and now you think it an excellent
+opportunity to make it good... now that Crimtyphon’s gone.... For we
+both know he would have made a footstool of you, if I had asked him. He
+worshiped me, but he laughed at you. He thought you ugly.”
+
+Tydomin flashed a quick, gentle smile at Maskull. “Is it necessary for
+you to listen to all this?”
+
+Without question, and feeling it the right thing to do, he walked away
+out of earshot.
+
+Tydomin approached Oceaxe. “Perhaps because my beauty fades and I’m no
+longer young, I needed him all the more.”
+
+Oceaxe gave a kind of snarl. “Well, he’s dead, and that’s the end of it.
+What are you going to do now, Tydomin?”
+
+The other woman smiled faintly and rather pathetically. “There’s nothing
+left to do, except mourn the dead. You won’t grudge me that last
+office?”
+
+“Do you want to stay here?” demanded Oceaxe suspiciously.
+
+“Yes, Oceaxe dear, I wish to be alone.”
+
+“Then what is to become of us?”
+
+“I thought that you and your lover—what is his name?”
+
+“Maskull.”
+
+“I thought that perhaps you two would go to Disscourn, and spend
+Blodsombre at my home.”
+
+Oceaxe called out aloud to Maskull, “Will you come with me now to
+Disscourn?”
+
+“If you wish,” returned Maskull.
+
+“Go first, Oceaxe. I must question your friend about Crimtyphon’s death.
+I won’t keep him.”
+
+“Why don’t you question me, rather?” demanded Oceaxe, looking up
+sharply.
+
+Tydomin gave the shadow of a smile. “We know each other too well.”
+
+“Play no tricks!” said Oceaxe, and she turned to go.
+
+“Surely you must be dreaming,” said Tydomin. “That’s the way—unless you
+want to walk over the cliffside.”
+
+The path Oceaxe had chosen led across the isthmus. The direction which
+Tydomin proposed for her was over the edge of the precipice, into empty
+space.
+
+“Shaping! I must be mad,” cried Oceaxe, with a laugh. And she obediently
+followed the other’s finger.
+
+She walked straight on toward the edge of the abyss, twenty paces away.
+Maskull pulled his beard around, and wondered what she was doing.
+Tydomin remained standing with outstretched finger, watching her.
+Without hesitation, without slackening her step once, Oceaxe strolled
+on—and when she had reached the extreme end of the land she still took
+one more step.
+
+Maskull saw her limbs wrench as she stumbled over the edge. Her body
+disappeared, and as it did so an awful shriek sounded.
+
+Disillusionment had come to her an instant too late. He tore himself out
+of his stupor, rushed to the edge of the cliff, threw himself on the
+ground recklessly, and looked over.... Oceaxe had vanished.
+
+He continued staring wildly down for several minutes, and then began to
+sob. Tydomin came up to him, and he got to his feet.
+
+The blood kept rushing to his face and leaving it again. It was some
+time before he could speak at all. Then he brought out the words with
+difficulty. “You shall pay for this, Tydomin. But first I want to hear
+why you did it.”
+
+“Hadn’t I cause?” she asked, standing with downcast eyes.
+
+“Was it pure fiendishness?”
+
+“It was for Crimtyphon’s sake.”
+
+“She had nothing to do with that death. I told you so.”
+
+“You are loyal to her, and I’m loyal to him.”
+
+“Loyal? You’ve made a terrible blunder. She wasn’t my mistress. I killed
+Crimtyphon for quite another reason. She had absolutely no part in it.”
+
+“Wasn’t she your lover?” asked Tydomin slowly.
+
+“You’ve made a terrible mistake,” repeated Maskull. “I killed him
+because he was a wild beast. She was as innocent of his death as you
+are.”
+
+Tydomin’s face took on a hard look. “So you are guilty of two deaths.”
+
+There was a dreadful silence.
+
+“Why couldn’t you believe me?” asked Maskull, who was pale and sweating
+painfully.
+
+“Who gave you the right to kill him?” demanded Tydomin sternly.
+
+He said nothing, and perhaps did not hear her question.
+
+She sighed two or three times and began to stir restlessly. “Since you
+murdered him, you must help me bury him.”
+
+“What’s to be done? This is a most fearful crime.”
+
+“You are a most fearful man. Why did you come here, to do all this? What
+are we to you?”
+
+“Unfortunately you are right.”
+
+Another pause ensued.
+
+“It’s no use standing here,” said Tydomin. “Nothing can be done. You
+must come with me.”
+
+“Come with you? Where to?”
+
+“To Disscourn. There’s a burning lake on the far side of it. He always
+wished to be cast there after death. We can do that after Blodsombre—in
+the meantime we must take him home.”
+
+“You’re a callous, heartless woman. Why should he be buried when that
+poor girl must remain unburied?”
+
+“You know that’s out of the question,” replied Tydomin quietly.
+
+Maskull’s eyes roamed about agitatedly, apparently seeing nothing.
+
+“We must do something,” she continued. “I shall go. You can’t wish to
+stay here alone?”
+
+“No, I couldn’t stay here—and why should I want to? You want me to carry
+the corpse?”
+
+“He can’t carry himself, and you murdered him. Perhaps it will ease your
+mind to carry it.”
+
+“Ease my mind?” said Maskull, rather stupidly.
+
+“There’s only one relief for remorse, and that’s voluntary pain.”
+
+“And have you no remorse?” he asked, fixing her with a heavy eye.
+
+“These crimes are yours, Maskull,” she said in a low but incisive voice.
+
+They walked over to Crimtyphon’s body, and Maskull hoisted it on to his
+shoulders. It weighed heavier than he had thought. Tydomin did not offer
+to assist him to adjust the ghastly burden.
+
+She crossed the isthmus, followed by Maskull. Their path lay through
+sunshine and shadow. Branchspell was blazing in a cloudless sky, the
+heat was insufferable—streams of sweat coursed down his face, and the
+corpse seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Tydomin always walked in
+front of him. His eyes were fastened in an unseeing stare on her white,
+womanish calves; he looked neither to right nor left. His features grew
+sullen. At the end of ten minutes he suddenly allowed his burden to slip
+off his shoulders on to the ground, where it lay sprawled every which
+way. He called out to Tydomin.
+
+She quickly looked around.
+
+“Come here. It has just occurred to me”—he laughed—“why should I be
+carrying this corpse—and why should I be following you at all? What
+surprises me is, why this has never struck me before.”
+
+She at once came back to him. “I suppose you’re tired, Maskull. Let us
+sit down. Perhaps you have come a long way this morning?”
+
+“Oh, it’s not tiredness, but a sudden gleam of sense. Do you know of any
+reason why I should be acting as your porter?” He laughed again, but
+nevertheless sat down on the ground beside her.
+
+Tydomin neither looked at him nor answered. Her head was half bent, so
+as to face the northern sky, where the Alppain light was still glowing.
+Maskull followed her gaze, and also watched the glow for a moment or two
+in silence.
+
+“Why don’t you speak?” he asked at last.
+
+“What does that light suggest to you, Maskull?”
+
+“I’m not speaking of that light.”
+
+“Doesn’t it suggest anything at all?”
+
+“Perhaps it doesn’t. What does it matter?”
+
+“Not sacrifice?”
+
+Maskull grew sullen again. “Sacrifice of what? What do you mean?”
+
+“Hasn’t it entered your head yet,” said Tydomin, looking straight in
+front of her, and speaking in her delicate, hard manner, “that this
+adventure of yours will scarcely come to an end until you have made some
+sort of sacrifice?”
+
+He returned no answer, and she said nothing more. In a few minutes’ time
+Maskull got up of his own accord, and irreverently, and almost angrily,
+threw Crimtyphon’s corpse over his shoulder again.
+
+“How far do we have to go?” he asked in a surly tone.
+
+“An hour’s walk.”
+
+“Lead on.”
+
+“Still, this isn’t the sacrifice I mean,” said Tydomin quietly, as she
+went on in front.
+
+Almost immediately they reached more difficult ground. They had to pass
+from peak to peak, as from island to island. In some cases they were
+able to stride or jump across, but in others they had to make use of
+rude bridges of fallen timber. It appeared to be a frequented path.
+Underneath were the black, impenetrable abysses—on the surface were the
+glaring sunshine, the gay, painted rocks, the chaotic tangle of strange
+plants. There were countless reptiles and insects. The latter were
+thicker built than those of Earth—consequently still more disgusting,
+and some of them were of enormous size. One monstrous insect, as large
+as a horse, stood right in the centre of their path without budging. It
+was armour-plated, had jaws like scimitars, and underneath its body was
+a forest of legs. Tydomin gave one malignant look at it, and sent it
+crashing into the gulf.
+
+“What have I to offer, except my life?” Maskull suddenly broke out. “And
+what good is that? It won’t bring that poor girl back into the world.”
+
+“Sacrifice is not for utility. It’s a penalty which we pay.”
+
+“I know that.”
+
+“The point is whether you can go on enjoying life, after what has
+happened.”
+
+She waited for Maskull to come even with her.
+
+“Perhaps you imagine I’m not man enough—you imagine that because I
+allowed poor Oceaxe to die for me—”
+
+“She did die for you,” said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic voice.
+
+“That would be a second blunder of yours,” returned Maskull, just as
+firmly. “I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I’m not in love with life.”
+
+“Your life is not required.”
+
+“Then I don’t understand what you want, or what you are speaking about.”
+
+“It’s not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull. That would be
+compliance on your part, but not sacrifice. You must wait until you feel
+there’s nothing else for you to do.”
+
+“It’s all very mysterious.”
+
+The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful
+crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead. It was
+accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they stood.
+They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final
+disappearance of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in
+front of them. Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with all
+its teeming animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic story.
+The new chasm was cut, as if by a knife. Beyond its farther edge the
+Alppain glow burned blue just over the horizon.
+
+“Now we shall have to make a detour,” said Tydomin, halting.
+
+Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand. “Listen to me, while I
+try to describe what I’m feeling. When I saw that landslip, everything I
+have heard about the last destruction of the world came into my mind. It
+seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it, and that the world
+were really falling to pieces. Then, where the land was, we now have
+this empty, awful gulf—that’s to say, nothing—and it seems to me as if
+our life will come to the same condition, where there was something
+there will be nothing. But that terrible blue glare on the opposite side
+is exactly like the eye of fate. It accuses us, and demands what we have
+made of our life, which is no more. At the same time, it is grand and
+joyful. The joy consists in this—that it is in our power to give freely
+what will later on be taken from us by force.”
+
+Tydomin watched him attentively. “Then your feeling is that your life is
+worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?”
+
+“No, it goes beyond that. I feel that the only thing worth living for is
+to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.
+Understand me. It isn’t cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but
+heroism.... It’s hard to explain.”
+
+“Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull. It’s a heavy
+one, but that’s what you seem to wish.”
+
+“That is so. In my present mood it can’t be too heavy.”
+
+“Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me. Now that
+Crimtyphon’s dead, I’m tired of being a woman.”
+
+“I fail to comprehend.”
+
+“Listen, then. I wish to start a new existence in your body. I wish to
+be a male. I see it isn’t worth while being a woman. I mean to dedicate
+my own body to Crimtyphon. I shall tie his body and mine together, and
+give them a common funeral in the burning lake. That’s the sacrifice I
+offer you. As I said, it’s a hard one.”
+
+“So you do ask me to die. Though how you can make use of my body is
+difficult to understand.”
+
+“No, I don’t ask you to die. You will go on living.”
+
+“How is it possible without a body?”
+
+Tydomin gazed at him earnestly. “There are many such beings, even in
+your world. There you call them spirits, apparitions, phantoms. They are
+in reality living wills, deprived of material bodies, always longing to
+act and enjoy, but quite unable to do so. Are you noble-minded enough to
+accept such a state, do you think?”
+
+“If it’s possible, I accept it,” replied Maskull quietly. “Not in spite
+of its heaviness, but because of it. But how is it possible?”
+
+“Undoubtedly there are very many things possible in our world of which
+you have no conception. Now let us wait till we get home. I don’t hold
+you to your word, for unless it’s a free sacrifice I will have nothing
+to do with it.”
+
+“I am not a man who speaks lightly. If you can perform this miracle, you
+have my consent, once for all.”
+
+“Then we’ll leave it like that for the present,” said Tydomin sadly.
+
+They proceeded on their way. Owing to the subsidence, Tydomin seemed
+rather doubtful at first as to the right road, but by making a long
+divergence they eventually got around to the other side of the newly
+formed chasm. A little later on, in a narrow copse crowning a miniature,
+insulated peak, they fell in with a man. He was resting himself against
+a tree, and looked tired, overheated, and despondent. He was young. His
+beardless expression bore an expression of unusual sincerity, and in
+other respects he seemed a hardy, hardworking youth, of an intellectual
+type. His hair was thick, short, and flaxen. He possessed neither a sorb
+nor a third arm—so presumably he was not a native of Ifdawn. His
+forehead, however, was disfigured by what looked like a haphazard
+assortment of eyes, eight in number, of different sizes and shapes. They
+went in pairs, and whenever two were in use, it was indicated by a
+peculiar shining—the rest remained dull, until their turn came. In
+addition to the upper eyes he had the two lower ones, but they were
+vacant and lifeless. This extraordinary battery of eyes, alternatively
+alive and dead, gave the young man an appearance of almost alarming
+mental activity. He was wearing nothing but a sort of skin kilt. Maskull
+seemed somehow to recognise the face, though he had certainly never set
+eyes on it before.
+
+Tydomin suggested to him to set down the corpse, and both sat down to
+rest in the shade.
+
+“Question him, Maskull,” she said, rather carelessly, jerking her head
+toward the stranger.
+
+Maskull sighed and asked aloud, from his seat on the ground, “What’s
+your name, and where do you come from?”
+
+The man studied him for a few moments, first with one pair of eyes, then
+with another, then with a third. He next turned his attention to
+Tydomin, who occupied him a still longer time. He replied at last, in a
+dry, manly, nervous voice. “I am Digrung. I have arrived here from
+Matterplay.” His colour kept changing, and Maskull suddenly realised of
+whom he reminded him. It was of Joiwind.
+
+“Perhaps you’re going to Poolingdred, Digrung?” he inquired, interested.
+
+“As a matter of fact I am—if I can find my way out of this accursed
+country.”
+
+“Possibly you are acquainted with Joiwind there?”
+
+“She’s my sister. I’m on my way to see her now. Why, do you know her?”
+
+“I met her yesterday.”
+
+“What is your name, then?”
+
+“Maskull.”
+
+“I shall tell her I met you. This will be our first meeting for four
+years. Is she well, and happy?”
+
+“Both, as far as I could judge. You know Panawe?”
+
+“Her husband—yes. But where do you come from? I’ve seen nothing like you
+before.”
+
+“From another world. Where is Matterplay?”
+
+“It’s the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea.”
+
+“What is it like there—how do you amuse yourselves? The same old murders
+and sudden deaths?”
+
+“Are you ill?” asked Digrung. “Who is this woman, why are you following
+at her heels like a slave? She looks insane to me. What’s that
+corpse—why are you dragging it around the country with you?”
+
+Tydomin smiled. “I’ve already heard it said about Matterplay, that if
+one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately springs
+up. But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me, Digrung?”
+
+“I don’t attack you, woman, but I know you. I see into you, and I see
+insanity. That wouldn’t matter, but I don’t like to see a man of
+intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes.”
+
+“I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge
+character. However, I don’t mind. Your opinion’s nothing to me, Digrung.
+You’d better answer his questions, Maskull. Not for his own sake—but
+your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your having been seen
+carrying a dead man.”
+
+Maskull’s underlip shot out. “Tell your sister nothing, Digrung. Don’t
+mention my name at all. I don’t want her to know about this meeting of
+ours.”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“I don’t wish it—isn’t that enough?”
+
+Digrung looked impassive.
+
+“Thoughts and words,” he said, “which don’t correspond with the real
+events of the world are considered most shameful in Matterplay.”
+
+“I’m not asking you to lie, only to keep silent.”
+
+“To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can’t accede to your
+wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it.”
+
+Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.
+
+She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look. “The dead
+man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him. Now you’ll understand why
+he wishes you to hold your tongue.”
+
+“I guessed there was some foul play,” said Digrung. “It doesn’t matter—I
+can’t falsify facts. Joiwind must know.”
+
+“You refuse to consider her feelings?” said Maskull, turning pale.
+
+“Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on realities,
+aren’t worth considering. But Joiwind’s are not of that kind.”
+
+“If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without seeing
+her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting when
+she hears your news.”
+
+“What are these strange relations between you?” demanded Digrung, eying
+him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
+
+Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. “Good God! You don’t
+doubt your own sister. That pure angel!”
+
+Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. “I don’t know Joiwind, but,
+whoever she is and whatever she’s like, I know this—she’s more fortunate
+in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really value her
+happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or other.”
+
+“I mean to. Digrung, I shall stop your journey.”
+
+“If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough.”
+
+Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed. “I seem to be leaving a
+wake of corpses behind me on this journey.”
+
+“Why a corpse? There’s no need to kill him.”
+
+“Thanks for that!” said Digrung dryly. “All the same, some crime is
+about to burst. I feel it.”
+
+“What must I do, then?” asked Maskull.
+
+“It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very
+interested.... If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate
+long. Don’t you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set their
+feeble, obstinate wills against yours?”
+
+“That is a worse crime,” said Maskull.
+
+“Who knows? He will live, but he will tell no tales.”
+
+Digrung laughed, but changed colour. “I was right then. The monster has
+sprung into the light of day.”
+
+Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder. “You have the choice, and we are
+not joking. Do as I ask.”
+
+“You have fallen low, Maskull. But you are walking in a dream, and I
+can’t talk to you. As for you, woman—sin must be like a pleasant bath to
+you....”
+
+“There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a
+passer-by, a foreigner. I care nothing for you.”
+
+“Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are
+legitimate and right.”
+
+“Do as you please,” said Tydomin. “If you come to grief, your thoughts
+will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the world, which
+is what you boast about. It is no affair of mine.”
+
+“I shall go on, and not back!” exclaimed Digrung, with angry emphasis.
+
+Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull. “Bear witness that I have
+tried to persuade this young man. Now you must come to a quick decision
+in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance, Digrung’s
+happiness or Joiwind’s. Digrung won’t allow you to preserve them both.”
+
+“It won’t take me long to decide, Digrung, I gave you a last chance to
+change your mind.”
+
+“As long as it’s in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister against
+her criminal friends.”
+
+Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence. Instructed
+in his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he pressed the young
+man tightly to his body with all three arms. A feeling of wild, sweet
+delight immediately passed through him. Then for the first time he
+comprehended the triumphant joys of “absorbing.” It satisfied the hunger
+of the will, exactly as food satisfies the hunger of the body. Digrung
+proved feeble—he made little opposition. His personality passed slowly
+and evenly into Maskull’s. The latter became strong and gorged. The
+victim gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in
+his arms. He dropped the body, and stood trembling. He had committed his
+second crime. He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...
+
+Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine. He half expected
+her to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a sign to him to
+pick up Crimtyphon’s corpse. As he obeyed, he wondered why Digrung’s
+dead face did not wear the frightful Crystalman mask.
+
+“Why hasn’t he altered?” he muttered to himself.
+
+Tydomin heard him. She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot. “He
+isn’t dead—that’s why. The expression you mean is waiting for your
+death.”
+
+“Then is that my real character?”
+
+She laughed softly. “You came here to carve a strange world, and now it
+appears you are carved yourself. Oh, there’s no doubt about it, Maskull.
+You needn’t stand there gaping. You belong to Shaping, like the rest of
+us. You are not a king, or a god.”
+
+“Since when have I belonged to him?”
+
+“What does that matter? Perhaps since you first breathed the air of
+Tormance, or perhaps since five minutes ago.”
+
+Without waiting for his response, she set off through the copse, and
+strode on to the next island. Maskull followed, physically distressed
+and looking very grave.
+
+The journey continued for half an hour longer, without incident. The
+character of the scenery slowly changed. The mountaintops became loftier
+and more widely separated from one another. The gaps were filled with
+rolling, white clouds, which bathed the shores of the peaks like a
+mysterious sea. To pass from island to island was hard work, the
+intervening spaces were so wide—Tydomin, however, knew the way. The
+intense light, the violet-blue sky, the patches of vivid landscape,
+emerging from the white vapour-ocean, made a profound impression on
+Maskull’s mind. The glow of Alppain was hidden by the huge mass of
+Disscourn, which loomed up straight in front of them.
+
+The green snow on the top of the gigantic pyramid had by now completely
+melted away. The black, gold, and crimson of its mighty cliffs stood out
+with terrific brilliance. They were directly beneath the bulk of the
+mountain, which was not a mile away. It did not appear dangerous to
+climb, but he was unaware on which side of it their destination lay.
+
+It was split from top to bottom by numerous straight fissures. A few
+pale-green waterfalls descended here and there, like narrow, motionless
+threads. The face of the mountain was rugged and bare. It was strewn
+with detached boulders, and great, jagged rocks projected everywhere
+like iron teeth. Tydomin pointed to a small black hole near the base,
+which might be a cave. “That is where I live.”
+
+“You live here alone?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“It’s an odd choice for a woman—and you are not unbeautiful, either.”
+
+“A woman’s life is over at twenty-five,” she replied, sighing. “And I am
+far older than that. Ten years ago it would have been I who lived
+yonder, and not Oceaxe. Then all this wouldn’t have happened.”
+
+*****
+
+A quarter of an hour later they stood within the mouth of the cave. It
+was ten feet high, and its interior was impenetrably black.
+
+“Put down the body in the entrance, out of the sun,” directed Tydomin.
+He did so.
+
+She cast a keenly scrutinising glance at him. “Does your resolution
+still hold, Maskull?”
+
+“Why shouldn’t it hold? My brains are not feathers.”
+
+“Follow me, then.”
+
+They both stepped into the cave. At that very moment a sickening crash,
+like heavy thunder just over their heads, set Maskull’s weakened heart
+thumping violently. An avalanche of boulders, stones, and dust, swept
+past the cave entrance from above. If their going in had been delayed by
+a single minute, they would have been killed.
+
+Tydomin did not even look up. She took his hand in hers, and started
+walking with him into the darkness. The temperature became as cold as
+ice. At the first bend the light from the outer world disappeared,
+leaving them in absolute blackness. Maskull kept stumbling over the
+uneven ground, but she kept tight hold of him, and hurried him along.
+
+The tunnel seemed of interminable length. Presently, however, the
+atmosphere changed—or such was his impression. He was somehow led to
+imagine that they had come to a larger chamber. Here Tydomin stopped,
+and then forced him down with quiet pressure. His groping hand
+encountered stone and, by feeling it all over, he discovered that it was
+a sort of stone slab, or couch, raised a foot or eighteen inches from
+the ground. She told him to lie down.
+
+“Has the time come?” asked Maskull.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+He lay there waiting in the darkness, ignorant of what was going to
+happen. He felt her hand clasping his. Without perceiving any gradation,
+he lost all consciousness of his body; he was no longer able to feel his
+limbs or internal organs. His mind remained active and alert. Nothing
+particular appeared to be taking place.
+
+Then the chamber began to grow light, like very early morning. He could
+see nothing, but the retina of his eyes was affected. He fancied that he
+heard music, but while he was listening for it, it stopped. The light
+grew stronger, the air grew warmer; he heard the confused sound of
+distant voices.
+
+Suddenly Tydomin gave his hand a powerful squeeze. He heard someone
+scream faintly, and then the light leaped up, and he saw everything
+clearly.
+
+He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room, lighted
+by electricity. His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin, but by a
+man dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face he was
+certainly familiar, but under what circumstances he could not recall.
+Other people stood in the background—they too were vaguely known to him.
+He sat up and began to smile, without any especial reason; and then
+stood upright.
+
+Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion—he wondered
+why. Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances. Two in particular he
+knew—the man at the farther end of the room, who paced restlessly
+backward and forward, his face transfigured by stern, holy grandeur; and
+that other big, bearded man—who was himself. Yes—he was looking at his
+own double. But it was just as if a crime-riddled man of middle age were
+suddenly confronted with his own photograph as an earnest, idealistic
+youth.
+
+His other self spoke to him. He heard the sounds, but did not comprehend
+the sense. Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a short, brutish-
+looking individual leaped in. He began to behave in an extraordinary
+manner to everyone around him; and after that came straight up to
+him—Maskull. He spoke some words, but they were incomprehensible. A
+terrible expression came over the newcomer’s face, and he grasped his
+neck with a pair of hairy hands. Maskull felt his bones bending and
+breaking, excruciating pains passed through all the nerves of his body,
+and he experienced a sense of impending death. He cried out, and sank
+helplessly on the floor, in a heap. The chamber and the company
+vanished—the light went out.
+
+Once more he found himself in the blackness of the cave. He was this
+time lying on the ground, but Tydomin was still with him, holding his
+hand. He was in horrible bodily agony, but this was only a setting for
+the despairing anguish that filled his mind.
+
+Tydomin addressed him in tones of gentle reproach. “Why are you back so
+soon? I’ve not had time yet. You must return.”
+
+He caught hold of her, and pulled himself up to his feet. She gave a low
+scream, as though in pain. “What does this mean—what are you doing,
+Maskull?”
+
+“Krag—” began Maskull, but the effort to produce his words choked him,
+so that he was obliged to stop.
+
+“Krag—what of Krag? Tell me quickly what has happened. Free my arm.”
+
+He gripped her arm tighter.
+
+“Yes, I’ve seen Krag. I’m awake.”
+
+“Oh! You are awake, awake.”
+
+“And you must die,” said Maskull, in an awful voice.
+
+“But why? What has happened?...”
+
+“You must die, and I must kill you. Because I am awake, and for no other
+reason. You blood-stained dancing mistress!”
+
+Tydomin breathed hard for a little time. Then she seemed suddenly to
+regain her self-possession.
+
+“You won’t offer me violence, surely, in this black cave?”
+
+“No, the sun shall look on, for it is not a murder. But rest assured
+that you must die—you must expiate your fearful crimes.”
+
+“You have already said so, and I see you have the power. You have
+escaped me. It is very curious. Well, then, Maskull, let us come
+outside. I am not afraid. But kill me courteously, for I have also been
+courteous to you. I make no other supplication.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN
+
+BY THE TIME that they regained the mouth of the cavern, Blodsombre was
+at its height. In front of them the scenery sloped downward—a long
+succession of mountain islands in a sea of clouds. Behind them the
+bright, stupendous crags of Disscourn loomed up for a thousand feet or
+more. Maskull’s eyes were red, and his face looked stupid; he was still
+holding the woman by the arm. She made no attempt to speak, or to get
+away. She seemed perfectly gentle and composed.
+
+After gazing at the country for a long time in silence, he turned toward
+her. “Whereabouts is the fiery lake you spoke of?”
+
+“It lies on the other side of the mountain. But why do you ask?”
+
+“It is just as well if we have some way to walk. I shall grow calmer,
+and that’s what I want. I wish you to understand that what is going to
+happen is not a murder, but an execution.”
+
+“It will taste the same,” said Tydomin.
+
+“When I have gone out of this country, I don’t wish to feel that I have
+left a demon behind me, wandering at large. That would not be fair to
+others. So we will go to the lake, which promises an easy death for
+you.”
+
+She shrugged her shoulders. “We must wait till Blodsombre is over.”
+
+“Is this a time for luxurious feelings? However hot it is now, we will
+both be cool by evening. We must start at once.”
+
+“Without doubt, you are the master, Maskull.... May I not carry
+Crimtyphon?”
+
+Maskull looked at her strangely.
+
+“I grudge no man his funeral.”
+
+She painfully hoisted the body on her narrow shoulders, and they stepped
+out into the sunlight. The heat struck them like a blow on the head.
+Maskull moved aside, to allow her to precede him, but no compassion
+entered his heart. He brooded over the wrongs the woman had done him.
+
+The way went along the south side of the great pyramid, near its base.
+It was a rough road, clogged with boulders and crossed by cracks and
+water gullies; they could see the water, but could not get at it. There
+was no shade. Blisters formed on their skin, while all the water in
+their blood seemed to dry up.
+
+Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil’s delight at Tydomin’s.
+“Sing me a song!” he called out presently. “A characteristic one.”
+
+She turned her head and gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without
+any sort of expostulation, started singing. Her voice was low and weird.
+The song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to ascertain
+whether he was awake or dreaming. The slow surprises of the grotesque
+melody began to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the words were pure
+nonsense—or else their significance was too deep for him.
+
+“Where, in the name of all unholy things, did you acquire that stuff,
+woman?”
+
+Tydomin shed a sickly smile, while the corpse swayed about with ghastly
+jerks over her left shoulder. She held it in position with her two left
+arms. “It’s a pity we could not have met as friends, Maskull. I could
+have shown you a side of Tormance which now perhaps you will never see.
+The wild, mad side. But now it’s too late, and it doesn’t matter.”
+
+They turned the angle of the mountain, and started to traverse the
+western base.
+
+“Which is the quickest way out of this miserable land?” asked Maskull.
+
+“It is easiest to go to Sant.”
+
+“Will we see it from anywhere?”
+
+“Yes, though it is a long way off.”
+
+“Have you been there?”
+
+“I am a woman, and interdicted.”
+
+“True. I have heard something of the sort.”
+
+“But don’t ask me any more questions,” said Tydomin, who was becoming
+faint.
+
+Maskull stopped at a little spring. He himself drank, and then made a
+cup of his hand for the woman, so that she might not have to lay down
+her burden. The gnawl water acted like magic—it seemed to replenish all
+the cells of his body as though they had been thirsty sponge pores,
+sucking up liquid. Tydomin recovered her self-possession.
+
+About three-quarters of an hour later they worked around the second
+corner, and entered into full view of the north aspect of Disscourn.
+
+A hundred yards lower down the slope on which they were walking, the
+mountain ended abruptly in a chasm. The air above it was filled with a
+sort of green haze, which trembled violently like the atmosphere
+immediately over a furnace.
+
+“The lake is underneath,” said Tydomin.
+
+Maskull looked curiously about him. Beyond the crater the country sloped
+away in a continuous descent to the skyline. Behind them, a narrow path
+channelled its way up through the rocks toward the towering summit of
+the pyramid. Miles away, in the north-east quarter, a long, flat-topped
+plateau raised its head far above all the surrounding country. It was
+Sant—and there and then he made up his mind that that should be his
+destination that day.
+
+Tydomin meanwhile had walked straight to the gulf, and set down
+Crimtyphon’s body on the edge. In a minute or two, Maskull joined her;
+arrived at the brink, he immediately flung himself at full length on his
+chest, to see what could be seen of the lake of fire. A gust of hot,
+asphyxiating air smote his face and set him coughing, but he did not get
+up until he had stared his fill at the huge sea of green, molten lava,
+tossing and swirling at no great distance below, like a living will.
+
+A faint sound of drumming came up. He listened intently, and as he did
+so his heart quickened and the black cares rolled away from his soul.
+All the world and its accidents seemed at that moment false, and without
+meaning....
+
+He climbed abstractedly to his feet. Tydomin was talking to her dead
+husband. She was peering into the hideous face of ivory, and fondling
+his violet hair. When she perceived Maskull, she hastily kissed the
+withered lips, and got up from her knees. Lifting the corpse with all
+three arms, she staggered with it to the extreme edge of the gulf and,
+after an instant’s hesitation, allowed it to drop into the lava. It
+disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic splash came up. That
+was Crimtyphon’s funeral.
+
+“Now I am ready, Maskull.”
+
+He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing,
+erect and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face was
+wan, and there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew that it
+was a phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at
+Poolingdred.
+
+“Turn around, Tydomin,” he said oddly, “and tell me what you see behind
+you.”
+
+“I don’t see anything,” she answered, looking around.
+
+“But I see Joiwind.”
+
+Just as he was speaking, the apparition vanished.
+
+“Now I present you with your life, Tydomin. She wishes it.”
+
+The woman fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+
+“I little expected I should ever be beholden for my life to one of my
+own sex—but so be it. What really happened to you in my cavern?”
+
+“I really saw Krag.”
+
+“Yes, some miracle must have taken place.” She suddenly shivered. “Come,
+let us leave this horrible spot. I shall never come here again.”
+
+“Yes,” said Maskull, “it stinks of death and dying. But where are we to
+go—what are we to do? Take me to Sant. I must get away from this hellish
+land.”
+
+Tydomin remained standing, dull and hollow-eyed. Then she gave an
+abrupt, bitter little laugh. “We make our journey together in singular
+stages. Rather than be alone, I’ll come with you—but you know that if I
+set foot in Sant they will kill me.”
+
+“At least set me on the way. I wish to get there before night. Is it
+possible?”
+
+“If you are willing to take risks with nature. And why should you not
+take risks today? Your luck holds. But someday or other it won’t
+hold—your luck.”
+
+“Let us start,” said Maskull. “The luck I’ve had so far is nothing to
+brag about.”
+
+Blodsombre was over when they set off; it was early afternoon, but the
+heat seemed more stifling than ever. They made no more pretence at
+conversation; both were buried in their own painful thoughts. The land
+fell away from Disscourn in all other directions, but toward Sant there
+was a gentle, persistent rise. Its dark, distant plateau continued to
+dominate the landscape, and after walking for an hour they seemed none
+the nearer to it. The air was stale and stagnant.
+
+By and by, an upright object, apparently the work of man, attracted
+Maskull’s notice. It was a slender tree stem, with the bark still on,
+imbedded in the stony ground. From the upper end three branches sprang
+out, pointing aloft at a sharp angle. They were stripped to twigs and
+leaves and, getting closer, he saw that they had been artificially
+fastened on, at equal distances from each other.
+
+As he stared at the object, a strange, sudden flush of confident vanity
+and self-sufficiency seemed to pass through him, but it was so momentary
+that he could be sure of nothing.
+
+“What may that be, Tydomin?”
+
+“It is Hator’s Trifork.”
+
+“And what is its purpose?”
+
+“It’s a guide to Sant.”
+
+“But who or what is Hator?”
+
+“Hator was the founder of Sant—many thousands of years ago. He laid down
+the principles they all live by, and that trifork is his symbol. When I
+was a little child my father told me the legends, but I’ve forgotten
+most of them.”
+
+Maskull regarded it attentively.
+
+“Does it affect you in any way?”
+
+“And why should it do that?” she said, dropping her lip scornfully. “I
+am only a woman, and these are masculine mysteries.”
+
+“A sort of gladness came over me,” said Maskull, “but perhaps I am
+mistaken.”
+
+They passed on. The scenery gradually changed in character. The solid
+parts of the land grew more continuous, the fissures became narrower and
+more infrequent. There were now no more subsidences or upheavals. The
+peculiar nature of the Ifdawn Marest appeared to be giving place to a
+different order of things.
+
+Later on, they encountered a flock of pale blue jellies floating in the
+air. They were miniature animals. Tydomin caught one in her hand and
+began to eat it, just as one eats a luscious pear plucked from a tree.
+Maskull, who had fasted since early morning, was not slow in following
+her example. A sort of electric vigour at once entered his limbs and
+body, his muscles regained their elasticity, his heart began to beat
+with hard, slow, strong throbs.
+
+“Food and body seem to agree well in this world,” he remarked smiling.
+
+She glanced toward him. “Perhaps the explanation is not in the food, but
+in your body.”
+
+“I brought my body with me.”
+
+“You brought your soul with you, but that’s altering fast, too.”
+
+In a copse they came across a short, wide tree, without leaves, but
+possessing a multitude of thin, flexible branches, like the tentacles of
+a cuttlefish. Some of these branches were moving rapidly. A furry
+animal, somewhat resembling a wildcat, leaped about among them in the
+most extraordinary way. But the next minute Maskull was shocked to
+realise that the beast was not leaping at all, but was being thrown from
+branch to branch by the volition of the tree, exactly as an imprisoned
+mouse is thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
+
+He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
+
+“That’s a gruesome reversal of rôles, Tydomin.”
+
+“One can see you’re disgusted,” she replied, stifling a yawn. “But that
+is because you are a slave to words. If you called that plant an animal,
+you would find its occupation perfectly natural and pleasing. And why
+should you not call it an animal?”
+
+“I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
+shall go on listening to this sort of language.”
+
+They trudged along for an hour or more without talking. The day became
+overcast. A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the sun changed
+into an immense ruddy disk which could be stared at without flinching. A
+chill, damp wind blew against them. Presently it grew still darker, the
+sun disappeared and, glancing first at his companion and then at
+himself, Maskull noticed that their skin and clothing were coated by a
+kind of green hoarfrost.
+
+The land was now completely solid. About half a mile, in front of them,
+against a background of dark fog, a moving forest of tall waterspouts
+gyrated slowly and gracefully hither and thither. They were green and
+self-luminous, and looked terrifying. Tydomin explained that they were
+not waterspouts at all, but mobile columns of lightning.
+
+“Then they are dangerous?”
+
+“So we think,” she answered, watching them closely.
+
+“Someone is wandering there who appears to have a different opinion.”
+
+Among the spouts, and entirely encompassed by them, a man was walking
+with a slow, calm, composed gait, his back turned toward Maskull and
+Tydomin. There was something unusual in his appearance—his form looked
+extraordinarily distinct, solid, and real.
+
+“If there’s danger, he ought to be warned,” said Maskull.
+
+“He who is always anxious to teach will learn nothing,” returned the
+woman coolly. She restrained Maskull by a pressure of the arm, and
+continued to watch.
+
+The base of one of the columns touched the man. He remained unharmed,
+but turned sharply around, as if for the first time made aware of the
+proximity of these deadly waltzers. Then he raised himself to his full
+height, and stretched both arms aloft above his head, like a diver. He
+seemed to be addressing the columns.
+
+While they looked on, the electric spouts discharged themselves, with a
+series of loud explosions. The stranger stood alone, uninjured. He
+dropped his arms. The next moment he caught sight of the two, and stood
+still, waiting for them to come up. The pictorial clarity of his person
+grew more and more noticeable as they approached; his body seemed to be
+composed of some substance heavier and denser than solid matter.
+
+Tydomin looked perplexed.
+
+“He must be a Sant man. I have seen no one quite like him before. This
+is a day of days for me.”
+
+“He must be an individual of great importance,” murmured Maskull.
+
+They now came up to him. He was tall, strong, and bearded, and was
+clothed in a shirt and breeches of skin. Since turning his back to the
+wind, the green deposit on his face and limbs had changed to streaming
+moisture, through which his natural colour was visible; it was that of
+pale iron. There was no third arm. His face was harsh and frowning, and
+a projecting chin pushed the beard forward. On his forehead there were
+two flat membranes, like rudimentary eyes, but no sorb. These membranes
+were expressionless, but in some strange way seemed to add vigour to the
+stern eyes underneath. When his glance rested on Maskull, the latter
+felt as though his brain were being thoroughly travelled through. The
+man was middle-aged.
+
+His physical distinctness transcended nature. By contrast with him,
+every object in the neighbourhood looked vague and blurred. Tydomin’s
+person suddenly appeared faint, sketch-like, without significance, and
+Maskull realised that it was no better with himself. A queer, quickening
+fire began running through his veins.
+
+He turned to the woman. “If this man is going to Sant, I shall bear him
+company. We can now part. No doubt you will think it high time.”
+
+“Let Tydomin come too.”
+
+The words were delivered in a rough, foreign tongue, but were as
+intelligible to Maskull as if spoken in English.
+
+“You who know my name, also know my sex,” said Tydomin quietly. “It is
+death for me to enter Sant.”
+
+“That is the old law. I am the bearer of the new law.”
+
+“Is it so—and will it be accepted?”
+
+“The old skin is cracking, the new skin has been silently forming
+underneath, the moment of sloughing has arrived.”
+
+The storm gathered. The green snow drove against them, as they stood
+talking, and it grew intensely cold. None noticed it.
+
+“What is your name?” asked Maskull, with a beating heart.
+
+“My name, Maskull, is Spadevil. You, a voyager across the dark ocean of
+space, shall be my first witness and follower. You, Tydomin, a daughter
+of the despised sex, shall be my second.”
+
+“The new law? But what is it?”
+
+“Until eye sees, of what use it is for ear to hear?.... Come, both of
+you, to me!”
+
+Tydomin went to him unhesitatingly. Spadevil pressed his hand on her
+sorb and kept it there for a few minutes, while he closed his own eyes.
+When he removed it, Maskull observed that the sorb was transformed into
+twin membranes like Spadevil’s own.
+
+Tydomin looked dazed. She glanced quietly about for a little while,
+apparently testing her new faculty. Then the tears started to her eyes
+and, snatching up Spadevil’s hand, she bent over and kissed it hurriedly
+many times.
+
+“My past has been bad,” she said. “Numbers have received harm from me,
+and none good. I have killed—and worse. But now I can throw all that
+away, and laugh. Nothing can now injure me. Oh, Maskull, you and I have
+been fools together!”
+
+“Don’t you repent your crimes?” asked Maskull.
+
+“Leave the past alone,” said Spadevil, “it cannot be reshaped. The
+future alone is ours. It starts fresh and clean from this very minute.
+Why do you hesitate, Maskull? Are you afraid?”
+
+“What is the name of those organs, and what is their function?”
+
+“They are probes, and they are the gates opening into a new world.”
+
+Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.
+
+While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law quietly
+flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream of clean
+water which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive will. The law
+was duty.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12. SPADEVIL
+
+Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of their
+own, but only intensified and altered his other senses. When he used his
+eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him,
+but his judgment concerning them was different. Previously all external
+things had existed for him; now he existed for them. According to
+whether they served his purpose or were in harmony with his nature, or
+otherwise, they had been pleasant or painful. Now these words “pleasure”
+and “pain” simply had no meaning.
+
+The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted with
+his new mental outlook. He smiled at them.
+
+“You were quite right, Tydomin,” he said, in a bold, cheerful voice. “We
+have been fools. So near the light all the time, and we never guessed
+it. Always buried in the past or future—systematically ignoring the
+present—and now it turns out that apart from the present we have no life
+at all.”
+
+“Thank Spadevil for it,” she answered, more loudly than usual.
+
+Maskull looked at the man’s dark, concrete form. “Spadevil, now I mean
+to follow you to the end. I can do nothing less.”
+
+The severe face showed no sign of gratification—not a muscle relaxed.
+
+“Watch that you don’t lose your gift,” he said gruffly.
+
+Tydomin spoke. “You promised that I should enter Sant with you.”
+
+“Attach yourself to the truth, not to me. For I may die before you, but
+the truth will accompany you to your death. However, now let us journey
+together, all three of us.”
+
+The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the
+fine, driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination. He walked
+with a long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order to keep up
+with him. The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the middle. The fog
+was so dense that it was impossible to see a hundred yards ahead. The
+ground was covered by the green snow. The wind blew in gusts from the
+Sant highlands and was piercingly cold.
+
+“Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?” asked Maskull.
+
+“He that is not more than a man is nothing.”
+
+“Where have you now come from?”
+
+“From brooding, Maskull. Out of no other mother can truth be born. I
+have brooded, and rejected; and I have brooded again. Now, after many
+months’ absence from Sant, the truth at last shines forth for me in its
+simple splendour, like an upturned diamond.”
+
+“I see its shining,” said Maskull. “But how much does it owe to ancient
+Hator?”
+
+“Knowledge has its seasons. The blossom was to Hator, the fruit is to
+me. Hator also was a brooder—but now his followers do not brood. In Sant
+all is icy selfishness, a living death. They hate pleasure, and this
+hatred is the greatest pleasure to them.”
+
+“But in what way have they fallen off from Hator’s doctrines?”
+
+“For him, in his sullen purity of nature, all the world was a snare, a
+limed twig. Knowing that pleasure was everywhere, a fierce, mocking
+enemy, crouching and waiting at every corner of the road of life, in
+order to kill with its sweet sting the naked grandeur of the soul, he
+shielded himself behind pain. This also his followers do, but they do
+not do it for the sake of the soul, but for the sake of vanity and
+pride.”
+
+“What is the Trifork?”
+
+“The stem, Maskull, is hatred of pleasure. The first fork is
+disentanglement from the sweetness of the world. The second fork is
+power over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion. The third
+fork is the healthy glow of one who steps into ice-cold water.”
+
+“From what land did Hator come?”
+
+“It is not said. He lived in Ifdawn for a while. There are many legends
+told of him while there.”
+
+“We have a long way to go,” said Tydomin. “Relate some of these legends,
+Spadevil.”
+
+The snow had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell reappeared like a
+phantom sun, but bitter blasts of wind still swept over the plain.
+
+“In those days,” said Spadevil, “there existed in Ifdawn a mountain
+island separated by wide spaces from the land around it. A handsome
+girl, who knew sorcery, caused a bridge to be constructed across which
+men and women might pass to it. Having by a false tale drawn Hator on to
+this rock, she pushed at the bridge with her foot until it tumbled into
+the depths below. ‘You and I, Hator, are now together, and there is no
+means of separating. I wish to see how long the famous frost man can
+withstand the breath, smiles and perfume of a girl.’ Hator said no word,
+either then or all that day. He stood till sunset like a tree trunk, and
+thought of other things. Then the girl grew passionate, and shook her
+curls. She rose from where she was sitting she looked at him, and
+touched his arm; but he did not see her. She looked at him, so that all
+the soul was in her eyes; and then she fell down dead. Hator awoke from
+his thoughts, and saw her lying, still warm, at his feet, a corpse. He
+passed to the mainland; but how, it is not related.”
+
+Tydomin shuddered. “You too have met your wicked woman, Spadevil; but
+your method is a nobler one.”
+
+“Don’t pity other women,” said Spadevil, “but love the right. Hator also
+once conversed with Shaping.”
+
+“With the Maker of the World?” said Maskull thoughtfully.
+
+“With the Maker of Pleasure. It is told how Shaping defended his world,
+and tried to force Hator to acknowledge loveliness and joy. But Hator,
+answering all his marvellous speeches in a few concise, iron words,
+showed how this joy and beauty was but another name for the bestiality
+of souls wallowing in luxury and sloth. Shaping smiled, and said, ‘How
+comes it that your wisdom is greater than that of the Master of wisdom?’
+Hator said, ‘My wisdom does not come from you, nor from your world, but
+from that other world, which you, Shaping, have vainly tried to
+imitate.’ Shaping replied, ‘What, then, do you do in my world?’ Hator
+said, ‘I am here falsely, and therefore I am subject to your false
+pleasures. But I wrap myself in pain—not because it is good, but because
+I wish to keep myself as far from you as possible. For pain is not
+yours, neither does it belong to the other world, but it is the shadow
+cast by your false pleasures.’ Shaping then said, ‘What is this faraway
+other world of which you say “This is so—this is not so?” How happens it
+that you alone of all my creatures have knowledge of it?’ But Hator spat
+at his feet, and said, ‘You lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You,
+with your pretty toys, alone obscure it from our view.’ Shaping asked,
+‘What, then, am I?’ Hator answered, ‘You are the dreamer of impossible
+dreams.’ And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased with
+what had been said.”
+
+“What other world did Hator refer to?” asked Maskull.
+
+“One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here.”
+
+“Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference,” said Maskull.
+“The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is mean and
+corrupt-natured.”
+
+“Guard you your pride!” returned Spadevil. “Do not make law for the
+universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this small, false
+life of yours.”
+
+“In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?” asked
+Tydomin.
+
+“He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last hour.
+When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he determined to
+destroy himself. He gathered his friends around him; not from vanity,
+but that they might see to what lengths the human soul can go in its
+perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body. Standing erect, without
+support, he died by withholding his breath.”
+
+A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour. Their minds
+refused to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their thoughts
+became frozen.
+
+When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued power,
+Maskull’s curiosity rose once more. “Your fellow countrymen, then,
+Spadevil, are sick with self-love?”
+
+“The men of other countries,” said Spadevil, “are the slaves of pleasure
+and desire, knowing it. But the men of my country are the slaves of
+pleasure and desire, not knowing it.”
+
+“And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has
+something noble in it.”
+
+“He who studies himself at all is ignoble. Only by despising soul as
+well as body can a man enter into true life.”
+
+“On what grounds do they reject women?”
+
+“Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself. Love
+for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore injurious to
+him.”
+
+“A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe,” said Maskull. “But
+will they allow it?”
+
+“Spadevil knows, Maskull,” said Tydomin, “that be it today or be it
+tomorrow, love can’t be kept out of a land, even by the disciples of
+Hator.”
+
+“Beware of love—beware of emotion!” exclaimed Spadevil. “Love is but
+pleasure once removed. Think not of pleasing others, but of serving
+them.”
+
+“Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.”
+
+“Right has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you are a
+woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul.”
+
+“But where there are no women, there are no children,” said Maskull.
+“How came there to be all these generations of Hator men?”
+
+“Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the
+yearning for relief from suffering. Men throng to Sant from all parts,
+in order to have the scars of their souls healed.”
+
+“In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what simple
+formula do you offer?”
+
+“Iron obedience to duty,” answered Spadevil.
+
+“And if they ask ‘How far is this consistent with hatred of pleasure?’
+what will your pronouncement be?”
+
+“I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the question.
+Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark fires of self.
+Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one side, calm and
+undisturbed.”
+
+“What is the criterion of pleasure? How can we always recognise it, in
+order to avoid it?”
+
+“Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise.”
+
+Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on Spadevil’s
+arm.
+
+“Fearful doubts are in my mind,” she said. “This expedition to Sant may
+turn out badly. I have seen a vision of you, Spadevil, and myself lying
+dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not there.”
+
+“We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others will
+raise it.”
+
+“Show me a sign that you are not as other men—so that I may know that
+our blood will not be wasted.”
+
+Spadevil regarded her sternly. “I am not a magician. I don’t persuade
+the senses, but the soul. Does your duty call you to Sant, Tydomin? Then
+go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther. Is not this
+simple? What signs are necessary?”
+
+“Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning? No common man could
+have done that.”
+
+“Who knows what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man can
+do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their
+eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my life. Will
+you not still accompany me?”
+
+“Yes,” said Tydomin, “I will follow you to the end. It is all the more
+essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my remarks, and that
+means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.”
+
+“Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we are
+thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be planning
+or shaping in our mind.”
+
+Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
+
+“Why was Maskull not in the picture?” she asked.
+
+“You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical. There
+is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life. There is only right
+and wrong. What arises from right or wrong action does not matter. We
+are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men and women, doing our
+immediate duty. We may die in Sant—so you have seen it; but the truth
+will go on living.”
+
+“Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?” asked Maskull.
+“These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least likely of any to follow
+a new light.”
+
+“Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no tree
+at all can be found, nothing will grow.”
+
+“I understand you,” said Maskull. “Here perhaps we are going to
+martyrdom, but elsewhere we should resemble men preaching to cattle.”
+
+Shortly before sunset they arrived at the extremity of the upland plain,
+above which towered the black cliffs of the Sant Levels. A dizzy,
+artificially constructed staircase, of more than a thousand steps of
+varying depth, twisting and forking in order to conform to the angles of
+the precipices, led to the world overhead. In the place where they stood
+they were sheltered from the cutting winds. Branchspell, radiantly
+shining at last, but on the point of sinking, filled the cloudy sky with
+violent, lurid colors, some of the combinations of which were new to
+Maskull. The circle of the horizon was so gigantic, that had he been
+suddenly carried back to Earth, he would by comparison have fancied
+himself to be moving beneath the dome of some little, closed-in
+cathedral. He realised that he was on a foreign planet. But he was not
+stirred or uplifted by the knowledge; he was conscious only of moral
+ideas. Looking backward, he saw the plain, which for several miles past
+had been without vegetation, stretching back away to Disscourn. So
+regular had been the ascent, and so great was the distance, that the
+huge pyramid looked nothing more than a slight swelling on the face of
+the earth.
+
+Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence. In the
+evening sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever
+before. His features were set hard in grimness.
+
+He turned around to his companions. “What is the greatest wonder, in all
+this wonderful scene?” he demanded.
+
+“Acquaint us,” said Maskull.
+
+“All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure to
+pleasure. Nowhere is right to be found. It is Shaping’s world.”
+
+“There is another wonder,” said Tydomin, and she pointed her finger
+toward the sky overhead.
+
+A small cloud, so low down that it was perhaps not more than five
+hundred feet above them, was sailing along in front of the dark wall of
+cliff. It was in the exact shape of an open human hand, with downward-
+pointing fingers. It was stained crimson by the sun; and one or two tiny
+cloudlets beneath the fingers looked like falling drops of blood.
+
+“Who can doubt now that our death is close at hand?” said Tydomin. “I
+have been close to death twice today. The first time I was ready, but
+now I am more ready, for I shall die side by side with the man who has
+given me my first happiness.”
+
+“Do not think of death, but of right persistence,” replied Spadevil. “I
+am not here to tremble before Shaping’s portents; but to snatch men from
+him.”
+
+He at once proceeded to lead the way up the staircase. Tydomin gazed
+upward after him for a moment, with an odd, worshiping light in her
+eyes. Then she followed him, the second of the party. Maskull climbed
+last. He was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but his soul was
+at peace. As they steadily ascended the almost perpendicular stairs, the
+sun got higher in the sky. Its light dyed their bodies a ruddy gold.
+
+They gained the top. There they found rolling in front of them, as far
+as the eye could see, a barren desert of white sand, broken here and
+there by large, jagged masses of black rock. Tracts of the sand were
+reddened by the sinking sun. The vast expanse of sky was filled by evil-
+shaped clouds and wild colors. The freezing wind, flurrying across the
+desert, drove the fine particles of sand painfully against their faces.
+
+“Where now do you take us?” asked Maskull.
+
+“He who guards the old wisdom of Sant must give up that wisdom to me,
+that I may change it. What he says, others will say. I go to find
+Maulger.”
+
+“And where will you seek him, in this bare country?”
+
+Spadevil struck off toward the north unhesitatingly.
+
+“It is not so far,” he said. “It is his custom to be in that part where
+Sant overhangs the Wombflash Forest. Perhaps he will be there, but I
+cannot say.”
+
+Maskull glanced toward Tydomin. Her sunken cheeks, and the dark circles
+beneath her eyes told of her extreme weariness.
+
+“The woman is tired, Spadevil,” he said.
+
+She smiled. “It’s but another step into the land of death. I can manage
+it. Give me your arm, Maskull.”
+
+He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
+
+“The sun is now sinking,” said Maskull. “Will we get there before dark?”
+
+“Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is eating up the evil in
+your nature. The road you are walking cannot remain unwalked. We shall
+arrive before dark.”
+
+The sun then disappeared behind the far-distant ridges that formed the
+western boundary of the Ifdawn Marest. The sky blazed up into more vivid
+colors. The wind grew colder.
+
+They passed some pools of colourless gnawl water, round the banks of
+which were planted fruit trees. Maskull ate some of the fruit. It was
+hard, bitter, and astringent; he could not get rid of the taste, but he
+felt braced and invigorated by the downward-flowing juices. No other
+trees or shrubs were to be seen anywhere. No animals appeared, no birds
+or insects. It was a desolate land.
+
+A mile or two passed, when they again approached the edge of the
+plateau. Far down, beneath their feet, the great Wombflash Forest began.
+But daylight had vanished there; Maskull’s eyes rested only on a vague
+darkness. He faintly heard what sounded like the distant sighing of
+innumerable treetops.
+
+In the rapidly darkening twilight, they came abruptly on a man. He was
+standing in a pool, on one leg. A pile of boulders had hidden him from
+their view. The water came as far up as his calf. A trifork, similar to
+the one Maskull had seen on Disscourn, but smaller, had been stuck in
+the mud close by his hand.
+
+They stopped by the side of the pond, and waited. Immediately he became
+aware of their presence, the man set down his other leg, and waded out
+of the water toward them, picking up his trifork in doing so.
+
+“This is not Maulger, but Catice,” said Spadevil.
+
+“Maulger is dead,” said Catice, speaking the same tongue as Spadevil,
+but with an even harsher accent, so that the tympanum of Maskull’s ear
+was affected painfully.
+
+The latter saw before him a bowed, powerful individual, advanced in
+years. He wore nothing but a scanty loincloth. His trunk was long and
+heavy, but his legs were rather short. His face was beardless, lemon-
+coloured, and anxious-looking. It was disfigured by a number of
+longitudinal ruts, a quarter of an inch deep, the cavities of which
+seemed clogged with ancient dirt. The hair of his head was black and
+sparse. Instead of the twin membranous organs of Spadevil, he possessed
+but one; and this was in the centre of his brow.
+
+Spadevil’s dark, solid person stood out from the rest like a reality
+among dreams.
+
+“Has the trifork passed to you?” he demanded.
+
+“Yes. Why have you brought this woman to Sant?”
+
+“I have brought another thing to Sant. I have brought the new faith.”
+
+Catice stood motionless, and looked troubled. “State it.”
+
+“Shall I speak with many words, or few words?”
+
+“If you wish to say what is not, many words will not suffice. If you
+wish to say what is, a few words will be enough.”
+
+Spadevil frowned.
+
+“To hate pleasure brings pride with it. Pride is a pleasure. To kill
+pleasure, we must attach ourselves to duty. While the mind is planning
+right action, it has no time to think of pleasure.”
+
+“Is that the whole?” asked Catice.
+
+“The truth is simple, even for the simplest man.”
+
+“Do you destroy Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?”
+
+“I destroy nature, and set up law.”
+
+A long silence followed.
+
+“My probe is double,” said Spadevil. “Suffer me to double yours, and you
+will see as I see.”
+
+“Come you here, you big man!” said Catice to Maskull. Maskull advanced a
+step closer.
+
+“Do you follow Spadevil in his new faith?”
+
+“As far as death,” exclaimed Maskull.
+
+Catice picked up a flint. “With this stone I strike out one of your two
+probes. When you have but one, you will see with me, and you will
+recollect with Spadevil. Choose you then the superior faith, and I shall
+obey your choice.”
+
+“Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the sake of future men,” said
+Spadevil.
+
+“The pain is nothing,” replied Maskull, “but I fear the result.”
+
+“Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,” said
+Tydomin, stretching out her hand.
+
+He struck at it violently with the flint, and gashed it from wrist to
+thumb; the pale carmine blood spouted up. “What brings this kiss-lover
+to Sant?” he said. “How does she presume to make the rules of life for
+the sons of Hator?”
+
+She bit her lip, and stepped back. “Well then, Maskull, accept! I
+certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you hardly can.”
+
+“If he bids me, I must do it,” said Maskull. “But who knows what will
+come of it?”
+
+Spadevil spoke. “Of all the descendants of Hator, Catice is the most
+wholehearted and sincere. He will trample my truth underfoot, thinking
+me a demon sent by Shaping, to destroy the work of this land. But a seed
+will escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will wash it. Then men
+will know that my destroying evil is their greatest good. But none here
+will live to see that.”
+
+Maskull now went quite close to Catice, and offered his head. Catice
+raised his hand, and after holding the flint poised for a moment,
+brought it down with adroitness and force upon the left-hand probe.
+Maskull cried out with the pain. The blood streamed down, and the
+function of the organ was destroyed.
+
+There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to staunch the
+blood.
+
+“What now do you feel, Maskull? What do you see?” inquired Tydomin
+anxiously.
+
+He stopped, and stared hard at her. “I now see straight,” he said
+slowly.
+
+“What does that mean?”
+
+He continued to wipe the blood from his forehead. He looked troubled.
+“Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall fight with my nature, and
+refuse to feel pleasure. And I advise you to do the same.”
+
+Spadevil gazed at him sternly. “Do you renounce my teaching?”
+
+Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay. Spadevil’s image-
+like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face he knew
+to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.
+
+“It is false.”
+
+“Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?” demanded Tydomin.
+
+“I can’t argue as yet,” said Maskull. “At this moment the world with its
+sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house. I feel a loathing for
+everything in it, including myself. I know no more.”
+
+“Is there no duty?” asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.
+
+“It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of other
+people.”
+
+Tydomin pulled at Spadevil’s arm. “Maskull has betrayed you, as he has
+so many others. Let us go.”
+
+He stood fast. “You have changed quickly, Maskull.”
+
+Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice. “Why do men go on
+living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?”
+
+“Pain is the native air of Surtur’s children. To what other air do you
+wish to escape?”
+
+“Surtur’s children? Is not Surtur Shaping?”
+
+“It is the greatest of lies. It is Shaping’s masterpiece.”
+
+“Answer, Maskull!” said Spadevil. “Do you repudiate right action?”
+
+“Leave me alone. Go back! I am not thinking of you, and your ideas. I
+wish you no harm.”
+
+The darkness came on fast. There was another prolonged silence.
+
+Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff. “The woman must
+return home,” he said.
+
+“She was persuaded here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil, must
+die—backslider as you are!”
+
+Tydomin said quietly, “He has no power to enforce this. Are you going to
+allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?”
+
+“It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from death.
+Catice, I accept your judgment.”
+
+Tydomin smiled. “For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today, so I
+shall die with him.”
+
+Catice said to Maskull, “Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his
+mistress, according to the laws of Hator.”
+
+“I can’t do that. I have travelled in friendship with them.”
+
+“You denied duty; and now you must do your duty,” said Spadevil, calmly
+stroking his beard. “Whatever law you accept, you must obey, without
+turning to right or left. Your law commands that we must be stoned; and
+it will soon be dark.”
+
+“Have you not even this amount of manhood?” exclaimed Tydomin.
+
+Maskull moved heavily. “Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was forced
+on me.”
+
+“Hator is looking on, and approving,” replied Catice.
+
+Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side of
+the pool. He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments of
+rock, the heaviest that he thought he could carry. With these in his
+arms, he staggered back.
+
+He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath. When he
+could speak again, he said, “I have a bad heart for the business. Is
+there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning
+go back to where you have come from. No one shall harm you.”
+
+Spadevil’s ironic smile was lost in the gloom.
+
+“Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after that
+come back to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose the
+heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin.”
+
+Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces.
+Spadevil confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
+
+The huge stone hurtled through the air. Its flight looked like a dark
+shadow. It struck Spadevil full in the face, crushing his features, and
+breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.
+
+Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.
+
+“Be very quick, Maskull, and don’t let me keep him waiting.”
+
+He panted, and raised the second stone. She placed herself in front of
+Spadevil’s body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.
+
+The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell. Maskull went
+to her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There
+she breathed out her last sighs.
+
+After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands,
+while he peered into the dead face. The transition from its heroic,
+spiritual expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman came
+like a flash; but he saw it.
+
+He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.
+
+“Is that the true likeness of Shaping?”
+
+“It is Shaping stripped of illusion.”
+
+“How comes this horrible world to exist?”
+
+Catice did not answer.
+
+“Who is Surtur?”
+
+“You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here.”
+
+“I am wading through too much blood,” said Maskull. “Nothing good can
+come of it.”
+
+“Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy.”
+
+Maskull meditated.
+
+“Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you really
+have accepted his faith?”
+
+“He was a great-souled man,” replied Catice. “I see that the pride of
+our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure. Tomorrow I too shall
+leave Sant, to reflect on all this.”
+
+Maskull shuddered. “Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but a
+crime!”
+
+“His part was played and henceforward the woman would have dragged down
+his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty. Regret nothing, stranger, but
+go away at once out of the land.”
+
+“Tonight? Where shall I go?”
+
+“To Wombflash, where you will meet the deepest minds. I will put you on
+the way.”
+
+He linked his arm in Maskull’s, and they walked away into the night. For
+a mile or more they skirted the edge of the precipice. The wind was
+searching, and drove grit into their faces. Through the rifts of the
+clouds, stars, faint and brilliant, appeared. Maskull saw no familiar
+constellations. He wondered if the sun of earth was visible, and if so
+which one it was.
+
+They came to the head of a rough staircase, leading down the cliffside.
+It resembled the one by which he had come up; but this descended to the
+Wombflash Forest.
+
+“That is your path,” said Catice, “and I shall not come any farther.”
+
+Maskull detained him. “Say just this, before we part company—why does
+pleasure appear so shameful to us?”
+
+“Because in feeling pleasure, we forget our home.”
+
+“And that is—”
+
+“Muspel,” answered Catice.
+
+Having made this reply, he disengaged himself, and, turning his back,
+disappeared into the darkness.
+
+Maskull stumbled down the staircase as best he could. He was tired, but
+contemptuous of his pains. His uninjured probe began to discharge
+matter. He lowered himself from step to step during what seemed an
+interminable time. The rustling and sighing of the trees grew louder as
+he approached the bottom; the air became still and warm. Inky blackness
+was all around him.
+
+*****
+
+He at last reached level ground. Still attempting to proceed, he began
+to trip over roots, and to collide with tree trunks. After this had
+happened a few times, he determined to go no farther that night. He
+heaped together some dry leaves for a pillow, and immediately flung
+himself down to sleep. Deep and heavy unconsciousness seized him almost
+instantly.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+
+He awoke to his third day on Tormance. His limbs ached. He lay on his
+side, looking stupidly at his surroundings. The forest was like night,
+but that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to break and
+objects begin to be guessed at, rather than seen. Two or three amazing
+shadowy shapes, as broad as houses, loomed up out of the twilight. He
+did not realise that they were trees, until he turned over on his back
+and followed their course upward. Far overhead, so high up that he dared
+not calculate the height, he saw their tops glittering in the sunlight,
+against a tiny patch of blue sky.
+
+Clouds of mist, rolling over the floor of the forest, kept interrupting
+his view. In their silent passage they were like phantoms flitting among
+the trees. The leaves underneath him were sodden, and heavy drops of
+moisture splashed onto his head from time to time.
+
+He continued lying there, trying to reconstruct the events of the
+preceding day. His brain was lethargic and confused. Something terrible
+had happened, but what it was he could not for a long time recollect.
+Then suddenly there came before his eyes that ghastly closing scene at
+dusk on the Sant plateau—Spadevil’s crushed and bloody features and
+Tydomin’s dying sighs.... He shuddered convulsively, and felt sick.
+
+The peculiar moral outlook that had dictated these brutal murders had
+departed from him during the night, and now he recognised what he had
+done! During the whole of the previous day he seemed to have been
+labouring under a series of heavy enchantments. First Oceaxe had
+enslaved him, then Tydomin, then Spadevil, and lastly Catice. They had
+forced him to murder and violate; he had guessed nothing, but had
+imagined that he was travelling as a free and enlightened stranger. What
+was this nightmare journey for—and would it continue, in the same
+way?...
+
+The silence of the forest was so intense that he heard no sound except
+the pumping of blood through his arteries.
+
+Putting his hand to his face, he found that his remaining probe had
+disappeared and that he was in possession of three eyes. The third eye
+was on his forehead, where the old sorb had been. He could not guess its
+use. He still had his third arm, but it was nerveless.
+
+Now he puzzled his head for a long time, trying unsuccessfully to recall
+that name which had been the last word spoken by Catice.
+
+He got up, with the intention of resuming his journey. He had no toilet
+to make, and no meal to prepare. The forest was tremendous. The nearest
+tree appeared to him to have a circumference of at least a hundred feet.
+Other dim boles looked equally large. But what gave the scene its aspect
+of immensity was the vast spaces separating tree from tree. It was like
+some gigantic, supernatural hall in a life after death. The lowest
+branches were fifty yards or more from the ground. There was no
+underbrush; the soil was carpeted only by the dead, wet leaves. He
+looked all around him, to find his direction, but the cliffs of Sant,
+which he had descended, were invisible—every way was like every other
+way, he had no idea which quarter to attack. He grew frightened, and
+muttered to himself. Craning his neck back, he stared upward and tried
+to discover the points of the compass from the direction of the
+sunlight, but it was impossible.
+
+While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the drum
+taps. The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off. The unseen
+drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away from him.
+
+“Surtur!” he said, under his breath. The next moment he marvelled at
+himself for uttering the name. That mysterious being had not been in his
+thoughts, nor was there any ostensible connection between him and the
+drumming.
+
+He began to reflect—but in the meantime the sounds were travelling away.
+Automatically he started walking in the same direction. The drum beats
+had this peculiarity—though odd and mystical, there was nothing awe-
+inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him of some place
+and some life with which he was perfectly familiar. Once again they
+caused all his other sense impressions to appear false.
+
+The sounds were intermittent. They would go on for a minute, or for five
+minutes, and then cease for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Maskull
+followed them as well as he could. He walked hard among the huge,
+indistinct trees, in the attempt to come up with the origin of the
+noise, but the same distance always seemed to separate them. The forest
+from now onward descended. The gradient was mostly gentle—about one foot
+in ten—but in some places it was much steeper, and in other parts again
+it was practically level ground for quite long stretches. There were
+great swampy marshes, through which Maskull was obliged to splash. It
+was a matter of indifference to him how wet he became—if only he could
+catch sight of that individual with the drum. Mile after mile was
+covered, and still he was no nearer to doing so.
+
+The gloom of the forest settled down upon his spirits. He felt
+despondent, tired, and savage. He had not heard the drum beats for some
+while, and was half inclined to discontinue the pursuit.
+
+Passing around a great, columnar tree trunk, he almost stumbled against
+a man who was standing on the farther side. He was leaning against the
+trunk with one hand, in an attitude of repose. His other hand was
+resting on a staff. Maskull stopped short and stared at him.
+
+He was nearly naked, and of gigantic build. He over-topped Maskull by a
+head. His face and body were faintly phosphorescent. His eyes—three in
+number—were pale green and luminous, shining like lamps. His skin was
+hairless, but the hair of his head was piled up in thick, black coils,
+and fastened like a woman’s. His features were absolutely tranquil, but
+a terrible, quiet energy seemed to lie just underneath the surface.
+
+Maskull addressed him. “Did the drumming come from you?”
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+“What is your name?”
+
+He replied in a strange, strained, twisted voice. Maskull gathered that
+the name he gave was “Dreamsinter.”
+
+“What is that drumming?”
+
+“Surtur,” said Dreamsinter.
+
+“Is it advisable for me to follow it?”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Perhaps he intends me to. He brought me here from Earth.”
+
+Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face.
+“Not you, but Nightspore.”
+
+This was the first time that Maskull had heard Nightspore’s name since
+his arrival on the planet. He was so astonished that he could frame no
+more questions.
+
+“Eat this,” said Dreamsinter. “Then we will chase the sound together.”
+He picked something up from the ground and handed it to Maskull. He
+could not see distinctly, but it felt like a hard, round nut, of the
+size of a fist.
+
+“I can’t crack it.”
+
+Dreamsinter took it between his hands, and broke it into pieces. Maskull
+then ate some of the pulpy interior, which was intensely disagreeable.
+
+“What am I doing in Tormance, then?” he asked.
+
+“You came to steal Muspel-fire, to give a deeper life to men—never
+doubting if your soul could endure that burning.”
+
+Maskull could hardly decipher the strangled words.
+
+“Muspel.... That’s the name I’ve been trying to remember ever since I
+awoke.”
+
+Dreamsinter suddenly turned his head sideways, and appeared to listen
+for something. He motioned with his hand to Maskull to keep quiet.
+
+“Is it the drumming?”
+
+“Hush! They come.”
+
+He was looking toward the upper forest. The now familiar drum rhythm was
+heard—this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
+
+Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them, three
+men in single file separated from one another by only a yard or so. They
+were travelling down hill at a swift pace, and looked neither to left
+nor right. They were naked. Their figures were shining against the black
+background of the forest with a pale, supernatural light—green and
+ghostly. When they were abreast of him, about twenty feet off, he
+perceived who they were. The first man was himself—Maskull. The second
+was Krag. The third man was Nightspore. Their faces were grim and set.
+
+The source of the drumming was out of sight. The sound appeared to come
+from some point in front of them. Maskull and Dreamsinter put themselves
+in motion, to keep up with the swiftly moving marchers. At the same time
+a low, faint music began.
+
+Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats, but, unlike the latter, it did
+not seem to proceed from any particular quarter of the forest. It
+resembled the subjective music heard in dreams, which accompanies the
+dreamer everywhere, as a sort of natural atmosphere, rendering all his
+experiences emotional. It seemed to issue from an unearthly orchestra,
+and was strongly troubled, pathetic and tragic. Maskull marched, and
+listened; and as he listened, it grew louder and stormier. But the pulse
+of the drum interpenetrated all the other sounds, like the quiet beating
+of reality.
+
+His emotion deepened. He could not have said if minutes or hours were
+passing. The spectral procession marched on, a little way ahead, on a
+path parallel with his own and Dreamsinter’s. The music pulsated
+violently. Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long, murderous-looking
+knife. He sprang forward and, raising it over the phantom Maskull’s
+back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the wound the second time.
+Maskull threw up his arms, and fell down dead. Krag leaped into the
+forest and vanished from sight. Nightspore marched on alone, stern and
+unmoved.
+
+The music rose to crescendo. The whole dim, gigantic forest was roaring
+with sound. The tones came from all sides, from above, from the ground
+under their feet. It was so grandly passionate that Maskull felt his
+soul loosening from its bodily envelope.
+
+He continued to follow Nightspore. A strange brightness began to glow in
+front of them. It was not daylight, but a radiance such as he had never
+seen before, and such as he could not have imagined to be possible.
+Nightspore moved straight toward it. Maskull felt his chest bursting.
+The light flashed higher. The awful harmonies of the music followed hard
+one upon another, like the waves of a wild, magic ocean.... His body was
+incapable of enduring such shocks, and all of a sudden he tumbled over
+in a faint that resembled death.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14. POLECRAB
+
+The morning slowly passed. Maskull made some convulsive movements, and
+opened his eyes. He sat up, blinking. All was night-like and silent in
+the forest. The strange light had gone, the music had ceased,
+Dreamsinter had vanished. He fingered his beard, clotted with Tydomin’s
+blood, and fell into a deep muse.
+
+“According to Panawe and Catice, this forest contains wise men. Perhaps
+Dreamsinter was one. Perhaps that vision I have just seen was a specimen
+of his wisdom. It looked almost like an answer to my question.... I
+ought not to have asked about myself, but about Surtur. Then I would
+have got a different answer. I might have learned something... I might
+have seen him.”
+
+He remained quiet and apathetic for a bit.
+
+“But I couldn’t face that awful glare,” he proceeded. “It was bursting
+my body. He warned me, too. And so Surtur does really exist, and my
+journey stands for something. But why am I here, and what can I do? Who
+is Surtur? Where is he to be found?”
+
+Something wild came into his eyes.
+
+“What did Dreamsinter mean by his ‘Not you, but Nightspore’? Am I a
+secondary character—is he regarded as important; and I as unimportant?
+Where is Nightspore, and what is he doing? Am I to wait for his time and
+pleasure—can I originate nothing?”
+
+He continued sitting up, with straight-extended legs.
+
+“I must make up my mind that this is a strange journey, and that the
+strangest things will happen in it. It’s no use making plans, for I
+can’t see two steps ahead—everything is unknown. But one thing’s
+evident: nothing but the wildest audacity will carry me through, and I
+must sacrifice everything else to that. And therefore if Surtur shows
+himself again, I shall go forward to meet him, even if it means death.”
+
+Through the black, quiet aisles of the forest the drum beats came again.
+The sound was a long way off and very faint. It was like the last
+mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm. Maskull listened, without
+getting up. The drumming faded into silence, and did not return.
+
+He smiled queerly, and said aloud, “Thanks, Surtur! I accept the omen.”
+
+When he was about to get up, he found that the shrivelled skin that had
+been his third arm was flapping disconcertingly with every movement of
+his body. He made perforations in it all around, as close to his chest
+as possible, with the fingernails of both hands; then he carefully
+twisted it off. In that world of rapid growth and ungrowth he judged
+that the stump would soon disappear. After that, he rose and peered into
+the darkness.
+
+The forest at that point sloped rather steeply and, without thinking
+twice about it, he took the downhill direction, never doubting it would
+bring him somewhere. As soon as he started walking, his temper became
+gloomy and morose—he was shaken, tired, dirty, and languid with hunger;
+moreover, he realised that the walk was not going to be a short one. Be
+that as it may, he determined to sit down no more until the whole dismal
+forest was at his back.
+
+One after another the shadowy, houselike trees were observed, avoided,
+and passed. Far overhead the little patch of glowing sky was still
+always visible; otherwise he had no clue to the time of day. He
+continued tramping sullenly down the slope for many damp, slippery
+miles—in some places through bogs. When, presently, the twilight seemed
+to thin, he guessed that the open world was not far away. The forest
+grew more palpable and grey, and now he saw its majesty better. The tree
+trunks were like round towers, and so wide were the intervals that they
+resembled natural amphitheatres. He could not make out the colour of the
+bark. Everything he saw amazed him, but his admiration was of the
+growling, grudging kind. The difference in light between the forest
+behind him and the forest ahead became so marked that he could no longer
+doubt that he was on the point of coming out.
+
+Real light was in front of him; looking back, he found he had a shadow.
+The trunks acquired a reddish tint. He quickened his pace. As the
+minutes went by, the bright patch ahead grew luminous and vivid; it had
+a tinge of blue. He also imagined that he heard the sound of surf.
+
+All that part of the forest toward which he was moving became rich with
+colour. The boles of the trees were of a deep, dark red; their leaves,
+high above his head, were ulfire-hued; the dead leaves on the ground
+were of a colour he could not name. At the same time he discovered the
+use of his third eye. By adding a third angle to his sight, every object
+he looked at stood out in greater relief. The world looked less
+flat—more realistic and significant. He had a stronger attraction toward
+his surroundings; he seemed somehow to lose his egotism, and to become
+free and thoughtful.
+
+Now through the last trees he saw full daylight. Less than half a mile
+separated him from the border of the forest, and, eager to discover what
+lay beyond, he broke into a run. He heard the surf louder. It was a
+peculiar hissing sound that could proceed only from water, yet was
+unlike the sea. Almost immediately he came within sight of an enormous
+horizon of dancing waves, which he knew must be the Sinking Sea. He fell
+back into a quick walk, continuing to stare hard. The wind that met him
+was hot, fresh and sweet.
+
+When he arrived at the final fringe of forest, which joined the wide
+sands of the shore without any change of level, he leaned with his back
+to a great tree and gazed his fill, motionless, at what lay in front of
+him. The sands continued east and west in a straight line, broken only
+here and there by a few creeks. They were of a brilliant orange colour,
+but there were patches of violet. The forest appeared to stand sentinel
+over the shore for its entire length. Everything else was sea and sky—he
+had never seen so much water. The semicircle of the skyline was so vast
+that he might have imagined himself on a flat world, with a range of
+vision determined only by the power of his eye. The sea was unlike any
+sea on Earth. It resembled an immense liquid opal. On a body colour of
+rich, magnificent emerald-green, flashes of red, yellow, and blue were
+everywhere shooting up and vanishing. The wave motion was extraordinary.
+Pinnacles of water were slowly formed until they attained a height of
+perhaps ten or twenty feet, when they would suddenly sink downward and
+outward, creating in their descent a series of concentric rings for long
+distances around them. Quickly moving currents, like rivers in the sea,
+could be seen, racing away from land; they were of a darker green and
+bore no pinnacles. Where the sea met the shore, the waves rushed over
+the sands far in, with almost sinister rapidity—accompanied by a weird,
+hissing, spitting sound, which was what Maskull had heard. The green
+tongues rolled in without foam.
+
+About twenty miles distant, as he judged, directly opposite him, a long,
+low island stood up from the sea, black and not distinguished in
+outline. It was Swaylone’s Island. Maskull was less interested in that
+than in the blue sunset that glowed behind its back. Alppain had set,
+but the whole northern sky was plunged into the minor key by its
+afterlight. Branchspell in the zenith was white and overpowering, the
+day was cloudless and terrifically hot; but where the blue sun had sunk,
+a sombre shadow seemed to overhang the world. Maskull had a feeling of
+disintegration—just as if two chemically distinct forces were
+simultaneously acting upon the cells of his body. Since the afterglow of
+Alppain affected him like this, he thought it more than likely that he
+would never be able to face that sun itself, and go on living. Still,
+some modification might happen to him that would make it possible.
+
+The sea tempted him. He made up his mind to bathe, and at once walked
+toward the shore. The instant he stepped outside the shadow line of the
+forest trees, the blinding rays of the sun beat down on him so savagely
+that for a few minutes he felt sick and his head swam. He trod quickly
+across the sands. The orange-coloured parts were nearly hot enough to
+roast food, he judged, but the violet parts were like fire itself. He
+stepped on a patch in ignorance, and immediately jumped high into the
+air with a startled yell.
+
+The sea was voluptuously warm. It would not bear his weight, so he
+determined to try swimming. First of all he stripped off his skin
+garment, washed it thoroughly with sand and water, and laid it in the
+sun to dry. Then he scrubbed himself as well as he could and washed out
+his beard and hair. After that, he waded in a long way, until the water
+reached his breast, and took to swimming—avoiding the spouts as far as
+possible He found it no pastime. The water was everywhere of unequal
+density. In some places he could swim, in others he could barely save
+himself from drowning, in others again he could not force himself
+beneath the surface at all. There were no outward signs to show what the
+water ahead held in store for him. The whole business was most
+dangerous.
+
+He came out, feeling clean and invigorated. For a time he walked up and
+down the sands, drying himself in the hot sunshine and looking around
+him. He was a naked stranger in a huge, foreign, mystical world, and
+whichever way he turned, unknown and threatening forces were glaring at
+him. The gigantic, white, withering Branchspell, the awful, body-
+changing Alppain, the beautiful, deadly, treacherous sea, the dark and
+eerie Swaylone’s Island, the spirit-crushing forest out of which he had
+just escaped—to all these mighty powers, surrounding him on every side,
+what resources had he, a feeble, ignorant traveller from a tiny planet
+on the other side of space, to oppose, to avoid being utterly
+destroyed?... Then he smiled to himself. “I’ve already been here two
+days, and still I survive. I have luck—and with that one can balance the
+universe. But what is luck—a verbal expression, or a thing?”
+
+As he was putting on his skin, which was now dry, the answer came to
+him, and this time he was grave. “Surtur brought me here, and Surtur is
+watching over me. That is my ‘luck.’... But what is Surtur in this
+world?... How is he able to protect me against the blind and
+ungovernable forces of nature? Is he stronger than Nature?...”
+
+Hungry as he was for food, he was hungrier still for human society, for
+he wished to inquire about all these things. He asked himself which way
+he should turn his steps. There were only two ways; along the shore,
+either east or west. The nearest creek lay to the east, cutting the
+sands about a mile away. He walked toward it.
+
+The forest face was forbidding and enormously high. It was so squarely
+turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been planed by tools.
+Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but kept his head
+constantly turned away from them, toward the sea—there it was more
+cheerful. The creek, when he reached it, proved to be broad and flat-
+banked. It was not a river, but an arm of the sea. Its still, dark green
+water curved around a bend out of sight, into the forest. The trees on
+both banks overhung the water, so that it was completely in shadow.
+
+He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach appeared. A
+man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet in the water.
+He was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his limbs bare. He
+was short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a long, powerful arms,
+terminating in hands of an extraordinary size. He was oldish. His face
+was plain, slablike, and expressionless; it was full of wrinkles, and
+walnut-coloured. Both face and head were bald, and his skin was tough
+and leathery. He seemed to be some sort of peasant, or fisherman; there
+was no trace in his face of thought for others, or delicacy of feeling.
+He possessed three eyes, of different colors—jade-green, blue, and
+ulfire.
+
+In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
+elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
+together.
+
+Maskull addressed him. “Are you another of the wise men of the Wombflash
+Forest?”
+
+The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did so.
+“I’m a fisherman. I know nothing about wisdom.”
+
+“What name do you go by?”
+
+“Polecrab. What’s yours?”
+
+“Maskull. If you’re a fisherman, you ought to have fish. I’m famishing.”
+
+Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.
+
+“There’s fish enough. My dinner is cooking in the sands now. It’s easy
+enough to get you some more.”
+
+Maskull found this a pleasant speech.
+
+“But how long will it take?” he asked.
+
+The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
+screeching noise. He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered onto
+the bank. In a minute or two a curious little beast came crawling up to
+his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately, like a dog. It
+was about two feet long, and somewhat resembled a small seal, but had
+six legs, ending in strong claws.
+
+“Arg, go fish!” said Polecrab hoarsely.
+
+The animal immediately tumbled off the bank into the water. It swam
+gracefully to the middle of the creek and made a pivotal dive beneath
+the surface, where it remained a great while.
+
+“Simple fishing,” remarked Maskull. “But what’s the raft for?”
+
+“To go to sea with. The best fish are out at sea. These are eatable.”
+
+“That arg seems a highly intelligent creature.”
+
+Polecrab grunted again. “I’ve trained close on a hundred of them. The
+bigheads learn best, but they’re slow swimmers. The narrowheads swim
+like eels, but can’t be taught. Now I’ve started interbreeding them—he’s
+one of them.”
+
+“Do you live here alone?”
+
+“No, I’ve got a wife and three boys. My wife’s sleeping somewhere, but
+where the lads are, Shaping knows.”
+
+Maskull began to feel very much at home with this unsophisticated being.
+
+“The raft’s all crazy,” he remarked, staring at it. “If you go far out
+in that, you’ve got more pluck than I have.”
+
+“I’ve been to Matterplay on it,” said Polecrab.
+
+The arg reappeared and started swimming to shore, but this time
+clumsily, as if it were bearing a heavy weight under the surface. When
+it landed at its master’s feet, they saw that each set of claws was
+clutching a fish—six in all. Polecrab took them from it. He proceeded to
+cut off the heads and tails with a sharp-edged stone which he picked up;
+these he threw to the arg, which devoured them without any fuss.
+
+Polecrab beckoned to Maskull to follow him and, carrying the fish,
+walked toward the open shore, by the same way that he had come. When
+they reached the sands, he sliced the fish, removed the entrails, and
+digging a shallow hole in a patch of violet sand, placed the remainder
+of the carcasses in it, and covered them over again. Then he dug up his
+own dinner. Maskull’s nostrils quivered at the savoury smell, but he was
+not yet to dine.
+
+Polecrab, turning to go with the cooked fish in his hands, said, “These
+are mine, not yours. When yours are done, you can come back and join me,
+supposing you want company.”
+
+“How soon will that be?”
+
+“About twenty minutes,” replied the fisherman, over his shoulder.
+
+Maskull sheltered himself in the shadows of the forest, and waited. When
+the time had approximately elapsed, he disinterred his meal, scorching
+his fingers in the operation, although it was only the surface of the
+sand which was so intensely hot. Then he returned to Polecrab.
+
+In the warm, still air and cheerful shade of the inlet, they munched in
+silence, looking from their food to the sluggish water, and back again.
+With every mouthful Maskull felt his strength returning. He finished
+before Polecrab, who ate like a man for whom time has no value. When he
+had done, he stood up.
+
+“Come and drink,” he said, in his husky voice.
+
+Maskull looked at him inquiringly.
+
+The man led him a little way into the forest, and walked straight up to
+a certain tree. At a convenient height in its trunk a hole had been
+tapped and plugged. Polecrab removed the plug and put his mouth to the
+aperture, sucking for quite a long time, like a child at its mother’s
+breast. Maskull, watching him, imagined that he saw his eyes growing
+brighter.
+
+When his own turn came to drink, he found the juice of the tree somewhat
+like coconut milk in flavour, but intoxicating. It was a new sort of
+intoxication, however, for neither his will not his emotions were
+excited, but only his intellect—and that only in a certain way. His
+thoughts and images were not freed and loosened, but on the contrary
+kept labouring and swelling painfully, until they reached the full
+beauty of an aperçu, which would then flame up in his consciousness,
+burst, and vanish. After that, the whole process started over again. But
+there was never a moment when he was not perfectly cool, and master of
+his senses. When each had drunk twice, Polecrab replugged the hole, and
+they returned to their bank.
+
+“Is it Blodsombre yet?” asked Maskull, sprawling on the ground, well
+content.
+
+Polecrab resumed his old upright sitting posture, with his feet in the
+water. “Just beginning,” was his hoarse response.
+
+“Then I must stay here till it’s over.... Shall we talk?”
+
+“We can,” said the other, without enthusiasm.
+
+Maskull glanced at him through half-closed lids, wondering if he were
+exactly what he seemed to be. In his eyes he thought he detected a wise
+light.
+
+“Have you travelled much, Polecrab?”
+
+“Not what you would call travelling.”
+
+“You tell me you’ve been to Matterplay—what kind of country is that?”
+
+“I don’t know. I went there to pick up flints.”
+
+“What countries lie beyond it?”
+
+“Threal comes next, as you go north. They say it’s a land of mystics...
+I don’t know.”
+
+“Mystics?”
+
+“So I’m told.... Still farther north there’s Lichstorm.”
+
+“Now we’re going far afield.”
+
+“There are mountains there—and altogether it must be a very dangerous
+place, especially for a full-blooded man like you. Take care of
+yourself.”
+
+“This is rather premature, Polecrab. How do you know I’m going there?”
+
+“As you’ve come from the south, I suppose you’ll go north.”
+
+“Well, that’s right enough,” said Maskull, staring hard at him. “But how
+do you know I’ve come from the south?”
+
+“Well, then, perhaps you haven’t—but there’s a look of Ifdawn about
+you.”
+
+“What kind of look?”
+
+“A tragical look,” said Polecrab. He never even glanced at Maskull, but
+was gazing at a fixed spot on the water with unblinking eyes.
+
+“What lies beyond Lichstorm?” asked Maskull, after a minute or two.
+
+“Barey, where you have two suns instead of one—but beyond that fact I
+know nothing about it.... Then comes the ocean.”
+
+“And what’s on the other side of the ocean?”
+
+“That you must find out for yourself, for I doubt if anybody has ever
+crossed it and come back.”
+
+Maskull was silent for a little while.
+
+“How is it that your people are so unadventurous? I seem to be the only
+one travelling from curiosity.”
+
+“What do you mean by ‘your people’?”
+
+“True—you don’t know that I don’t belong to your planet at all. I’ve
+come from another world, Polecrab.”
+
+“What to find?”
+
+“I came here with Krag and Nightspore—to follow Surtur. I must have
+fainted the moment I arrived. When I sat up, it was night and the others
+had vanished. Since then I’ve been travelling at random.”
+
+Polecrab scratched his nose. “You haven’t found Surtur yet?”
+
+“I’ve heard his drum taps frequently. In the forest this morning I came
+quite close to him. Then two days ago, in the Lusion Plain, I saw a
+vision—a being in man’s shape, who called himself Surtur.”
+
+“Well, maybe it was Surtur.”
+
+“No, that’s impossible,” replied Maskull reflectively. “It was
+Crystalman. And it isn’t a question of my suspecting it—I know it.”
+
+“How?”
+
+“Because this is Crystalman’s world, and Surtur’s world is something
+quite different.”
+
+“That’s queer, then,” said Polecrab.
+
+“Since I’ve come out of that forest,” proceeded Maskull, talking half to
+himself, “a change has come over me, and I see things differently.
+Everything here looks much more solid and real in my eyes than in other
+places so much so that I can’t entertain the least doubt of its
+existence. It not only looks real, it is real—and on that I would stake
+my life.... But at the same time that it’s real, it is false.”
+
+“Like a dream?”
+
+“No—not at all like a dream, and that’s just what I want to explain.
+This world of yours—and perhaps of mine too, for that matter—doesn’t
+give me the slightest impression of a dream, or an illusion, or anything
+of that sort. I know it’s really here at this moment, and it’s exactly
+as we’re seeing it, you and I. Yet it’s false. It’s false in this sense,
+Polecrab. Side by side with it another world exists, and that other
+world is the true one, and this one is all false and deceitful, to the
+very core. And so it occurs to me that reality and falseness are two
+words for the same thing.”
+
+“Perhaps there is such another world,” said Polecrab huskily. “But did
+that vision also seem real and false to you?”
+
+“Very real, but not false then, for then I didn’t understand all this.
+But just because it was real, it couldn’t have been Surtur, who has no
+connection with reality.”
+
+“Didn’t those drum taps sound real to you?”
+
+“I had to hear them with my ears, and so they sounded real to me. Still,
+they were somehow different, and they certainly came from Surtur. If I
+didn’t hear them correctly, that was my fault and not his.”
+
+Polecrab growled a little. “If Surtur chooses to speak to you in that
+fashion, it appears he’s trying to say something.”
+
+“What else can I think? But, Polecrab, what’s your opinion—is he calling
+me to the life after death?”
+
+The old man stirred uneasily. “I’m a fisherman,” he said, after a minute
+or two. “I live by killing, and so does everybody. This life seems to me
+all wrong. So maybe life of any kind is wrong, and Surtur’s world is not
+life at all, but something else.”
+
+“Yes, but will death lead me to it, whatever it is?”
+
+“Ask the dead,” said Polecrab, “and not a living man.”
+
+Maskull continued. “In the forest I heard music and saw a light, which
+could not have belonged to this world. They were too strong for my
+senses, and I must have fainted for a long time. There was a vision as
+well, in which I saw myself killed, while Nightspore walked on toward
+the light, alone.”
+
+Polecrab uttered his grunt. “You have enough to think over.”
+
+A short silence ensued, which was broken by Maskull.
+
+“So strong is my sense of the untruth of this present life, that it may
+come to my putting an end to myself.” The fisherman remained quiet and
+immobile.
+
+Maskull lay on his stomach, propped his face on his hands, and stared at
+him. “What do you think, Polecrab? Is it possible for any man, while in
+the body, to gain a closer view of that other world than I have done?”
+
+“I am an ignorant man, stranger, so I can’t say. Perhaps there are many
+others like you who would gladly know.”
+
+“Where? I should like to meet them.”
+
+“Do you think you were made of one stuff, and the rest of mankind of
+another stuff?”
+
+“I can’t be so presumptuous. Possibly all men are reaching out toward
+Muspel, in most cases without being aware of it.”
+
+“In the wrong direction,” said Polecrab.
+
+Maskull gave him a strange look. “How so?”
+
+“I don’t speak from my own wisdom,” said Polecrab, “for I have none; but
+I have just now recalled what Broodviol once told me, when I was a young
+man, and he was an old one. He said that Crystalman tries to turn all
+things into one, and that whichever way his shapes march, in order to
+escape from him, they find themselves again face to face with
+Crystalman, and are changed into new crystals. But that this marching of
+shapes (which we call ‘forking’) springs from the unconscious desire to
+find Surtur, but is in the opposite direction to the right one. For
+Surtur’s world does not lie on this side of the one, which was the
+beginning of life, but on the other side; and to get to it we must
+repass through the one. But this can only be by renouncing our self-
+life, and reuniting ourselves to the whole of Crystalman’s world. And
+when this has been done, it is only the first stage of the journey;
+though many good men imagine it to be the whole journey.... As far as I
+can remember, that is what Broodviol said, but perhaps, as I was then a
+young and ignorant man, I may have left out words which would explain
+his meaning better.”
+
+Maskull, who had listened attentively to all this, remained thoughtful
+at the end.
+
+“It’s plain enough,” he said. “But what did he mean by our reuniting
+ourselves to Crystalman’s world? If it is false, are we to make
+ourselves false as well?”
+
+“I didn’t ask him that question, and you are as well qualified to answer
+it as I am.”
+
+“He must have meant that, as it is, we are each of us living in a false,
+private world of our own, a world of dreams and appetites and distorted
+perceptions. By embracing the great world we certainly lose nothing in
+truth and reality.”
+
+Polecrab withdrew his feet from the water, stood up, yawned, and
+stretched his limbs.
+
+“I have told you all I know,” he said in a surly voice. “Now let me go
+to sleep.”
+
+Maskull kept his eyes fixed on him, but made no reply. The old man let
+himself down stiffly on to the ground, and prepared to rest.
+
+While he was still arranging his position to his liking, a footfall
+sounded behind the two men, coming from the direction of the forest.
+Maskull twisted his neck, and saw a woman approaching them. He at once
+guessed that it was Polecrab’s wife. He sat up, but the fisherman did
+not stir. The woman came and stood in front of them, looking down from
+what appeared a great height.
+
+Her dress was similar to her husband’s, but covered her limbs more. She
+was young, tall, slender, and strikingly erect. Her skin was lightly
+tanned, and she looked strong, but not at all peasantlike. Refinement
+was stamped all over her. Her face had too much energy of expression for
+a woman, and she was not beautiful. Her three great eyes kept flashing
+and glowing. She had great masses of fine, yellow hair, coiled up and
+fastened, but so carelessly that some of the strands were flowing down
+her back.
+
+When she spoke, it was in a rather weak voice, but full of lights and
+shades, and somehow intense passionateness never seemed to be far away
+from it.
+
+“Forgiveness is asked for listening to your conversation,” she said,
+addressing Maskull. “I was resting behind the tree, and heard it all.”
+
+He got up slowly. “Are you Polecrab’s wife?”
+
+“She is my wife,” said Polecrab, “and her name is Gleameil. Sit down
+again, stranger—and you too, wife, since you are here.”
+
+They both obeyed. “I heard everything,” repeated Gleameil. “But what I
+did not hear was where you are going to, Maskull, after you have left
+us.”
+
+“I know no more than you do.”
+
+“Listen, then. There’s only one place for you to go to, and that is
+Swaylone’s Island. I will ferry you across myself before sunset.”
+
+“What shall I find there?”
+
+“He may go, wife,” put in the old man hoarsely, “but I won’t allow you
+to go. I will take him over myself.”
+
+“No, you have always put me off,” said Gleameil, with some emotion.
+“This time I mean to go. When Teargeld shines at night, and I sit on the
+shore here, listening to Earthrid’s music travelling faintly across the
+sea, I am tortured—I can’t endure it.... I have long since made up my
+mind to go to the island, and see what this music is. If it’s bad, if it
+kills me—well.”
+
+“What have I to do with the man and his music, Gleameil?” demanded
+Maskull.
+
+“I think the music will answer all your questions better than Polecrab
+has done—and possibly in a way that will surprise you.”
+
+“What kind of music can it be to travel all those miles across the sea?”
+
+“A peculiar kind, so we are told. Not pleasant, but painful. And the man
+that can play the instrument of Earthrid would be able to conjure up the
+most astonishing forms, which are not phantasms, but realities.”
+
+“That may be so,” growled Polecrab. “But I have been to the island by
+daylight, and what did I find there? Human bones, new and ancient. Those
+are Earthrid’s victims. And you, wife, shall not go.”
+
+“But will that music play tonight?” asked Maskull.
+
+“Yes,” replied Gleameil, gazing at him intently. “When Teargeld rises,
+which is our moon.”
+
+“If Earthrid plays men to death, it appears to me that his own death is
+due. In any case I should like to hear those sounds for myself. But as
+for taking you with me, Gleameil—women die too easily in Tormance. I
+have only just now washed myself clean of the death blood of another
+woman.”
+
+Gleameil laughed, but said nothing.
+
+“Now go to sleep,” said Polecrab. “When the time comes, I will take you
+across myself.”
+
+He lay down again, and closed his eyes. Maskull followed his example;
+but Gleameil remained sitting erect, with her legs under her.
+
+“Who was that other woman, Maskull?” she asked presently.
+
+He did not answer, but pretended to sleep.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15. SWAYLONE’S ISLAND
+
+When he awoke, the day was not so bright, and he guessed it was late
+afternoon. Polecrab and his wife were both on their feet, and another
+meal of fish had been cooked and was waiting for him.
+
+“Is it decided who is to go with me?” he asked, before sitting down.
+
+“I go,” said Gleameil.
+
+“Do you agree, Polecrab?”
+
+The fisherman growled a little in his throat and motioned to the others
+to take their seats. He took a mouthful before answering.
+
+“Something strong is attracting her, and I can’t hold her back. I don’t
+think I shall see you again, wife, but the lads are now nearly old
+enough to fend for themselves.”
+
+“Don’t take dejected views,” replied Gleameil sternly. She was not
+eating. “I shall come back, and make amends to you. It’s only for a
+night.”
+
+Maskull gazed from one to the other in perplexity. “Let me go alone. I
+would be sorry if anything happened.”
+
+Gleameil shook her head.
+
+“Don’t regard this as a woman’s caprice,” she said. “Even if you hadn’t
+passed this way, I would have heard that music soon. I have a hunger for
+it.”
+
+“Haven’t you any such feeling, Polecrab?”
+
+“No. A woman is a noble and sensitive creature, and there are
+attractions in nature too subtle for males. Take her with you, since she
+is set on it. Maybe she’s right. Perhaps Earthrid’s music will answer
+your questions, and hers too.”
+
+“What are your questions, Gleameil?”
+
+The woman shed a strange smile. “You may be sure that a question which
+requires music for an answer can’t be put into words.”
+
+“If you are not back by the morning,” remarked her husband, “I will know
+you are dead.”
+
+The meal was finished in a constrained silence. Polecrab wiped his
+mouth, and produced a seashell from a kind of pocket.
+
+“Will you say goodbye to the boys? Shall I call them?” She considered a
+moment.
+
+“Yes—yes, I must see them.”
+
+He put the shell to his mouth, and blew; a loud, mournful noise passed
+through the air.
+
+A few minutes later there was a sound of scurrying footsteps, and the
+boys were seen emerging from the forest. Maskull looked with curiosity
+at the first children he had seen on Tormance. The oldest boy was
+carrying the youngest on his back, while the third trotted some distance
+behind. The child was let down, and all the three formed a semicircle in
+front of Maskull, standing staring up at him with wide-open eyes.
+Polecrab looked on stolidly, but Gleameil glanced away from them, with
+proudly raised head and a baffling expression.
+
+Maskull put the ages of the boys at about nine, seven, and five years,
+respectively; but he was calculating according to Earth time. The eldest
+was tall, slim, but strongly built. He, like his brothers, was naked,
+and his skin from top to toe was ulfire-colored. His facial muscles
+indicated a wild and daring nature, and his eyes were like green fires.
+The second showed promise of being a broad, powerful man. His head was
+large and heavy, and drooped. His face and skin were reddish. His eyes
+were almost too sombre and penetrating for a child’s.
+
+“That one,” said Polecrab, pinching the boy’s ear, “may perhaps grow up
+to be a second Broodviol.”
+
+“Who was that?” demanded the boy, bending his head forward to hear the
+answer.
+
+“A big, old man, of marvellous wisdom. He became wise by making up his
+mind never to ask questions, but to find things out for himself.”
+
+“If I had not asked this question, I should not have known about him.”
+
+“That would not have mattered,” replied the father.
+
+The youngest child was paler and slighter than his brothers. His face
+was mostly tranquil and expressionless, but it had this peculiarity
+about it, that every few minutes, without any apparent cause, it would
+wrinkle up and look perplexed. At these times his eyes, which were of a
+tawny gold, seemed to contain secrets difficult to associate with one of
+his age.
+
+“He puzzles me,” said Polecrab. “He has a soul like sap, and he’s
+interested in nothing. He may turn out to be the most remarkable of the
+bunch.”
+
+Maskull took the child in one hand, and lifted him as high as his head.
+He took a good look at him, and set him down again. The boy never
+changed countenance.
+
+“What do you make of him?” asked the fisherman.
+
+“It’s on the tip of my tongue to say, but it just escapes me. Let me
+drink again, and then I shall have it.”
+
+“Go and drink, then.”
+
+Maskull strode over to the tree, drank, and returned. “In ages to come,”
+he said, speaking deliberately, “he will be a grand and awful tradition.
+A seer possibly, or even a divinity. Watch over him well.”
+
+The eldest boy looked scornful. “I want to be none of those things. I
+would like to be like that big fellow.” And he pointed his finger at
+Maskull.
+
+He laughed, and showed his white teeth through his beard. “Thanks for
+the compliments old warrior!” he said.
+
+“He’s great and brawny,” continued the boy, “and can hold his own with
+other men. Can you hold me up with one arm, as you did that child?”
+
+Maskull complied.
+
+“That is being a man!” exclaimed the boy. “Enough!” said Polecrab
+impatiently. “I called you lads here to say goodbye to your mother. She
+is going away with this man. I think she may not return, but we don’t
+know.”
+
+The second boy’s face became suddenly inflamed. “Is she going of her own
+choice?” he inquired.
+
+“Yes,” replied the father.
+
+“Then she is bad.” He brought the words out with such force and emphasis
+that they sounded like the crack of a whip.
+
+The old man cuffed him twice. “Is it your mother you are speaking of?”
+
+The boy stood his ground, without change of expression, but said
+nothing.
+
+The youngest child spoke, for the first time. “My mother will not come
+back, but she will die dancing.”
+
+Polecrab and his wife looked at one another.
+
+“Where are you going to, Mother?” asked the eldest lad.
+
+Gleameil bent down, and kissed him. “To the Island.”
+
+“Well then, if you don’t come back by tomorrow morning, I will go and
+look for you.”
+
+Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind. “This seems to me to be a
+man’s journey,” he said. “I think it would be better for you not to
+come, Gleameil.”
+
+“I am not to be dissuaded,” she replied.
+
+He stroked his beard in perplexity. “Is it time to start?”
+
+“It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that.”
+
+Maskull sighed. “I’ll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait there for
+you and the raft. You will wish to make your farewells, Gleameil.”
+
+He then clasped Polecrab by the hand. “Adieu, fisherman!”
+
+“You have repaid me well for my answers,” said the old man gruffly. “But
+it’s not your fault, and in Shaping’s world the worst things happen.”
+
+The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him. “Farewell, big
+man!” he said. “But guard my mother well, as well as you are well able
+to, or I shall follow you, and kill you.”
+
+Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend. The
+glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes
+again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He continued as far
+as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled
+on to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight. The radiance of
+Alppain had long since disappeared. He drank in the hot, invigorating
+wind, listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea
+with its pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone’s Island.
+
+“What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all she
+loves the most?” he meditated. “It sounds unholy. Will it tell me what I
+want to know? Can it?”
+
+In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning
+his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.
+Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole. He passed
+by Maskull, without looking at him, or making any salutation, and
+proceeded out to sea.
+
+While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys
+came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet. The eldest-born was
+holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind. She was
+calm and smiling, but seemed abstracted.
+
+“What is your husband doing with the raft?” asked Maskull.
+
+“He’s putting it in position and we shall wade out and join it,” she
+answered, in her low-toned voice.
+
+“But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?”
+
+“Don’t you see that current running away from land? See, he is
+approaching it. That will take us straight there.”
+
+“But how can you get back?”
+
+“There is a way; but we need not think of that today.”
+
+“Why shouldn’t I come too?” demanded the eldest boy.
+
+“Because the raft won’t carry three. Maskull is a heavy man.”
+
+“It doesn’t matter,” said the boy. “I know where there is wood for
+another raft. As soon as you have gone, I shall set to work.”
+
+Polecrab had by this time manoeuvred his flimsy craft to the position he
+desired, within a few yards of the current, which at that point made a
+sharp bend from the east. He shouted out some words to his wife and
+Maskull. Gleameil kissed her children convulsively, and broke down a
+little. The eldest boy bit his lip till it bled, and tears glistened in
+his eyes; but the younger children stared wide-eyed, and displayed no
+emotion.
+
+Gleameil now walked into the sea, followed by Maskull. The water covered
+first their ankles, then their knees, but when it came as high as their
+waists, they were close on the raft. Polecrab let himself down into the
+water, and assisted his wife to climb over the side. When she was up,
+she bent down and kissed him. No words were exchanged. Maskull scrambled
+up on to the front part of the raft. The woman sat cross-legged in the
+stern, and seized the pole.
+
+Polecrab shoved them off toward the current, while she worked her pole
+until they had got within its power. The raft immediately began to
+travel swiftly away from land, with a smooth, swaying motion.
+
+The boys waved from the shore. Gleameil responded; but Maskull turned
+his back squarely to land, and gazed ahead. Polecrab was wading back to
+the shore.
+
+For upward of an hour Maskull did not change his position by an inch. No
+sound was heard but the splashing of the strange waves all around them,
+and the streamlike gurgle of the current, which threaded its way
+smoothly through the tossing, tumultuous sea. From their pathway of
+safety, the beautiful dangers surrounding them were an exhilarating
+experience. The air was fresh and clean, and the heat from Branchspell,
+now low in the west, was at last endurable. The riot of sea colors had
+long since banished all sadness and anxiety from his heart. Yet he felt
+such a grudge against the woman for selfishly forsaking those who should
+have been dear to her that he could not bring himself to begin a
+conversation.
+
+But when, over the now enlarged shape of the dark island, he caught
+sight of a long chain of lofty, distant mountains, glowing salmon-pink
+in the evening sunlight, he felt constrained to break the silence by
+inquiring what they were.
+
+“It is Lichstorm,” said Gleameil.
+
+Maskull asked no questions about it; but in turning to address her, his
+eyes had rested on the rapidly receding Wombflash Forest, and he
+continued to stare at that. They had travelled about eight miles, and
+now he could better estimate the enormous height of the trees.
+Overtopping them, far away, he saw Sant; and he fancied, but was not
+quite sure, that he could distinguish Disscourn as well.
+
+“Now that we are alone in a strange place,” said Gleameil, averting her
+head, and looking down over the side of the raft into the water, “tell
+me what you thought of Polecrab.”
+
+Maskull paused before answering. “He seemed to me like a mountain
+wrapped in cloud. You see the lower buttresses, and think that is all.
+But then, high up, far above the clouds, you suddenly catch sight of
+more mountain—and even then it is not the top.”
+
+“You read character well, and have great perception,” remarked Gleameil
+quietly. “Now say what I am.”
+
+“In place of a human heart, you have a wild harp, and that’s all I know
+about you.”
+
+“What was that you said to my husband about two worlds?”
+
+“You heard.”
+
+“Yes, I heard. And I also am conscious of two worlds. My husband and
+boys are real to me, and I love them fondly. But there is another world
+for me, as there is for you, Maskull, and it makes my real world appear
+all false and vulgar.”
+
+“Perhaps we are seeking the same thing. But can it be right to satisfy
+our self-nature at the expense of other people?”
+
+“No, it’s not right. It is wrong, and base. But in that other world
+these words have no meaning.”
+
+There was a silence.
+
+“It’s useless to discuss such topics,” said Maskull. “The choice is now
+out of our hands, and we must go where we are taken. What I would rather
+speak about is what awaits us on the island.”
+
+“I am ignorant—except that we shall find Earthrid there.”
+
+“Who is Earthrid, and why is it called Swaylone’s Island?”
+
+“They say Earthrid came from Threal, but I know nothing else about him.
+As for Swaylone, if you like I will tell you his legend.”
+
+“If you please,” said Maskull.
+
+“In a far-back age,” began Gleameil, “when the seas were hot, and clouds
+hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with transformations,
+Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never before set foot,
+and began to play his music—the first music in Tormance. Nightly, when
+the moon shone, people used to gather on this shore behind us, and
+listen to the faint, sweet strains floating from over the sea. One
+night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was passing this way in
+company with Krag. They listened a while to the music, and Shaping said
+‘Have you heard more beautiful sounds? This is my world and my music.’
+Krag stamped with his foot, and laughed. ‘You must do better than that,
+if I am to admire it. Let us pass over, and see this bungler at work.’
+Shaping consented, and they passed over to the island. Swaylone was not
+able to see their presence. Shaping stood behind him, and breathed
+thoughts into his soul, so that his music became ten times lovelier, and
+people listening on that shore went mad with sick delight. ‘Can any
+strains be nobler?’ demanded Shaping. Krag grinned and said, ‘You are
+naturally effeminate. Now let me try.’ Then he stood behind Swaylone,
+and shot ugly discords fast into his head. His instrument was so
+cracked, that never since has it played right. From that time forth
+Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called to folk more
+than the other sort. Many men crossed over to the island during his
+lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could endure them;
+all died. After Swaylone’s death, another musician took up the tale; and
+so the light has passed down from torch to torch, till now Earthrid
+bears it.”
+
+“An interesting legend,” commented Maskull. “But who is Krag?”
+
+“They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it—a spirit
+compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know how to
+transform. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he dogs
+Shaping’s footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does, he undoes.
+To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness; to virtue,
+cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag’s
+actions, so the lovers of the world call him ‘devil.’ They don’t
+understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty.”
+
+“Krag and beauty!” exclaimed he, with a cynical smile.
+
+“Even so. That same beauty which you and I are now voyaging to discover.
+That beauty for whose sake I am renouncing husband, children, and
+happiness.... Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant?”
+
+“Surely.”
+
+“That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping. To see beauty
+in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from it.”
+
+“Do you say I am going to seek beauty, Gleameil? Such an idea is far
+from my mind.”
+
+She did not respond to his remark. After waiting for a few minutes, to
+hear if she would speak again, he turned his back on her once more.
+There was no more talk until they reached the island.
+
+The air had grown chill and damp by the time they approached its shores.
+Branchspell was on the point of touching the sea. The Island appeared to
+be some three or four miles in length. There were first of all broad
+sands, then low, dark cliffs, and behind these a wilderness of
+insignificant, swelling hills, entirely devoid of vegetation. The
+current bore them to within a hundred yards of the coast, when it made a
+sharp angle, and proceeded to skirt the length of the land.
+
+Gleameil jumped overboard, and began swimming to shore. Maskull followed
+her example, and the raft, abandoned, was rapidly borne away by the
+current. They soon touched ground, and were able to wade the rest of the
+way. By the time they reached dry land, the sun had set.
+
+Gleameil made straight for the hills; and Maskull, after casting a
+single glance at the low, dim outline of the Wombflash Forest, followed
+her. The cliffs were soon scrambled up. Then the ascent was gentle and
+easy, while the rich, dry, brown mould was good to walk upon.
+
+A little way off, on their left, something white was shining.
+
+“You need not go to it,” said the woman. “It can be nothing else than
+one of those skeletons Polecrab talked about. And look—there is another
+one over there!”
+
+“This brings it home!” remarked Maskull, smiling.
+
+“There is nothing comical in having died for beauty,” said Gleameil,
+bending her brows at him.
+
+And when in the course of their walk he saw the innumerable human bones,
+from gleaming white to dirty yellow, lying scattered about, as if it
+were a naked graveyard among the hills, he agreed with her, and fell
+into a sombre mood.
+
+It was still light when they reached the highest point, and could set
+eyes on the other side. The sea to the north of the island was in no way
+different from that which they had crossed, but its lively colors were
+fast becoming invisible.
+
+“That is Matterplay,” said the woman, pointing her finger toward some
+low land on the horizon, which seemed to be even farther off than
+Wombflash.
+
+“I wonder how Digrung passed over,” meditated Maskull.
+
+Not far away, in a hollow enclosed by a circle of little hills, they saw
+a small, circular lake, not more than half a mile in diameter. The
+sunset colors of the sky were reflected in its waters.
+
+“That must be Irontick,” remarked Gleameil.
+
+“What is that?”
+
+“I have heard that it’s the instrument Earthrid plays on.”
+
+“We are getting close,” responded he. “Let us go and investigate.”
+
+When they drew nearer, they observed that a man was reclining on the
+farther side, in an attitude of sleep.
+
+“If that’s not the man himself, who can it be?” said Maskull. “Let’s get
+across the water, if it will bear us; it will save time.”
+
+He now assumed the lead, and took running strides down the slope which
+bounded the lake on that side. Gleameil followed him with greater
+dignity, keeping her eyes fixed on the recumbent man as if fascinated.
+When Maskull reached the water’s edge, he tried it with one foot, to
+discover if it would carry his weight. Something unusual in its
+appearance led him to have doubts. It was a tranquil, dark, and
+beautifully reflecting sheet of water; it resembled a mirror of liquid
+metal. Finding that it would bear him, and that nothing happened, he
+placed his second foot on its surface. Instantly he sustained a violent
+shock throughout his body, as from a powerful electric current; and he
+was hurled in a tumbled heap back on to the bank.
+
+He picked himself up, brushed the dirt off his person, and started
+walking around the lake. Gleameil joined him, and they completed the
+half circuit together. They came to the man, and Maskull prodded him
+with his foot. He woke up, and blinked at them.
+
+His face was pale, weak, and vacant-looking, and had a disagreeable
+expression. There were thin sprouts of black hair on his chin and head.
+On his forehead, in place of a third eye, he possessed a perfectly
+circular organ, with elaborate convolutions, like an ear. He had an
+unpleasant smell. He appeared to be of young middle age.
+
+“Wake up, man,” said Maskull sharply, “and tell us if you are Earthrid.”
+
+“What time is it?” counterquestioned the man. “Does it want long to
+moonrise?”
+
+Without appearing to care about an answer, he sat up, and turning away
+from them, began to scoop up the loose soil with his hand, and to eat it
+halfheartedly.
+
+“Now, how can you eat that filth?” demanded Maskull, in disgust.
+
+“Don’t be angry, Maskull,” said Gleameil, laying hold of his arm, and
+flushing a little. “It is Earthrid—the man who is to help us.”
+
+“He has not said so.”
+
+“I am Earthrid,” said the other, in his weak and muffled voice, which,
+however, suddenly struck Maskull as being autocratic. “What do you want
+here? Or rather, you had better get away as quickly as you can, for it
+will be too late when Teargeld rises.”
+
+“You need not explain,” exclaimed Maskull. “We know your reputation, and
+we have come to hear your music. But what’s that organ for on your
+forehead?”
+
+Earthrid glared, and smiled, and glared again.
+
+“That is for rhythm, which is what changes noise into music. Don’t stand
+and argue, but go away. It is no pleasure to me to people the island
+with corpses. They corrupt the air, and do nothing else.”
+
+Darkness now crept swiftly on over the landscape.
+
+“You are rather bigmouthed,” said Maskull coolly. “But after we have
+heard you play, perhaps I shall adventure a tune myself.”
+
+“You? Are you a musician, then? Do you even know what music is?”
+
+A flame danced in Gleameil’s eyes.
+
+“Maskull thinks music reposes in the instrument,” she said in her
+intense way. “But it is in the soul of the Master.”
+
+“Yes,” said Earthrid, “but that is not all. I will tell you what it is.
+In Threal, where I was born and brought up, we learn the mystery of the
+Three in nature. This world, which lies extended before us, has three
+directions. Length is the line which shuts off what is, from what is
+not. Breadth is the surface which shows us in what manner one thing of
+what-is, lives with another thing. Depth is the path which leads from
+what-is, to our own body. In music it is not otherwise. Tone is
+existence, without which nothing at all can be. Symmetry and Numbers are
+the manner in which tones exist, one with another. Emotion is the
+movement of our soul toward the wonderful world that is being created.
+Now, men when they make music are accustomed to build beautiful tones,
+because of the delight they cause. Therefore their music world is based
+on pleasure; its symmetry is regular and charming, its emotion is sweet
+and lovely.... But my music is founded on painful tones; and thus its
+symmetry is wild, and difficult to discover; its emotion is bitter and
+terrible.”
+
+“If I had not anticipated its being original, I would not have come
+here,” said Maskull. “Still, explain—why can’t harsh tones have simple
+symmetry of form? And why must they necessarily cause more profound
+emotions in us who listen?”
+
+“Pleasures may harmonise. Pains must clash; and in the order of their
+clashing lies the symmetry. The emotions follow the music, which is
+rough and earnest.”
+
+“You may call it music,” remarked Maskull thoughtfully, “but to me it
+bears a closer resemblance to actual life.”
+
+“If Shaping’s plans had gone straight, life would have been like that
+other sort of music. He who seeks can find traces of that intention in
+the world of nature. But as it has turned out, real life resembles my
+music and mine is the true music.”
+
+“Shall we see living shapes?”
+
+“I don’t know what my mood will be,” returned Earthrid. “But when I have
+finished, you shall adventure your tune, and produce whatever shapes you
+please—unless, indeed, the tune is out of your own big body.”
+
+“The shocks you are preparing may kill us,” said Gleameil, in a low,
+taut voice, “but we shall die, seeing beauty.”
+
+Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
+
+“Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I put
+into my music. Still, you must have it your own way. It needed a woman
+to call it ‘beauty.’ But if this is beauty, what is ugliness?”
+
+“That I can tell you, Master,” replied Gleameil, smiling at him.
+“Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues fresh from
+the womb of nature.”
+
+Earthrid stared at her, without response. “Teargeld is rising,” he said
+at last. “And now you shall see—though not for long.”
+
+As the words left his mouth, the full moon peeped over the hills in the
+dark eastern sky. They watched it in silence, and soon it was wholly up.
+It was larger than the moon of Earth, and seemed nearer. Its shadowy
+parts stood out in just as strong relief, but somehow it did not give
+Maskull the impression of being a dead world. Branchspell shone on the
+whole of it, but Alppain only on a part. The broad crescent that
+reflected Branchspell’s rays alone was white and brilliant; but the part
+that was illuminated by both suns shone with a greenish radiance that
+had almost solar power, and yet was cold and cheerless. On gazing at
+that combined light, he felt the same sense of disintegration that the
+afterglow of Alppain had always caused in him; but now the feeling was
+not physical, but merely aesthetic. The moon did not appear romantic to
+him, but disturbing and mystical.
+
+Earthrid rose, and stood quietly for a minute. In the bright moonlight,
+his face seemed to have undergone a change. It lost its loose, weak,
+disagreeable look, and acquired a sort of crafty grandeur. He clapped
+his hands together meditatively two or three times, and walked up and
+down. The others stood together, watching him.
+
+Then he sat down by the side of the lake, and, leaning on his side,
+placed his right hand, open palm downward, on the ground, at the same
+time stretching out his right leg, so that the foot was in contact with
+the water.
+
+While Maskull was in the act of staring at him and at the lake, he felt
+a stabbing sensation right through his heart, as though he had been
+pierced by a rapier. He barely recovered himself from falling, and as he
+did so he saw that a spout had formed on the water, and was now
+subsiding again. The next moment he was knocked down by a violent blow
+in the mouth, delivered by an invisible hand. He picked himself up; and
+observed that a second spout had formed. No sooner was he on his legs,
+than a hideous pain hammered away inside his brain, as if caused by a
+malignant tumour. In his agony, he stumbled and fell again; this time on
+the arm Krag had wounded. All his other mishaps were forgotten in this
+one, which half stunned him. It lasted only a moment, and then sudden
+relief came, and he found that Earthrid’s rough music had lost its power
+over him.
+
+He saw him still stretched in the same position. Spouts were coming
+thick and fast on the lake, which was full of lively motion. But
+Gleameil was not on her legs. She was lying on the ground, in a heap,
+without moving. Her attitude was ugly, and he guessed she was dead. When
+he reached her, he discovered that she was dead. In what state of mind
+she had died, he did not know, for her face wore the vulgar Crystalman
+grin. The whole tragedy had not lasted five minutes.
+
+He went over to Earthrid and dragged him forcibly away from his playing.
+
+“You have been as good as your word, musician,” he said. “Gleameil is
+dead.”
+
+Earthrid tried to collect his scattered senses.
+
+“I warned her,” he replied, sitting up. “Did I not beg her to go away?
+But she died very easily. She did not wait for the beauty she spoke
+about. She heard nothing of the passion, nor even of the rhythm. Neither
+have you.”
+
+Maskull looked down at him in indignation, but said nothing.
+
+“You should not have interrupted me,” went on Earthrid. “When I am
+playing, nothing else is of importance. I might have lost the thread of
+my ideas. Fortunately, I never forget. I shall start over again.”
+
+“If music is to continue, in the presence of the dead, I play next.”
+
+The man glanced up quickly.
+
+“That can’t be.”
+
+“It must be,” said Maskull decisively. “I prefer playing to listening.
+Another reason is that you will have every night, but I have only
+tonight.”
+
+Earthrid clenched and unclenched his fist, and began to turn pale. “With
+your recklessness, you are likely to kill us both. Irontick belongs to
+me, and until you have learned how to play, you would only break the
+instrument.”
+
+“Well, then, I will break it; but I am going to try.”
+
+The musician jumped to his feet and confronted him. “Do you intend to
+take it from me by violence?”
+
+“Keep calm! You will have the same choice that you offered us. I shall
+give you time to go away somewhere.”
+
+“How will that serve me, if you spoil my lake? You don’t understand what
+you are doing.”
+
+“Go, or stay!” responded Maskull. “I give you till the water gets smooth
+again. After that, I begin playing.”
+
+Earthrid kept swallowing. He glanced at the lake and back to Maskull.
+
+“Do you swear it?”
+
+“How long that will take, you know better than I; but till then you are
+safe.”
+
+Earthrid cast him a look of malice, hesitated for an instant, and then
+moved away, and started to climb the nearest hill. Halfway up he glanced
+over his shoulder apprehensively, as if to see what was happening. In
+another minute or so, he had disappeared over the crest, travelling in
+the direction of the shore that faced Matterplay.
+
+Later, when the water was once more tranquil, Maskull sat down by its
+edge, in imitation of Earthrid’s attitude. He knew neither how to set
+about producing his music, nor what would come of it. But audacious
+projects entered his brain and he willed to create physical shapes—and,
+above all, one shape, that of Surtur.
+
+Before putting his foot to the water, he turned things over a little in
+his mind.
+
+He said, “What themes are in common music, shapes are in this music. The
+composer does not find his theme by picking out single notes; but the
+whole theme flashes into his mind by inspiration. So it must be with
+shapes. When I start playing, if I am worth anything, the undivided
+ideas will pass from my unconscious mind to this lake, and then,
+reflected back in the dimensions of reality, I shall be for the first
+time made acquainted with them. So it must be.”
+
+The instant his foot touched the water, he felt his thoughts flowing
+from him. He did not know what they were, but the mere act of flowing
+created a sensation of joyful mastery. With this was curiosity to learn
+what they would prove to be. Spouts formed on the lake in increasing
+numbers, but he experienced no pain. His thoughts, which he knew to be
+music, did not issue from him in a steady, unbroken stream, but in
+great, rough gushes, succeeding intervals of quiescence. When these
+gushes came, the whole lake broke out in an eruption of spouts.
+
+He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
+intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will. He
+could not decide what character they should have, but he was able to
+force them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
+
+At first nothing changed around him. Then the moon grew dimmer, and a
+strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape. It increased so
+imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised it as the
+Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest. He could not
+give it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort of stern and
+sacred awe. He called up the resources of his powerful will. The spouts
+thickened like a forest, and many of them were twenty feet high.
+Teargeld looked faint and pale; the radiance became intense; but it cast
+no shadows. The wind got up, but where Maskull was sitting, it was calm.
+Shortly afterward it began to shriek and whistle, like a full gale. He
+saw no shapes, and redoubled his efforts.
+
+His ideas were now rushing out onto the lake so furiously that his whole
+soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance. But still he did not
+know their nature. A huge spout shot up and at the same moment the hills
+began to crack and break. Great masses of loose soil were erupted from
+their bowels, and in the next period of quietness, he saw that the
+landscape had altered. Still the mysterious light intensified. The moon
+disappeared entirely. The noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying,
+but Maskull played heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would
+take shape. The hillsides were cleft with chasms. The water escaping
+from the tops of the spouts, swamped the land; but where he was, it was
+dry.
+
+The radiance grew terrible. It was everywhere, but Maskull fancied that
+it was far brighter in one particular quarter. He thought that it was
+becoming localised, preparatory to contracting into a solid form. He
+strained and strained....
+
+Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided. Its waters fell
+through, and his instrument was broken.
+
+The Muspel-light vanished. The moon shone out again, but Maskull could
+not see it. After that unearthly shining, he seemed to himself to be in
+total blackness. The screaming wind ceased; there was a dead silence.
+His thoughts finished flowing toward the lake, and his foot no longer
+touched water, but hung in space.
+
+He was too stunned by the suddenness of the change to either think or
+feel. While he was still lying dazed, a vast explosion occurred in the
+newly opened depths beneath the lakebed. The water in its descent had
+met fire. Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many yards high, and
+came down heavily. He lost consciousness....
+
+When he came to his senses again, he saw everything. Teargeld was
+gleaming brilliantly. He was lying by the side of the old lake, but it
+was now a crater, to the bottom of which his eyes could not penetrate.
+The hills encircling it were torn, as if by heavy gunfire. A few
+thunderclouds were floating in the air at no great height, from which
+branched lightning descended to the earth incessantly, accompanied by
+alarming and singular crashes.
+
+He got on his legs, and tested his actions. Finding that he was
+uninjured, he first of all viewed the crater at closer quarters, and
+then started to walk painfully toward the northern shore.
+
+When he had attained the crest above the lake, the landscape sloped
+gently down for two miles to the sea. Everywhere he passed through
+traces of his rough work. The country was carved into scarps, grooves,
+channels, and craters. He arrived at the line of low cliffs overlooking
+the beach, and found that these also were partly broken down by
+landslips. He got down onto the sand and stood looking over the moonlit,
+agitated sea, wondering how he could contrive to escape from this island
+of failure.
+
+Then he saw Earthrid’s body, lying quite close to him. It was on its
+back. Both legs had been violently torn off and he could not see them
+anywhere. Earthrid’s teeth were buried in the flesh of his right
+forearm, indicating that the man had died in unreasoning physical agony.
+The skin gleamed green in the moonlight, but it was stained by darker
+discolourations, which were wounds. The sand about him was dyed by the
+pool of blood which had long since filtered through.
+
+Maskull left the corpse in dismay, and walked a long way along the
+sweet-smelling shore. Sitting down on a rock, he waited for daybreak.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE
+
+At midnight, when Teargeld was in the south, throwing his shadow
+straight toward the sea and making everything nearly as bright as day,
+he saw a great tree floating in the water, not far out. It was thirty
+feet out of the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must have been
+enormously deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast, through the
+heavy seas. Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few minutes. Then it
+dawned on him that it might be a good thing to investigate its nature.
+Without stopping to weigh the danger, he immediately swam out, caught
+hold of the lowest branch, and swung himself up.
+
+He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
+terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made his
+way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were
+covered with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving at
+the crown, he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there were
+membranes like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting some
+form of low intelligence.
+
+At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the shore,
+and began to bump heavily. To steady himself, Maskull put his hand out,
+and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the membranes. The tree
+sheered off the land, as if by an act of will. When it was steady again,
+Maskull removed his hand; they at once drifted back to shore. He thought
+a bit, and then started experimenting with the eyelike membranes. It was
+as he had guessed—these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon,
+and whichever way the light came from, the tree would travel.
+
+A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull’s face as it struck him that it
+might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
+Matterplay. He lost no time in putting the conception into execution.
+Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up all the
+membranes except the ones that faced the north. The tree instantly left
+the island, and definitely put out to sea. It travelled due north. It
+was not moving at more than a mile an hour, however, while Matterplay
+was possibly forty miles distant.
+
+The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
+breaking seas hissed through the lower branches—Maskull rested high and
+dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow rate of
+progress. Presently he sighted a current racing along toward the north-
+west, and that put another idea into his head. He began to juggle with
+the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in piloting his tree
+into the fast-running stream. As soon as they were fairly in its rapids,
+he blinded the crown entirely, and thenceforward the current acted in
+the double capacity of road and steed.
+
+Maskull made himself secure among the branches and slept for the
+remainder of the night.
+
+When his eyes opened again, the island was out of sight. Teargeld was
+setting in the western sea. The sky in the east was bright with the
+colours of the approaching day. The air was cool and fresh; the light
+over the sea was beautiful, gleaming, and mysterious. Land—probably
+Matterplay—lay ahead, a long, dark line of low cliffs, perhaps a mile
+away. The current no longer ran toward the shore, but began to skirt the
+coast without drawing any closer to it. As soon as Maskull realised the
+fact, he manoeuvred the tree out of its channel and started drifting it
+inshore. The eastern sky blazed up suddenly with violent dyes, and the
+outer rim of Branchspell lifted itself above the sea. The moon had
+already sunk.
+
+The shore loomed nearer and nearer. In physical character it was like
+Swaylone’s Island—the same wide sands, small cliffs, and rounded,
+insignificant hills inland, without vegetation. In the early-morning
+sunlight, however, it looked romantic. Maskull, hollow-eyed and morose,
+cared nothing for all that, but the moment the tree grounded, clambered
+swiftly down through the branches and dropped into the sea. By the time
+he had swam ashore, the white, stupendous sun was high above the
+horizon.
+
+He walked along the sands toward the east for a considerable distance,
+without having any special intention in his mind. He thought he would go
+on until he came to some creek or valley, and then turn up it. The sun’s
+rays were cheering, and began to relieve him of his oppressive night
+weight. After strolling along the beach for about a mile, he was stopped
+by a broad stream that flowed into the sea out of a kind of natural
+gateway in the line of cliffs. Its water was of a beautiful, limpid
+green, all filled with bubbles. So ice-cold, aerated, and enticing did
+it look that he flung himself face downward on the ground and took a
+prolonged draught. When he got up again his eyes started to play
+pranks—they became alternately blurred and clear.... It may have been
+pure imagination, but he fancied that Digrung was moving inside him.
+
+He followed the bank of the stream through the gap in the cliffs, and
+then for the first time saw the real Matterplay. A valley appeared, like
+a jewel enveloped by naked rock. All the hill country was bare and
+lifeless, but this valley lying in the heart of it was extremely
+fertile; he had never seen such fertility. It wound up among the hills,
+and all that he was looking at was its broad lower end. The floor of the
+valley was about half a mile wide; the stream that ran down its middle
+was nearly a hundred feet across, but was exceedingly shallow—in most
+places not more than a few inches deep. The sides of the valley were
+about seventy feet high, but very sloping; they were clothed from top to
+bottom with little, bright-leaved trees—not of varied tints of one
+colour, like Earth trees, but of widely diverse colours, most of which
+were brilliant and positive.
+
+The floor itself was like a magician’s garden. Densely interwoven trees,
+shrubs, and parasitical climbers fought everywhere for possession of it.
+The forms were strange and grotesque, and each one seemed different; the
+colours of leaf, flower, sexual organs, and stem were equally
+peculiar—all the different combinations of the five primary colours of
+Tormance seemed to be represented, and the result, for Maskull was a
+sort of eye chaos. So rank was the vegetation that he could not fight
+his way through it; he was obliged to take to the riverbed. The contact
+of the water created an odd tingling sensation throughout his body, like
+a mild electric shock. There were no birds, but a few extraordinary-
+looking winged reptiles of small size kept crossing the valley from hill
+to hill. Swarms of flying insects clustered around him, threatening
+mischief, but in the end it turned out that his blood was disagreeable
+to them, for he was not bitten once. Repulsive crawling creatures
+resembling centipedes, scorpions, snakes, and so forth were in myriads
+on the banks of the stream, but they also made no attempt to use their
+weapons on his bare legs and feet, as he passed through them into the
+water.... Presently however, he was confronted in midstream by a hideous
+monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape—if it resembled
+anything—a sea crustacean; and then he came to a halt. They stared at
+one another, the beast with wicked eyes, Maskull with cool and wary
+ones. While he was staring, a singular thing happened to him.
+
+His eyes blurred again. But when in a minute or two this blurring passed
+away and he saw clearly once more, his vision had changed in character.
+He was looking right through the animal’s body and could distinguish all
+its interior parts. The outer crust, however, and all the hard tissues
+were misty and semi-transparent; through them a luminous network of
+blood-red veins and arteries stood out in startling distinctness. The
+hard parts faded away to nothingness, and the blood system alone was
+left. Not even the fleshy ducts remained. The naked blood alone was
+visible, flowing this way and that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the
+shape of the monster. Then this blood began to change too. Instead of a
+continuous liquid stream, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a
+million individual points. The red colour had been an illusion caused by
+the rapid motion of the points; he now saw clearly that they resembled
+minute suns in their scintillating brightness. They seemed like a double
+drift of stars, streaming through space. One drift was travelling toward
+a fixed point in the centre, while the other was moving away from it. He
+recognised the former as the veins of the beast, the latter as the
+arteries, and the fixed point as the heart.
+
+While he was still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network went
+out suddenly like an extinguished flame. Where the crustacean had stood,
+there was nothing. Yet through this “nothing” he could not see the
+landscape. Something was standing there that intercepted the light,
+though it possessed neither shape, colour, nor substance. And now the
+object, which could no longer be perceived by vision, began to be felt
+by emotion. A delightful, springlike sense of rising sap, of quickening
+pulses of love, adventure, mystery, beauty, femininity—took possession
+of his being, and, strangely enough, he identified it with the monster.
+Why that invisible brute should cause him to feel young, sexual, and
+audacious, he did not ask himself, for he was fully occupied with the
+effect. But it was as if flesh, bones, and blood had been discarded, and
+he were face to face with naked Life itself, which slowly passed into
+his own body.
+
+The sensations died away. There was a brief interval, and then the
+streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space. It changed to
+the red-blood system. The hard parts of the body reappeared, with more
+and more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood grew
+fainter. Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed by the
+crust—the creature stood opposite Maskull in its old formidable
+ugliness, hard, painted, and concrete.
+
+Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and stumbled
+awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive movements,
+toward the other bank of the stream.
+
+Maskull’s apathy left him after this adventure. He became uneasy and
+thoughtful. He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
+Digrung’s eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately ahead.
+The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down with his will,
+and nothing happened.
+
+The valley ascended with many windings toward the hills. It narrowed
+considerably, and the wooded slopes on either side grew steeper and
+higher. The stream shrunk to about twenty feet across, but it was
+deeper—it was alive with motion, music, and bubbles. The electric
+sensations caused by its water became more pronounced, almost
+disagreeably so; but there was nowhere else to walk. With its deafening
+confusion of sounds from the multitude of living creatures, the little
+valley resembled a vast conversation hall of Nature. The life was still
+more prolific than before; every square foot of space was a tangle of
+struggling wills, both animal and vegetable. For a naturalist it would
+have been paradise, for no two shapes were alike, and all were
+fantastic, with individual character.
+
+It looked as if life forms were being coined so fast by Nature that
+there was not physical room for all. Nevertheless it was not as on
+Earth, where a hundred seeds are scattered in order that one may be
+sown. Here the young forms seemed to survive, while, to find
+accommodation for them, the old ones perished; everywhere he looked they
+were withering and dying, without any ostensible cause—they were simply
+being killed by new life.
+
+Other creatures sported so wildly, in front of his very eyes, that they
+became of different “kingdoms” altogether. For example, a fruit was
+lying on the ground, of the size and shape of a lemon, but with a
+tougher skin. He picked it up, intending to eat the contained pulp; but
+inside it was a fully formed young tree, just on the point of bursting
+its shell. Maskull threw it away upstream. It floated back toward him;
+by the time he was even with it, its downward motion had stopped and it
+was swimming against the current. He fished it out and discovered that
+it had sprouted six rudimentary legs.
+
+Maskull sang no paeans of praise in honour of the gloriously overcrowded
+valley. On the contrary, he felt deeply cynical and depressed. He
+thought that the unseen power—whether it was called Nature, Life, Will,
+or God—that was so frantic to rush forward and occupy this small,
+vulgar, contemptible world, could not possess very high aims and was not
+worth much. How this sordid struggle for an hour or two of physical
+existence could ever be regarded as a deeply earnest and important
+business was beyond his comprehension The atmosphere choked him, he
+longed for air and space. Thrusting his way through to the side of the
+ravine, he began to climb the overhanging cliff, swinging his way up
+from tree to tree.
+
+When he arrived at the top, Branchspell beat down on him with such
+brutal, white intensity that he saw that there was no staying there. He
+looked around, to ascertain what part of the country he had come to. He
+had travelled about ten miles from the sea, as the crow flies. The bare,
+undulating wolds sloped straight down toward it; the water glittered in
+the distance; and on the horizon he was just able to make out Swaylone’s
+Island. Looking north, the land continued sloping upward as far as he
+could see. Over the crest—that is to say, some miles away—a line of
+black, fantastic-shaped rocks of quite another character showed
+themselves; this was probably Threal. Behind these again, against the
+sky, perhaps fifty or even a hundred miles off, were the peaks of
+Lichstorm, most of them covered with greenish snow that glittered in the
+sunlight.
+
+They were stupendously high and of weird contours. Most of them were
+conical to the top, but from the top, great masses of mountain balanced
+themselves at what looked like impossible angles—overhanging without
+apparent support. A land like that promised something new, he thought:
+extraordinary inhabitants. The idea took shape in his mind to go there,
+and to travel as swiftly as possible, it might even be feasible to get
+there before sunset. It was less the mountains themselves that attracted
+him than the country which lay beyond—the prospect of setting eyes on
+the blue sun, which he judged to be the wonder of wonders in Tormance.
+
+The direct route was over the hills, but that was out of the question,
+because of the killing heat and the absence of shade. He guessed,
+however, that the valley would not take him far out of his way, and
+decided to keep to that for the time being, much as he hated and feared
+it. Into the hotbed of life, therefore, he once more swung himself.
+
+Once down, he continued to follow the windings of the valley for several
+miles through sunlight and shadow. The path became increasingly
+difficult. The cliffs closed in on either side until they were less than
+a hundred yards apart, while the bed of the ravine was blocked by
+boulders, great and small, so that the little stream, which was now
+diminished to the proportions of a brook, had to come down where and how
+it could. The forms of life grew stranger. Pure plants and pure animals
+disappeared by degrees, and their place was filled by singular creatures
+that seemed to partake of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will,
+and intelligence, but they remained for the greater part of their time
+rooted in the ground by preference, and they fed only on soil and air.
+Maskull saw no sexual organs and failed to understand how the young came
+into existence.
+
+Then he witnessed an astonishing sight. A large and fully developed
+plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space. He
+could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long time
+in amazement. It went on calmly moving and burrowing before him, as
+thought it had been there all its life. Giving up the puzzle, Maskull
+resumed his striding from rock to rock up the gorge, and then, quietly
+and without warning, the same phenomenon occurred again. No longer could
+he doubt that he was seeing miracles—that Nature was precipitating its
+shapes into the world without making use of the medium of parentage....
+No solution of the problem presented itself.
+
+The brook too had altered in character. A trembling radiance came up
+from its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the air.
+He had not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test its
+quality. He felt new life entering his body, from his feet upward; it
+resembled a slowly moving cordial, rather than mere heat. The sensation
+was quite new in his experience, yet he knew by instinct what it was.
+The energy emitted by the brook was ascending his body neither as friend
+nor foe but simply because it happened to be the direct road to its
+objective elsewhere. But, although it had no hostile intentions, it was
+likely to prove a rough traveller—he was clearly conscious that its
+passage through his body threatened to bring about some physical
+transformation, unless he could do something to prevent it. Leaping
+quickly out of the water, he leaned against a rock, tightened his
+muscles, and braced himself against the impending change. At that very
+moment the blurring again attacked his sight, and, while he was guarding
+against that, his forehead sprouted out into a galaxy of new eyes. He
+put his hand up and counted six, in addition to his old ones.
+
+The danger was past and Maskull laughed, congratulating himself on
+having got off so easily. Then he wondered what the new organs were
+for—whether they were a good or a bad thing. He had not taken a dozen
+steps up the ravine before he found out. Just as he was in the act of
+jumping down from the top of a boulder, his vision altered and he came
+to an automatic standstill. He was perceiving two worlds simultaneously.
+With his own eyes he saw the gorge as before, with its rocks, brook,
+plant-animals, sunshine, and shadows. But with his acquired eyes he saw
+differently. All the details of the valley were visible, but the light
+seemed turned down, and everything appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured.
+The sun was obscured by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This
+vapour was in violent and almost living motion. It was thick in
+extension, but thin in texture; some parts, however, were far denser
+than others, as the particles were crushed together or swept apart by
+the motion. The green sparks from the brook, when closely watched, could
+be distinguished individually, each one wavering up toward the clouds,
+but the moment they got within them a fearful struggle seemed to begin.
+The spark endeavoured to escape through to the upper air, while the
+clouds concentrated around it whichever way it darted, trying to create
+so dense a prison that further movement would be impossible. As far as
+Maskull could detect, most of the sparks succeeded eventually in finding
+their way out after frantic efforts; but one that he was looking at was
+caught, and what happened was this. A complete ring of cloud surrounded
+it, and, in spite of its furious leaps and flashes in all directions—as
+if it were a live, savage creature caught in a net—nowhere could it find
+an opening, but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with it, wherever
+it went. The vapours continued to thicken around it, until they
+resembled the black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad
+thunderstorm. Then the green spark, which was still visible in the
+interior, ceased its efforts, and remained for a time quite quiescent.
+The cloud shape went on consolidating itself, and became nearly
+spherical; as it grew heavier and stiller, it started slowly to descend
+toward the valley floor. When it was directly opposite Maskull, with its
+lower end only a few feet off the ground, its motion stopped altogether
+and there was a complete pause for at least two minutes. Suddenly, like
+a stab of forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became small,
+indented, and coloured, and as a plant-animal started walking around on
+legs and rooting up the ground in search of food. The concluding stage
+of the phenomenon he witnessed with his normal eyesight. It showed him
+the creature’s appearing miraculously out of nowhere.
+
+Maskull was shaken. His cynicism dropped from him and gave place to
+curiosity and awe. “That was exactly like the birth of a thought,” he
+said to himself, “but who was the thinker? Some great Living Mind is at
+work in this spot. He has intelligence, for all his shapes are
+different, and he has character, for all belong to the same general
+type.... If I’m not wrong, and if it’s the force called Shaping or
+Crystalman, I’ve seen enough to make me want to find out something more
+about him.... It would be ridiculous to go on to other riddles before I
+have solved these.”
+
+A voice called out to him from behind, and, turning around, he saw a
+human figure hastening toward him from some distance down the ravine. It
+looked more like a man than a woman. He was rather tall, but nimble, and
+was clothed in a dark, frocklike garment that reached from the neck to
+below the knees. Around his head was rolled a turban. Maskull waited for
+him, and when he was nearer went a little way to meet him.
+
+Then he experienced another surprise, for this person, although clearly
+a human being, was neither man nor woman, nor anything between the two,
+but was unmistakably of a third positive sex, which was remarkable to
+behold and difficult to understand. In order to translate into words the
+sexual impression produced in Maskull’s mind by the stranger’s physical
+aspect, it is necessary to coin a new pronoun, for none in earthly use
+would be applicable. Instead of “he,” “she,” or “it,” therefore “ae”
+will be used.
+
+He found himself incapable of grasping at first why the bodily
+peculiarities of this being should strike him as springing from sex, and
+not from race, and yet there was no doubt about the fact itself. Body,
+face, and eyes were absolutely neither male nor female, but something
+quite different. Just as one can distinguish a man from a woman at the
+first glance by some indefinable difference of expression and
+atmospheres altogether apart from the contour of the figure, so the
+stranger was separated in appearance from both. As with men and women,
+the whole person expressed a latent sensuality, which gave body and face
+alike their peculiar character.... Maskull decided that it was love—but
+what love—love for whom? It was neither the shame-carrying passion of a
+male, nor the deep-rooted instinct of a female to obey her destiny. It
+was as real and irresistible as these, but quite different.
+
+As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
+intuitive feeling that aer lover was no other than Shaping himself. It
+came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance of the
+race but the immortality on earth of the individual. No children were
+produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal child. Further,
+ae sought like a man, but received like a woman. All these things were
+dimly and confusedly expressed by this extraordinary being, who seemed
+to have dropped out of another age, when creation was different.
+
+Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance, this
+one struck him as infinitely the most foreign—that is, the farthest
+removed from him in spiritual structure. If they were to live together
+for a hundred years, they could never be companions.
+
+Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing
+the newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to account
+for the marvellous things told him by his intuitions. Ae possessed broad
+shoulders and big bones, and was without female breasts, and so far ae
+resembled a man. But the bones were so flat and angular that aer flesh
+presented something of the character of a crystal, having plane surfaces
+in place of curves. The body looked as if it had not been ground down by
+the sea of ages into smooth and rounded regularity but had sprung
+together in angles and facets as the result of a single, sudden idea.
+The face too was broken and irregular. With his racial prejudices,
+Maskull found little beauty in it, yet beauty there was, though neither
+of a masculine nor of a feminine type, for it had the three essentials
+of beauty: character, intelligence, and repose. The skin was copper-
+coloured and strangely luminous, as if lighted from within. The face was
+beardless, but the hair of the head was as long as a woman’s, and,
+dressed in a single plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles. Ae
+possessed only two eyes. That part of the turban which went across the
+forehead protruded so far in front that it evidently concealed some
+organ.
+
+Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared
+active, vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes
+were powerful and alert—ae might well be in early youth. Nevertheless,
+the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of unbelievable
+ancientness came upon him—aer real youth seemed as far away as the view
+observed through a reversed telescope.
+
+At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
+conversing with a dream. “To what sex do you belong?” he asked.
+
+The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but was
+oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great distance.
+
+“Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world was
+peopled by ‘phaens.’ I think I am the only survivor of all those beings
+who were then passing through Faceny’s mind.”
+
+“Faceny?”
+
+“Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman. The superficial names
+invented by a race of superficial creatures.”
+
+“What’s your own name?”
+
+“Leehallfae.”
+
+“What?”
+
+“Leehallfae. And yours is Maskull. I read in your mind that you have
+just come through some wonderful adventures. You seem to possess
+extraordinary luck. If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use of
+it.”
+
+“Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit?... But never mind
+that now. It is your _sex_ that interests me. How do you satisfy your
+desires?”
+
+Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on her brow. “With that I
+gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
+valleys. The streams spring direct from Faceny. My whole life has been
+spent trying to find Faceny himself. I’ve hunted so long that if I were
+to state the number of years you would believe I lied.”
+
+Maskull looked at the phaen slowly. “In Ifdawn I met someone else from
+Matterplay—a young man called Digrung. I absorbed him.”
+
+“You can’t be telling me this out of vanity.”
+
+“It was a fearful crime. What will come of it?”
+
+Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile. “In Matterplay he will stir
+inside you, for he smells the air. Already you have his eyes.... I knew
+him.... Take care of yourself, or something more startling may happen.
+Keep out of the water.”
+
+“This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen.”
+
+“Don’t torment yourself about Digrung. The valleys belong by right to
+the phaens—the men here are interlopers. It is a good work to remove
+them.”
+
+Maskull continued thoughtful. “I say no more, but I see I will have to
+be cautious. What did you mean about my helping you with my luck?”
+
+“Your luck is fast weakening, but it may still be strong enough to serve
+me. Together we will search for Threal.”
+
+“Search for Threal—why, is it so hard to find?”
+
+“I have told you that my whole life has been spent in the quest.”
+
+“You said Faceny, Leehallfae.”
+
+The phaen gazed at him with queer, ancient eyes, and smiled again. “This
+stream, Maskull, like every other life stream in Matterplay, has its
+source in Faceny. But as all these streams issue out from Threal, it is
+in Threal that we must look for Faceny.”
+
+“But what’s to prevent your finding Threal? Surely it’s a well-known
+country?”
+
+“It lies underground. Its communications with the upper world are few,
+and where they are, no one that I have ever spoken to knows. I have
+scoured the valleys and the hills. I have been to the very gates of
+Lichstorm. I am old, so that your aged men would appear newborn infants
+beside me, but I am as far from Threal as when I was a green youth,
+dwelling among a throng of fellow phaens.”
+
+“Then, if my luck is good, yours is very bad.... But when you have found
+Faceny, what do you gain?”
+
+Leehallfae looked at him in silence. The smile faded from aer face, and
+its place was taken by such a look of unearthly pain and sorrow that
+Maskull had no need to press his question. Ae was consumed by the grief
+and yearning of a lover eternally separated from the loved one, the
+scents and traces of whose person were always present. This passion
+stamped aer features at that moment with a wild, stern, spiritual
+beauty, far transcending any beauty of woman or man.
+
+But the expression vanished suddenly, and then the abrupt contrast
+showed Maskull the real Leehallfae. Aer sensuality was solitary, but
+vulgar—it was like the heroism of a lonely nature, pursuing animal aims
+with untiring persistence.
+
+He looked at the phaen askance, and drummed his fingers against his
+thigh. “Well, we will go together. We may find something, and in any
+case I shan’t be sorry to converse with such a singular individual as
+yourself.”
+
+“But I should warn you, Maskull. You and I are of different creations. A
+phaen’s body contains the whole of life, a man’s body contains only the
+half of life—the other half is in woman. Faceny may be too strong a
+draught for your body to endure.... Do you not feel this?”
+
+“I am dull with my different feelings. I must take what precautions I
+can, and chance the rest.” He bent down, and, taking hold of the phaen’s
+thin and ragged robe, tore off a broad strip, which he proceeded to
+swathe in folds around his forehead. “I’m not forgetting your advice,
+Leehallfae. I would not like to start the walk as Maskull and finish it
+as Digrung.”
+
+The phaen gave a twisted grin, and they began to move upstream. The road
+was difficult. They had to stride from boulder to boulder, and found it
+warm work. Occasionally a worse obstacle presented itself, which they
+could surmount only by climbing. There was no more conversation for a
+long time. Maskull, as far as possible, adopted his companion’s counsel
+to avoid the water, but here and there he was forced to set foot in it.
+The second or third time he did so, he felt a sudden agony in his arm,
+where it had been wounded by Krag. His eyes grew joyful; his fears
+vanished; and he began deliberately to tread the stream.
+
+Leehallfae stroked aer chin and watched him with screwed-up eyes, trying
+to comprehend what had happened. “Is your luck speaking to you, Maskull,
+or what is the matter?”
+
+“Listen. You are a being of antique experience, and ought to know, if
+anyone does. What is Muspel?”
+
+The phaen’s face was blank. “I don’t know the name.”
+
+“It is another world of some sort.”
+
+“That cannot be. There is only this one world—Faceny’s.”
+
+Maskull came up to aer, linked arms, and began to talk. “I’m glad I fell
+in with you, Leehallfae, for this valley and everything connected with
+it need a lot of explaining. For example, in this spot there are hardly
+any organic forms left—why have they all disappeared? You call this
+brook a ‘life stream,’ yet the nearer its source we get, the less life
+it produces. A mile or two lower down we had those spontaneous plant-
+animals appearing out of nowhere, while right down by the sea, plants
+and animals were tumbling over one another. Now, if all this is
+connected in some mysterious way or other with your Faceny, it seems to
+me he must have a most paradoxical nature. His essence doesn’t start
+creating shapes until it has become thoroughly weakened and watered....
+But perhaps both of us are talking nonsense.”
+
+Leehallfae shook aer head. “Everything hangs together. The stream is
+life, and it is throwing off sparks of life all the time. When these
+sparks are caught and imprisoned by matter, they become living shapes.
+The nearer the stream is to its source, the more terrible and vigorous
+is its life. You’ll see for yourself when we reach the head of the
+valley that there are no living shapes there at all. That means that
+there is no kind of matter tough enough to capture and hold the terrible
+sparks that are to be found there. Lower down the stream, most of the
+sparks are vigorous enough to escape to the upper air, but some are held
+when they are a little way up, and these burst suddenly into shapes. I
+myself am of this nature. Lower down still, toward the sea, the stream
+has lost a great part of its vital power and the sparks are lazy and
+sluggish. They spread out, rather than rise into the air. There is
+hardly any kind of matter, however delicate, that is incapable of
+capturing these feeble sparks, and they are captured in multitudes—that
+accounts for the innumerable living shapes you see there. But not only
+that—the sparks are passed from one body to another by way of
+generation, and can never hope to cease being so until they are worn out
+by decay. Lowest of all, you have the Sinking Sea itself. There the
+degenerate and enfeebled life of the Matterplay streams has for its body
+the whole sea. So weak is it’s power that it can’t succeed in creating
+any shapes at all but you can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to do
+so, in those spouts.”
+
+“So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness of
+the life germ in their case?”
+
+“Exactly. It can’t attain all its desires at once. And now you can see
+how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring spontaneously from
+the more electric and vigorous sparks.”
+
+“But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?”
+
+“When life dies, it becomes matter. Matter itself dies, but its place is
+constantly taken by new matter.”
+
+“But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?”
+
+“Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left his
+brain they are nothing—mere dying embers.”
+
+“This is a cheerless philosophy,” said Maskull. “But who is Faceny
+himself, then, and why does he think at all?”
+
+Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile. “That I’ll explain too. Faceny
+is of this nature. He faces Nothingness in all directions. He has no
+back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It must
+necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between him and
+Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates
+Nothingness. He draws his inspirations from it; in no other way could he
+feel himself. For the same reason, phaens and even men love to be in
+empty places and vast solitudes, for each one is a little Faceny.”
+
+“That rings true,” said Maskull.
+
+“Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny’s face backward. Since his face
+is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior. A draught of
+thought thus continuously flows from Nothingness to the inside of
+Faceny, which is the world. The thoughts become shapes, and people the
+world. This outer world, therefore, which is lying all around us, is not
+outside at all, as it happens, but inside. The visible universe is like
+a gigantic stomach, and the real outside of the world we shall never
+see.”
+
+Maskull pondered deeply for a while.
+
+“Leehallfae, I fail to see what you personally have to hope for, since
+you are nothing more than a discarded, dying thought.”
+
+“Have you never loved a woman?” asked the phaen, regarding him fixedly.
+
+“Perhaps I have.”
+
+“When you loved, did you have no high moments?”
+
+“That’s asking the same question in other words.”
+
+“In those moments you were approaching Faceny. If you could have drawn
+nearer still, would you not have done so?”
+
+“I would, regardless of the consequences.”
+
+“Even if you personally had nothing to hope for?”
+
+“But I would have that to hope for.”
+
+Leehallfae walked on in silence.
+
+“A man is the half of Life,” ae broke out suddenly. “A woman is the
+other half of life, but a phaen is the whole of life. Moreover, when
+life becomes split into halves, something else has dropped out of
+it—something that belongs only to the whole. Between your love and mine
+there is no comparison. If even your sluggish blood is drawn to Faceny,
+without stopping to ask what will come of it, how do you suppose it is
+with me?”
+
+“I don’t question the genuineness of your passion,” replied Maskull,
+“but it’s a pity you can’t see your way to carry it forward into the
+next world.”
+
+Leehallfae gave a distorted grin, expressing heaven knows what emotion.
+“Men think what they like, but phaens are so made that they can see the
+world only as it really is.”
+
+That ended the conversation.
+
+The sun was high in the sky, and they appeared to be approaching the
+head of the ravine. Its walls had still further closed in and, except at
+those moments when Branchspell was directly behind them, they strode
+along all the time in deep shade; but still it was disagreeably hot and
+relaxing. All life had ceased. A beautiful, fantastic spectacle was
+presented by the cliff faces, the rocky ground, and the boulders that
+choked the entire width of the gorge. They were of a snow-white
+crystalline limestone, heavily scored by veins of bright, gleaming blue.
+The rivulet was no longer green, but a clear, transparent crystal. Its
+noise was musical, and altogether it looked most romantic and charming,
+but Leehallfae seemed to find something else in it—aer features grew
+more and more set and tortured.
+
+About half an hour after all the other life forms had vanished, another
+plant-animal was precipitated out of space, in front of their eyes. It
+was as tall as Maskull himself, and had a brilliant and vigorous
+appearance, as befitted a creature just out of Nature’s mint. It started
+to walk about; but hardly had it done so when it burst silently asunder.
+Nothing remained of it—the whole body disappeared instantaneously into
+the same invisible mist from which it had sprung.
+
+“That bears out what you said,” commented Maskull, turning rather pale.
+
+“Yes,” answered Leehallfae, “we have now come to the region of terrible
+life.”
+
+“Then, since you’re right in this, I must believe all that you’ve been
+telling me.”
+
+As he uttered the words, they were just turning a bend of the ravine.
+There now loomed up straight ahead a perpendicular cliff about three
+hundred feet in height, composed of white, marbled rock. It was the head
+of the valley, and beyond it they could not proceed.
+
+“In return for my wisdom,” said the phaen, “you will now lend me your
+luck.”
+
+They walked up to the base of the cliff, and Maskull looked at it
+reflectively. It was possible to climb it, but the ascent would be
+difficult. The now tiny brook issued from a hole in the rock only a few
+feet up. Apart from its musical running, not a sound was to be heard.
+The floor of the gorge was in shadow, but about halfway up the precipice
+the sun was shining.
+
+“What do you want me to do?” demanded Maskull.
+
+“Everything is now in your hands, and I have no suggestions to make.
+Now it’s your luck that must help us.”
+
+Maskull continued gazing up a little while longer. “We had better wait
+till the afternoon, Leehallfae. I’ll probably have to climb to the top,
+but it’s too hot at present—and besides, I’m tired. I’ll snatch a few
+hours’ sleep. After that, we’ll see.”
+
+Leehallfae seemed annoyed, but raised no opposition.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17. CORPANG
+
+Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre. Leehallfae was
+standing by his side, looking down at him. It was doubtful whether ae
+had slept at all.
+
+“What time is it?” Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
+
+“The day is passing,” was the vague reply.
+
+Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff. “Now I’m going to
+climb that. No need for both of us to risk our necks, so you wait here,
+and if I find anything on top I’ll call you.”
+
+A phaen glanced at him strangely. “There’s nothing up there except a
+bare hillside. I’ve been there often. Have you anything special in
+mind?”
+
+“Heights often bring me inspiration. Sit down, and wait.”
+
+Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of the
+cliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush. Then it grew
+precipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection and
+intelligence. There were few hand- or footholds: he had to reflect
+before every step. On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was no
+novice at the sport. Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that it
+half blinded him with its glittering whiteness.
+
+After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top. He was hot, sweating
+copiously, and rather dizzy. To reach a ledge he caught hold of two
+projecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time scrambling
+upward, his legs between the rocks. The left-hand rock, which was the
+larger of the two, became dislodged by his weight, and, flying like a
+huge, dark shadow past his head, crashed down with a terrifying sound to
+the foot of the precipice, followed by an avalanche of smaller stones.
+Maskull steadied himself as well as he could, but it was some moments
+before he dared to look down behind him.
+
+At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae. Then he caught sight of
+legs and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom. He
+perceived that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was scrutinising
+something, and waited for aer to reappear.
+
+Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike voice,
+“The entrance is here!”
+
+“I’m coming down!” roared Maskull. “Wait for me!”
+
+He descended swiftly—without taking too much care, for he thought he
+recognised his “luck” in this discovery—and within twenty minutes was
+standing beside the phaen.
+
+“What happened?”
+
+“The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the spring. It
+tore it out of its bed. See—now there’s room for us to get in!”
+
+“Don’t get excited!” said Maskull. “It’s a remarkable accident, but we
+have plenty of time. Let me look.”
+
+He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big man
+without stooping. Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark, yet
+a peculiar glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough. A rock
+tunnel went straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out of sight.
+The valley brook did not flow along the floor of this tunnel, as he had
+expected, but came up as a spring just inside the entrance.
+
+“Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh? Still, observe that
+your stream parts company with us here.”
+
+As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion was
+trembling from head to foot.
+
+“Why, what’s the matter?”
+
+Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart. “The stream leaves us, but what
+makes the stream what it is continues with us. Faceny is there.”
+
+“But surely you don’t expect to see him in person? Why are you shaking?”
+
+“Perhaps it will be too much for me after all.”
+
+“Why? How is it affecting you?”
+
+The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm’s length,
+endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. “Faceny’s thoughts are
+obscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he grants to you
+what he denies to me.”
+
+“What does he grant to me?”
+
+“To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it’s immaterial.
+Tomorrow both of us will be dead.”
+
+Maskull impatiently shook himself free. “Your sensations may be reliable
+in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?”
+
+“Life is flaming up inside you,” replied Leehallfae, shaking aer head.
+“But after it has reached its climax—perhaps tonight—it will sink
+rapidly and you’ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter Threal I shan’t
+come out again. A smell of death is being wafted to me out of this
+hole.”
+
+“You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.”
+
+“I am not frightened,” said Leehallfae quietly—ae had been gradually
+recovering aer tranquillity—“but when one has lived as long as I have,
+it is a serious matter to die. Every year one puts out new roots.”
+
+“Decide what you’re going to do,” said Maskull with a touch of contempt,
+“for I’m going in at once.”
+
+The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after that
+walked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching his
+head, followed close at aer heels.
+
+The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
+altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear and
+refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. The
+daylight disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that,
+Maskull could not say where the light came from. The air itself must
+have been luminous, for though it was as light as full moon on Earth,
+neither he nor Leehallfae cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of the
+light was that both the walls of the tunnel and their own bodies
+appeared colourless. Everything was black and white, like a lunar
+landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal feelings created by the
+atmosphere.
+
+After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to
+widen out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could have
+walked side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae dragged
+aerself along slowly and painfully, with sunken head.
+
+Maskull caught hold of aer. “You can’t go on like that. Better let me
+take you back.”
+
+The phaen smiled, and staggered. “I’m dying.”
+
+“Don’t talk like that. It’s only a passing indisposition. Let me take
+you back to the daylight.”
+
+“No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.”
+
+“The sick must have their way,” said Maskull. Lifting aer bodily in his
+arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or so. They then
+emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of which he had
+never set eyes upon before.
+
+“Set me down!” directed Leehallfae feebly. “Here I’ll die.”
+
+Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground.
+The phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with
+fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.
+
+Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain,
+lighted as if by the moon—but there was of course no moon, and there
+were no shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Beside
+them were trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, but
+the branches also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No other
+plants could be seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice.
+Beyond a mile or two in any direction the light merged into obscurity.
+At their back a great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was not
+square like a wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indented
+line of sea cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight.
+Here and there a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered,
+towered aloft into the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof.
+There were no colours—every detail of the landscape was black, white, or
+grey. The scene appeared so still, so solemn and religious, that all his
+feelings quieted down to absolute tranquillity.
+
+Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, and
+helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like a
+candle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin of
+Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen’s dead features.
+
+While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone
+standing beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not at
+once rise.
+
+“Another phaen dead,” said the newcomer in a grave, toneless, and
+intellectual voice.
+
+Maskull got up.
+
+The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was not
+disfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features were
+energetic and rather coarse—yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure,
+hard life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyes
+carried a twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem was
+apparently in the forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; the
+hair of his head was short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothed
+in a black, sleeveless robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. There
+was an air of cleanness and austerity about the whole man that was
+attractive.
+
+He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so,
+kept passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. “They all
+find their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they live
+to an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because of
+their spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favoured
+children of Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die at
+once.”
+
+“I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?”
+
+“I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you
+doing here?”
+
+“My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe. As
+for what I am doing here—I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen, from
+Matterplay.”
+
+“But a man doesn’t accompany a phaen out of friendship. What do you want
+in Threal?”
+
+“Then this is Threal?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+Maskull remained silent.
+
+Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. “Are you ignorant, or
+merely reticent, Maskull?”
+
+“I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them.”
+
+The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred,
+and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, as
+though they were in a cathedral.
+
+“Then do you want my society, or not?” asked Corpang.
+
+“Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is—not to talk about
+myself.”
+
+“But you must at least tell me where you want to go to.”
+
+“I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm.”
+
+“I can guide you through, if that’s all you want. Come, let us start.”
+
+“First let’s do our duty and bury the dead, if possible.”
+
+“Turn around,” directed Corpang.
+
+Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae’s body had disappeared.
+
+“What does this mean—what has happened?”
+
+“The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for it
+to be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required.”
+
+“Was the phaen an illusion, then?”
+
+“In no sense.”
+
+“Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be going
+mad.”
+
+“There’s nothing unintelligible in it, if you’ll only listen calmly. The
+phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible world—to Faceny.
+This underworld is not Faceny’s world, but Thire’s, and Faceny’s
+creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere. As this applies not only to
+whole bodies, but even to the last particles of bodies, the phaen has
+dissolved into Nothingness.”
+
+“But don’t you and I belong to the outside world too?”
+
+“We belong to all three worlds.”
+
+“What three worlds—what do you mean?”
+
+“There are three worlds,” said Corpang composedly. “The first is
+Faceny’s, the second is Amfuse’s, the third is Thire’s. From him Threal
+gets its name.”
+
+“But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three worlds?”
+
+Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. “All this we can discuss as
+we go along. It’s a torment to me to be standing still.”
+
+Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae’s body had lain, quite
+bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely tear
+himself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpang
+called to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.
+
+They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,
+directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, the
+absence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out of the
+jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathly
+silence, the knowledge that he was underground—the combination of all
+these things predisposed Maskull’s mind to mysticism, and he prepared
+himself with some anxiety to hear Corpang’s explanation of the land and
+its wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of the outside
+world and the reality of this world were two quite different things.
+
+“In what sense are there three worlds?” he demanded, repeating his
+former question.
+
+Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. “First of all,
+Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it’s mere intellectual
+curiosity, tell me, for we mustn’t play with awful matters.”
+
+“No, it isn’t that,” said Maskull slowly. “I’m not a student. My journey
+is no holiday tour.”
+
+“Isn’t there blood on your soul?” asked Corpang, eying him intently.
+
+The blood rose steadily to Maskull’s face, but in that light it caused
+it to appear black.
+
+“Unfortunately there is, and not a little.”
+
+The other’s face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.
+
+“And so you see,” went on Maskull, with a short laugh, “I’m in the very
+best condition for receiving your instruction.”
+
+Corpang still paused. “Underneath your crimes I see a man,” he said,
+after a few minutes. “On that account, and because we are commanded to
+help one another, I won’t leave you at present, though I little thought
+to be walking with a murderer.... Now to your question.... Whatever a
+man sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three ways—length, breadth,
+depth. Length is existence, breadth is relation, depth is feeling.”
+
+“Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who came
+from Threal.”
+
+“I don’t know him. What else did he tell you?”
+
+“He went on to apply it to music. Continue, and pardon the
+interruption.”
+
+“These three states of perception are the three worlds. Existence is
+Faceny’s world, relation is Amfuse’s world, feeling is Thire’s world.”
+
+“Can’t we come down to hard facts?” said Maskull, frowning. “I
+understand no more than I did before what you mean by three worlds.”
+
+“There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The first
+world is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out of
+nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence.”
+
+“That I understand.”
+
+“The second world is Love—by which I don’t mean lust. Without love,
+every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable deliberately
+to act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy—not even
+hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect and
+distorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny’s world of Nature,
+therefore, we have Amfuse’s world of Love, or Relation.”
+
+“What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world is
+not contained in the first?”
+
+“They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover lives
+for others.”
+
+“It may be so. It’s rather mystical. But go on—who is Thire?”
+
+“Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and love
+without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is the
+need of men to stretch out toward their creator.”
+
+“You mean prayer and worship?”
+
+“I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in either
+the first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as depth
+is the line between object and subject, feeling is the line between
+Thire and man.”
+
+“But what is Thire himself?”
+
+“Thire is the afterworld.”
+
+“I still don’t understand,” said Maskull. “Do you believe in three
+separate gods, or are these merely three ways of regarding one God?”
+
+“There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic. Yet they are
+somehow united.”
+
+Maskull reflected a while. “How have you arrived at these conclusions?”
+
+“None other are possible in Threal, Maskull.”
+
+“Why in Threal—what is there peculiar here?”
+
+“I will show you presently.”
+
+They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested what
+had been said. When they came to the first trees, which grew along the
+banks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang halted.
+
+“That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,” he
+remarked.
+
+Maskull removed it. He found that the line of his brow was smooth and
+uninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in Tormance.
+
+“How has this come about—and how did you know it?”
+
+“They were Faceny’s organs. They have vanished, just as the phaen’s body
+vanished.”
+
+Maskull kept rubbing his forehead. “I feel more human without them. But
+why isn’t the rest of my body affected?”
+
+“Because its living will contains the element of Thire.”
+
+“Why are we stopping here?”
+
+Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and
+proffered it to him. “Eat this, Maskull.”
+
+“For food, or something else?”
+
+“Food for body and soul.”
+
+Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap was
+bleeding. It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a change
+of perception. The landscape, without alteration of light or outline,
+became several degrees more stern and sacred. When he looked at Corpang
+he was impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness, but the perplexed
+expression was still in his eyes.
+
+“Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?”
+
+“Occasionally I go above, but not often.”
+
+“What fastens you to this gloomy world?”
+
+“The search for Thire.”
+
+“Then it’s still a search?”
+
+“Let us walk on.”
+
+As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain,
+the conversation became even more earnest in character than before.
+“Although I was not born here,” proceeded Corpang, “I’ve lived here for
+twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing nearer
+to Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it—the first
+stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones. The
+longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In the
+beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as a
+voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, and
+harsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million miles
+off.”
+
+“How do you explain that?”
+
+“When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.”
+
+“But this is troubling you?”
+
+“My days are spent in torture.”
+
+“You still persist, though? This day darkness can’t be the ultimate
+state?”
+
+“My questions will be answered.”
+
+A silence ensued.
+
+“What do you propose to show me?” asked Maskull.
+
+“The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three Figures,
+which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There, we will
+pray.”
+
+“And what then?”
+
+“If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily
+forget.”
+
+They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two
+parallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hills
+on either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as it
+curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. They
+came to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed a
+trickling brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it was
+flowing up the valley instead of down. Before long it was joined by
+other miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sized
+stream. Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead.
+
+“Nature has other laws here, it seems?”
+
+“Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.”
+
+“Yet the water is flowing somewhere.”
+
+“I can’t explain it, but there are three wills in it.”
+
+“Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?”
+
+“Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without
+Faceny.”
+
+Maskull thought this over for some minutes. “That must be so,” he said
+at last. “Without life there can be no love, and without love there can
+be no religious feeling.”
+
+In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the
+valley presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. The
+sides were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrower
+at every step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural and
+sepulchral.
+
+Maskull said, “I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another world.”
+
+“I still do not know what you are doing here,” answered Corpang.
+
+“Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.”
+
+“That name I’ve heard—but under what circumstances?”
+
+“You forget?”
+
+Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously troubled.
+“Who is Surtur?”
+
+Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.
+
+The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touching
+fingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the rock
+walls on either side. It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-sac, but
+just when the road seemed least promising, and they were shut in by
+cliffs on all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought them suddenly
+into the open. They emerged through a mere crack in the line of
+precipices.
+
+A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to the
+way they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few hundred
+yards. Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm with
+perpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred feet, but
+its bottom could not be seen. On both sides of the chasm, facing one
+another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they too
+proceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emerged
+onto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higher
+than that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a double
+line of lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.
+
+The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straight
+forward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as a
+waterfall, it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge. It then
+disappeared through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.
+
+To Maskull’s mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnatural
+phenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable here
+than on the open plain. It made the place look like a hall of phantoms.
+
+Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left. When
+they had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred feet.
+Three large rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they resembled three
+upright giants, standing motionless side by side on the extreme edge of
+the chasm. Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and then Maskull saw that
+they were statues. Each was about thirty feet high, and the workmanship
+was of the rudest. They represented naked men, but the limbs and trunks
+had been barely chipped into shape—the faces alone had had care bestowed
+on them, and even these faces were merely generalised. It was obviously
+the work of primitive artists. The statues stood erect with knees closed
+and arms hanging straight down their sides. All three were exactly
+alike.
+
+As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.
+
+“Is this a representation of your three Beings?” asked Maskull, awed by
+the spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.
+
+“Ask no questions, but kneel,” replied Corpang. He dropped onto his own
+knees, but Maskull remained standing.
+
+Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently. After a few
+minutes the light sensibly faded. Then Maskull knelt as well, but he
+continued looking.
+
+It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night. Sight
+and sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.
+
+Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again. But it had
+ceased to be a statue—it was a living person. Out of the blackness of
+space a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by a mystic, rosy
+glow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun. As the light grew
+stronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent and that the glow
+came from within. The limbs of the apparition were wreathed in mist.
+
+Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly. It was that
+of a beardless youth of twenty years. It possessed the beauty of a girl
+and the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic smile. Maskull
+felt the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and rapture of one who
+awakes from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the gleaming, dark,
+delicate colours of the half-dawn. The vision smiled, kept still, and
+looked beyond him. He began to shudder, with delight—and many emotions.
+As he gazed, his poetic sensibility acquired such a nervous and
+indefinable character that he could endure it no more; he burst into
+tears.
+
+When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a few
+moments more he was plunged back into total darkness.
+
+Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared. It too was transfigured
+into a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the details of its
+face and body, because of the brightness of the light that radiated from
+them. This light, which started as pale gold, ended as flaming golden
+fire. It illumined the whole underground landscape. The rock ledges, the
+cliffs, himself and Corpang on their knees, the two unlighted
+statues—all appeared as if in sunlight, and the shadows were black and
+strongly defined. The light carried heat with it, but a singular heat.
+Maskull was unaware of any rise in temperature, but he felt his heart
+melting to womanish softness. His male arrogance and egotism faded
+imperceptibly away; his personality seemed to disappear. What was left
+behind was not freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionate
+and nearly savage mental state of pity and distress. He felt a
+tormenting desire to serve. All this came from the heat of the statue,
+and was without an object. He glanced anxiously around him, and fastened
+his eyes on Corpang. He put a hand on his shoulder and aroused him from
+his praying.
+
+“You must know what I am feeling, Corpang.”
+
+Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.
+
+“I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?”
+
+“So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to the
+invisible worlds.”
+
+As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light to
+die away from the landscape. Maskull’s emotion slowly subsided, but it
+was not until he was once more in complete darkness that he became
+master of himself again. Then he felt ashamed of his boyish exhibition
+of enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be something wanting
+in his character. He got up onto his feet.
+
+The very moment that he arose, a man’s voice sounded, not a yard from
+his ear. It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could distinguish
+that it was not Corpang’s. As he listened he was unable to prevent
+himself from physically trembling.
+
+“Maskull, you are to die,” said the unseen speaker.
+
+“Who is speaking?”
+
+“You have only a few hours of life left. Don’t trifle the time away.”
+
+Maskull could bring nothing out.
+
+“You have despised life,” went on the low-toned voice. “Do you really
+imagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life is a joke?”
+
+“What must I do?”
+
+“Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to...”
+
+The voice died away. Maskull waited in silence for it to speak again.
+All remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have taken his
+departure. Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a sort of
+catalepsy.
+
+At that moment he saw one of the statues fading away, from a pale, white
+glow to darkness. He had not previously seen it shining.
+
+In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned. Corpang got
+up, and shook him out of his trance.
+
+Maskull looked around, but saw no third person. “Whose statue was the
+last?” he demanded.
+
+“Thire’s.”
+
+“Did you hear me speaking?”
+
+“I heard your voice, but no one else’s.”
+
+“I’ve just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long to live.
+Leehallfae prophesied the same thing.”
+
+Corpang shook his head. “What value do you set on life?” he asked.
+
+“Very little. But it’s a fearful thing all the same.”
+
+“Your death is?”
+
+“No, but this warning.”
+
+They stopped talking. A profound silence reigned. Neither of the two men
+seemed to know what to do next, or where to go. Then both of them heard
+the sound of drumming. It was slow, emphatic, and impressive, a long way
+off and not loud, but against the background of quietness, very marked.
+It appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of where
+they were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull’s heart beat
+quickly.
+
+“What can that sound be?” asked Corpang, peering into the obscurity.
+
+“It is Surtur.”
+
+“Once again, who is Surtur?”
+
+Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiance
+was in the air, in the direction of the drumming. It increased in
+intensity and gradually occupied the whole scene. Things were no longer
+seen by Their’s light, but by this new light. It cast no shadows.
+
+Corpang’s nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly. “What fire
+is that?”
+
+“It is Muspel-light.”
+
+They both glanced instinctively at the three statues. In the strange
+glow they had undergone a change. The face of each figure was clothed in
+the sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.
+
+Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes. “What can this mean?”
+he asked a minute later.
+
+“It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too, whether
+he is one person or three.”
+
+Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a
+shocking sight. “Dare we believe this?”
+
+“You must,” replied Maskull. “You have always served the highest, and
+you must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that Thire is not
+the highest.”
+
+Corpang’s face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. “Life is
+clearly false—I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I
+find—this.”
+
+“You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had eternity
+to practice his cunning in, so it’s no wonder if a man can’t see
+straight, even with the best intentions. What have you decided to do?”
+
+“The drumming seems to be moving away. Will you follow it, Maskull?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“But where will it take us?”
+
+“Perhaps out of Threal altogether.”
+
+“It sounds to me more real than reality,” said Corpang. “Tell me, who is
+Surtur?”
+
+“Surtur’s world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of which this
+world is a distorted copy. Crystalman is life, but Surtur is other than
+life.”
+
+“How do you know this?”
+
+“It has sprung together somehow—from inspiration, from experience, from
+conversation with the wise men of your planet. Every hour it grows truer
+for me and takes a more definite shape.”
+
+Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,
+energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution. “I believe you,
+Maskull. No better proof is required than that. Thire is not the
+highest; he is even in a certain sense the lowest. Nothing but the
+thoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits.... I am coming
+with you—but don’t play the traitor. These signs may be for you, and not
+for me at all, and if you leave me—”
+
+“I make no promises. I don’t ask you to come with me. If you prefer to
+stay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it, you had
+better not come.”
+
+“Don’t talk like that. I shall never forget your service to me... Let us
+make haste, or we shall lose the sound.”
+
+Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull. They walked fast in the
+direction of the drumming. For upward of two miles the path went along
+the ledge without any change of level. The mysterious radiance gradually
+departed, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal. The rhythmical
+beats continued, but a very long way ahead—neither was able to diminish
+the distance.
+
+“What kind of man are you?” Corpang suddenly broke out.
+
+“In what respect?”
+
+“How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible? How is it that
+I’ve never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my never-
+ending prayers and mortifications? In what way are you superior to me?”
+
+“To hear voices perhaps can’t be made a profession,” replied Maskull. “I
+have a simple and unoccupied mind—that may be why I sometimes hear
+things that up to the present you have not been able to.”
+
+Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to his
+pride.
+
+The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform on
+the opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to the
+right, and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a
+bridge, coming out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line of
+precipices immediately confronted them. They followed the drumming along
+the base of these heights, but as they were passing the mouth of a large
+cave the sound came from its recesses, and they turned their steps
+inward.
+
+“This leads to the outer world,” remarked Corpang. “I’ve occasionally
+been there by this passage.”
+
+“Then that’s where it is taking us, no doubt. I confess I shan’t be
+sorry to see sunlight once more.”
+
+“Can you find time to think of sunlight?” asked Corpang with a rough
+smile.
+
+“I love the sun, and perhaps I’m rather lacking in the spirit of a
+zealot.”
+
+“Yet, for all that, you may get there before me.”
+
+“Don’t be bitter,” said Maskull. “I’ll tell you another thing. Muspel
+can’t be willed, for the simple reason that Muspel does not concern the
+will. To will is a property of this world.”
+
+“Then what is your journey for?”
+
+“It’s one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over the walk,
+and quite another to run there at top speed.”
+
+“Perhaps I’m not so easily deceived as you think,” said Corpang with
+another smile.
+
+The light persisted in the cave. The path narrowed and became a steep
+ascent. Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and they had to
+climb. The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was reminded of the
+confined dreams of his childhood.
+
+Not long afterward, daylight appeared. They hastened to complete the
+last stage. Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and, all
+dirty and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on a
+hillside, bathed in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine. Corpang
+followed closely at his heels. He was obliged to shield his eyes with
+his hands for a few minutes, so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell’s
+blinding rays.
+
+“The drum beats have stopped!” he exclaimed suddenly.
+
+“You can’t expect music all the time,” answered Maskull dryly. “We
+mustn’t be luxurious.”
+
+“But now we have no guide. We’re no better off than before.”
+
+“Well, Tormance is a big place. But I have an infallible rule, Corpang.
+As I come from the south, I always go due north.”
+
+“That will take us to Lichstorm.”
+
+Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them. “I saw
+these rocks from Matterplay. The mountains look as far off now as they
+did then, and there’s not much of the day left. How far is Lichstorm
+from here?”
+
+Corpang looked away to the distant range. “I don’t know, but unless a
+miracle happens we shan’t get there tonight.”
+
+“I have a feeling,” said Maskull, “that we shall not only get there
+tonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my life.”
+
+And he sat down passively to rest.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18. HAUNTE
+
+While Maskull sat, Corpang walked restlessly to and fro, swinging his
+arms. He had lost his staff. His face was inflamed with suppressed
+impatience, which accentuated its natural coarseness. At last he stopped
+short in front of Maskull and looked down at him. “What do you intend to
+do?”
+
+Maskull glanced up and idly waved his hand toward the distant mountains.
+“Since we can’t walk, we must wait.”
+
+“For what?”
+
+“I don’t know... How’s this, though? Those peaks have changed colour,
+from red to green.”
+
+“Yes, the lich wind is travelling this way.”
+
+“The lich wind?”
+
+“It’s the atmosphere of Lichstorm. It always clings to the mountains,
+but when the wind blows from the north it comes as far as Threal.”
+
+“It’s a sort of fog, then?”
+
+“A peculiar sort, for they say it excites the sexual passions.”
+
+“So we are to have lovemaking,” said Maskull, laughing.
+
+“Perhaps you won’t find it so joyous,” replied Corpang a little grimly.
+
+“But tell me—these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?”
+
+Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast
+fading into obscurity.
+
+“Passion keeps them from falling.”
+
+Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of spirit.
+“What, the love of rock for rock?”
+
+“It is comical, but true.”
+
+“We’ll take a closer peep at them presently. Beyond the mountains is
+Barey, is it not?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And then the Ocean. But what is the name of that Ocean?”
+
+“That is told only to those who die beside it.”
+
+“Is the secret so precious, Corpang?”
+
+Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than
+two hours of daylight remaining. The air all around them became murky.
+It was a thin mist, neither damp nor cold. The Lichstorm Range now
+appeared only as a blur on the sky. The air was electric and tingling,
+and was exciting in its effect. Maskull felt a sort of emotional
+inflammation, as though a very slight external cause would serve to
+overturn his self-control. Corpang stood silent with a mouth like iron.
+
+Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
+
+“That seems to me a good watchtower. Perhaps we shall see something from
+the top.”
+
+Without waiting for his companion’s opinion, he began to scramble up the
+tor, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit. Corpang joined
+him.
+
+From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to the
+sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water.
+Leaving all that, however, Maskull’s eyes immediately fastened
+themselves on a small, boat-shaped object, about two miles away, which
+was travelling rapidly toward them, suspended only a few feet in the
+air.
+
+“What do you make of that?” he asked in a tone of astonishment.
+
+Corpang shook his head and said nothing.
+
+Within two minutes the flying object, whatever it was, had diminished
+the distance between them by one half. It resembled a boat more and
+more, but its flight was erratic, rather than smooth; its nose was
+continually jerking upward and downward, and from side to side. Maskull
+now made out a man sitting in the stern, and what looked like a large
+dead animal lying amidships. As the aerial craft drew nearer, he
+observed a thick, blue haze underneath it, and a similar haze behind,
+but the front, facing them, was clear.
+
+“Here must be what we are waiting for, Corpang. But what on earth
+carries it?”
+
+He stroked his beard contemplatively, and then, fearing that they had
+not been seen, stepped onto the highest rock, bellowed loudly, and made
+wild motions with his arm. The flying-boat, which was only a few hundred
+yards distant, slightly altered its course, now heading toward them in a
+way that left no doubt that the steersman had detected their presence.
+
+The boat slackened speed until it was travelling no faster than a
+walking man, but the irregularity of its movements continued. It was
+shaped rather queerly. About twenty feet long, its straight sides
+tapered off from a flat bow, four feet broad, to a sharp-angled stern.
+The flat bottom was not above ten feet from the ground. It was undecked,
+and carried only one living occupant; the other object they had
+distinguished was really the carcass of an animal, of about the size of
+a large sheep. The blue haze trailing behind the boat appeared to
+emanate from the glittering point of a short upright pole fastened in
+the stern. When the craft was within a few feet of them, and they were
+looking down at it in wonder from above, the man removed this pole and
+covered the brightly shining tip with a cap. The forward motion then
+ceased altogether, and the boat began to drift hither and thither, but
+still it remained suspended in the air, while the haze underneath
+persisted. Finally the broad side came gently up against the pile of
+rocks on which they were standing. The steersman jumped ashore and
+immediately clambered up to meet them.
+
+Maskull offered him a hand, but he refused it disdainfully. He was a
+young man, of middle height. He wore a close-fitting fur garment. His
+limbs were quite ordinary, but his trunk was disproportionately long,
+and he had the biggest and deepest chest that Maskull had ever seen in a
+man. His hairless face was sharp, pointed, and ugly, with protruding
+teeth, and a spiteful, grinning expression. His eyes and brows sloped
+upward. On his forehead was an organ which looked as though it had been
+mutilated—it was a mere disagreeable stump of flesh. His hair was short
+and thin. Maskull could not name the colour of his skin, but it seemed
+to stand in the same relation to jale as green to red.
+
+Once up, the stranger stood for a minute or two, scrutinising the two
+companions through half-closed lids, all the time smiling insolently.
+Maskull was all eagerness to exchange words, but did not care to be the
+first to speak. Corpang stood moodily, a little in the background.
+
+“What men are you?” demanded the aerial navigator at last. His voice was
+extremely loud, and possessed a most unpleasant timbre. It sounded to
+Maskull like a large volume of air trying to force its way through a
+narrow orifice.
+
+“I am Maskull; my friend is Corpang. He comes from Threal, but where I
+come from, don’t ask.”
+
+“I am Haunte, from Sarclash.”
+
+“Where may that be?”
+
+“Half an hour ago I could have shown it to you, but now it has got too
+murky. It is a mountain in Lichstorm.”
+
+“Are you returning there now?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And how long will it take to get there in that boat?”
+
+“Two—three hours.”
+
+“Will it accommodate us too?”
+
+“What, are you for Lichstorm as well? What can you want there?”
+
+“To see the sights,” responded Maskull with twinkling eyes. “But first
+of all, to dine. I can’t remember having eaten all day. You seem to have
+been hunting to some purpose, so we won’t lack for food.”
+
+Haunte eyed him quizzically. “You certainly don’t lack impudence.
+However, I’m a man of that sort myself, and it is the sort I prefer.
+Your friend, now, would probably rather starve than ask a meal of a
+stranger. He looks to me just like a bewildered toad dragged up out of a
+dark hole.”
+
+Maskull took Corpang’s arm, and constrained him to silence.
+
+“Where have you been hunting, Haunte?”
+
+“Matterplay. I had the worst luck—I speared one wold horse, and there it
+lies.”
+
+“What is Lichstorm like?”
+
+“There are men there, and there are women there, but there are no men-
+women, as with you.”
+
+“What do you call men-women?”
+
+“Persons of mixed sex, like yourself. In Lichstorm the sexes are pure.”
+
+“I have always regarded myself as a man.”
+
+“Very likely you have; but the test is, do you hate and fear women?”
+
+“Why, do you?”
+
+Haunte grinned and showed his teeth. “Things are different in
+Lichstorm.... So you want to see the sights?”
+
+“I confess I am curious to see your women, for example, after what you
+say.”
+
+“Then I’ll introduce you to Sullenbode.”
+
+He paused a moment after making this remark, and then suddenly uttered a
+great, bass laugh, so that his chest shook.
+
+“Let us share the joke,” said Maskull.
+
+“Oh, you’ll understand it later.”
+
+“If you play pranks with me, I won’t stand on ceremony with you.”
+
+Haunte laughed again. “I won’t be the one to play pranks. Sullenbode
+will be deeply obliged to me. If I don’t visit her myself as often as
+she would like, I’m always glad to serve her in other ways.... Well, you
+shall have your boat ride.”
+
+Maskull rubbed his nose doubtfully. “If the sexes hate one another in
+your land, is it because passion is weaker, or stronger?”
+
+“In other parts of the world there is soft passion, but in Lichstorm
+there is hard passion.”
+
+“But what do you call hard passion?”
+
+“Where men are called to women by pain, and not pleasure.”
+
+“I intend to understand, before I’ve finished.”
+
+“Yes,” answered Haunte, with a taunting look, “it would be a pity to let
+the chance slip, since you’re going to Lichstorm.”
+
+It was now Corpang’s turn to take Maskull by the arm. “This journey will
+end badly.”
+
+“Why so?”
+
+“Your goal was Muspel a short while ago; now it is women.”
+
+“Let me alone,” said Maskull. “Give luck a slack rein. What brought this
+boat here?”
+
+“What is this talk about Muspel?” demanded Haunte.
+
+Corpang caught his shoulder roughly, and stared straight into his eyes.
+“What do you know?”
+
+“Not much, but something, perhaps. Ask me at supper. Now it is high time
+to start. Navigating the mountains by night isn’t child’s play, let me
+tell you.”
+
+“I shall not forget,” said Corpang.
+
+Maskull gazed down at the boat. “Are we to get in?”
+
+“Gently, my friend. It’s only canework and skin.”
+
+“First of all, you might enlighten me as to how you have contrived to
+dispense with the laws of gravitation.”
+
+Haunte smiled sarcastically. “A secret in your ear, Maskull. All laws
+are female. A true male is an outlaw—outside the law.”
+
+“I don’t understand.”
+
+“The great body of the earth is continually giving out female particles,
+and the male parts of rocks and living bodies are equally continually
+trying to reach them. That’s gravitation.”
+
+“Then how do you manage with your boat?”
+
+“My two male stones do the work. The one underneath the boat prevents it
+from falling to the ground; the one in the stern shuts it off from solid
+objects in the rear. The only part of the boat attracted by any part of
+the earth is the bow, for that’s the only part the light of the male
+stones does not fall on. So in that direction the boat travels.”
+
+“And what are these wondrous male stones?”
+
+“They really are male stones. There is nothing female in them; they are
+showering out male sparks all the time. These sparks devour all the
+female particles rising from the earth. No female particles are left
+over to attract the male parts of the boat, and so they are not in the
+least attracted in that direction.”
+
+Maskull ruminated for a minute.
+
+“With your hunting, and boatbuilding, and science, you seem a very
+handy, skilful fellow, Haunte.... But the sun’s sinking, and we’d better
+start.”
+
+“Get down first, then, and shift that carcass farther forward. Then you
+and your gloomy friend can sit amidships.”
+
+Maskull immediately climbed down, and dropped himself into the boat; but
+then he received a surprise. The moment he stood on the frail bottom,
+still clinging to the rock, not only did his weight entirely disappear,
+as though he were floating in some heavy medium, like salt water, but
+the rock he held onto drew him, as by a mild current of electricity, and
+he was able to withdraw his hands only with difficulty.
+
+After the first moment’s shock, he quietly accepted the new order of
+things, and set about shifting the carcass. Since there was no weight in
+the boat this was effected without any great labour. Corpang then
+descended. The astonishing physical change had no power to disturb his
+settled composure, which was founded on moral ideas. Haunte came last;
+grasping the staff which held the upper male stone, he proceeded to
+erect it, after removing the cap. Maskull then obtained his first near
+view of the mysterious light, which, by counteracting the forces of
+Nature, acted indirectly not only as elevator but as motive force. In
+the last ruddy gleams of the great sun, its rays were obscured, and it
+looked little more impressive than an extremely brilliant, scintillating
+blue-white jewel, but its power could be gauged by the visible, coloured
+mist that it threw out for many yards around.
+
+The steering was effected by means of a shutter attached by a cord to
+the top of the staff, which could be so manipulated that any segment of
+the male stone’s rays, or all the rays, or none at all, could be shut
+off at will. No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial vessel
+quietly detached itself from the rock to which it had been drawn, and
+passed slowly forward in the direction of the mountains. Branchspell
+sank below the horizon. The gathering mist blotted out everything
+outside a radius of a few miles. The air grew cool and fresh.
+
+Soon the rock masses ceased on the great, rising plain. Haunte withdrew
+the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
+
+“You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,”
+exclaimed Maskull. “I would have thought it impossible.”
+
+Haunte grunted. “You will have to take risks, and think yourself
+fortunate if you come off with nothing worse than a cracked skull. But
+one thing I can tell you—if you go on disturbing me with your chitchat
+we shan’t get as far as the mountains.”
+
+Thereafter Maskull was silent.
+
+The twilight deepened; the murk grew denser. There was little to look
+at, but much to feel. The motion of the boat, which was due to the
+never-ending struggle between the male stones and the force of
+gravitation, resembled in an exaggerated fashion the violent tossing of
+a small craft on a choppy sea. The two passengers became unhappy.
+Haunte, from his seat in the stern, gazed at them sardonically with one
+eye. The darkness now came on rapidly.
+
+About ninety minutes after the commencement of the voyage they arrived
+at the foothills of Lichstorm. They began to mount. There was no
+daylight left to see by. Beneath them, however, on both sides of them
+and in the rear, the landscape was lighted up for a considerable
+distance by the now vivid blue rays of the twin male stones. Ahead,
+where these rays did not shine, Haunte was guided by the self-luminous
+nature of the rocks, grass, and trees. These were faintly
+phosphorescent; the vegetation shone out more strongly than the soil.
+
+The moon was not shining and there were no stars; Maskull therefore
+inferred that the upper atmosphere was dense with mist. Once or twice,
+from his sensations of choking, he thought that they were entering a
+fogbank, but it was a strange kind of fog, for it had the effect of
+doubling the intensity of every light in front of them. Whenever this
+happened, nightmare feelings attacked him; he experienced transitory,
+unreasoning fright and horror.
+
+Now they passed high above the valley that separated the foothills from
+the mountains themselves. The boat began an ascent of many thousands of
+feet and, as the cliffs were near, Haunte had to manoeuvre carefully
+with the rear light in order to keep clear of them. Maskull watched the
+delicacy of his movements, not without admiration. A long time went by.
+It grew much colder; the air was damp and drafty. The fog began to
+deposit something like snow on their persons. Maskull kept sweating with
+terror, not because of the danger they were in, but because of the cloud
+banks that continued to envelop them.
+
+They cleared the first line of precipices. Still mounting, but this time
+with a forward motion, as could be seen by the vapours illuminated by
+the male stones through which they passed, they were soon altogether out
+of sight of solid ground. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly the moon broke
+through. In the upper atmosphere thick masses of fog were seen crawling
+hither and thither, broken in many places by thin rifts of sky, through
+one of which Teargeld was shining. Below them, to their left, a gigantic
+peak, glittering with green ice, showed itself for a few seconds, and
+was then swallowed up again. All the rest of the world was hidden by the
+mist. The moon went in again. Maskull had seen quite enough to make him
+long for the aerial voyage to end.
+
+The light from the male stones presently illuminated the face of a new
+cliff. It was grand, rugged, and perpendicular. Upward, downward, and on
+both sides, it faded imperceptibly into the night. After coasting it a
+little way, they observed a shelf of rock jutting out. It was square,
+measuring about a dozen feet each way. Green snow covered it to a depth
+of some inches. Immediately behind it was a dark slit in the rock, which
+promised to be the mouth of a cave.
+
+Haunte skilfully landed the boat on this platform. Standing up, he
+raised the staff bearing the keel light and lowered the other; then
+removed both male stones, which he continued to hold in his hand. His
+face was thrown into strong relief by the vivid, sparkling blue-white
+rays. It looked rather surly.
+
+“Do we get out?” inquired Maskull.
+
+“Yes. I live here.”
+
+“Thanks for the successful end of a dangerous journey.”
+
+“Yes, it has been touch-and-go.”
+
+Corpang jumped onto the platform. He was smiling coarsely. “There has
+been no danger, for our destinies lie elsewhere. You are merely a
+ferryman, Haunte.”
+
+“Is that so?” returned Haunte, with a most unpleasant laugh. “I thought
+I was carrying men, not gods.”
+
+“Where are we?” asked Maskull. As he spoke, he got out, but Haunte
+remained standing a minute in the boat.
+
+“This is Sarclash—the second highest mountain in the land.”
+
+“Which is the highest, then?”
+
+“Adage. Between Sarclash and Adage there is a long ridge—very difficult
+in places. About halfway along the ridge, at the lowest point, lies the
+top of the Mornstab Pass, which goes through to Barey. Now you know the
+lay of the land.”
+
+“Does the woman Sullenbode live near here?”
+
+“Near enough.” Haunte grinned.
+
+He leaped out of the boat and, pushing past the others without ceremony,
+walked straight into the cave.
+
+Maskull followed, with Corpang at his heels. A few stone steps led to a
+doorway, curtained by the skin of some large beast. Their host pushed
+his way in, never offering to hold the skin aside for them. Maskull made
+no comment, but grabbed it with his fist and tugged it away from its
+fastenings to the ground. Haunte looked at the skin, and then stared
+hard at Maskull with his disagreeable smile, but neither said anything.
+
+The place in which they found themselves was a large oblong cavern, with
+walls, floor, and ceiling of natural rock. There were two doorways: that
+by which they had entered, and another of smaller size directly
+opposite. The cave was cold and cheerless; a damp draft passed from door
+to door. Many skins of wild animals lay scattered on the ground. A
+number of lumps of sun-dried flesh were hanging on a string along the
+wall, and a few bulging liquor skins reposed in a corner. There were
+tusks, horns, and bones everywhere. Resting against the wall were two
+short hunting spears, having beautiful crystal heads.
+
+Haunte set down the two male stones on the ground, near the farther
+door; thire light illuminated the whole cave. He then walked over to the
+meat and, snatching a large piece, began to gnaw it ravenously.
+
+“Are we invited to the feast?” asked Maskull.
+
+Haunte pointed to the hanging flesh and to the liquor skins, but did not
+pause in his chewing.
+
+“Where’s a cup?” inquired Maskull, lifting one of the skins.
+
+Haunte indicated a clay goblet lying on the floor. Maskull picked it up,
+undid the neck of the skin, and, resting it under his arm, filled the
+cup. Tasting the liquor, he discovered it to be raw spirit. He tossed
+off the draught, and then felt much better.
+
+The second cupful he proffered to Corpang. The latter took a single sip,
+swallowed it, and then passed the cup back without a word. He refused to
+drink again, as long as they were in the cave. Maskull finished the cup,
+and began to throw off care.
+
+Going to the meat line, he took down a large double handful, and sat
+down on a pile of skins to eat at his ease. The flesh was tough and
+coarse, but he had never tasted anything sweeter. He could not
+understand the flavour, which was not surprising in a world of strange
+animals. The meal proceeded in silence. Corpang ate sparingly, standing
+up, and afterward lay down on a bundle of furs. His bold eyes watched
+all the movements of the other two. Haunte had not drunk as yet.
+
+At last Maskull concluded his meal. He emptied another cup, sighed
+pleasantly, and prepared to talk.
+
+“Now explain further about your women, Haunte.”
+
+Haunte fetched another skin of liquor and a second cup. He tore off the
+string with his teeth, and poured out and drank cup after cup in quick
+succession. Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and turned to Maskull.
+
+“Well?”
+
+“So they are objectionable?”
+
+“They are deadly.”
+
+“Deadly? In what way can they possibly be deadly?”
+
+“You will learn. I was watching you in the boat, Maskull. You had some
+bad feelings, eh?”
+
+“I don’t conceal it. There were times when I felt as if I were
+struggling with a nightmare. What caused it?”
+
+“The female atmosphere of Lichstorm. Sexual passion.”
+
+“I had no passion.”
+
+“That was passion—the first stage. Nature tickles your people into
+marriage, but it tortures us. Wait till you get outside. You’ll have a
+return of those sensations—only ten times worse. The drink you’ve had
+will see to that.... How do you suppose it will all end?”
+
+“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you questions.”
+
+Haunte laughed loudly. “Sullenbode.”
+
+“You mean it will end in my seeking Sullenbode?”
+
+“But what will come of it, Maskull? What will she give you? Sweet,
+fainting, white-armed, feminine voluptuousness?”
+
+Maskull coolly drank another cup. “And why should she give all that to a
+passerby?”
+
+“Well, as a matter of fact, she hasn’t it to give. No, what she will
+give you, and what you’ll accept from her, because you can’t help it,
+is—anguish, insanity, possibly death.”
+
+“You may be talking sense, but it sounds like raving to me. Why should I
+accept insanity and death?”
+
+“Because your passion will force you to.”
+
+“What about yourself?” Maskull asked, biting his nails.
+
+“Oh, I have my male stones. I am immune.”
+
+“Is that all that prevents you from being like other men?”
+
+“Yes, but don’t attempt any tricks, Maskull.”
+
+Maskull went on drinking steadily, and said nothing for a time. “So men
+and women here are hostile to each other, and love is unknown?” he
+proceeded at last.
+
+“That magic word.... Shall I tell you what love is, Maskull? Love
+between male and female is impossible. When Maskull loves a woman, it is
+Maskull’s female ancestors who are loving her. But here in this land the
+men are pure males. They have drawn nothing from the female side.”
+
+“Where do the male stones come from?”
+
+“Oh, they are not freaks. There must be whole beds of the stuff
+somewhere. It is all that prevents the world from being a pure female
+world. It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without individual
+shapes.”
+
+“Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?”
+
+“The life of an absolute male is fierce. An excess of life is dangerous
+to the body. How can it be anything else than torturing?”
+
+Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte. “I remind you of your
+promise to tell about Muspel.”
+
+Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile. “Ha! The underground man
+has come to life.”
+
+“Yes, tell us,” put in Maskull carelessly.
+
+Haunte drank, and laughed a little. “Well, the tale’s short, and hardly
+worth telling, but since you’re interested.... A stranger came here five
+years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light. His name was Lodd. He came from
+the east. He came up to me one bright morning in summer, outside this
+very cave. If you ask me to describe him—I can’t imagine a second man
+like him. He looked so proud, noble, superior, that I felt my own blood
+to be dirty by comparison. You can guess I don’t have this feeling for
+everyone. Now that I am recalling him, he was not so much superior as
+different. I was so impressed that I rose and talked to him standing. He
+inquired the direction of the mountain Adage. He went on to say, ‘They
+say Muspel-light is sometimes seen there. What do you know of such a
+thing?’ I told him the truth—that I knew nothing about it, and then he
+went on, ‘Well, I am going to Adage. And tell those who come after me on
+the same errand that they had better do the same thing.’ That was the
+whole conversation. He started on his way, and I’ve never seen him or
+heard of him since.”
+
+“So you didn’t have the curiosity to follow him?”
+
+“No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in the
+man somehow seemed to vanish.”
+
+“Probably because he was useless to you.”
+
+Corpang glanced at Maskull. “Our road is marked out for us.”
+
+“So it would appear,” said Maskull indifferently.
+
+The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and
+grew restless.
+
+“What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
+daylight? It struck me as strange.”
+
+“Dolm,” said Haunte.
+
+“A compound of ulfire and blue,” explained Corpang.
+
+“Now I know. These colours are puzzling for a stranger.”
+
+“What colours have you in your world?” asked Corpang.
+
+“Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how it
+comes about I can’t imagine.”
+
+“There are two sets of three primary colours here,” said Corpang, “but
+as one of the colours—blue—is identical in both sets, altogether there
+are five primary colours.”
+
+“Why two sets?”
+
+“Produced by the two suns. Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and red;
+Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale.”
+
+“It’s remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me before.”
+
+“So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity of
+nature. Blue is existence. It is darkness seen through light; a
+contrasting of existence and nothingness. Yellow is relation. In yellow
+light we see the relation of objects in the clearest way. Red is
+feeling. When we see red, we are thrown back on our personal
+feelings.... As regards the Alppain colours, blue stands in the middle
+and is therefore not existence, but relation. Ulfire is existence; so it
+must be a different sort of existence.”
+
+Haunte yawned. “There are marvellous philosophers in your underground
+hole.”
+
+Maskull got up and looked about him.
+
+“Where does that other door lead to?”
+
+“Better explore,” said Haunte.
+
+Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging the
+curtain aside and disappearing into the night. Haunte rose abruptly and
+hurried after him.
+
+Corpang too got to his feet. He went over to the untouched spirit skins,
+untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to the floor.
+Next he took the hunting spears, and snapped off the points between his
+hands. Before he had time to resume his seat, Haunte and Maskull
+reappeared. The host’s quick, shifty eyes at once took in what had
+happened. He smiled, and turned pale.
+
+“You haven’t been idle, friend.”
+
+Corpang fixed Haunte with his bold, heavy gaze. “I thought it well to
+draw your teeth.”
+
+Maskull burst out laughing. “The toad’s come into the light to some
+purpose, Haunte. Who would have expected it?”
+
+Haunte, after staring hard at Corpang for two or three minutes, suddenly
+uttered a strange cry, like an evil spirit, and flung himself upon him.
+The two men began to wrestle like wildcats. They were as often on the
+floor as on their legs, and Maskull could not see who was getting the
+better of it. He made no attempt to separate them. A thought came into
+his head and, snatching up the two male stones, he ran with them,
+laughing, through the upper doorway, into the open night air.
+
+The door overlooked an abyss on another face of the mountain. A narrow
+ledge, sprinkled with green snow, wound along the cliff to the right; it
+was the only available path. He pitched the pebbles over the edge of the
+chasm. Although hard and heavy in his hand, they sank more like feathers
+than stones, and left a long trail of vapour behind. While Maskull was
+still watching them disappear, Haunte came rushing out of the cavern,
+followed by Corpang. He gripped Maskull’s arm excitedly.
+
+“What in Krag’s name have you done?”
+
+“Overboard they have gone,” replied Maskull, renewing his laughter.
+
+“You accursed madman!”
+
+Haunte’s luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
+light were breathing. Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme exertion
+of his will.
+
+“You know this kills me?”
+
+“Haven’t you been doing your best this last hour to make me ripe for
+Sullenbode? Well then, cheer up, and join the pleasure party!”
+
+“You say it as a joke, but it is the miserable truth.”
+
+Haunte’s jeering malevolence had completely vanished. He looked a sick
+man—yet somehow his face had become nobler.
+
+“I would be very sorry for you, Haunte, if it did not entail my being
+also very sorry for myself. We are now all three together on the same
+errand—which doesn’t appear to have struck you yet.”
+
+“But why this errand at all?” asked Corpang quietly. “Can’t you men
+exercise self-control till you have arrived out of danger?”
+
+Haunte fixed him with wild eyes. “No. The phantoms come trooping in on
+me already.”
+
+He sat down moodily, but the next minute was up again.
+
+“And I cannot wait.... the game is started.”
+
+Soon afterward, by silent consent, they began to walk the ledge, Haunte
+in front. It was narrow, ascending, and slippery, so that extreme
+caution was demanded. The way was lighted by the self-luminous snow and
+rocks.
+
+When they had covered about half a mile, Maskull, who went second of the
+party, staggered, caught the cliff, and finally sat down.
+
+“The drink works. My old sensations are returning, but worse.”
+
+Haunte turned back. “Then you are a doomed man.”
+
+Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation,
+imagined that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless, supernatural
+being, who was trying to clasp him. He was filled with horror, trembled
+violently, yet could not move a limb. Sweat tumbled off his face in
+great drops. The waking nightmare lasted a long time, but during that
+space it kept coming and going. At one moment the vision seemed on the
+point of departing; the next it almost took shape—which he knew would be
+his death. Suddenly it vanished altogether—he was free. A fresh spring
+breeze fanned his face; he heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet
+bird; and it seemed to him as if a poem had shot together in his soul.
+Such flashing, heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all
+his life! Almost immediately that too vanished.
+
+Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly, like
+one who has been visited by an angel.
+
+“Your colour changed to white,” said Corpang. “What happened?”
+
+“I passed through torture to love,” replied Maskull simply.
+
+He stood up. Haunte gazed at him sombrely. “Will you not describe that
+passage?”
+
+Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully. “When I was in Matterplay, I
+saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured, living
+animals. In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now seemed to
+consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of joy. The joy
+would not have been possible without the preliminary nightmare. It is
+not accidental; Nature intends it so. The truth has just flashed through
+my brain.... You men of Lichstorm don’t go far enough. You stop at the
+pangs, without realising that they are birth pangs.”
+
+“If this is true, you are a great pioneer,” muttered Haunte.
+
+“How does this sensation differ from common love?” interrogated Corpang.
+
+“This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness.”
+
+Corpang fingered his chin awhile. “The Lichstorm men, however, will
+never reach this stage, for they are too masculine.”
+
+Haunte turned pale. “Why should we alone suffer?”
+
+“Nature is freakish and cruel, and doesn’t act according to justice....
+Follow us, Haunte, and escape from it all.”
+
+“I’ll see,” muttered Haunte. “Perhaps I will.”
+
+“Have we far to go, to Sullenbode?” inquired Maskull.
+
+“No, her home’s under the hanging cap of Sarclash.”
+
+“What is to happen tonight?” Maskull spoke to himself, but Haunte
+answered him.
+
+“Don’t expect anything pleasant, in spite of what has just occurred. She
+is not a woman, but a mass of pure sex. Your passion will draw her out
+into human shape, but only for a moment. If the change were permanent,
+you would have endowed her with a soul.”
+
+“Perhaps the change might be made permanent.”
+
+“To do that, it is not enough to desire her; she must desire you as
+well. But why should she desire you?”
+
+“Nothing turns out as one expects,” said Maskull, shaking his head. “We
+had better get on again.”
+
+They resumed the journey. The ledge still rose, but, on turning a corner
+of the cliff, Haunte quitted it and began to climb a steep gully, which
+mounted directly to the upper heights. Here they were compelled to use
+both hands and feet. Maskull thought all the while of nothing but the
+overwhelming sweetness he had just experienced.
+
+The flat ground on top was dry and springy. There was no more snow, and
+bright plants appeared. Haunte turned sharply to the left.
+
+“This must be under the cap,” said Maskull.
+
+“It is; and within five minutes you will see Sullenbode.”
+
+When he spoke his words, Maskull’s lips surprised him by their tender
+sensitiveness. Their action against each other sent thrills throughout
+his body.
+
+The grass shone dimly. A huge tree, with glowing branches, came into
+sight. It bore a multitude of red fruit, like hanging lanterns, but no
+leaves. Underneath this tree Sullenbode was sitting. Her beautiful
+light—a mingling of jale and white—gleamed softly through the darkness.
+She sat erect, on crossed legs, asleep. She was clothed in a singular
+skin garment, which started as a cloak thrown over one shoulder, and
+ended as loose breeches terminating above the knees. Her forearms were
+lightly folded, and in one hand she held a half-eaten fruit.
+
+Maskull stood over her and looked down, deeply interested. He thought he
+had never seen anything half so feminine. Her flesh was almost melting
+in its softness. So undeveloped were the facial organs that they looked
+scarcely human; only the lips were full, pouting, and expressive. In
+their richness, these lips seemed like a splash of vivid will on a
+background of slumbering protoplasm. Her hair was undressed. Its colour
+could not be distinguished. It was long and tangled, and had been tucked
+into her garment behind, for convenience.
+
+Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly
+agitated. Maskull’s heart was hammering away under his chest. Haunte
+pulled him, and said, “My head feels as if it were being torn from my
+shoulders.”
+
+“What can that mean?”
+
+“Yet there’s a horrible joy in it,” added Haunte, with a sickly smile.
+
+He put his hand on the woman’s shoulder. She awoke softly, glanced up at
+them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit. Maskull did not imagine
+that she had intelligence enough to speak. Haunte suddenly dropped on
+his knees, and kissed her lips.
+
+She did not repulse him. During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull
+noticed with a shock that her face was altering. The features emerged
+from their indistinctness and became human, and almost powerful. The
+smile faded, a scowl took its place. She thrust Haunte away, rose to her
+feet, and stared beneath bent brows at the three men, each one in turn.
+Maskull came last; his face she studied for quite a long time, but
+nothing indicated what she thought.
+
+Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning. She
+suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he
+fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with
+an electric wire. The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay
+there motionless.
+
+Corpang sprang forward to his assistance. But, when he saw what had
+happened, he left him where he was.
+
+“Maskull, come here quickly!”
+
+The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte’s skin, as Maskull bent
+over. The man was dead. His face was unrecognisable. The head had been
+split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with strange-
+coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an axe.
+
+“This couldn’t be from the fall,” said Maskull.
+
+“No, Sullenbode did it.”
+
+Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman. She had resumed her former
+attitude on the ground. The momentary intelligence had vanished from her
+face, and she was again smiling.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19. SULLENBODE
+
+Sullenbode’s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the
+clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless,
+smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body.
+
+Corpang spoke out of the night. “She looks like an evil spirit filled
+with deadliness.”
+
+“It was like deliberately kissing lightning.”
+
+“Haunte was insane with passion.”
+
+“So am I,” said Maskull quietly. “My body seems full of rocks, all
+grinding against one another.”
+
+“This is what I was afraid of.”
+
+“It appears I shall have to kiss her too.”
+
+Corpang pulled his arm. “Have you lost all manliness?”
+
+But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at his
+beard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this had
+gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and
+lifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the rugged
+tree trunk, he kissed her.
+
+A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame. He thought that it was
+death, and lost consciousness.
+
+When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder with
+one hand at arm’s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes. At first
+he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but
+another. Then he gradually realised that her face was identical with
+that which Haunte’s action had called into existence. A great calmness
+came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.
+
+Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul. Her skin was firm, her
+features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.
+She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements. Her
+face was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth
+crossed the lower half like a gash of fire. The lips were as voluptuous
+as before. Her brows were heavy. There was nothing vulgar in her—she
+looked the kingliest of all women. She appeared not more than twenty-
+five.
+
+Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little way
+and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth into a
+long, bowlike smile. “Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?”
+
+Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull felt himself in a dream.
+
+“My name is Maskull.”
+
+She motioned to him to come a step nearer. “Listen, Maskull. Man after
+man has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me there, for I
+did not wish it. But now you have drawn me into it for all time, for
+good or evil.”
+
+Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and said
+quietly, “What have you to say about him?”
+
+“Who was it?”
+
+“Haunte.”
+
+“So that was Haunte. The news will travel far and wide. He was a famous
+man.”
+
+“It’s a horrible affair. I can’t think that you killed him
+deliberately.”
+
+“We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our only
+protection. We do not want these visits; we loathe them.”
+
+“I might have died, too.”
+
+“You came together?”
+
+“There were three of us. Corpang still stands over there.”
+
+“I see a faintly glimmering form. What do you want of me, Corpang?”
+
+“Nothing.”
+
+“Then go away, and leave me with Maskull.”
+
+“No need, Corpang. I am coming with you.”
+
+“This is not that pleasure, then?” demanded the low, earnest voice, out
+of the darkness.
+
+“No, that pleasure has not returned.”
+
+Sullenbode gripped his arm hard. “What pleasure are you speaking of?”
+
+“A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago.”
+
+“But what do you feel now?”
+
+“Calm and free.”
+
+Sullenbode’s face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling sea
+of elemental passions. “I do not know how it will end, Maskull, but we
+will still keep together a little. Where are you going?”
+
+“To Adage,” said Corpang, stepping forward.
+
+“But why?”
+
+“We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to find
+Muspel-light.”
+
+“What light is that?”
+
+“It’s the light of another world.”
+
+“The quest is grand. But cannot women see that light?”
+
+“On one condition,” said Corpang. “They must forget their sex. Womanhood
+and love belong to life, while Muspel is above life.”
+
+“I give you all other men,” said Sullenbode. “Maskull is mine.”
+
+“No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to remind him of the
+existence of nobler things.”
+
+“You are a good man. But you two alone will never strike the road to
+Adage.”
+
+“Are you acquainted with it?”
+
+Again the woman gripped Maskull’s arm. “What is love—which Corpang
+despises?”
+
+Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode went on, “Love is that
+which is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the sake
+of the beloved.”
+
+Corpang wrinkled his forehead. “A magnanimous female lover is new in my
+experience.”
+
+Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, “Are you
+contemplating a sacrifice?”
+
+She gazed at her feet, and smiled. “What does it matter what my thoughts
+are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest first?
+It’s a rough road to Adage.”
+
+“What’s in your mind?” demanded Maskull.
+
+“I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash and
+Adage, perhaps I shall turn back.”
+
+“And then?”
+
+“Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak, but if
+it is dark it’s hardly likely.”
+
+“That’s not what I meant. What will become of you after we have parted
+company?”
+
+“I shall return somewhere—perhaps here.”
+
+Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better. “Shall
+you sink back into—the old state?”
+
+“No, Maskull, thank heaven.”
+
+“Then how will you live?”
+
+Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. There
+was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. “And who said I would go on
+living?”
+
+Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before he
+spoke again. “You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can’t leave
+you like this.”
+
+Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
+
+“You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us go....
+Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others—who aren’t
+so single-minded—can do is to help him to his destination. We mustn’t
+inquire whether the destination of single-minded men is as a rule worth
+arriving at.”
+
+“If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.”
+
+“Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.”
+
+Corpang gave a wry smile. “During your long sleep you appear to have
+picked up wisdom.”
+
+“Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.”
+
+As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
+
+“Can we not bury that poor fellow?”
+
+“By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not
+include Corpang.”
+
+“We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I am
+the real murderer. I stole his protecting light.”
+
+“Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.” They left
+the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three men had
+arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the same
+time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,
+pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies
+shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but
+Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.
+They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
+fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an
+alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.
+
+For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
+maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a
+false step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right.
+After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground,
+and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The
+ascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards
+more. Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found level
+ground all around them.
+
+“We are on the ridge,” announced the woman, halting.
+
+The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst
+through the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
+
+Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was
+quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining
+down on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide,
+smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage,
+though Adage itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred
+yards wide. It was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but
+in other places the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From
+where they stood they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what
+lay underneath. On the right hand, which was north, the landscape was
+blurred and indistinct. There were no peaks there; it was the distant,
+low-lying land of Barey. But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of
+mighty pinnacles, near and far, as far as the eye could see in
+moonlight. All glittered green, and all possessed the extraordinary
+hanging caps that characterised the Lichstorm range. These caps were of
+fantastic shapes, and each one was different. The valley directly
+opposite them was filled with rolling mist.
+
+Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two
+ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or more
+of empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood.
+The southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of the
+mountain where Haunte’s cave was situated. The connecting curve was the
+steep slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.
+
+In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a few
+summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over the
+south side of the horseshoe.
+
+Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw
+her for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on his
+lips. The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and the
+face, pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almost
+beautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hair
+was a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that she
+resembled a spirit, rather than a woman.
+
+“What puzzles you?” she asked, smiling.
+
+“Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.”
+
+“Perhaps you never will.”
+
+“Your life must be most solitary.”
+
+She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. “Why do
+you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?”
+
+“Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means I
+can’t say.”
+
+Sullenbode laughed outright. “It assuredly does not mean the approach of
+night.”
+
+Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
+broke in. “The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I’ll go on
+alone.”
+
+“No, we’ll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.”
+
+“A little way,” said the woman, “but not to Adage, to pit my strength
+against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know how to renounce
+love, but I will never be a traitor to it.”
+
+“Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang is
+as ignorant as myself.”
+
+Corpang looked him full in the face. “Maskull, you are quite well aware
+that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of a
+beautiful woman.”
+
+Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. “What Corpang doesn’t tell you,
+Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than
+he, and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be saying
+his prayers in Threal.”
+
+“Still, what he says must be true,” she replied, looking from one to the
+other.
+
+“And so I am not to be allowed to—”
+
+“So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not backward,
+Maskull.”
+
+“We need not quarrel yet,” he remarked, with a forced smile. “No doubt
+things will straighten themselves out.”
+
+Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. “I picked up
+another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.”
+
+“Tell it to me, then.”
+
+“Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed their
+strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but
+the law-abiders live at their ease—they have conquered nothing for
+themselves.”
+
+“It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and perfect.
+You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.”
+
+“No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.”
+
+They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were
+abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
+
+The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
+comparatively smooth. The freezing point seemed higher than on Earth,
+for the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt almost warm
+to their naked feet. Maskull’s soles were by now like tough hides. The
+moonlit snow was green and dazzling. Their slanting, abbreviated shadows
+were sharply defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked on
+Sullenbode’s right hand, looked constantly to the left, toward the
+galaxy of glorious distant peaks.
+
+“You cannot belong to this world,” said the woman. “Men of your stamp
+are not to be looked for here.”
+
+“No, I have come here from Earth.”
+
+“Is that larger than our world?”
+
+“Smaller, I think. Small, and overcrowded with men and women. With all
+those people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and therefore
+the laws are of iron. As adventure would be impossible without
+encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of adventure
+among the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.”
+
+“Do men hate women there, and women men?”
+
+“No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful. So poignant is
+the sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open eyes.
+There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons.”
+
+“That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion. But
+now say—why did you come here?”
+
+“To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longer
+interested me.”
+
+“How long have you been in this world?”
+
+“This is the end of my fourth day.”
+
+“Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days. You
+cannot have been inactive.”
+
+“Great misfortunes have happened to me.”
+
+He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from the
+moment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert. Sullenbode
+listened, with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time.
+Only twice did she interrupt him. After his description of Tydomin’s
+death, she said, speaking in a low voice—“None of us women ought by
+right of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one act
+of hers, I almost love her, although she brought evil to your door.”
+Again, speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, “That grand-souled girl I
+admire the most of all. She listened to her inner voice, and to nothing
+else besides. Which of us others is strong enough for that?”
+
+When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, “Does it not strike you,
+Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than the
+men?”
+
+“I recognise that. We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for a
+substantial cause. For you women almost any cause will serve. You love
+the sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are naturally
+noble.”
+
+Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so sweet,
+that he was struck into silence.
+
+They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he said, “Now you
+understand the sort of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scant
+pity for anyone—Oh, it has been a bloody journey!”
+
+She laid her hand on his arm. “I, for one, would not have it less
+rugged.”
+
+“Nothing good can be said of my crimes.”
+
+“To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not what....
+The grandest that life holds.... You at least have no cause to look up
+to women.”
+
+“Thanks, Sullenbode!” he responded, with a troubled smile.
+
+“When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is thrown out of your
+road. You go on, looking neither to right nor left.”
+
+“Take care that you are not thrown as well,” said Corpang gravely.
+
+“Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull! And for
+whatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a heart you have a
+bag of loose dust. Someone has described love to you. You have had it
+described to you. You have heard that it is a small, fearful, selfish
+joy. It is not that—it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, and
+bloody.... How should you know.”
+
+“Selfishness has far too many disguises.”
+
+“If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?”
+
+“Only do not deceive yourself. Act decisively, or fate will be too swift
+for you both.”
+
+Sullenbode studied him through her lashes. “Do you mean death—his death
+as well as mine?”
+
+“You go too far, Corpang,” said Maskull, turning a shade darker. “I
+don’t accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes.”
+
+“If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead.”
+
+The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers. “I wish you to stay
+with us.”
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I think you may know what you are talking about. I don’t wish to bring
+harm to Maskull. Presently I’ll leave you.”
+
+“That will be best,” said Corpang.
+
+Maskull looked angry. “I shall decide—Sullenbode, whether you go on, or
+back, I stay with you. My mind is made up.”
+
+An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her efforts
+to conceal it. “Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?”
+
+He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered brows.
+After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly. “Wait, Sullenbode!”
+
+The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the woman
+smiled. Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her lips. Then he
+relinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.
+
+“How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?”
+
+“It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull.”
+
+“Hereafter, never dare to come between us. Sullenbode belongs to me.”
+
+“Then I say no more; but you are a fated man.”
+
+From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of the
+others.
+
+A heavy gleam appeared in the woman’s eyes. “Now things are changed,
+Maskull. Where are you taking me?”
+
+“Choose, you.”
+
+“The man I love must complete his journey. I won’t have it otherwise.
+You shall not stand lower than Corpang.”
+
+“Where you go, I will go.”
+
+“And I—as long as your love endures, I will accompany you—even to
+Adage.”
+
+“Do you doubt its lasting?”
+
+“I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I refused to tell you
+before. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love me
+no longer, I must die.”
+
+“And why?” asked Maskull slowly.
+
+“Yes, that’s the responsibility you incurred when you kissed me for the
+first time. I never meant to tell you.”
+
+“Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?”
+
+“I have no other life but what you give me.”
+
+He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowly
+placed his arms around her body. During this embrace he turned very
+pale, but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.
+
+A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.
+
+They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky and
+nearer the south. They had descended many hundred feet, and the
+character of the ridge began to alter for the worse. The thin snow
+disappeared, and gave way to moist, boggy ground. It was all little
+grassy hillocks and marshes. They began to slip about and become
+draggled with mud. Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and the
+men followed in her tracks. The southern half of the landscape grew
+grander. The greenish light of the brilliant moon, shining on the
+multitude of snow-green peaks, caused it to appear like a spectral
+world. Their nearest neighbour towered high above them on the other side
+of the valley, due south, some five miles distant. It was a slender,
+inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock, the angles of which were too
+steep to retain snow. A great upward-curving horn of rock sprang out
+from its topmost pinnacle. For a long time it constituted their cheif
+landmark.
+
+The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture. The surface
+soil was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed in the damp
+mists by night, and breathed them out again by day, under Branchspell’s
+rays. The walking grew first unpleasant, then difficult, and finally
+dangerous. None of the party could distinguish firm ground from bog.
+Sullenbode sank up to her waist in a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her,
+but after this incident took the lead himself. Corpang was the next to
+meet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he tumbled into
+liquid mud up to his shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death.
+After Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded
+once more; but now the scramble changed from bad to worse. Each step had
+to be thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so the
+test frequently failed. All of them went in so often, that in the end
+they no longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plastered
+from top to toe with black filth. The hardest work fell to Maskull. He
+not only had the exhausting task of beating the way, but was continually
+called upon to help his companions out of their difficulties. Without
+him they could not have got through.
+
+After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.
+Corpang’s breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless, and
+depressed.
+
+Maskull gazed at them doubtfully. “Does this continue?” he inquired.
+
+“No. I think,” replied the woman, “we can’t be far from the Mornstab
+Pass. After that we shall begin to climb again, and then the road will
+improve perhaps.”
+
+“Can you have been here before?”
+
+“Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then.”
+
+“You are tired out, Sullenbode.”
+
+“What of it?” she replied, smiling faintly. “When one has a terrible
+lover, one must pay the price.”
+
+“We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter we
+come to.”
+
+“I leave it to you.”
+
+He paced up and down, while the others sat. “Do you regret anything?” he
+demanded suddenly.
+
+“No, Maskull, nothing. I regret nothing.”
+
+“Your feelings are unchanged?”
+
+“Love can’t go back—it can only go on.”
+
+“Yes, eternally on. It is so.”
+
+“No, I don’t mean that. There is a climax, but when the climax has been
+reached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to sacrifice.”
+
+“That’s a dreadful creed,” he said in a low voice, turning pale beneath
+his coating of mud.
+
+“Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don’t know what I
+feel.”
+
+In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journey
+recommenced. Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.
+
+The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to drain
+off the moisture of the soil. Sullenbode led them to the northern edge
+of the ridge, to show them the nature of the country. The pass was
+nothing but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the ridge, where it was
+the lowest above the underlying land. A series of huge broken terraces
+of earth and rock descended toward Barey. They were overgrown with
+stunted vegetation. It was quite possible to get down to the lowlands
+that way, but rather difficult. On either side of the landslip, to east
+and west, the ridge came down in a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs.
+A low haze concealed Barey from view. Complete stillness was in the air,
+broken only by the distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.
+
+Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country.
+The moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as an
+Earth day.
+
+“Tonight is like life,” said Sullenbode.
+
+“How so?”
+
+“So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.”
+
+Maskull sighed. “Poor girl, you are unhappy.”
+
+“And you—are you happy?”
+
+He thought a while, and then replied—“No. No, I’m not happy. Love is not
+happiness.”
+
+“What is it, Maskull?”
+
+“Restlessness—unshed tears—thoughts too grand for our soul to think...”
+
+“Yes,” said Sullenbode.
+
+After a time she asked, “Why were we created, just to live for a few
+years and then disappear?”
+
+“We are told that we shall live again.”
+
+“Yes, Maskull?”
+
+“Perhaps in Muspel,” he added thoughtfully.
+
+“What kind of life will that be?”
+
+“Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious a
+thing to remain uncompleted.”
+
+She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. “This dream is
+untrue. Love is completed here.”
+
+“How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by
+Fate?”
+
+“It is completed by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be enjoyment for
+us? Can’t we suffer—can’t we go on suffering, forever and ever? Maskull,
+until love crushes our spirit, finally and without remedy, we don’t
+begin to feel ourselves.”
+
+Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression. “Can the memory of love
+be worth more than its presence and reality?”
+
+“You don’t understand. Those pangs are more precious than all the rest
+beside.” She caught at him. “Oh, if you could only see inside my mind,
+Maskull! You would see strange things.... I can’t explain. It is all
+confused, even to myself.... This love is quite different from what I
+thought.”
+
+He sighed again. “Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong for
+human beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in different
+ways.”
+
+They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them with
+unseeing eyes.
+
+“It doesn’t matter,” said Sullenbode at last, with a smile, getting up.
+“Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come, let us be off!”
+
+Maskull too got up.
+
+“Where’s Corpang?” he asked listlessly.
+
+They both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage. At the
+point where they stood it was nearly a mile wide. It sloped perceptibly
+toward the southern edge, giving all the earth the appearance of a heavy
+list. Toward the west the ground continued level for a thousand yards,
+but then a high, sloping, grassy hill went right across the ridge from
+side to side, like a vast billow on the verge of breaking. It shut out
+all further view beyond. The whole crest of this hill, from one end to
+the other, was crowned by a long row of enormous stone posts, shining
+brightly in the moonlight against a background of dark sky. There were
+about thirty in all, and they were placed at such regular intervals that
+there was little doubt that they had been set there by human hands. Some
+were perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extreme
+antiquity was given to the entire colonnade. Corpang was seen climbing
+the hill, not far from the top.
+
+“He wishes to arrive,” said Maskull, watching the energetic ascent with
+a rather cynical smile.
+
+“The heavens won’t open for Corpang,” returned Sullenbode. “He need not
+be in such a hurry.... What do these pillars seem like to you?”
+
+“They might be the entrance to some mighty temple. Who can have planted
+them there?”
+
+She did not answer. They watched Corpang gain the summit of the hill,
+and disappear through the line of posts.
+
+Maskull turned again to Sullenbode. “Now we two are alone in a lonely
+world.”
+
+She regarded him steadily. “Our last night on this earth must be a grand
+one. I am ready to go on.”
+
+“I don’t think you are fit to go on. It will be better to go down the
+pass a little, and find shelter.”
+
+She half smiled. “We won’t study our poor bodies tonight. I mean you to
+go to Adage, Maskull.”
+
+“Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long, terrible
+climb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?”
+
+She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand to
+him. “Come, Maskull!”
+
+*****
+
+When they had covered half the distance that separated them from the
+foot of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps. They came from behind the
+hill, and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He glanced at Sullenbode,
+but she appeared to hear nothing. A minute later the whole sky behind
+and above the long chain of stone posts on the crest of the hill began
+to be illuminated by a strange radiance. The moonlight in that quarter
+faded; the posts stood out black on a background of fire. It was the
+light of Muspel. As the moments passed, it grew more and more vivid,
+peculiar, and awful. It was of no colour, and resembled nothing—it was
+supernatural and indescribable. Maskull’s spirit swelled. He stood fast,
+with expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.
+
+Sullenbode touched him lightly.
+
+“What do you see, Maskull?”
+
+“Muspel-light.”
+
+“I see nothing.”
+
+The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood. It burned
+with a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before. He forgot the
+existence of Sullenbode. The drum beats grew deafeningly loud. Each beat
+was like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the sky and making
+the air tremble. Presently the crashes coalesced, and one continuous
+roar of thunder rocked the world. But the rhythm persisted—the four
+beats, with the third accented, still came pulsing through the
+atmosphere, only now against a background of thunder, and not of
+silence.
+
+Maskull’s heart beat wildly. His body was like a prison. He longed to
+throw it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the sublime
+universe which was beginning to unveil itself.
+
+Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissed
+him—passionately, again and again. He made no response; he was unaware
+of what she was doing. She unclasped him and, with bent head and
+streaming eyes, went noiselessly away. She started to go back toward the
+Mornstab Pass.
+
+A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade. The thunder died
+down. The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside were
+again bright. In a short time the supernatural light had entirely
+vanished, but the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled rhythm,
+from behind the hill. Maskull started violently, and stared around him
+like a suddenly awakened sleeper.
+
+He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards off.
+At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, calling
+out.... She did not look around. When he had lessened the distance
+between them by a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and fall. She did
+not get up again, but lay motionless where she fell.
+
+He flew toward her, and bent over her body. His worst fears were
+realised. Life had departed.
+
+Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly Crystalman
+grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had never appeared so beautiful
+to him as at that moment.
+
+*****
+
+He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees. He wept—but,
+between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time, and
+listened to the distant drum beats.
+
+An hour passed—two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west. Maskull
+lifted Sullenbode’s dead body on to his shoulders, and started to walk
+toward the Pass. He cared no more for Muspel. He intended to look for
+water in which to wash the corpse of his beloved, and earth in which to
+bury her.
+
+When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which they
+had sat together, he lowered his burden, and, placing the dead girl on
+the stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over toward
+Barey.
+
+After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20. BAREY
+
+The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskull
+awoke from his miserable sleep. He sat up and yawned feebly. The air was
+cool and sweet. Far away down the landslip a bird was singing; the song
+consisted of only two notes, but it was so plaintive and heartbreaking
+that he scarcely knew how to endure it.
+
+The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band of
+chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The atmosphere was blue-
+tinted, mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash nor Adage was visible.
+
+The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had descended
+that distance overnight. The landslip continued downward, like a huge
+flying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay perhaps
+fifteen hundred feet beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and the
+angle was excessively steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mile
+across. On each side of it, east and west, the dark walls of the ridge
+descended sheer. At the point where the pass sprang outward they were
+two thousand feet from top to bottom, but as the ridge went upward, on
+the one hand toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attained
+almost unbelievable heights. Despite the great breadth and solidity of
+the pass, Maskull felt as though he were suspended in midair.
+
+The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away marked
+Sullenbode’s grave. He had interred her by the light of the moon, with a
+long, flat stone for a spade. A little lower down, the white steam of a
+hot spring was curling about in the twilight. From where he sat he was
+unable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately flowed, but it
+was in that pool that he had last night washed first of all the dead
+girl’s body, and then his own.
+
+He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him dully.
+For a long time he eyed the grave. The half-darkness changed by
+imperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear. The sky
+was nearly cloudless. The whole wonderful extent of the mighty ridge
+behind him began to emerge from the morning mist... there was a part of
+Sarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic Adage itself, which he
+could only take in by throwing his head right back.
+
+He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul. All his
+desires were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do nothing.
+He thought he would go to Barey.
+
+He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting
+beside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
+
+Maskull thought that he was dreaming. The man was clothed in a skin
+shirt and breeches. His face was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyed
+Maskull without smiling or getting up.
+
+“Where in the devil’s name have you come from, Krag?”
+
+“The great point is, I am here.”
+
+“Where’s Nightspore?”
+
+“Not far away.”
+
+“It seems a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two leave me in
+such a damnable fashion?”
+
+“You were strong enough to get through alone.”
+
+“So it turned out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you’ve timed it
+well. It seems I am to die today.”
+
+Krag scowled. “You will die this morning.”
+
+“If I am to, I shall. But where have you heard it from?”
+
+“You are ripe for it. You have run through the gamut. What else is there
+to live for?”
+
+“Nothing,” said Maskull, uttering a short laugh. “I am quite ready. I
+have failed in everything. I only wondered how you knew.... So now
+you’ve come to rejoin me. Where are we going?”
+
+“Through Barey.”
+
+“And what about Nightspore?”
+
+Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility. “We won’t wait for him.
+He’ll be there as soon as we shall.”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“At our destination.... Come! The sun’s rising.”
+
+*****
+
+As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell, huge
+and white, leaped fiercely into the sky. All the delicacy of the dawn
+vanished, and another vulgar day began. They passed some trees and
+plants, the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in sleep.
+
+Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
+
+“How is it the sunshine doesn’t open them?”
+
+“Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.”
+
+“How long will it be before that sun rises?”
+
+“Some time yet.”
+
+“Shall I live to see it, do you think?”
+
+“Do you want to?”
+
+“At one time I did, but now I’m indifferent.”
+
+“Keep in that humour, and you’ll do well. Once for all, there’s nothing
+worth seeing on Tormance.”
+
+After a few minutes Maskull said, “Why did we come here, then?”
+
+“To follow Surtur.”
+
+“True. But where is he?”
+
+“Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.”
+
+“Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?... There is
+supernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehow
+connected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what is
+Surtur?”
+
+“Don’t disturb yourself about that. You will never know.”
+
+“Do you know?”
+
+“I know,” snarled Krag.
+
+“The devil here is called Krag,” went on Maskull, peering into his face.
+
+“As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.”
+
+“Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I to
+believe of you?”
+
+“Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman.”
+
+They continued descending the landslip. The sun’s rays had grown
+insufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,
+Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
+travelling toward a lake district.
+
+“What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
+Krag? What happened to the torpedo?”
+
+“You’re just about on the same mental level as a man who sees a brand-
+new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding.”
+
+“What palace have you been building, then?”
+
+“We have not been idle,” said Krag. “While you have been murdering and
+lovemaking, we have had our work.”
+
+“And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?”
+
+“Oh, you’re an open book. Now you’ve got a mortal heart wound on account
+of a woman you knew for six hours.”
+
+Maskull turned pale. “Sneer away, Krag! If you lived with a woman for
+six hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your leather
+heart. You haven’t even the feelings of an insect.”
+
+“Behold the child defending its toys!” said Krag, grinning faintly.
+
+Maskull stopped short. “What do you want with me, and why did you bring
+me here?”
+
+“It’s no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect,” said
+Krag, pulling him into motion again. “The distance has got to be
+covered, however often we pull up.”
+
+When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through his
+heart.
+
+“I can’t go on regarding you as a man, Krag. You’re something more than
+a man—whether good or evil, I can’t say.”
+
+Krag looked yellow and formidable. He did not reply to Maskull’s remark,
+but after a pause said, “So you’ve been trying to find Surtur on your
+own account, during the intervals between killing and fondling?”
+
+“What was that drumming?” demanded Maskull.
+
+“You needn’t look so important. We know you had your ear to the keyhole.
+But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing for you, my
+friend.”
+
+Maskull smiled rather bitterly. “At all events, I listen through no more
+keyholes. I have finished with life. I belong to nobody and nothing any
+more, from this time forward.”
+
+“Brave words, brave words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will make
+one more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.”
+
+“Now I don’t understand you.”
+
+“You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don’t you? Well, that may
+prove to be the last and strongest illusion of all.”
+
+The conversation ceased. They reached the foot of the landslip an hour
+later. Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky. It was
+approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not it
+would clear its peak. The heat was sweltering. The long, massive,
+saucer-shaped ridge behind them, with its terrific precipices, was
+glowing with bright morning colours. Adage, towering up many thousands
+of feet higher still, guarded the end of it like a lonely Colossus. In
+front of them, starting from where they stood, was a cool and enchanting
+wilderness of little lakes and forests. The water of the lakes was dark
+green; the forests were asleep, waiting for the rising of Alppain.
+
+“Are we now in Barey?” asked Maskull.
+
+“Yes—and there is one of the natives.”
+
+There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskull
+did not see it.
+
+A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees,
+apparently waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, and
+beardless, and was still in early manhood. He was clothed in a dark
+blue, loosely flowing robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat. His
+face, which was not disfigured by any special organs, was pale, earnest,
+and grave, yet somehow remarkably pleasing.
+
+Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull’s hand, but even
+while he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag. The
+latter responded with a scowling grin.
+
+When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating baritone,
+but it was at the same time strangely womanish in its modulations and
+variety of tone.
+
+“I’ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,” he said. “Welcome to
+Barey, Maskull! Let’s hope you’ll forget your sorrows here, you over-
+tested man.”
+
+Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. “What made you expect
+me, and how do you know my name?”
+
+The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. “I’m Gangnet. I
+know most things.”
+
+“Haven’t you a greeting for me too—Gangnet?” asked Krag, thrusting his
+forbidding features almost into the other’s face.
+
+“I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome.”
+
+“And I know you, Gangnet—you man-woman.... Well, we are here together,
+and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the Ocean.”
+
+The smile faded from Gangnet’s face. “I can’t drive you away, Krag—but I
+can make you the unwelcome third.”
+
+Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. “That bargain
+suits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have the
+shadow, and much good may it do you.”
+
+“Now that it’s all arranged so satisfactorily,” said Maskull, with a
+hard smile, “permit me to say that I don’t desire any society at all at
+present.... You take too much for granted, Krag. You have played the
+false friend once already.... I presume I’m a free agent?”
+
+“To be a free man, one must have a universe of one’s own,” said Krag,
+with a jeering look. “What do you say, Gangnet—is this a free world?”
+
+“Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man’s privilege,”
+returned Gangnet tranquilly. “Maskull is quite within his rights, and if
+you’ll engage to leave him I’ll do the same.”
+
+“Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won’t get rid of
+me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.”
+
+“It doesn’t matter,” muttered Maskull. “Let everyone join in the
+procession. In a few hours I shall finally be free, anyhow, if what they
+say is true.”
+
+“I’ll lead the way,” said Gangnet. “You don’t know this country, of
+course, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some miles farther down,
+we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must walk, I
+fear.”
+
+“Yes, you fear—you fear!” broke out Krag, in a highpitched, scraping
+voice. “You eternal loller!”
+
+Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed to
+be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate
+previous acquaintance.
+
+They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a
+mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed
+beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were
+all folded. There was no underbrush—they walked on clean, brown earth, A
+distant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air was
+pleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lake
+outside looked cool and poetic.
+
+Gangnet pressed Maskull’s arm affectionately. “If the bringing of you
+from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have
+brought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escaped
+the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.”
+
+“And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all the
+same.”
+
+“You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference whether
+one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the shadows.”
+
+“A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly
+prefer to know it as it really is.”
+
+“The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman’s
+thoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty and
+Pleasantness. Even Krag won’t have the effrontery to deny that.”
+
+“It’s very nice here,” said Krag, looking around him malignantly. “One
+only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to complete it.”
+
+Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. “Last night, when I was
+struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight—then I thought the
+world beautiful.”
+
+“Poor Sullenbode!” said Gangnet, sighing.
+
+“What! You knew her?”
+
+“I know her through you. By mourning for a noble woman, you show your
+own nobility. I think all women are noble.”
+
+“There may be millions of noble women, but there’s only one Sullenbode.”
+
+“If Sullenbode can exist,” said Gangnet, “the world cannot be a bad
+place.”
+
+“Change the subject.... The world’s hard and cruel, and I am thankful to
+be leaving it.”
+
+“On one point, though, you both agree,” said Krag, smiling evilly.
+“Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad.”
+
+Gangnet glanced at him coldly. “We know your peculiar theories, Krag.
+You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could not
+go on being, without pleasure.”
+
+“So Gangnet thinks!” jeered Krag.
+
+They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a
+little cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh series
+of lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain
+slope, built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border they
+had been travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to the
+lower level in half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white and
+throwing off spray. The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men found
+it easy to negotiate.
+
+At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they
+had nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through the
+heart of it; they followed its bank.
+
+“It has occurred to me,” said Maskull, addressing Gangnet, “that Alppain
+may be my death. Is that so?”
+
+“These trees don’t fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is a
+wonderful, life-bringing sun.”
+
+“The reason I ask is—I’ve seen its afterglow, and it produced such
+violent sensations that a very little more would have proved too much.”
+
+“Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain itself,
+it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of wills
+inside you.”
+
+“And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,” said Krag, grinning, “is
+Crystalman’s trump card.”
+
+“How do you mean?”
+
+“You’ll see. You’ll renounce the world so eagerly that you’ll want to
+stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations.”
+
+Gangnet smiled. “Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither
+enjoy, nor renounce. What are you to do?”
+
+Maskull turned toward Krag. “It’s very odd, but I don’t understand your
+creed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?”
+
+Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. “What,
+because they have left off stroking you?” he exclaimed, laughing and
+showing his discoloured teeth.
+
+“Whoever you are, and whatever you want,” said Maskull, “you seem very
+certain of yourself.”
+
+“Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn’t you!
+That would be an excellent way of destroying lies.”
+
+Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped and
+picked up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
+
+“To eat?” asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
+
+“Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one mustn’t
+insult Krag by offering him a pleasure—especially such a low pleasure.”
+
+Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the liquid
+contents. They tasted rather alcoholic. Krag snatched the remaining egg
+out of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk, where it broke and
+stuck, a splash of slime.
+
+“I don’t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a filthier sight
+than a smashed pleasure?”
+
+Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull’s arm.
+
+After they had alternately walked through forests and descended cliffs
+and slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered. A steep
+mountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of miles,
+during which space the land must have dropped nearly four thousand feet,
+at a practically uniform gradient. Maskull had seen nothing like this
+immense slide of country anywhere. The hill slope carried an enormous
+forest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those they
+had hitherto passed through. The leaves of the trees were curled in
+sleep, but the boughs were so close and numerous that, but for the fact
+that they were translucent, the rays of the sun would have been
+completely intercepted. As it was, the whole forest was flooded with
+light, and this light, being tinged with the colour of the branches, was
+a soft and lovely rose. So gay, feminine, and dawnlike was the
+illumination, that Maskull’s spirits immediately started to rise,
+although he did not wish it.
+
+He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
+
+“What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!” rasped
+Krag mockingly. “Why isn’t Sullenbode here?”
+
+Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree. Krag
+recovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a whit
+discomposed.
+
+“Still what I said—was it true or untrue?”
+
+Maskull gazed at him sternly. “You seem to regard yourself as a
+necessary evil. I’m under no obligation to go on with you any farther. I
+think we had better part.”
+
+Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
+
+“What do you say—do we part when Maskull pleases, or when I please?”
+
+“Keep your temper, Maskull,” said Gangnet, showing Krag his back. “I
+know the man better than you do. Now that he has fastened onto you
+there’s only one way of making him lose his hold, by ignoring him.
+Despise him—say nothing to him, don’t answer his questions. If you
+refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not here.”
+
+“I’m beginning to be tired of it all,” said Maskull. “It seems as if I
+shall add one more to my murders, before I have finished.”
+
+“I smell murder in the air,” exclaimed Krag, pretending to sniff. “But
+whose?”
+
+“Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on fire.”
+
+“I’ll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this accursed
+forest?”
+
+“It’s some way yet, but when we’re once out we can take to the water,
+and you will be able to rest, and think.”
+
+“And brood comfortably over your sufferings,” added Krag.
+
+None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into the
+open day. The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced to
+run, rather than walk, and this would have prevented any conversation,
+even if they had otherwise felt inclined toward it. In less than half an
+hour they were through. A flat, open landscape lay stretched in front of
+them as far as they could see.
+
+Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water. It was a
+succession of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of tree-
+covered land. The lake immediately before them had its small end to the
+forest. It was there about a third of a mile wide. The water at the
+sides and end was shallow, and choked with dolm-colored rushes; but in
+the middle, beginning a few yards from the shore, there was a
+perceptible current away from them. In view of this current, it was
+difficult to decide whether it was a lake or a river. Some little
+floating islands were in the shallows.
+
+“Is it here that we take to the water?” inquired Maskull.
+
+“Yes, here,” answered Gangnet.
+
+“But how?”
+
+“One of those islands will serve. It only needs to move it into the
+stream.”
+
+Maskull frowned. “Where will it carry us to?”
+
+“Come, get on, get on!” said Krag, laughing uncouthly. “The morning’s
+wearing away, and you have to die before noon. We are going to the
+Ocean.”
+
+“If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?”
+
+“Gangnet will murder you.”
+
+“You lie!” said Gangnet. “I wish Maskull nothing but good.”
+
+“At all events, he will be the cause of your death. But what does it
+matter? The great point is you are quitting this futile world.... Well,
+Gangnet, I see you’re as slack as ever. I suppose I must do the work.”
+
+He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,
+splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was up
+to his thighs. The island was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feet
+from end to end. It was composed of a sort of light brown peat; there
+was no form of living vegetation on its surface. Krag went behind it,
+and started shoving it toward the current, apparently without having
+unduly to exert himself. When it was within the influence of the stream
+the others waded out to him, and all three climbed on.
+
+The voyage began. The current was not travelling at more than two miles
+an hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and there was
+no shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the edge, and
+periodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunches
+next to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick steps, like an
+animal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more, and the width of
+the stream increased in proportion, until they seemed to themselves to
+be floating on the bosom of some broad, flowing estuary.
+
+Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet’s hat, crushing it
+together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
+
+“Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?” he asked with a harsh
+guffaw—“Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has seen it somewhere.”
+
+Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom. His
+dark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and noble,
+and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man that was
+strangely appealing to the feelings.
+
+“Let Maskull judge,” he said with proud composure, “whether I have
+anything to be ashamed of.”
+
+“There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,” muttered
+Maskull, staring hard at him.
+
+“A capital valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happens
+when poets try to carry through practical enterprises?”
+
+“What enterprises?” asked Maskull, in astonishment.
+
+“What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.”
+
+“There are two forms of practical activity,” replied Gangnet calmly.
+“One may either build up, or destroy.”
+
+“No, there’s a third species. One may steal—and not even know one is
+stealing. One may take the purse and leave the money.”
+
+Maskull raised his eyebrows. “Where have you two met before?”
+
+“I’m paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull, but once upon a time Gangnet
+paid me a visit.”
+
+“Where?”
+
+“In my home—whatever that is. Gangnet is a common thief.”
+
+“You are speaking in riddles, and I don’t understand you. I don’t know
+either of you, but it’s clear that if Gangnet is a poet, you’re a
+buffoon. Must you go on talking? I want to be quiet.”
+
+Krag laughed, but said no more. Presently he lay down at full length,
+with his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, and
+snoring disagreeably. Maskull kept glancing over at his yellow,
+repulsive face with strong disfavour.
+
+Two hours passed. The land on either side was more than a mile distant.
+In front of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the Lichstorm
+Mountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had gathered
+together. The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of a
+strange colour. It was an intense jale-blue. The whole northern
+atmosphere was stained with ulfire.
+
+Maskull’s mind grew disturbed. “Alppain is rising, Gangnet.”
+
+Gangnet smiled wistfully. “It begins to trouble you?”
+
+“It is so solemn—tragical, almost—yet it recalls me to Earth. Life was
+no longer important—but this is important.”
+
+“Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you will
+be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day. Then
+you will ask yourself how you could have been blind.”
+
+The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in the
+north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary
+colours, among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principal
+character of an ordinary dawn is mystery, the outstanding character of
+this dawn was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but the
+heart. Maskull felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate the
+sunrise, and make it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormented
+him, like the opening bars of a supernatural symphony.
+
+When he looked back to the south, Branchspell’s day had lost its glare,
+and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. He
+instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness to
+light.
+
+“If those were Crystalman’s thoughts that you showed me before, Gangnet,
+these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I am feeling now,
+he must have felt before me.”
+
+“He is all feeling, Maskull—don’t you understand that?”
+
+Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
+reply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
+beginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious
+that Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had by
+this time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides they
+were surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out all
+sight of land. Krag was still sleeping—an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.
+
+Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its dark
+green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
+
+“Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Then nothing remains except my death.”
+
+“Don’t think of death, but life.”
+
+“It’s growing brighter—at the same time, more sombre. Krag seems to be
+fading away....”
+
+“There is Alppain!” said Gangnet, touching his arm.
+
+The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea. Maskull was
+struck to silence. He was hardly so much looking, as feeling. His
+emotions were unutterable. His soul seemed too strong for his body. The
+great blue orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an awful eye watching
+him.... it shot above the sea with a bound, and Alppain’s day commenced.
+
+“What do you feel?” Gangnet still held his arm.
+
+“I have set myself against the Infinite,” muttered Maskull.
+
+Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful idea
+swept through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
+
+“Why, Gangnet—I am nothing.”
+
+“No, you are nothing.”
+
+The mist closed in all around them. Nothing was visible except the two
+suns, and a few feet of sea. The shadows of the three men cast by
+Alppain were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
+
+“Then nothing can hurt me,” said Maskull with a peculiar smile.
+
+Gangnet smiled too. “How could it?”
+
+“I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scraped
+away, leaving me clean and free.”
+
+“Do you now understand life, Maskull?”
+
+Gangnet’s face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual beauty;
+he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
+
+“I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more. But this is
+life.”
+
+“Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?” said a jeering voice
+above them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his feet.
+
+They both rose. At the same moment the gathering mist began to obscure
+Alppain’s disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
+
+“What do you want with us, Krag?” asked Maskull with simple composure.
+
+Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds. The water lapped around
+them.
+
+“Don’t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?”
+
+Maskull made no response. Krag rested an arm lightly on his shoulder,
+and suddenly he felt sick and faint. He sank to the ground, near the
+edge of the island raft. His heart was thumping heavily and queerly; its
+beating reminded him of the drum taps. He gazed languidly at the
+rippling water, and it seemed to him as if he could see right through
+it... away, away down... to a strange fire....
+
+The water disappeared. The two suns were extinguished. The island was
+transformed into a cloud, and Maskull—alone on it—was floating through
+the atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire—the fire of Muspel. The
+light mounted higher and higher, until it filled the whole world....
+
+He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, without
+top or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was dealing
+terrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer. The rhythmical,
+clanging sounds were hideous.
+
+Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drum
+beats. “What are you doing, Krag?” he asked.
+
+Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
+
+“Beating on your heart, Maskull,” was his grinning response.
+
+*****
+
+The cliff and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in the
+air—but it was not Gangnet—it was Crystalman. He seemed to be trying to
+escape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and licking him,
+whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire caught him. He
+shrieked horribly. Maskull caught one glimpse of a vulgar, slobbering
+face—and then that too disappeared.
+
+*****
+
+He opened his eyes. The floating island was still faintly illuminated by
+Alppain. Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
+
+“What is this Ocean called?” asked Maskull, bringing out the words with
+difficulty.
+
+“Surtur’s Ocean.”
+
+Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time. He rested his face on his
+arm. “Where’s Nightspore?” he asked suddenly.
+
+Krag bent over him with a grave expression. “You are Nightspore.”
+
+The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
+
+Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
+“Who are you?”
+
+Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
+
+Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull’s heart, and
+he died immediately.
+
+Krag turned his head around. “The night is really past at last,
+Nightspore.... The day is here.”
+
+Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull’s body. “Why was all this
+necessary?”
+
+“Ask Crystalman,” replied Krag sternly. “His world is no joke. He has a
+strong clutch—but I have a stronger... Maskull was his, but Nightspore
+is mine.”
+
+
+
+Chapter 21. MUSPEL
+
+The fog thickened so that the two suns wholly disappeared, and all grew
+as black as night. Nightspore could no longer see his companion. The
+water lapped gently against the side of the island raft.
+
+“You say the night is past,” said Nightspore. “But the night is still
+here. Am I dead, or alive?”
+
+“You are still in Crystalman’s world, but you belong to it no more. We
+are approaching Muspel.”
+
+Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air—a rhythmical
+pulsation, in four-four time. “There is the drumming,” he exclaimed.
+
+“Do you understand it, or have you forgotten?”
+
+“I half understand it, but I’m all confused.”
+
+“It’s evident Crystalman has dug his claws into you pretty deeply,” said
+Krag. “The sound comes from Muspel, but the rhythm is caused by its
+travelling through Crystalman’s atmosphere. His nature is rhythm as he
+loves to call it—or dull, deadly repetition, as I name it.”
+
+“I remember,” said Nightspore, biting his nails in the dark.
+
+The throbbing became audible; it now sounded like a distant drum. A
+small patch of strange light in the far distance, straight ahead of
+them, began faintly to illuminate the floating island and the glassy sea
+around it.
+
+“Do all men escape from that ghastly world, or only I, and a few like
+me?” asked Nightspore.
+
+“If all escaped, I shouldn’t sweat, my friend... There’s hard work, and
+anguish, and the risk of total death, waiting for us yonder.”
+
+Nightspore’s heart sank. “Have I not yet finished, then?”
+
+“If you wish it. You have got through. But will you wish it?”
+
+The drumming grew loud and painful. The light resolved itself into a
+tiny oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night. Krag’s
+grim and rocklike features were revealed.
+
+“I can’t face rebirth,” said Nightspore. “The horror of death is nothing
+to it.”
+
+“You will choose.”
+
+“I can do nothing. Crystalman is too powerful. I barely escaped with my
+own soul.”
+
+“You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,” said
+Krag.
+
+Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall something.
+The water around them was so still, colourless, and transparent, that
+they scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid matter at all. Maskull’s
+corpse had disappeared.
+
+The drumming was now like the clanging of iron. The oblong patch of
+light grew much bigger; it burned, fierce and wild. The darkness above,
+below, and on either side of it, began to shape itself into the
+semblance of a huge, black wall, without bounds.
+
+“Is that really a wall we are coming to?”
+
+“You will soon find out. What you see is Muspel, and that light is the
+gate you have to enter.”
+
+Nightspore’s heart beat wildly.
+
+“Shall I remember?” he muttered.
+
+“Yes, you’ll remember.”
+
+“Accompany me, Krag, or I shall be lost.”
+
+“There is nothing for me to do in there. I shall wait outside for you.”
+
+“You are returning to the struggle?” demanded Nightspore, gnawing his
+fingertips.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I dare not.”
+
+The thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head like
+actual blows. The light glared so vividly that he was no longer able to
+look at it. It had the startling irregularity of continuous lightning,
+but it possessed this further peculiarity—that it seemed somehow to give
+out not actual light, but emotion, seen as light. They continued to
+approach the wall of darkness, straight toward the door. The glasslike
+water flowed right against it, its surface reaching up almost to the
+threshold.
+
+They could not speak any more; the noise was too deafening.
+
+In a few minutes they were before the gateway. Nightspore turned his
+back and hid his eyes in his two hands, but even then he was blinded by
+the light. So passionate were his feelings that his body seemed to
+enlarge itself. At every frightful beat of sound, he quivered violently.
+
+The entrance was doorless. Krag jumped onto the rocky platform and
+pulled Nightspore after him.
+
+Once through the gateway, the light vanished. The rhythmical sound—blows
+totally ceased. Nightspore dropped his hands.... All was dark and quiet
+as an opened tomb. But the air was filled with grim, burning passion,
+which was to light and sound what light itself is to opaque colour.
+
+Nightspore pressed his hand to his heart. “I don’t know if I can endure
+it,” he said, looking toward Krag. He felt his person far more vividly
+and distinctly than if he had been able to see him.
+
+“Go in, and lose no time, Nightspore.... Time here is more precious than
+on earth. We can’t squander the minutes. There are terrible and tragic
+affairs to attend to, which won’t wait for us... Go in at once. Stop for
+nothing.”
+
+“Where shall I go to?” muttered Nightspore. “I have forgotten
+everything.”
+
+“Enter, enter! There is only one way. You can’t mistake it.”
+
+“Why do you bid me go in, if I am to come out again?”
+
+“To have your wounds healed.”
+
+Almost before the words had left his mouth, Krag sprang back on to the
+island raft. Nightspore involuntarily started after him, but at once
+recovered himself and remained standing where he was. Krag was
+completely invisible; everything outside was black night.
+
+The moment he had gone, a feeling shot up in Nightspore’s heart like a
+thousand trumpets.
+
+*****
+
+Straight in front of him, almost at his feet, was the lower end of a
+steep, narrow, circular flight of stone steps. There was no other way
+forward.
+
+He put his foot on the bottom stair, at the same time peering aloft. He
+saw nothing, yet as he proceeded upward every inch of the way was
+perceptible to his inner feelings. The staircase was cold, dismal, and
+deserted, but it seemed to him, in his exaltation of soul, like a ladder
+to heaven.
+
+After he had mounted a dozen steps or so, he paused to take breath. Each
+step was increasingly difficult to ascend; he felt as though he were
+carrying a heavy man on his shoulders. It struck a familiar chord in his
+mind. He went on and, ten stairs higher up, came to a window set in a
+high embrasure.
+
+On to this he clambered, and looked through. The window was of a sort of
+glass, but he could see nothing. Coming to him, however, from the world
+outside, a disturbance of the atmosphere struck his senses, causing his
+blood to run cold. At one moment it resembled a low, mocking, vulgar
+laugh, travelling from the ends of the earth; at the next it was like a
+rhythmical vibration of the air—the silent, continuous throbbing of some
+mighty engine. The two sensations were identical, yet different. They
+seemed to be related in the same manner as soul and body. After feeling
+them for a long time, Nightspore got down from the embrasure, and
+continued his ascent, having meanwhile grown very serious.
+
+The climbing became still more laborious, and he was forced to stop at
+every third or fourth step, to rest his muscles and regain breath. When
+he had mounted another twenty stairs in this way, he came to a second
+window. Again he saw nothing. The laughing disturbance of the air, too,
+had ceased; but the atmospheric throb was now twice as distinct as
+before, and its rhythm had become _double_. There were two separate
+pulses; one was in the time of a march, the other in the time of a
+waltz. The first was bitter and petrifying to feel, but the second was
+gay, enervating, and horrible.
+
+Nightspore spent little time at that window, for he felt that he was on
+the eve of a great discovery, and that something far more important
+awaited him higher up. He proceeded aloft. The ascent grew more and more
+exhausting, so much so that he had frequently to sit down, utterly
+crushed by his own dead weight. Still, he got to the third window.
+
+He climbed into the embrasure. His feelings translated themselves into
+vision, and he saw a sight that caused him to turn pale. A gigantic,
+self-luminous sphere was hanging in the sky, occupying nearly the whole
+of it. This sphere was composed entirely of two kinds of active beings.
+There were a myriad of tiny green corpuscles, varying in size from the
+very small to the almost indiscernible. They were not green, but he
+somehow saw them so. They were all striving in one direction—toward
+himself, toward Muspel, but were too feeble and miniature to make any
+headway. Their action produced the marching rhythm he had previously
+felt, but this rhythm was not intrinsic in the corpuscles themselves,
+but was a consequence of the obstruction they met with. And, surrounding
+these atoms of life and light, were far larger whirls of white light
+that gyrated hither and thither, carrying the green corpuscles with them
+wherever they desired. Their whirling motion was accompanied by the
+waltzing rhythm. It seemed to Nightspore that the green atoms were not
+only being danced about against their will but were suffering
+excruciating shame and degradation in consequence. The larger ones were
+steadier than the extremely small, a few were even almost stationary,
+and one was advancing in the direction it wished to go.
+
+He turned his back to the window, buried his face in his hands, and
+searched in the dim recesses of his memory for an explanation of what he
+had just seen. Nothing came straight, but horror and wrath began to take
+possession of him.
+
+On his way upward to the next window, invisible fingers seemed to him to
+be squeezing his heart and twisting it about here and there; but he
+never dreamed of turning back. His mood was so grim that he did not once
+permit himself to pause. Such was his physical distress by the time that
+he had clambered into the recess, that for several minutes he could see
+nothing at all—the world seemed to be spinning round him rapidly.
+
+When at last he looked, he saw the same sphere as before, but now all
+was changed on it. It was a world of rocks, minerals, water, plants,
+animals, and men. He saw the whole world at one view, yet everything was
+so magnified that he could distinguish the smallest details of life. In
+the interior of every individual, of every aggregate of individuals, of
+every chemical atom, he clearly perceived the presence of the green
+corpuscles. But, according to the degree of dignity of the life form,
+they were fragmentary or comparatively large. In the crystal, for
+example, the green, imprisoned life was so minute as to be scarcely
+visible; in some men it was hardly bigger; but in other men and women it
+was twenty or a hundred times greater. But, great or small, it played an
+important part in every individual. It appeared as if the whirls of
+white light, which were the individuals, and plainly showed themselves
+beneath the enveloping bodies, were delighted with existence and wished
+only to enjoy it, but the green corpuscles were in a condition of
+eternal discontent, yet, blind and not knowing which way to turn for
+liberation, kept changing form, as though breaking a new path, by way of
+experiment. Whenever the old grotesque became metamorphosed into the new
+grotesque, it was in every case the direct work of the green atoms,
+trying to escape toward Muspel, but encountering immediate opposition.
+These subdivided sparks of living, fiery spirit were hopelessly
+imprisoned in a ghastly mush of soft pleasure. They were being
+effeminated and corrupted—that is to say, absorbed in the foul, sickly
+enveloping forms.
+
+Nightspore felt a sickening shame in his soul as he looked on at that
+spectacle. His exaltation had long since vanished. He bit his nails, and
+understood why Krag was waiting for him below.
+
+He mounted slowly to the fifth window. The pressure of air against him
+was as strong as a full gale, divested of violence and irregularity, so
+that he was not for an instant suffered to relax his efforts.
+Nevertheless, not a breath stirred.
+
+Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight. The sphere
+was still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which he was
+standing he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any distinguishable
+shape, but somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting sweetness.
+Nightspore knew that it was Crystalman. A flood of fierce light—but it
+was not light, but passion—was streaming all the time from Muspel to the
+Shadow, and through it. When, however, it emerged on the other side,
+which was the sphere, the light was altered in character. It became
+split, as by a prism, into the two forms of life which he had previously
+seen—the green corpuscles and the whirls. What had been fiery spirit but
+a moment ago was now a disgusting mass of crawling, wriggling
+individuals, each whirl of pleasure-seeking will having, as nucleus, a
+fragmentary spark of living green fire. Nightspore recollected the back
+rays of Starkness, and it flashed across him with the certainty of truth
+that the green sparks were the back rays, and the whirls the forward
+rays, of Muspel. The former were trying desperately to return to their
+place of origin, but were overpowered by the brute force of the latter,
+which wished only to remain where they were. The individual whirls were
+jostling and fighting with, and even devouring, each other. This created
+pain, but, whatever pain they felt, it was always pleasure that they
+sought. Sometimes the green sparks were strong enough for a moment to
+move a little way in the direction of Muspel; the whirls would then
+accept the movement, not only without demur, but with pride and
+pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork—but they never saw beyond
+the Shadow, they thought that they were travelling toward it. The
+instant the direct movement wearied them, as contrary to their whirling
+nature, they fell again to killing, dancing, and loving.
+
+Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to be
+the last. Nothing would have kept him from ascending to it, for he
+guessed that the nature of Crystalman himself would there become
+manifest. Every step upward was like a bloody life-and-death struggle.
+The stairs nailed him to the ground; the air pressure caused blood to
+gush from his nose and ears; his head clanged like an iron bell. When he
+had fought his way up a dozen steps, he found himself suddenly at the
+top; the staircase terminated in a small, bare chamber of cold stone,
+possessing a single window. On the other side of the apartment another
+short flight of stairs mounted through a trap, apparently to the roof of
+the building. Before ascending these stairs, Nightspore hastened to the
+window and stared out.
+
+The shadow form of Crystalman had drawn much closer to him, and filled
+the whole sky, but it was not a shadow of darkness, but a bright shadow.
+It had neither shape, nor colour, yet it in some way suggested the
+delicate tints of early morning. It was so nebulous that the sphere
+could be clearly distinguished through it; in extension, however, it was
+thick. The sweet smell emanating from it was strong, loathsome, and
+terrible; it seemed to spring from a sort of loose, mocking slime
+inexpressibly vulgar and ignorant.
+
+The spirit stream from Muspel flashed with complexity and variety. It
+was not below individuality, but above it. It was not the One, or the
+Many, but something else far beyond either. It approached Crystalman,
+and entered his body—if that bright mist could be called a body. It
+passed right through him, and the passage caused him the most exquisite
+pleasure. _The Muspel-stream was Crystalman’s food_. The stream emerged
+from the other side on to the sphere, in a double condition. Part of it
+reappeared intrinsically unaltered, but shivered into a million
+fragments. These were the green corpuscles. In passing through
+Crystalman they had escaped absorption by reason of their extreme
+minuteness. The other part of the stream had not escaped. Its fire had
+been abstracted, its cement was withdrawn, and, after being fouled and
+softened by the horrible sweetness of the host, it broke into
+individuals, which were the whirls of living will.
+
+Nightspore shuddered. He comprehended at last how the whole world of
+will was doomed to eternal anguish in order that one Being might feel
+joy.
+
+Presently he set foot on the final flight leading to the roof; for he
+remembered vaguely that now only that remained.
+
+Halfway up, he fainted—but when he recovered consciousness he persisted
+as though nothing had happened to him. As soon as his head was above the
+trap, breathing the free air, he had the same physical sensation as a
+man stepping out of water. He pulled his body up, and stood expectantly
+on the stone-floored roof, looking round for his first glimpse of
+Muspel.
+
+There was nothing.
+
+He was standing upon the top of a tower, measuring not above fifteen
+feet each way. Darkness was all around him. He sat down on the stone
+parapet, with a sinking heart; a heavy foreboding possessed him.
+
+Suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, he had the distinct
+impression that the darkness around him, on all four sides, was
+grinning.... As soon as that happened, he understood that he was wholly
+surrounded by Crystalman’s world, and that Muspel consisted of himself
+and the stone tower on which he was sitting.
+
+Fire flashed in his heart.... Millions upon millions of grotesque,
+vulgar, ridiculous, sweetened individuals—once Spirit—were calling out
+from their degradation and agony for salvation from Muspel.... To answer
+that cry there was only himself... and Krag waiting below... and
+Surtur—But where was Surtur?
+
+The truth forced itself on him in all its cold, brutal reality. Muspel
+was no all-powerful Universe, tolerating from pure indifference the
+existence side by side with it of another false world, which had no
+right to be. Muspel was fighting for its life—against all that is most
+shameful and frightful—against sin masquerading as eternal beauty,
+against baseness masquerading as Nature, against the Devil masquerading
+as God....
+
+Now he understood everything. The moral combat was no mock one, no
+Valhalla, where warriors are cut to pieces by day and feast by night;
+but a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death—namely,
+spiritual death—inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel.... By what
+means could he hold back from this horrible war!
+
+During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self—the corruption of
+his life on Earth—were scorched out of Nightspore’s soul, perhaps not
+for the first time.
+
+After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend. Without warning, a
+strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world. Starting in awful
+mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery that he
+could not doubt for a moment whence it originated. It was the voice of
+Crystalman.
+
+*****
+
+Krag was waiting for him on the island raft. He threw a
+stern glance at Nightspore.
+
+“Have you seen everything?”
+
+“The struggle is hopeless,” muttered Nightspore.
+
+“Did I not say I am the stronger?”
+
+“You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier.”
+
+“I am the stronger and the mightier. Crystalman’s Empire is but a shadow
+on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the bloodiest
+blows.... What do you mean to do?”
+
+Nightspore looked at him strangely. “Are you not Surtur, Krag?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Yes,” said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise. “But what is
+your name on Earth?”
+
+“It is pain.”
+
+“That, too, I must have known.”
+
+He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft.
+Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David
+Lindsay
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .50em; margin-bottom: .50em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voyage to Arcturus
+
+Author: David Lindsay
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1329]
+[Last updated: September 22, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By David Lindsay
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter 2. IN THE STREET </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter 3. STARKNESS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter 4. THE VOICE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter 6. JOIWIND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter 7. PANAWE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter 9. OCEAXE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter 10. TYDOMIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter 12. SPADEVIL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter 14. POLECRAB </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter 17. CORPANG </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter 18. HAUNTE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter 19. SULLENBODE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter 20. BAREY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter 21. MUSPEL </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On a March evening, at eight o&rsquo;clock, Backhouse, the medium&mdash;a
+      fast-rising star in the psychic world&mdash;was ushered into the study at
+      Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was
+      illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire. The host, eying him with
+      indolent curiosity, got up, and the usual conventional greetings were
+      exchanged. Having indicated an easy chair before the fire to his guest,
+      the South American merchant sank back again into his own. The electric
+      light was switched on. Faull&rsquo;s prominent, clear-cut features,
+      metallic-looking skin, and general air of bored impassiveness, did not
+      seem greatly to impress the medium, who was accustomed to regard men from
+      a special angle. Backhouse, on the contrary, was a novelty to the
+      merchant. As he tranquilly studied him through half closed lids and the
+      smoke of a cigar, he wondered how this little, thickset person with the
+      pointed beard contrived to remain so fresh and sane in appearance, in view
+      of the morbid nature of his occupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you smoke?&rdquo; drawled Faull, by way of starting the
+      conversation. &ldquo;No? Then will you take a drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at present, I thank you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything is satisfactory? The materialisation will take place?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no reason to doubt it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s good, for I would not like my guests to be
+      disappointed. I have your check written out in my pocket.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afterward will do quite well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine o&rsquo;clock was the time specified, I believe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation continued to flag. Faull sprawled in his chair, and
+      remained apathetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you care to hear what arrangements I have made?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am unaware that any are necessary, beyond chairs for your guests.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean the decoration of the séance room, the music, and so forth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stared at his host. &ldquo;But this is not a theatrical
+      performance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s correct. Perhaps I ought to explain.... There will be
+      ladies present, and ladies, you know, are aesthetically inclined.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case I have no objection. I only hope they will enjoy the
+      performance to the end.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke rather dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all right, then,&rdquo; said Faull. Flicking his
+      cigar into the fire, he got up and helped himself to whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come and see the room?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, no. I prefer to have nothing to do with it till the time
+      arrives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let&rsquo;s go to see my sister, Mrs. Jameson, who is in the
+      drawing room. She sometimes does me the kindness to act as my hostess, as
+      I am unmarried.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be delighted,&rdquo; said Backhouse coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They found the lady alone, sitting by the open pianoforte in a pensive
+      attitude. She had been playing Scriabin and was overcome. The medium took
+      in her small, tight, patrician features and porcelain-like hands, and
+      wondered how Faull came by such a sister. She received him bravely, with
+      just a shade of quiet emotion. He was used to such receptions at the hands
+      of the sex, and knew well how to respond to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What amazes me,&rdquo; she half whispered, after ten minutes of
+      graceful, hollow conversation, &ldquo;is, if you must know it, not so much
+      the manifestation itself&mdash;though that will surely be wonderful&mdash;as
+      your assurance that it will take place. Tell me the grounds of your
+      confidence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dream with open eyes,&rdquo; he answered, looking around at the
+      door, &ldquo;and others see my dreams. That is all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s beautiful,&rdquo; responded Mrs. Jameson. She
+      smiled rather absently, for the first guest had just entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Kent-Smith, the ex-magistrate, celebrated for his shrewd judicial
+      humour, which, however, he had the good sense not to attempt to carry into
+      private life. Although well on the wrong side of seventy, his eyes were
+      still disconcertingly bright. With the selective skill of an old man, he
+      immediately settled himself in the most comfortable of many comfortable
+      chairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to see wonders tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fresh material for your autobiography,&rdquo; remarked Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you should not have mentioned my unfortunate book. An old
+      public servant is merely amusing himself in his retirement, Mr. Backhouse.
+      You have no cause for alarm&mdash;I have studied in the school of
+      discretion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not alarmed. There can be no possible objection to your
+      publishing whatever you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are most kind,&rdquo; said the old man, with a cunning smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trent is not coming tonight,&rdquo; remarked Mrs. Jameson, throwing
+      a curious little glance at her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never thought he would. It&rsquo;s not in his line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Trent, you must understand,&rdquo; she went on, addressing the
+      ex-magistrate, &ldquo;has placed us all under a debt of gratitude. She has
+      decorated the old lounge hall upstairs most beautifully, and has secured
+      the services of the sweetest little orchestra.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is Roman magnificence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Backhouse thinks the spirits should be treated with more deference,&rdquo;
+      laughed Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Mr. Backhouse&mdash;a poetic environment...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me. I am a simple man, and always prefer to reduce things to
+      elemental simplicity. I raise no opposition, but I express my opinion.
+      Nature is one thing, and art is another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am not sure that I don&rsquo;t agree with you,&rdquo; said
+      the ex-magistrate. &ldquo;An occasion like this ought to be simple, to
+      guard against the possibility of deception&mdash;if you will forgive my
+      bluntness, Mr. Backhouse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall sit in full light,&rdquo; replied Backhouse, &ldquo;and
+      every opportunity will be given to all to inspect the room. I shall also
+      ask you to submit me to a personal examination.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather embarrassed silence followed. It was broken by the arrival of two
+      more guests, who entered together. These were Prior, the prosperous City
+      coffee importer, and Lang, the stockjobber, well known in his own circle
+      as an amateur prestidigitator. Backhouse was slightly acquainted with the
+      latter. Prior, perfuming the room with the faint odour of wine and tobacco
+      smoke, tried to introduce an atmosphere of joviality into the proceedings.
+      Finding that no one seconded his efforts, however, he shortly subsided and
+      fell to examining the water colours on the walls. Lang, tall, thin, and
+      growing bald, said little, but stared at Backhouse a good deal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coffee, liqueurs, and cigarettes were now brought in. Everyone partook,
+      except Lang and the medium. At the same moment, Professor Halbart was
+      announced. He was the eminent psychologist, the author and lecturer on
+      crime, insanity, genius, and so forth, considered in their mental aspects.
+      His presence at such a gathering somewhat mystified the other guests, but
+      all felt as if the object of their meeting had immediately acquired
+      additional solemnity. He was small, meagre-looking, and mild in manner,
+      but was probably the most stubborn-brained of all that mixed company.
+      Completely ignoring the medium, he at once sat down beside Kent-Smith,
+      with whom he began to exchange remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a few minutes past the appointed hour Mrs. Trent entered, unannounced.
+      She was a woman of about twenty-eight. She had a white, demure, saintlike
+      face, smooth black hair, and lips so crimson and full that they seemed to
+      be bursting with blood. Her tall, graceful body was most expensively
+      attired. Kisses were exchanged between her and Mrs. Jameson. She bowed to
+      the rest of the assembly, and stole a half glance and a smile at Faull.
+      The latter gave her a queer look, and Backhouse, who lost nothing, saw the
+      concealed barbarian in the complacent gleam of his eye. She refused the
+      refreshment that was offered her, and Faull proposed that, as everyone had
+      now arrived, they should adjourn to the lounge hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Trent held up a slender palm. &ldquo;Did you, or did you not, give me
+      carte blanche, Montague?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I did,&rdquo; said Faull, laughing. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have been rather presumptuous. I don&rsquo;t know. I have
+      invited a couple of friends to join us. No, no one knows them.... The two
+      most extraordinary individuals you ever saw. And mediums, I am sure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds very mysterious. Who are these conspirators?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least tell us their names, you provoking girl,&rdquo; put in
+      Mrs. Jameson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One rejoices in the name of Maskull, and the other in that of
+      Nightspore. That&rsquo;s nearly all that I know about them, so don&rsquo;t
+      overwhelm me with any more questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where did you pick them up? You must have picked them up
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is a cross-examination. Have I sinned against convention?
+      I swear I will tell you not another word about them. They will be here
+      directly, and then I will deliver them to your tender mercy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know them,&rdquo; said Faull, &ldquo;and nobody else
+      seems to, but, of course, we will all be very pleased to have them....
+      Shall we wait, or what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said nine, and it&rsquo;s past that now. It&rsquo;s quite
+      possible they may not turn up after all.... Anyway, don&rsquo;t wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would prefer to start at once,&rdquo; said Backhouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lounge, a lofty room, forty feet long by twenty wide, had been divided
+      for the occasion into two equal parts by a heavy brocade curtain drawn
+      across the middle. The far end was thus concealed. The nearer half had
+      been converted into an auditorium by a crescent of armchairs. There was no
+      other furniture. A large fire was burning halfway along the wall, between
+      the chairbacks and the door. The room was brilliantly lighted by electric
+      bracket lamps. A sumptuous carpet covered the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having settled his guests in their seats, Faull stepped up to the curtain
+      and flung it aside. A replica, or nearly so, of the Drury Lane
+      presentation of the temple scene in <i>The Magic Flute</i> was then
+      exposed to view: the gloomy, massive architecture of the interior, the
+      glowing sky above it in the background, and, silhouetted against the
+      latter, the gigantic seated statue of the Pharaoh. A fantastically carved
+      wooden couch lay before the pedestal of the statue. Near the curtain,
+      obliquely placed to the auditorium, was a plain oak armchair, for the use
+      of the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of those present felt privately that the setting was quite
+      inappropriate to the occasion and savoured rather unpleasantly of
+      ostentation. Backhouse in particular seemed put out. The usual
+      compliments, however, were showered on Mrs. Trent as the deviser of so
+      remarkable a theatre. Faull invited his friends to step forward and
+      examine the apartment as minutely as they might desire. Prior and Lang
+      were the only ones to accept. The former wandered about among the
+      pasteboard scenery, whistling to himself and occasionally tapping a part
+      of it with his knuckles. Lang, who was in his element, ignored the rest of
+      his party and commenced a patient, systematic search, on his own account,
+      for secret apparatus. Faull and Mrs. Trent stood in a corner of the
+      temple, talking together in low tones; while Mrs. Jameson, pretending to
+      hold Backhouse in conversation, watched them as only a deeply interested
+      woman knows how to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang, to his own disgust, having failed to find anything of a suspicious
+      nature, the medium now requested that his own clothing should be searched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All these precautions are quite needless and beside the matter in
+      hand, as you will immediately see for yourselves. My reputation demands,
+      however, that other people who are not present would not be able to say
+      afterward that trickery has been resorted to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Lang again fell the ungrateful task of investigating pockets and
+      sleeves. Within a few minutes he expressed himself satisfied that nothing
+      mechanical was in Backhouse&rsquo;s possession. The guests reseated
+      themselves. Faull ordered two more chairs to be brought for Mrs. Trent&rsquo;s
+      friends, who, however, had not yet arrived. He then pressed an electric
+      bell, and took his own seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The signal was for the hidden orchestra to begin playing. A murmur of
+      surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning, the
+      beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart&rsquo;s &ldquo;temple&rdquo; music
+      pulsated through the air. The expectation of everyone was raised, while,
+      beneath her pallor and composure, it could be seen that Mrs. Trent was
+      deeply moved. It was evident that aesthetically she was by far the most
+      important person present. Faull watched her, with his face sunk on his
+      chest, sprawling as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stood up, with one hand on the back of his chair, and began
+      speaking. The music instantly sank to pianissimo, and remained so for as
+      long as he was on his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a materialisation.
+      That means you will see something appear in space that was not previously
+      there. At first it will appear as a vaporous form, but finally it will be
+      a solid body, which anyone present may feel and handle&mdash;and, for
+      example, shake hands with. For this body will be in the human shape. It
+      will be a real man or woman&mdash;which, I can&rsquo;t say&mdash;but a man
+      or woman without known antecedents. If, however, you demand from me an
+      explanation of the origin of this materialised form&mdash;where it comes
+      from, whence the atoms and molecules composing its tissues are derived&mdash;I
+      am unable to satisfy you. I am about to produce the phenomenon; if anyone
+      can explain it to me afterward, I shall be very grateful.... That is all I
+      have to say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resumed his seat, half turning his back on the assembly, and paused for
+      a moment before beginning his task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was precisely at this minute that the manservant opened the door and
+      announced in a subdued but distinct voice: &ldquo;Mr. Maskull, Mr.
+      Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everyone turned round. Faull rose to welcome the late arrivals. Backhouse
+      also stood up, and stared hard at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two strangers remained standing by the door, which was closed quietly
+      behind them. They seemed to be waiting for the mild sensation caused by
+      their appearance to subside before advancing into the room. Maskull was a
+      kind of giant, but of broader and more robust physique than most giants.
+      He wore a full beard. His features were thick and heavy, coarsely
+      modelled, like those of a wooden carving; but his eyes, small and black,
+      sparkled with the fires of intelligence and audacity. His hair was short,
+      black, and bristling. Nightspore was of middle height, but so
+      tough-looking that he appeared to be trained out of all human frailties
+      and susceptibilities. His hairless face seemed consumed by an intense
+      spiritual hunger, and his eyes were wild and distant. Both men were
+      dressed in tweeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before any words were spoken, a loud and terrible crash of falling masonry
+      caused the assembled party to start up from their chairs in consternation.
+      It sounded as if the entire upper part of the building had collapsed.
+      Faull sprang to the door, and called to the servant to say what was
+      happening. The man had to be questioned twice before he gathered what was
+      required of him. He said he had heard nothing. In obedience to his master&rsquo;s
+      order, he went upstairs. Nothing, however, was amiss there, neither had
+      the maids heard anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime Backhouse, who almost alone of those assembled had
+      preserved his sangfroid, went straight up to Nightspore, who stood gnawing
+      his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you can explain it, sir?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was supernatural,&rdquo; said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled
+      voice, turning away from his questioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed so. It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard
+      it so loud.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then went among the guests, reassuring them. By degrees they settled
+      down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-humoured
+      interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained watchfulness.
+      Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to them. Mrs. Trent kept
+      stealing uneasy glances at them. Throughout the entire incident, Mozart&rsquo;s
+      hymn continued to be played. The orchestra also had heard nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse now entered on his task. It was one that began to be familiar to
+      him, and he had no anxiety about the result. It was not possible to effect
+      the materialisation by mere concentration of will, or the exercise of any
+      faculty; otherwise many people could have done what he had engaged himself
+      to do. His nature was phenomenal&mdash;the dividing wall between himself
+      and the spiritual world was broken in many places. Through the gaps in his
+      mind the inhabitants of the invisible, when he summoned them, passed for a
+      moment timidly and awfully into the solid, coloured universe.... He could
+      not say how it was brought about.... The experience was a rough one for
+      the body, and many such struggles would lead to insanity and early death.
+      That is why Backhouse was stern and abrupt in his manner. The coarse,
+      clumsy suspicion of some of the witnesses, the frivolous aestheticism of
+      others, were equally obnoxious to his grim, bursting heart; but he was
+      obliged to live, and, to pay his way, must put up with these
+      impertinences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down facing the wooden couch. His eyes remained open but seemed to
+      look inward. His cheeks paled, and he became noticeably thinner. The
+      spectators almost forgot to breathe. The more sensitive among them began
+      to feel, or imagine, strange presences all around them. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      eyes glittered with anticipation, and his brows went up and down, but
+      Nightspore appeared bored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long ten minutes the pedestal of the statue was seen to become
+      slightly blurred, as though an intervening mist were rising from the
+      ground. This slowly developed into a visible cloud, coiling hither and
+      thither, and constantly changing shape. The professor half rose, and held
+      his glasses with one hand further forward on the bridge of his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By slow stages the cloud acquired the dimensions and approximate outline
+      of an adult human body, although all was still vague and blurred. It
+      hovered lightly in the air, a foot or so above the couch. Backhouse looked
+      haggard and ghastly. Mrs. Jameson quietly fainted in her chair, but she
+      was unnoticed, and presently revived. The apparition now settled down upon
+      the couch, and at the moment of doing so seemed suddenly to grow dark,
+      solid, and manlike. Many of the guests were as pale as the medium himself,
+      but Faull preserved his stoical apathy, and glanced once or twice at Mrs.
+      Trent. She was staring straight at the couch, and was twisting a little
+      lace handkerchief through the different fingers of her hand. The music
+      went on playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure was by this time unmistakably that of a man lying down. The
+      face focused itself into distinctness. The body was draped in a sort of
+      shroud, but the features were those of a young man. One smooth hand fell
+      over, nearly touching the floor, white and motionless. The weaker spirits
+      of the company stared at the vision in sick horror; the rest were grave
+      and perplexed. The seeming man was <i>dead</i>, but somehow it did not
+      appear like a death succeeding life, but like a death preliminary to life.
+      All felt that he might sit up at any minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop that music!&rdquo; muttered Backhouse, tottering from his
+      chair and facing the party. Faull touched the bell. A few more bars
+      sounded, and then total silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anyone who wants to may approach the couch,&rdquo; said Backhouse
+      with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang at once advanced, and stared awestruck at the supernatural youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are at liberty to touch,&rdquo; said the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Lang did not venture to, nor did any of the others, who one by one
+      stole up to the couch&mdash;until it came to Faull&rsquo;s turn. He looked
+      straight at Mrs. Trent, who seemed frightened and disgusted at the
+      spectacle before her, and then not only touched the apparition but
+      suddenly grasped the drooping hand in his own and gave it a powerful
+      squeeze. Mrs. Trent gave a low scream. The ghostly visitor opened his
+      eyes, looked at Faull strangely, and sat up on the couch. A cryptic smile
+      started playing over his mouth. Faull looked at his hand; a feeling of
+      intense pleasure passed through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught Mrs. Jameson in his arms; she was attacked by another spell
+      of faintness. Mrs. Trent ran forward, and led her out of the room. Neither
+      of them returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phantom body now stood upright, looking about him, still with his
+      peculiar smile. Prior suddenly felt sick, and went out. The other men more
+      or less hung together, for the sake of human society, but Nightspore paced
+      up and down, like a man weary and impatient, while Maskull attempted to
+      interrogate the youth. The apparition watched him with a baffling
+      expression, but did not answer. Backhouse was sitting apart, his face
+      buried in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this moment that the door was burst open violently, and a
+      stranger, unannounced, half leaped, half strode a few yards into the room,
+      and then stopped. None of Faull&rsquo;s friends had ever seen him before.
+      He was a thick, shortish man, with surprising muscular development and a
+      head far too large in proportion to his body. His beardless yellow face
+      indicated, as a first impression, a mixture of sagacity, brutality, and
+      humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha-i, gentlemen!&rdquo; he called out loudly. His voice was
+      piercing, and oddly disagreeable to the ear. &ldquo;So we have a little
+      visitor here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back, but everyone else stared at the intruder in
+      astonishment. He took another few steps forward, which brought him to the
+      edge of the theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask, sir, how I come to have the honour of being your host?&rdquo;
+      asked Faull sullenly. He thought that the evening was not proceeding as
+      smoothly as he had anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer looked at him for a second, and then broke into a great,
+      roaring guffaw. He thumped Faull on the back playfully&mdash;but the play
+      was rather rough, for the victim was sent staggering against the wall
+      before he could recover his balance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good evening, my host!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And good evening to you too, my lad!&rdquo; he went on, addressing
+      the supernatural youth, who was now beginning to wander about the room, in
+      apparent unconsciousness of his surroundings. &ldquo;I have seen someone
+      very like you before, I think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intruder thrust his head almost up to the phantom&rsquo;s face.
+      &ldquo;You have no right here, as you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shape looked back at him with a smile full of significance, which,
+      however, no one could understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful what you are doing,&rdquo; said Backhouse quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, spirit usher?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who you are, but if you use physical violence
+      toward <i>that</i>, as you seem inclined to do, the consequences may prove
+      very unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And without pleasure our evening would be spoiled, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      it, my little mercenary friend?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Humour vanished from his face, like sunlight from a landscape, leaving it
+      hard and rocky. Before anyone realised what he was doing, he encircled the
+      soft, white neck of the materialised shape with his hairy hands and, with
+      a double turn, twisted it completely round. A faint, unearthly shriek
+      sounded, and the body fell in a heap to the floor. Its face was uppermost.
+      The guests were unutterably shocked to observe that its expression had
+      changed from the mysterious but fascinating smile to a vulgar, sordid,
+      bestial grin, which cast a cold shadow of moral nastiness into every
+      heart. The transformation was accompanied by a sickening stench of the
+      graveyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The features faded rapidly away, the body lost its consistence, passing
+      from the solid to the shadowy condition, and, before two minutes had
+      elapsed, the spirit-form had entirely disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short stranger turned and confronted the party, with a long, loud
+      laugh, like nothing in nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The professor talked excitedly to Kent-Smith in low tones. Faull beckoned
+      Backhouse behind a wing of scenery, and handed him his check without a
+      word. The medium put it in his pocket, buttoned his coat, and walked out
+      of the room. Lang followed him, in order to get a drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger poked his face up into Maskull&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, giant, what do you think of it all? Wouldn&rsquo;t you like
+      to see the land where this sort of fruit grows wild?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of fruit?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That specimen goblin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull waved him away with his huge hand. &ldquo;Who are you, and how did
+      you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call up your friend. Perhaps he may recognise me.&rdquo; Nightspore
+      had moved a chair to the fire, and was watching the embers with a set,
+      fanatical expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Krag come to me, if he wants me,&rdquo; he said, in his strange
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, he does know me,&rdquo; uttered Krag, with a humorous
+      look. Walking over to Nightspore, he put a hand on the back of his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still the same old gnawing hunger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is doing these days?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore disdainfully,
+      without altering his attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur has gone, and we are to follow him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you two come to know each other, and of whom are you
+      speaking?&rdquo; asked Maskull, looking from one to the other in
+      perplexity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag has something for us. Let us go outside,&rdquo; replied
+      Nightspore. He got up, and glanced over his shoulder. Maskull, following
+      the direction of his eye, observed that the few remaining men were
+      watching their little group attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 2. IN THE STREET
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The three men gathered in the street outside the house. The night was
+      slightly frosty, but particularly clear, with an east wind blowing. The
+      multitude of blazing stars caused the sky to appear like a vast scroll of
+      hieroglyphic symbols. Maskull felt oddly excited; he had a sense that
+      something extraordinary was about to happen. &ldquo;What brought you to
+      this house tonight, Krag, and what made you do what you did? How are we
+      understand that apparition?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must have been Crystalman&rsquo;s expression on its face,&rdquo;
+      muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have discussed that, haven&rsquo;t we, Maskull? Maskull is
+      anxious to behold that rare fruit in its native wilds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at Krag carefully, trying to analyse his own feelings
+      toward him. He was distinctly repelled by the man&rsquo;s personality, yet
+      side by side with this aversion a savage, living energy seemed to spring
+      up in his heart that in some strange fashion was attributable to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you insist on this simile?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it is apropos. Nightspore&rsquo;s quite right. That was
+      Crystalman&rsquo;s face, and we are going to Crystalman&rsquo;s country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is this mysterious country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a quaint name. But where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned, showing his yellow teeth in the light of the street lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the residential suburb of Arcturus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is he talking about, Nightspore?... Do you mean the star of
+      that name?&rdquo; he went on, to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which you have in front of you at this very minute,&rdquo; said
+      Krag, pointing a thick finger toward the brightest star in the
+      south-eastern sky. &ldquo;There you see Arcturus, and Tormance is its one
+      inhabited planet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the heavy, gleaming star, and again at Krag. Then he
+      pulled out a pipe, and began to fill it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have cultivated a new form of humour, Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad if I can amuse you, Maskull, if only for a few days.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant to ask you&mdash;how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be odd if I didn&rsquo;t, seeing that I only came here on
+      your account. As a matter of fact, Nightspore and I are old friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused with his suspended match. &ldquo;You came here on my
+      account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely. On your account and Nightspore&rsquo;s. We three are to be
+      fellow travellers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now lit his pipe and puffed away coolly for a few moments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Krag, but I must assume you are mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw his head back, and gave a scraping laugh. &ldquo;Am I mad,
+      Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Surtur gone to Tormance?&rdquo; ejaculated Nightspore in a
+      strangled voice, fixing his eyes on Krag&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and he requires that we follow him at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart began to beat strangely. It all sounded to him like
+      a dream conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And since how long, Krag, have I been <i>required</i> to do things
+      by a total stranger.... Besides, who is this individual?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&rsquo;s chief,&rdquo; said Nightspore, turning his head away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The riddle is too elaborate for me. I give up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are looking for mysteries,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;so
+      naturally you are finding them. Try and simplify your ideas, my friend.
+      The affair is plain and serious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared hard at him and smoked rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from now?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the old observatory at Starkness.... Have you heard of the
+      famous Starkness Observatory, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the north-east coast of Scotland. Curious discoveries are made
+      there from time to time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As, for example, how to make voyages to the stars. So this Surtur
+      turns out to be an astronomer. And you too, presumably?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned again. &ldquo;How long will it take you to wind up your
+      affairs? When can you be ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too considerate,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing outright.
+      &ldquo;I was beginning to fear that I would be hauled away at once....
+      However, I have neither wife, land, nor profession, so there&rsquo;s
+      nothing to wait for.... What is the itinerary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a fortunate man. A bold, daring heart, and no encumbrances.&rdquo;
+      Krag&rsquo;s features became suddenly grave and rigid. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+      be a fool, and refuse a gift of luck. A gift declined is not offered a
+      second time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply, returning his pipe to his
+      pocket. &ldquo;I ask you to put yourself in my place. Even if I were a man
+      sick for adventures, how could I listen seriously to such an insane
+      proposition as this? What do I know about you, or your past record? You
+      may be a practical joker, or you may have come out of a madhouse&mdash;I
+      know nothing about it. If you claim to be an exceptional man, and want my
+      cooperation, you must offer me exceptional proofs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what proofs would you consider adequate, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. A sharp, chilling pain
+      immediately passed through the latter&rsquo;s body and at the same moment
+      his brain caught fire. A light burst in upon him like the rising of the
+      sun. He asked himself for the first time if this fantastic conversation
+      could by any chance refer to real things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, Krag,&rdquo; he said slowly, while peculiar images and
+      conceptions started to travel in rich disorder through his mind. &ldquo;You
+      talk about a certain journey. Well, if that journey were a possible one,
+      and I were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come
+      back. For twenty-four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give my
+      life. That is my attitude toward that journey.... Now prove to me that you&rsquo;re
+      not talking nonsense. Produce your credentials.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag stared at him all the time he was speaking, his face gradually
+      resuming its jesting expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you will get your twenty-four hours, and perhaps longer, but
+      not much longer. You&rsquo;re an audacious fellow, Maskull, but this trip
+      will prove a little strenuous, even for you.... And so, like the
+      unbelievers of old, you want a sign from heaven?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;But the whole thing is ridiculous. Our brains are
+      overexcited by what took place in <i>there</i>. Let us go home, and sleep
+      it off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag detained him with one hand, while groping in his breast pocket with
+      the other. He presently fished out what resembled a small folding lens.
+      The diameter of the glass did not exceed two inches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First take a peep at Arcturus through this, Maskull. It may serve
+      as a provisional sign. It&rsquo;s the best I can do, unfortunately. I am
+      not a travelling magician.... Be very careful not to drop it. It&rsquo;s
+      somewhat heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the lens in his hand, struggled with it for a minute, and
+      then looked at Krag in amazement. The little object weighed at least
+      twenty pounds, though it was not much bigger than a crown piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What stuff can this be, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look through it, my good friend. That&rsquo;s what I gave it to you
+      for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull held it up with difficulty, directed it toward the gleaming
+      Arcturus, and snatched as long and as steady a glance at the star as the
+      muscles of his arm would permit. What he saw was this. The star, which to
+      the naked eye appeared as a single yellow point of light, now became
+      clearly split into two bright but minute suns, the larger of which was
+      still yellow, while its smaller companion was a beautiful blue. But this
+      was not all. Apparently circulating around the yellow sun was a
+      comparatively small and hardly distinguishable satellite, which seemed to
+      shine, not by its own, but by reflected light.... Maskull lowered and
+      raised his arm repeatedly. The same spectacle revealed itself again and
+      again, but he was able to see nothing else. Then he passed back the lens
+      to Krag, without a word, and stood chewing his underlip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take a glimpse too,&rdquo; scraped Krag, proffering the glass
+      to Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back and began to pace up and down. Krag laughed
+      sardonically, and returned the lens to his pocket. &ldquo;Well, Maskull,
+      are you satisfied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arcturus, then, is a double sun. And is that third point the planet
+      Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our future home, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued to ponder. &ldquo;You inquire if I am satisfied. I don&rsquo;t
+      know, Krag. It&rsquo;s miraculous, and that&rsquo;s all I can say about
+      it.... But I&rsquo;m satisfied of one thing. There must be very wonderful
+      astronomers at Starkness and if you invite me to your observatory I will
+      surely come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do invite you. We set off from there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, Nightspore?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The journey has to be made,&rdquo; answered his friend in
+      indistinct tones, &ldquo;though I don&rsquo;t see what will come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag shot a penetrating glance at him. &ldquo;More remarkable adventures
+      than this would need to be arranged before we could excite Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet he is coming.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not <i>con amore</i>. He is coming merely to bear you company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary might,
+      in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart swelled with
+      grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was unable to account
+      to his own intellect. He felt that his destiny was in some way bound up
+      with this gigantic, far-distant sun. But still he did not dare to admit to
+      himself Krag&rsquo;s seriousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard his parting remarks in deep abstraction, and only after the lapse
+      of several minutes, when, alone with Nightspore, did he realise that they
+      referred to such mundane matters as travelling routes and times of trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does Krag travel north with us, Nightspore? I didn&rsquo;t catch
+      that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. We go on first, and he joins us at Starkness on the evening of
+      the day after tomorrow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained thoughtful. &ldquo;What am I to think of that man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For your information,&rdquo; replied Nightspore wearily, &ldquo;I
+      have never known him to lie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 3. STARKNESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A couple of days later, at two o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, Maskull and
+      Nightspore arrived at Starkness Observatory, having covered the seven
+      miles from Haillar Station on foot. The road, very wild and lonely, ran
+      for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty cliffs,
+      within sight of the North Sea. The sun shone, but a brisk east wind was
+      blowing and the air was salt and cold. The dark green waves were flecked
+      with white. Throughout the walk, they were accompanied by the plaintive,
+      beautiful crying of the gulls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The observatory presented itself to their eyes as a self-contained little
+      community, without neighbours, and perched on the extreme end of the land.
+      There were three buildings: a small, stone-built dwelling house, a low
+      workshop, and, about two hundred yards farther north, a square tower of
+      granite masonry, seventy feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house and the shop were separated by an open yard, littered with
+      waste. A single stone wall surrounded both, except on the side facing the
+      sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the cliff. No one
+      appeared. The windows were all closed, and Maskull could have sworn that
+      the whole establishment was shut up and deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed through the open gate, followed by Nightspore, and knocked
+      vigorously at the front door. The knocker was thick with dust and had
+      obviously not been used for a long time. He put his ear to the door, but
+      could hear no movements inside the house. He then tried the handle; the
+      door was looked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked around the house, looking for another entrance, but there was
+      only the one door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t promising,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      no one here..... Now you try the shed, while I go over to that tower.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore, who had not spoken half a dozen words since leaving the train,
+      complied in silence, and started off across the yard. Maskull passed out
+      of the gate again. When he arrived at the foot of the tower, which stood
+      some way back from the cliff, he found the door heavily padlocked. Gazing
+      up, he saw six windows, one above the other at equal distances, all on the
+      east face&mdash;that is, overlooking the sea. Realising that no
+      satisfaction was to be gained here, he came away again, still more
+      irritated than before. When he rejoined his friend, Nightspore reported
+      that the workshop was also locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did we, or did we not, receive an invitation?&rdquo; demanded
+      Maskull energetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house is empty,&rdquo; replied Nightspore, biting his nails.
+      &ldquo;Better break a window.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t mean to camp out till Krag condescends to
+      come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up an old iron bolt from the yard and, retreating to a safe
+      distance, hurled it against a sash window on the ground floor. The lower
+      pane was completely shattered. Carefully avoiding the broken glass,
+      Maskull thrust his hand through the aperture and pushed back the frame
+      fastening. A minute later they had climbed through and were standing
+      inside the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room, which was a kitchen, was in an indescribably filthy and
+      neglected condition. The furniture scarcely held together, broken utensils
+      and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap, everything was
+      covered with a deep deposit of dust. The atmosphere was so foul that
+      Maskull judged that no fresh air had passed into the room for several
+      months. Insects were crawling on the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the other rooms on the lower floor&mdash;a scullery, a
+      barely furnished dining room, and a storing place for lumber. The same
+      dirt, mustiness, and neglect met their eyes. At least half a year must
+      have elapsed since these rooms were last touched, or even entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your faith in Krag still hold?&rdquo; asked Maskull. &ldquo;I
+      confess mine is at vanishing point. If this affair isn&rsquo;t one big
+      practical joke, it has every promise of being one. Krag never lived here
+      in his life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come upstairs first,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The upstairs rooms proved to consist of a library and three bedrooms. All
+      the windows were tightly closed, and the air was insufferable. The beds
+      had been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never been made
+      since. The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually preserved the
+      impressions of the sleepers. There was no doubt that these impressions
+      were ancient, for all sorts of floating dirt had accumulated on the sheets
+      and coverlets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who could have slept here, do you think?&rdquo; interrogated
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The observatory staff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More likely travellers like ourselves. They left suddenly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flung the windows wide open in every room he came to, and held his
+      breath until he had done so. Two of the bedrooms faced the sea; the third,
+      the library, the upward-sloping moorland. This library was now the only
+      room left unvisited, and unless they discovered signs of recent occupation
+      here Maskull made up his mind to regard the whole business as a gigantic
+      hoax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the library, like all the other rooms, was foul with stale air and
+      dust-laden. Maskull, having flung the window up and down, fell heavily
+      into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now what is your opinion of Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the window.
+      &ldquo;He may still have left a message for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What message? Why? Do you mean in this room?&mdash;I see no
+      message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
+      upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old bottles on
+      one of the shelves and nothing else. Maskull glanced at him and at the
+      cupboard. Then, without a word, he got up to examine the bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest. The
+      smaller ones were about eight inches long. All were torpedo-shaped, but
+      had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand upright. Two of the
+      smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the others contained a colourless
+      liquid, and possessed queer-looking, nozzle-like stoppers that were
+      connected by a thin metal rod with a catch halfway down the side of the
+      bottle. They were labelled, but the labels were yellow with age and the
+      writing was nearly undecipherable. Maskull carried the filled bottles with
+      him to the table in front of the window, in order to get better light.
+      Nightspore moved away to make room for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now made out on the larger bottle the words &ldquo;Solar Back Rays&rdquo;;
+      and on the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could
+      distinguish something like &ldquo;Arcturian Back Rays.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked up, to stare curiously at his friend. &ldquo;Have you been here
+      before, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed Krag would leave a message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;it may be a message, but it means
+      nothing to us, or at all events to me. What are &lsquo;back rays&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Light that goes back to its source,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what kind of light would that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore seemed unwilling to answer, but, finding Maskull&rsquo;s eyes
+      still fixed on him, he brought out: &ldquo;Unless light pulled, as well as
+      pushed, how would flowers contrive to twist their heads around after the
+      sun?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. But the point is, what are these bottles for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still talking, with his hand on the smaller bottle, the
+      other, which was lying on its side, accidentally rolled over in such a
+      manner that the metal caught against the table. He made a movement to stop
+      it, his hand was actually descending, when&mdash;the bottle suddenly
+      disappeared before his eyes. It had not rolled off the table, but had
+      really vanished&mdash;it was nowhere at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at the table. After a minute he raised his brows, and
+      turned to Nightspore with a smile. &ldquo;The message grows more
+      intricate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked bored. &ldquo;The valve became unfastened. The contents
+      have escaped through the open window toward the sun, carrying the bottle
+      with them. But the bottle will be burned up by the earth&rsquo;s
+      atmosphere, and the contents will dissipate, and will not reach the sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened attentively, and his smile faded. &ldquo;Does anything
+      prevent us from experimenting with this other bottle?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Replace it in the cupboard,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;Arcturus
+      is still below the horizon, and you would succeed only in wrecking the
+      house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained standing before the window, pensively gazing out at the
+      sunlit moors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag treats me like a child,&rdquo; he remarked presently. &ldquo;And
+      perhaps I really am a child.... My cynicism must seem most amusing to
+      Krag. But why does he leave me to find out all this by myself&mdash;for I
+      don&rsquo;t include you, Nightspore.... But what time will Krag be here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not before dark, I expect,&rdquo; his friend replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 4. THE VOICE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was by this time past three o&rsquo;clock. Feeling hungry, for they had
+      eaten nothing since early morning, Maskull went downstairs to forage, but
+      without much hope of finding anything in the shape of food. In a safe in
+      the kitchen he discovered a bag of mouldy oatmeal, which was untouchable,
+      a quantity of quite good tea in an airtight caddy, and an unopened can of
+      ox tongue. Best of all, in the dining-room cupboard he came across an
+      uncorked bottle of first-class Scotch whisky. He at once made preparations
+      for a scratch meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pump in the yard ran clear after a good deal of hard working at it, and
+      he washed out and filled the antique kettle. For firewood, one of the
+      kitchen chairs was broken up with a chopper. The light, dusty wood made a
+      good blaze in the grate, the kettle was boiled, and cups were procured and
+      washed. Ten minutes later the friends were dining in the library.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore ate and drank little, but Maskull sat down with good appetite.
+      There being no milk, whisky took the place of it; the nearly black tea was
+      mixed with an equal quantity of the spirit. Of this concoction Maskull
+      drank cup after cup, and long after the tongue had disappeared he was
+      still imbibing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him queerly. &ldquo;Do you intend to finish the
+      bottle before Krag comes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag won&rsquo;t want any, and one must do something. I feel
+      restless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us take a look at the country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cup, which was on its way to Maskull&rsquo;s lips, remained poised in
+      the air. &ldquo;Have you anything in view, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk out to the Gap of Sorgie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A showplace,&rdquo; answered Nightspore, biting his lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull finished off the cup, and rose to his feet. &ldquo;Walking is
+      better than soaking at any time, and especially on a day like this.... How
+      far is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three or four miles each way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably mean something,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m
+      beginning to regard you as a second Krag. But if so, so much the better. I
+      am growing nervous, and need incidents.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the house by the door, which they left ajar, and immediately
+      found themselves again on the moorland road that had brought them from
+      Haillar. This time they continued along it, past the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, as they went by, regarded the erection with puzzled interest.
+      &ldquo;What <i>is</i> that tower, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sail from the platform on the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight?&rdquo;&mdash;throwing him a quick look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave. &ldquo;Then we are looking at the
+      gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You no longer think it impossible, I fancy,&rdquo; mumbled
+      Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
+      sharply inland, across the hills. With Nightspore as guide, they left it
+      and took to the grass. A faint sheep path marked the way along the cliff
+      edge for some distance, but at the end of another mile it vanished. The
+      two men then had some rough walking up and down hillsides and across deep
+      gullies. The sun disappeared behind the hills, and twilight imperceptibly
+      came on. They soon reached a spot where further progress appeared
+      impossible. The buttress of a mountain descended at a steep angle to the
+      very edge of the cliff, forming an impassable slope of slippery grass.
+      Maskull halted, stroked his beard, and wondered what the next step was to
+      be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a little scrambling here,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+      &ldquo;We are both used to climbing, and there is not much in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice a few
+      yards beneath where they were standing. It averaged from fifteen to thirty
+      inches in width. Without waiting for Maskull&rsquo;s consent to the
+      undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and started walking along
+      this ledge at a rapid pace. Maskull, seeing that there was no help for it,
+      followed him. The shelf did not extend for above a quarter of a mile, but
+      its passage was somewhat unnerving; there was a sheer drop to the sea,
+      four hundred feet below. In a few places they had to sidle along without
+      placing one foot before another. The sound of the breakers came up to them
+      in a low, threatening roar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon rounding a corner, the ledge broadened out into a fair-sized platform
+      of rock and came to a sudden end. A narrow inlet of the sea separated them
+      from the continuation of the cliffs beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As we can&rsquo;t get any further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;I
+      presume this is your Gap of Sorgie?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered his friend, first dropping on his knees and
+      then lying at full length, face downward. He drew his head and shoulders
+      over the edge and began to stare straight down at the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is there interesting down there, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Receiving no reply, however, he followed his friend&rsquo;s example, and
+      the next minute was looking for himself. Nothing was to be seen; the gloom
+      had deepened, and the sea was nearly invisible. But, while he was
+      ineffectually gazing, he heard what sounded like the beating of a drum on
+      the narrow strip of shore below. It was very faint, but quite distinct.
+      The beats were in four-four time, with the third beat slightly accented.
+      He now continued to hear the noise all the time he was lying there. The
+      beats were in no way drowned by the far louder sound of the surf, but
+      seemed somehow to belong to a different world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were on their feet again, he questioned Nightspore. &ldquo;We
+      came here solely to hear that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore cast one of his odd looks at him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s called
+      locally &lsquo;The Drum Taps of Sorgie.&rsquo; You will not hear that name
+      again, but perhaps you will hear the sound again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I do, what will it imply?&rdquo; demanded Maskull in
+      amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It bears its own message. Only try always to hear it more and more
+      distinctly.... Now it&rsquo;s growing dark, and we must get back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled out his watch automatically, and looked at the time. It was
+      past six.... But he was thinking of Nightspore&rsquo;s words, and not of
+      the time.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      Night had already fallen by the time they regained the tower. The black
+      sky was glorious with liquid stars. Arcturus was a little way above the
+      sea, directly opposite them, in the east. As they were passing the base of
+      the tower, Maskull observed with a sudden shock that the gate was open. He
+      caught hold of Nightspore&rsquo;s arm violently. &ldquo;Look! Krag is
+      back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must make haste to the house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not the tower? He&rsquo;s probably in there, since the gate
+      is open. I&rsquo;m going up to look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore grunted, but made no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was pitch-black inside the gate. Maskull struck a match, and the
+      flickering light disclosed the lower end of a circular flight of stone
+      steps. &ldquo;Are you coming up?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ll wait here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately began the ascent. Hardly had he mounted half a dozen
+      steps, however, before he was compelled to pause, to gain breath. He
+      seemed to be carrying upstairs not one Maskull, but three. As he
+      proceeded, the sensation of crushing weight, so far from diminishing, grew
+      worse and worse. It was nearly physically impossible to go on; his lungs
+      could not take in enough oxygen, while his heart thumped like a ship&rsquo;s
+      engine. Sweat coursed down his face. At the twentieth step he completed
+      the first revolution of the tower and came face to face with the first
+      window, which was set in a high embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Realising that he could go no higher, he struck another match, and climbed
+      into the embrasure, in order that he might at all events see something
+      from the tower. The flame died, and he stared through the window at the
+      stars. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that it was not a window
+      at all but a lens.... The sky was not a wide expanse of space containing a
+      multitude of stars, but a blurred darkness, focused only in one part,
+      where two very bright stars, like small moons in size, appeared in close
+      conjunction; and near them a more minute planetary object, as brilliant as
+      Venus and with an observable disk. One of the suns shone with a glaring
+      white light; the other was a weird and awful blue. Their light, though
+      almost solar in intensity, did not illuminate the interior of the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was gazing was
+      what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus.... He had seen the sight
+      before, through Krag&rsquo;s glass, but then the scale had been smaller,
+      the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in their naked reality....
+      These colors seemed to him most marvellous, as if, in seeing them through
+      earth eyes, he was not seeing them correctly.... But it was at Tormance
+      that he stared the longest and the most earnestly. On that mysterious and
+      terrible earth, countless millions of miles distant, it had been promised
+      him that he would set foot, even though he might leave his bones there.
+      The strange creatures that he was to behold and touch were already living,
+      at this very moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard away.
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an
+      instrument, to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when
+      he wakes you must die. You will go, but he will return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was
+      in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he redescended
+      to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his sensation of weight
+      was instantly removed, but he continued panting and palpitating, like a
+      man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s dark form came forward. &ldquo;Was Krag there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he was, I didn&rsquo;t see him. But I heard someone speak.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not Krag&mdash;but a voice warned me against you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you will hear these voices too,&rdquo; said Nightspore
+      enigmatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and the
+      door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not there.
+      Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every room&mdash;at
+      the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the man they were
+      expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the premises. Groping their
+      way into the library, they sat down in the total darkness to wait, for
+      nothing else remained to be done. Maskull lit his pipe, and began to drink
+      the remainder of the whisky. Through the open window sounded in their ears
+      the trainlike grinding of the sea at the foot of the cliffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag must be in the tower after all,&rdquo; remarked Maskull,
+      breaking the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is getting ready.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he doesn&rsquo;t expect us to join him there. It was beyond
+      my powers&mdash;but why, heaven knows. The stairs must have a magnetic
+      pull of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Tormantic gravity,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you&mdash;or, rather, I don&rsquo;t&mdash;but it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on smoking in silence, occasionally taking a mouthful of the neat
+      liquor. &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo; he demanded abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We others are gropers and bunglers, but he is a <i>master</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull digested this. &ldquo;I fancy you are right, for though I know
+      nothing about him his mere name has an exciting effect on me.... Are you
+      personally acquainted with him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be... I forget...&rdquo; replied Nightspore in a choking
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked up, surprised, but could make nothing out in the blackness
+      of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know so many extraordinary men that you can forget some of
+      them?... Perhaps you can tell me this... will we meet him, where we are
+      going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will meet death, Maskull.... Ask me no more questions&mdash;I
+      can&rsquo;t answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go on waiting for Krag,&rdquo; said Maskull coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the front door slammed, and a light, quick footstep was
+      heard running up the stairs. Maskull got up, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag appeared on the threshold of the door, bearing in his hand a feebly
+      glimmering lantern. A hat was on his head, and he looked stern and
+      forbidding. After scrutinising the two friends for a moment or so, he
+      strode into the room and thrust the lantern on the table. Its light hardly
+      served to illuminate the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have got here, then, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems&mdash;but I shan&rsquo;t thank you for your
+      hospitality, for it has been conspicuous by its absence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag ignored the remark. &ldquo;Are you ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means&mdash;when you are. It is not so entertaining here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag surveyed him critically. &ldquo;I heard you stumbling about in the
+      tower. You couldn&rsquo;t get up, it seems.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore informs me that the start
+      takes place from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But your other doubts are all removed?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, Krag, that I now possess an open mind. I am quite willing
+      to see what you can do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing more is asked.... But this tower business. You know that
+      until you are able to climb to the top you are unfit to stand the
+      gravitation of Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I repeat, it&rsquo;s an awkward obstacle, for I certainly can&rsquo;t
+      get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag hunted about in his pockets, and at length produced a clasp knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remove your coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve,&rdquo; he
+      directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you propose to make an incision with that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and don&rsquo;t start difficulties, because the effect is
+      certain, but you can&rsquo;t possibly understand it beforehand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, a cut with a pocket-knife&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will answer, Maskull,&rdquo; interrupted Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then bare your arm too, you aristocrat of the universe,&rdquo; said
+      Krag. &ldquo;Let us see what your blood is made of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag pulled out the big blade of the knife, and made a careless and almost
+      savage slash at Maskull&rsquo;s upper arm. The wound was deep, and blood
+      flowed freely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I bind it up?&rdquo; asked Maskull, scowling with pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag spat on the wound. &ldquo;Pull your shirt down, it won&rsquo;t bleed
+      any more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then turned his attention to Nightspore, who endured his operation with
+      grim indifference. Krag threw the knife on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An awful agony, emanating from the wound, started to run through Maskull&rsquo;s
+      body, and he began to doubt whether he would not have to faint, but it
+      subsided almost immediately, and then he felt nothing but a gnawing ache
+      in the injured arm, just strong enough to make life one long discomfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s finished,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;Now you can follow
+      me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door. The others hastened
+      after him, to take advantage of the light, and a moment later their
+      footsteps, clattering down the uncarpeted stairs, resounded through the
+      deserted house. Krag waited till they were out, and then banged the front
+      door after them with such violence that the windows shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were walking swiftly across to the tower, Maskull caught his
+      arm. &ldquo;I heard a voice up those stairs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did it say?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smiled. &ldquo;The journey is getting notorious,&rdquo; he remarked,
+      after a pause. &ldquo;There must be ill-wishers about.... Well, do you
+      want to return?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I want. But I thought the thing was curious
+      enough to be mentioned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not a bad thing to hear voices,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;but
+      you mustn&rsquo;t for a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you
+      out of the night world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he immediately set
+      foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and ran nimbly up, bearing
+      the lantern. Maskull followed him with some trepidation, in view of his
+      previous painful experience on these stairs, but when, after the first
+      half-dozen steps, he discovered that he was still breathing freely, his
+      dread changed to relief and astonishment, and he could have chattered like
+      a girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stopping, but
+      Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his acquaintance
+      with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group. The lens had lost
+      its magic property. It had become a common sheet of glass, through which
+      the ordinary sky field appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again mounted
+      and stared out, but still the common sights presented themselves. After
+      that, he gave up and looked through no more windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so that he
+      had to complete the ascent in darkness. When he was near the top, he saw
+      yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened door. His
+      companions were standing just inside a small room, shut off from the
+      staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely furnished and contained
+      nothing of astronomical interest. The lantern was resting on a table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity. &ldquo;Are we at
+      the top?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except for the platform over our heads,&rdquo; replied Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in
+      the evening?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you missed your opportunity,&rdquo; said Krag, grinning.
+      &ldquo;If you had finished your climb then, you would have seen
+      heart-expanding sights. From the fifth window, for example, you would have
+      seen Tormance like a continent in relief; from the sixth you would have
+      seen it like a landscape.... But now there&rsquo;s no need.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not&mdash;and what has need got to do with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours. For the
+      same reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there was no
+      necessity to stop and gape at illusions <i>en route</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Maskull, not quite understanding what he
+      meant. &ldquo;But is this Surtur&rsquo;s den?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has spent time here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag. We may
+      not get another chance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur. There&rsquo;s
+      no need to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately
+      going on to the reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go.&rdquo; He pressed his eyeballs wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we strip?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naturally,&rdquo; answered Krag, and he began to tear off his
+      clothes with slow, uncouth movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, following, however, the example of
+      the other two men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag thumped his vast chest, which was covered with thick hairs, like an
+      ape&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Who knows what the Tormance fashions are like? We may
+      sprout limbs&mdash;I don&rsquo;t say we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A-ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull, pausing in the middle of his
+      undressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smote him on the back. &ldquo;New pleasure organs possible, Maskull.
+      You like that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three men stood as nature made them. Maskull&rsquo;s spirits rose
+      fast, as the moment of departure drew near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A farewell drink to success!&rdquo; cried Krag, seizing a bottle
+      and breaking its head off between his fingers. There were no glasses, but
+      he poured the amber-coloured wine into some cracked cups.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull tossed off his cupful. It was as
+      if he had swallowed a draught of liquid electricity.... Krag dropped onto
+      the floor and rolled around on his back, kicking his legs in the air. He
+      tried to drag Maskull down on top of him, and a little horseplay went on
+      between the two. Nightspore took no part in it, but walked to and fro,
+      like a hungry caged animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged, piercing wail,
+      such as a banshee might be imagined to utter. It ceased abruptly, and was
+      not repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; called out Maskull, disengaging himself
+      impatiently from Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag rocked with laughter. &ldquo;A Scottish spirit trying to reproduce
+      the bagpipes of its earth life&mdash;in honour of our departure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned to Krag. &ldquo;Maskull will sleep throughout the
+      journey?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you too, if you wish, my altruistic friend. I am pilot, and you
+      passengers can amuse yourselves as you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we off at last?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you are about to cross your Rubicon, Maskull. But what a
+      Rubicon!... Do you know that it takes light a hundred years or so to
+      arrive here from Arcturus? Yet we shall do it in nineteen hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you assert that Surtur is already there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur is where he is. He is a great traveller.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t I see him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag went up to him and looked him in the eyes. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget
+      that you have asked for it, and wanted it. Few people in Tormance will
+      know more about him than you do, but your memory will be your worst
+      friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He led the way up a short iron ladder, mounting through a trap to the flat
+      roof above. When they were up, he switched on a small electric torch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull beheld with awe the torpedo of crystal that was to convey them
+      through the whole breadth of visible space. It was forty feet long, eight
+      wide, and eight high; the tank containing the Arcturian back rays was in
+      front, the car behind. The nose of the torpedo was directed toward the
+      south-eastern sky. The whole machine rested upon a flat platform, raised
+      about four feet above the level of the roof, so as to encounter no
+      obstruction on starting its flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag flashed the light on to the door of the car, to enable them to enter.
+      Before doing so, Maskull gazed sternly once again at the gigantic,
+      far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now onward. He frowned,
+      shivered slightly, and got in beside Nightspore. Krag clambered past them
+      onto his pilot&rsquo;s seat. He threw the flashlight through the open
+      door, which was then carefully closed, fastened, and screwed up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pulled the starting lever. The torpedo glided gently from its platform,
+      and passed rather slowly away from the tower, seaward. Its speed increased
+      sensibly, though not excessively, until the approximate limits of the
+      earth&rsquo;s atmosphere were reached. Krag then released the speed valve,
+      and the car sped on its way with a velocity more nearly approaching that
+      of thought than of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull had no opportunity of examining through the crystal walls the
+      rapidly changing panorama of the heavens. An extreme drowsiness oppressed
+      him. He opened his eyes violently a dozen times, but on the thirteenth
+      attempt he failed. From that time forward he slept heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bored, hungry expression never left Nightspore&rsquo;s face. The
+      alterations in the aspect of the sky seemed to possess not the least
+      interest for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag sat with his hand on the lever, watching with savage intentness his
+      phosphorescent charts and gauges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 6. JOIWIND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS DENSE NIGHT when Maskull awoke from his profound sleep. A wind was
+      blowing against him, gentle but wall-like, such as he had never
+      experienced on earth. He remained sprawling on the ground, as he was
+      unable to lift his body because of its intense weight. A numbing pain,
+      which he could not identify with any region of his frame, acted from now
+      onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his other sensations. It gnawed
+      away at him continuously; sometimes it embittered and irritated him, at
+      other times he forgot it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt something hard on his forehead. Putting his hand up, he discovered
+      there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum, having a cavity in
+      the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom. Then he also became
+      aware of a large knob on each side of his neck, an inch below the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded. It was as long as his
+      arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new organs,
+      his heart began to pump. Whatever might, or might not, be their use, they
+      proved one thing&mdash;that he was in a new world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest. Maskull cried out
+      to his companions, but received no response. This frightened him. He went
+      on shouting out, at irregular intervals&mdash;equally alarmed at the
+      silence and at the sound of his own voice. Finally, as no answering hail
+      came, he thought it wiser not to make too much noise, and after that he
+      lay quiet, waiting in cold blood for what might happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were not
+      his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black night,
+      while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one would have said
+      that day was breaking. The brightness went on imperceptibly increasing for
+      a very long time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the sand
+      was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with black stems
+      and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before long
+      the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the midday
+      sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull welcomed it&mdash;it
+      relieved his pain and diminished his sense of crushing weight. The wind
+      had dropped with the rising of the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling. He was
+      unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially dissolved, and all
+      that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of red sand dotted with ten
+      or twenty bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started forward in
+      nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the sand. Looking up
+      over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see a woman standing beside
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
+      classically draped. According to earth standards she was not beautiful,
+      for, although her face was otherwise human, she was endowed&mdash;or
+      afflicted&mdash;with the additional disfiguring organs that Maskull had
+      discovered in himself. She also possessed the heart tentacle. But when he
+      sat up, and their eyes met and remained in sympathetic contact, he seemed
+      to see right into a soul that was the home of love, warmth, kindness,
+      tenderness, and intimacy. Such was the noble familiarity of that gaze,
+      that he thought he knew her. After that, he recognised all the loveliness
+      of her person. She was tall and slight. All her movements were as graceful
+      as music. Her skin was not of a dead, opaque colour, like that of an earth
+      beauty, but was opalescent; its hue was continually changing, with every
+      thought and emotion, but none of these tints was vivid&mdash;all were
+      delicate, half-toned, and poetic. She had very long, loosely plaited,
+      flaxen hair. The new organs, as soon as Maskull had familiarised himself
+      with them, imparted something to her face that was unique and striking. He
+      could not quite define it to himself, but subtlety and inwardness seemed
+      added. The organs did not contradict the love of her eyes or the angelic
+      purity of her features, but nevertheless sounded a deeper note&mdash;a
+      note that saved her from mere girlishness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely any
+      humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless. She realised his
+      plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had been carrying over
+      her arm. It was similar to the one she was wearing, but of a darker, more
+      masculine colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you can put it on by yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
+      complications of the drapery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor man&mdash;how you are suffering!&rdquo; she said, in the same
+      inaudible language. This time he discovered that the sense of what she
+      said was received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where am I? Is this Tormance?&rdquo; he asked. As he spoke, he
+      staggered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She caught him, and helped him to sit down. &ldquo;Yes. You are with
+      friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in English.
+      Her voice somehow reminded him of an April day, it was so fresh, nervous,
+      and girlish. &ldquo;I can now understand your language. It was strange at
+      first. In the future I&rsquo;ll speak to you with my mouth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is extraordinary! What is this organ?&rdquo; he asked,
+      touching his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is named the &lsquo;breve.&rsquo; By means of it we read one
+      another&rsquo;s thoughts. Still, speech is better, for then the heart can
+      be read too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;They say that speech is given us to deceive others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can deceive with thought, too. But I&rsquo;m thinking of the
+      best, not the worst.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen my friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She scrutinised him quietly, before answering. &ldquo;Did you not come
+      alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came with two other men, in a machine. I must have lost
+      consciousness on arrival, and I haven&rsquo;t seen them since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s very strange! No, I haven&rsquo;t seen them. They can&rsquo;t
+      be here, or we would have known it. My husband and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, and your husband&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine is Joiwind&mdash;my husband&rsquo;s is Panawe. We live a very
+      long way from here; still, it came to us both last night that you were
+      lying here insensible. We almost quarrelled about which of us should come
+      to you, but in the end I won.&rdquo; Here she laughed. &ldquo;I won,
+      because I am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in
+      perception.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind!&rdquo; said Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. &ldquo;Oh, why do
+      you say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at
+      the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this?&rdquo; he demanded, rather puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.
+      Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flushed. &ldquo;I feel like a complete ignoramus here.... Won&rsquo;t
+      it hurt you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your blood pains you, I suppose it will pain me. But we will
+      share the pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a new kind of hospitality to me,&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you do the same for me?&rdquo; asked Joiwind, half
+      smiling, half agitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer for any of my actions in this world. I
+      scarcely know where I am.... Why, yes&mdash;of course I would, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were talking it had become full day. The mists had rolled away
+      from the ground, and only the upper atmosphere remained fog-charged. The
+      desert of scarlet sand stretched in all directions, except one, where
+      there was a sort of little oasis&mdash;some low hills, clothed sparsely
+      with little purple trees from base to summit. It was about a quarter of a
+      mile distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind had brought with her a small flint knife. Without any trace of
+      nervousness, she made a careful, deep incision on her upper arm. Maskull
+      expostulated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, this part of it is nothing,&rdquo; she said, laughing.
+      &ldquo;And if it were&mdash;a sacrifice that is no sacrifice&mdash;what
+      merit is there in that?... Come now&mdash;your arm!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood was streaming down her arm. It was not red blood, but a milky,
+      opalescent fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that one!&rdquo; said Maskull, shrinking. &ldquo;I have already
+      been cut there.&rdquo; He submitted the other, and his blood poured forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind delicately and skilfully placed the mouths of the two wounds
+      together, and then kept her arm pressed tightly against Maskull&rsquo;s
+      for a long time. He felt a stream of pleasure entering his body through
+      the incision. His old lightness and vigour began to return to him. After
+      about five minutes a duel of kindness started between them; he wanted to
+      remove his arm, and she to continue. At last he had his way, but it was
+      none too soon&mdash;she stood there pale and dispirited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him with a more serious expression than before, as if
+      strange depths had opened up before her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from, with this awful blood?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From a world called Earth.... The blood is clearly unsuitable for
+      this world, Joiwind, but after all, that was only to be expected. I am
+      sorry I let you have your way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t say that! There was nothing else to be done. We
+      must all help one another. Yet, somehow&mdash;forgive me&mdash;I feel
+      polluted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And well you may, for it&rsquo;s a fearful thing for a girl to
+      accept in her own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet.
+      If I had not been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have insisted. Are we not all brothers and sisters? Why
+      did you come here, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment. &ldquo;Will you
+      think it foolish if I say I hardly know?&mdash;I came with those two men.
+      Perhaps I was attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of
+      adventure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;I wonder... These friends of
+      yours must be terrible men. Why did they come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you. They came to follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face grew troubled. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand it. One of them at
+      least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur&mdash;or
+      Shaping, as he is called here&mdash;he can&rsquo;t be really bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you know of Surtur?&rdquo; asked Maskull in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain moved
+      restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. &ldquo;I see....
+      and yet I don&rsquo;t see,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;It is very
+      difficult.... Your God is a dreadful Being&mdash;bodyless, unfriendly,
+      invisible. Here we don&rsquo;t worship a God like that. Tell me, has any
+      man set eyes on your God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean, Joiwind? Why speak of God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In ancient times, when the earth was young and grand, a few holy
+      men are reputed to have walked and spoken with God, but those days are
+      past.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our world is still young,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;Shaping goes
+      among us and converses with us. He is real and active&mdash;a friend and
+      lover. Shaping made us, and he loves his work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have <i>you</i> met him?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, hardly believing
+      his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I have done nothing to deserve it yet. Some day I may have an
+      opportunity to sacrifice myself, and then I may be rewarded by meeting and
+      talking with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have certainly come to another world. But why do you say he is
+      the same as Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is the same. We women call him Shaping, and so do most men,
+      but a few name him Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nail. &ldquo;Have you ever heard of Crystalman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Shaping once again. You see, he has many names&mdash;which
+      shows how much he occupies our minds. Crystalman is a name of affection.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s odd,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I came here with quite
+      different ideas about Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind shook her hair. &ldquo;In that grove of trees over there stands a
+      desert shrine of his. Let us go and pray there, and then we&rsquo;ll go on
+      our way to Poolingdred. That is my home. It&rsquo;s a long way off, and we
+      must get there before Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, what is Blodsombre?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays are so hot that no one can endure them. We call it Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed. &ldquo;Naturally we don&rsquo;t
+      take our names from you, Maskull. I don&rsquo;t think our names are very
+      poetic, but they follow nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
+      tree-covered hills. As they went along, the sun broke through the upper
+      mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from a furnace,
+      struck Maskull&rsquo;s head. He involuntarily looked up, but lowered his
+      eyes again like lightning. All that he saw in that instant was a glaring
+      ball of electric white, three times the apparent diameter of the sun. For
+      a few minutes he was quite blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s like this in
+      early morning you must be right enough about Blodsombre.&rdquo; When he
+      had somewhat recovered himself he asked, &ldquo;How long are the days
+      here, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he felt his brain being probed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At this time of the year, for every hour&rsquo;s daylight that you
+      have in summer, we have two.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heat is terrific&mdash;and yet somehow I don&rsquo;t feel so
+      distressed by it as I would have expected.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel it more than usual. It&rsquo;s not difficult to account for
+      it; you have some of my blood, and I have some of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, every time I realise that, I&mdash;Tell me, Joiwind, will my
+      blood alter, if I stay here long enough?&mdash;I mean, will it lose its
+      redness and thickness, and become pure and thin and light-coloured, like
+      yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? If you live as we live, you will assuredly grow like us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean food and drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We eat no food, and drink only water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on that you manage to sustain life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull, our water is good water,&rdquo; replied Joiwind,
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he could see again he stared around at the landscape. The
+      enormous scarlet desert extended everywhere to the horizon, excepting
+      where it was broken by the oasis. It was roofed by a cloudless, deep blue,
+      almost violet, sky. The circle of the horizon was far larger than on
+      earth. On the skyline, at right angles to the direction in which they were
+      walking, appeared a chain of mountains, apparently about forty miles
+      distant. One, which was higher than the rest, was shaped like a cup.
+      Maskull would have felt inclined to believe he was travelling in
+      dreamland, but for the intensity of the light, which made everything
+      vividly real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to the cup-shaped mountain. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      Poolingdred.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t come from there!&rdquo; he exclaimed, quite
+      startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I did indeed. And that is where we have to go to now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the single object of finding me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colour mounted to his face. &ldquo;Then you are the bravest and
+      noblest of all girls,&rdquo; he said quietly, after a pause. &ldquo;Without
+      exception. Why, this is a journey for an athlete!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pressed his arm, while a score of unpaintable, delicate hues stained
+      her cheeks in rapid transition. &ldquo;Please don&rsquo;t say any more
+      about it, Maskull. It makes me feel unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. But can we possibly get there before midday?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. And you mustn&rsquo;t be frightened at the distance. We
+      think nothing of long distances here&mdash;we have so much to think about
+      and feel. Time goes all too quickly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During their conversation they had drawn near the base of the hills, which
+      sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height. Maskull now began
+      to see strange specimens of vegetable life. What looked like a small patch
+      of purple grass, above five feet square, was moving across the sand in
+      their direction. When it came near enough he perceived that it was not
+      grass; there were no blades, but only purple roots. The roots were
+      revolving, for each small plant in the whole patch, like the spokes of a
+      rimless wheel. They were alternately plunged in the sand, and withdrawn
+      from it, and by this means the plant proceeded forward. Some uncanny,
+      semi-intelligent instinct was keeping all the plants together, moving at
+      one pace, in one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
+      dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air. Joiwind
+      caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm, and showed it
+      to Maskull. It had roots and presumably lived in the air and fed on the
+      chemical constituents of the atmosphere. But what was peculiar about it
+      was its colour. It was an entirely new colour&mdash;not a new shade or
+      combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid as blue, red, or yellow,
+      but quite different. When he inquired, she told him that it was known as
+      &ldquo;ulfire.&rdquo; Presently he met with a second new colour. This she
+      designated &ldquo;jale.&rdquo; The sense impressions caused in Maskull by
+      these two additional primary colors can only be vaguely hinted at by
+      analogy. Just as blue is delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and
+      unsubtle, and red sanguine and passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild
+      and painful, and jale dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
+      shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured, covered
+      the slopes and top. Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and through. Some hard
+      fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a large apple, and shaped
+      like an egg, was lying in profusion underneath the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don&rsquo;t you eat it?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him tranquilly. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t eat living things. The
+      thought is horrible to us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to say against that, theoretically. But do you
+      really sustain your bodies on water?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Supposing you could find nothing else to live on, Maskull&mdash;would
+      you eat other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither will we eat plants and animals, which are our fellow
+      creatures. So nothing is left to us but water, and as one can really live
+      on anything, water does very well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull picked up one of the fruits and handled it curiously. As he did so
+      another of his newly acquired sense organs came into action. He found that
+      the fleshy knobs beneath his ears were in some novel fashion acquainting
+      him with the inward properties of the fruit. He could not only see, feel,
+      and smell it, but could detect its intrinsic nature. This nature was hard,
+      persistent and melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind answered the questions he had not asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those organs are called &lsquo;poigns.&rsquo; Their use is to
+      enable us to understand and sympathise with all living creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What advantage do you derive from that, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The advantage of not being cruel and selfish, dear Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw the fruit away and flushed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked into his swarthy, bearded face without embarrassment and
+      slowly smiled. &ldquo;Have I said too much? Have I been too familiar? Do
+      you know why you think so? It&rsquo;s because you are still impure. By and
+      by you will listen to all language without shame.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he realised what she was about to do, she threw her tentacle round
+      his neck, like another arm. He offered no resistance to its cool pressure.
+      The contact of her soft flesh with his own was so moist and sensitive that
+      it resembled another kind of kiss. He saw who it was that embraced him&mdash;a
+      pale, beautiful girl. Yet, oddly enough, he experienced neither
+      voluptuousness nor sexual pride. The love expressed by the caress was
+      rich, glowing, and personal, but there was not the least trace of sex in
+      it&mdash;and so he received it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and
+      penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I wish to be pure,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Without that
+      what can I ever be but a weak, squirming devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind released him. &ldquo;This we call the &lsquo;magn,&rsquo;&rdquo;
+      she said, indicating her tentacle. &ldquo;By means of it what we love
+      already we love more, and what we don&rsquo;t love at all we begin to
+      love.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A godlike organ!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the one we guard most jealously,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shade of the trees afforded a timely screen from the now almost
+      insufferable rays of Branchspell, which was climbing steadily upward to
+      the zenith. On descending the other side of the little hills, Maskull
+      looked anxiously for traces of Nightspore and Krag, but without result.
+      After staring about him for a few minutes he shrugged his shoulders; but
+      suspicions had already begun to gather in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small, natural amphitheatre lay at their feet, completely circled by the
+      tree-clad heights. The centre was of red sand. In the very middle shot up
+      a tall, stately tree, with a black trunk and branches, and transparent,
+      crystal leaves. At the foot of this tree was a natural, circular well,
+      containing dark green water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had reached the bottom, Joiwind took him straight over to the
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at it intently. &ldquo;Is this the shrine you talked about?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It is called Shaping&rsquo;s Well. The man or woman who wishes
+      to invoke Shaping must take up some of the gnawl water, and drink it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray for me,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Your unspotted prayer will
+      carry more weight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you wish for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For purity,&rdquo; answered Maskull, in a troubled voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind made a cup of her hand, and drank a little of the water. She held
+      it up to Maskull&rsquo;s mouth. &ldquo;You must drink too.&rdquo; He
+      obeyed. She then stood erect, closed her eyes, and, in a voice like the
+      soft murmurings of spring, prayed aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping, my father, I am hoping you can hear me. A strange man has
+      come to us weighed down with heavy blood. He wishes to be pure. Let him
+      know the meaning of love, let him live for others. Don&rsquo;t spare him
+      pain, dear Shaping, but let him seek his own pain. Breathe into him a
+      noble soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened with tears in his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Joiwind finished speaking, a blurred mist came over his eyes, and, half
+      buried in the scarlet sand, appeared a large circle of dazzlingly white
+      pillars. For some minutes they flickered to and fro between distinctness
+      and indistinctness, like an object being focused. Then they faded out of
+      sight again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a sign from Shaping?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in a low, awed
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it is. It is a time mirage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that be, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, dear Maskull, the temple does not yet exist but it will do
+      so, because it must. What you and I are now doing in simplicity, wise men
+      will do hereafter in full knowledge.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right for man to pray,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Good and
+      evil in the world don&rsquo;t originate from nothing. God and Devil must
+      exist. And we should pray to the one, and fight the other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must fight Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name did you say?&rdquo; asked Maskull in amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;the author of evil and misery&mdash;whom you call Devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He immediately concealed his thoughts. To prevent Joiwind from learning
+      his relationship to this being, he made his mind a blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you hide your mind from me?&rdquo; she demanded, looking at
+      him strangely and changing colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this bright, pure, radiant world, evil seems so remote, one can
+      scarcely grasp its meaning.&rdquo; But he lied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind continued gazing at him, straight out of her clean soul. &ldquo;The
+      world is good and pure, but many men are corrupt. Panawe, my husband, has
+      travelled, and he has told me things I would almost rather have not heard.
+      One person he met believed the universe to be, from top to bottom, a
+      conjurer&rsquo;s cave.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to meet your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we are going home now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children, but
+      was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She read the mental question. &ldquo;What need is there? Is not the whole
+      world full of lovely children? Why should I want selfish possessions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
+      distinct notes. It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body, paddled
+      by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. &ldquo;I love that beast, grotesque
+      as it is&mdash;perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had
+      children of my own, would I still love it? Which is best&mdash;to love two
+      or three, or to love all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every woman can&rsquo;t be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to
+      have a few like you. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be as well,&rdquo; he went on,
+      &ldquo;since we&rsquo;ve got to walk through that sun-baked wilderness, to
+      make turbans for our heads out of some of those long leaves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled rather pathetically. &ldquo;You will think me foolish, but
+      every tearing off of a leaf would be a wound in my heart. We have only to
+      throw our robes over our heads.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt that will answer the same purpose, but tell me&mdash;weren&rsquo;t
+      these very robes once part of a living creature?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no&mdash;no, they are the webs of a certain animal, but they
+      have never been in themselves alive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You reduce life to extreme simplicity,&rdquo; remarked Maskull
+      meditatively, &ldquo;but it is very beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began
+      their march across the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked side by side. Joiwind directed their course straight toward
+      Poolingdred. From the position of the sun, Maskull judged their way to lie
+      due north. The sand was soft and powdery, very tiring to his naked feet.
+      The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him semi-blind. He was hot,
+      parched, and tormented with the craving to drink; his undertone of pain
+      emerged into full consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is queer&mdash;if it is accidental,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      with a peculiar intonation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly!&rdquo; agreed Maskull. &ldquo;If they had met with a
+      mishap, their bodies would still be there. It begins to look like a piece
+      of bad work to me. They must have gone on, and left me.... Well, I am
+      here, and I must make the best of it. I will trouble no more about them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to speak ill of anyone,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      &ldquo;but my instinct tells me that you are better away from those men.
+      They did not come here for your sake, but for their own.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for a long time. Maskull was beginning to feel faint. She
+      twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current of
+      confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind! But am I not weakening <i>you</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance. &ldquo;But
+      not much&mdash;and it gives me great happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-born
+      lamb, waltzing along on three legs. Each leg in turn moved to the front,
+      and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a series of complete
+      rotations. It was vividly coloured, as though it had been dipped into pots
+      of bright blue and yellow paint. It looked up with small, shining eyes, as
+      they passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind nodded and smiled to it. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a personal friend of
+      mine, Maskull. Whenever I come this way, I see it. It&rsquo;s always
+      waltzing, and always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is
+      no need for anyone to get anywhere. What I don&rsquo;t quite understand is
+      how you manage to pass your days without ennui.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a strange word. It means, does it not, craving for
+      excitement?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the kind,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be a disease brought on by rich food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are you never dull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could we be? Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh
+      is clean and unclogged, inside and out.... Before long I hope you will
+      understand what sort of question you have asked.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon. In the heart of the
+      desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air, with a
+      cool and pleasant hissing sound. It differed, however, from a fountain in
+      this respect&mdash;that the water of which it was composed did not return
+      to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at the summit. It was in
+      fact a tall, graceful column of dark green fluid, with a capital of
+      coiling and twisting vapours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came closer, Maskull perceived that this water column was the
+      continuation and termination of a flowing brook, which came down from the
+      direction of the mountains. The explanation of the phenomenon was
+      evidently that the water at this spot found chemical affinities in the
+      upper air, and consequently forsook the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now let us drink,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw herself unaffectedly at full length on the sand, face downward,
+      by the side of the brook, and Maskull was not long in following her
+      example. She refused to quench her thirst until she had seen him drink. He
+      found the water heavy, but bubbling with gas. He drank copiously. It
+      affected his palate in a new way&mdash;with the purity and cleanness of
+      water was combined the exhilaration of a sparkling wine, raising his
+      spirits&mdash;but somehow the intoxication brought out his better nature,
+      and not his lower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We call it &lsquo;gnawl water&rsquo;,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;This
+      is not quite pure, as you can see by the colour. At Poolingdred it is
+      crystal clear. But we would be ungrateful if we complained. After this you&rsquo;ll
+      find we&rsquo;ll get along much better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now began to realise his environment, as it were for the first
+      time. All his sense organs started to show him beauties and wonders that
+      he had not hitherto suspected. The uniform glaring scarlet of the sands
+      became separated into a score of clearly distinguished shades of red. The
+      sky was similarly split up into different blues. The radiant heat of
+      Branchspell he found to affect every part of his body with unequal
+      intensities. His ears awakened; the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the
+      sands hummed, even the sun&rsquo;s rays had a sound of their own&mdash;a
+      kind of faint Aeolian harp. Subtle, puzzling perfumes assailed his
+      nostrils. His palate lingered over the memory of the gnawl water. All the
+      pores of his skin were tickled and soothed by hitherto unperceived
+      currents of air. His poigns explored actively the inward nature of
+      everything in his immediate vicinity. His magn touched Joiwind, and drew
+      from her person a stream of love and joy. And lastly by means of his breve
+      he exchanged thoughts with her in silence. This mighty sense symphony
+      stirred him to the depths, and throughout the walk of that endless morning
+      he felt no more fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it was drawing near to Blodsombre, they approached the sedgy margin
+      of a dark green lake, which lay underneath Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sitting on a dark rock, waiting for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 7. PANAWE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The husband got up to meet his wife and their guest. He was clothed in
+      white. He had a beardless face, with breve and poigns. His skin, on face
+      and body alike, was so white, fresh, and soft, that it scarcely looked
+      skin at all&mdash;it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh,
+      extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the
+      artificially whitened skin of an over-civilised woman. Its whiteness and
+      delicacy aroused no voluptuous thoughts; it was obviously the
+      manifestation of a cold and almost cruel chastity of nature. His hair,
+      which fell to the nape of his neck, also was white; but again, from
+      vigour, not decay. His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was still
+      a young man, but so stern were his features that he had the appearance of
+      a lawgiver, and this in spite of their great beauty and harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His magn and Joiwind&rsquo;s intertwined for a single moment and Maskull
+      saw his face soften with love, while she looked exultant. She put him in
+      her husband&rsquo;s arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and
+      smiling. Maskull felt rather embarrassed at being embraced by a man, but
+      submitted to it; a sense of cool, pleasant languor passed through him in
+      the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stranger is red-blooded, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was startled by Panawe&rsquo;s speaking in English, and the voice too
+      was extraordinary. It was absolutely tranquil, but its tranquillity seemed
+      in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of
+      thoughts and feelings so great that their motion could not be detected.
+      How this could be, he did not know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to speak in a tongue you have never heard before?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thought is a rich, complex thing. I can&rsquo;t say if I am really
+      speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are translating my
+      thoughts into your tongue as I utter them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already you see that Panawe is wiser than I am,&rdquo; said Joiwind
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked the husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name must have a meaning&mdash;but again, thought is a strange
+      thing. I connect that name with something&mdash;but with what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try to discover,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has there been a man in your world who stole something from the
+      Maker of the universe, in order to ennoble his fellow creatures?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is such a myth. The hero&rsquo;s name was Prometheus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you seem to be identified in my mind with that action&mdash;but
+      what it all means I can&rsquo;t say, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accept it as a good omen, for Panawe never lies, and never speaks
+      thoughtlessly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There must be some confusion. These are heights beyond me,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull calmly, but looking rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the planet of a distant sun, called Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was tired of vulgarity,&rdquo; returned Maskull laconically. He
+      intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyagers, in order that Krag&rsquo;s
+      name should not come to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an honourable motive,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;And
+      what&rsquo;s more, it may be true, though you spoke it as a prevarication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as it goes, it&rsquo;s quite true,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      staring at him with annoyance and surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were
+      standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds
+      showed themselves here and there through the shallows. The water was dark
+      green. Maskull did not see how they were going to cross it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind caught his arm. &ldquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t know that the lake
+      will bear us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe walked onto the water; it was so heavy that it carried his weight.
+      Joiwind followed with Maskull. He instantly started to slip about&mdash;nevertheless
+      the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by watching and imitating
+      Panawe, that he was soon able to balance himself without assistance. After
+      that he found the sport excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the same reason that women excel in dancing, Joiwind&rsquo;s half
+      falls and recoveries were far more graceful and sure than those of either
+      of the men. Her slight, draped form&mdash;dipping, bending, rising,
+      swaying, twisting, upon the surface of the dark water&mdash;this was a
+      picture Maskull could not keep his eyes away from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lake grew deeper. The gnawl water became green-black. The crags,
+      gullies, and precipices of the shore could now be distinguished in detail.
+      A waterfall was visible, descending several hundred feet. The surface of
+      the lake grew disturbed&mdash;so much so that Maskull had difficulty in
+      keeping his balance. He therefore threw himself down and started swimming
+      on the face of the water. Joiwind turned her head, and laughed so joyously
+      that all her teeth flashed in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They landed in a few more minutes on a promontory of black rock. The water
+      on Maskull&rsquo;s garment and body evaporated very quickly. He gazed
+      upward at the towering mountain, but at that moment some strange movements
+      on the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was working
+      convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his hand to his
+      mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured pebble. He
+      looked at it carefully for some seconds. Joiwind also looked, over his
+      shoulder, with quickly changing colors. After this inspection, Panawe let
+      the object&mdash;whatever it was&mdash;fall to the ground, and took no
+      more interest in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I look?&rdquo; asked Maskull; and, without waiting for
+      permission, he picked it up. It was a delicately beautiful egg-shaped
+      crystal of pale green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did this come from?&rdquo; he asked queerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe turned away, but Joiwind answered for him. &ldquo;It came out of my
+      husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I thought, but I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. But
+      what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that it has either name or use. It is merely an
+      overflowing of beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beauty?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind smiled. &ldquo;If you were to regard nature as the husband, and
+      Panawe as the wife, Maskull, perhaps everything would be explained.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On Earth,&rdquo; he said after a minute, &ldquo;men like Panawe are
+      called artists, poets, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and
+      out of them again. The only distinction is that <i>their</i> productions
+      are more human and intelligible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing comes from it but vanity,&rdquo; said Panawe, and, taking
+      the crystal out of Maskull&rsquo;s hand, he threw it into the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The precipice they now had to climb was several hundred feet in height.
+      Maskull was more anxious for Joiwind than for himself. She was evidently
+      tiring, but she refused all help, and was in fact still the nimbler of the
+      two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet thoughts.
+      The rock was sound, and did not crumble under their weight. The heat of
+      Branchspell, however, was by this time almost killing, the radiance was
+      shocking in its white intensity, and Maskull&rsquo;s pain steadily grew
+      worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they got to the top, a plateau of dark rock appeared, bare of
+      vegetation, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see. It
+      was of a nearly uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of the
+      cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills varied
+      in height. The cup-shaped Poolingdred was approximately a thousand feet
+      above them. The upper part of it was covered with a kind of glittering
+      vegetation which he could not comprehend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind put her hand on Maskull&rsquo;s shoulder, and pointed upward.
+      &ldquo;Here you have the highest peak in the whole land&mdash;that is,
+      until you come to the Ifdawn Marest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable
+      sensation of wild vigour and restlessness&mdash;but it passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside. The lower
+      half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb. Halfway up, however, it
+      grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growth
+      became thicker as they continued to ascend, and when they neared the
+      summit, tall forest trees appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the small
+      twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal. They cast no shadows
+      from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and branches were
+      fantastically shaped. What surprised Maskull the most, however, was the
+      fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two plants belonged to the
+      same species.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you help Maskull out of his difficulty?&rdquo; said
+      Joiwind, pulling her husband&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;ll forgive me for again trespassing in his
+      brain. But the difficulty is small. Life on a new planet, Maskull, is
+      necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is
+      still fluid&mdash;not yet rigid&mdash;and matter is plastic. The will
+      forks and sports incessantly, and thus no two creatures are alike.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I understand all that,&rdquo; replied Maskull, after
+      listening attentively. &ldquo;But what I don&rsquo;t grasp is this&mdash;if
+      living creatures here sport so energetically, how does it come about that
+      human beings wear much the same shape as in my world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll explain that too,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;All
+      creatures that resemble Shaping must of necessity resemble one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is most wonderful,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Then the
+      brotherhood of man is not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour. Panawe relapsed into sternness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon. The jale-coloured blossoms
+      of a crystal bush were emitting mental waves, which with his breve he
+      could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, &ldquo;To me! To me!&rdquo;
+      While he looked, a flying worm guided itself through the air to one of
+      these blossoms and began to suck its nectar. The floral cry immediately
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now gained the crest of the mountain, and looked down beyond. A lake
+      occupied its crater-like cavity. A fringe of trees partly intercepted the
+      view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this mountain lake was nearly
+      circular and perhaps a quarter of a mile across. Its shore stood a hundred
+      feet below them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Observing that his hosts did not propose to descend, he begged them to
+      wait for him, and scrambled down to the surface. When he got there, he
+      found the water perfectly motionless and of a colourless transparency. He
+      walked onto it, lay down at full length, and peered into the depths. It
+      was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance, without
+      arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out of reach of
+      his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very faint and mysterious,
+      seemed to come up through the gnawl water from an immense depth. It was
+      like the rhythm of a drum. There were four beats of equal length, but the
+      accent was on the third. It went on for a considerable time, and then
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that in
+      which he was travelling. The latter was mystical, dreamlike, and
+      unbelievable&mdash;the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality.
+      It resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only
+      occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rejoined Panawe and Joiwind, but said nothing to them about his
+      experience. They all walked round the rim of the crater, and gazed down on
+      the opposite side. Precipices similar to those that had overlooked the
+      desert here formed the boundary of a vast moorland plain, whose dimensions
+      could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he could not make
+      out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of transparent glass, but it
+      did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in it could be distinguished,
+      except a rolling river in the far distance, and, farther off still, on the
+      horizon, a line of dark mountains, of strange shapes. Instead of being
+      rounded, conical, or hogbacked, these heights were carved by nature into
+      the semblance of castle battlements, but with extremely deep indentations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky immediately above the mountains was of a vivid, intense blue. It
+      contrasted in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the
+      heavens. It seemed more luminous and radiant, and was in fact like the
+      afterglow of a gorgeous <i>blue</i> sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept on looking. The more he gazed, the more restless and noble
+      became his feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sterner than usual, while his wife clung to his arm. &ldquo;It
+      is Alppain&mdash;our second sun,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Those hills are
+      the Ifdawn Marest.... Now let us get to our shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it imagination, or am I really being affected&mdash;tormented by
+      that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not imagination&mdash;it&rsquo;s real. How can it be
+      otherwise when two suns, of different natures, are drawing you at the same
+      time? Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itself. It&rsquo;s invisible
+      here. You would need to go at least as far as Ifdawn, to set eyes on it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you say &lsquo;luckily&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the agony caused by those opposing forces would perhaps be
+      more than you could bear.... But I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the short distance that remained of their walk, Maskull was very
+      thoughtful and uneasy. He understood nothing. Whatever object his eye
+      chanced to rest on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and
+      stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and <i>waiting</i>.
+      Panawe gave him a friendly, anxious look, and without further delay led
+      the way down a little track, which traversed the side of the mountain and
+      terminated in the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This cave was the home of Panawe and Joiwind. It was dark inside. The host
+      took a shell and, filling it with liquid from a well, carelessly sprinkled
+      the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent light
+      gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, and continued to
+      illuminate it for the whole time they were there. There was no furniture.
+      Some dried, fernlike leaves served for couches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment she got in, Joiwind fell down in exhaustion. Her husband tended
+      her with calm concern. He bathed her face, put drink to her lips,
+      energised her with his magn, and finally laid her down to sleep. At the
+      sight of the noble woman thus suffering on his account, Maskull was
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, endeavoured to reassure him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite true
+      this has been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will
+      lighten all her other journeys for her.... Such is the nature of
+      sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t conceive how I have walked so far in a morning,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull, &ldquo;and she has been twice the distance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love flows in her veins, instead of blood, and that&rsquo;s why she
+      is so strong.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know she gave me some of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Otherwise you couldn&rsquo;t even have started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall never forget that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The languorous heat of the day outside, the bright mouth of the cavern,
+      the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, invited
+      Maskull to sleep. But curiosity got the better of his lassitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it disturb her if we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how do you feel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I require little sleep. In any case, it&rsquo;s more important that
+      you should hear something about your new life. It&rsquo;s not all as
+      innocent and idyllic as this. If you intend to go through, you ought to be
+      instructed about the dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I guessed as much. But how shall we arrange&mdash;shall I put
+      questions, or will you tell me what you think is most essential?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe motioned to Maskull to sit down on a pile of ferns, and at the same
+      time reclined himself, leaning on one arm, with outstretched legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell some incidents of my life. You will begin to learn from
+      them what sort of place you have come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be grateful,&rdquo; said Maskull, preparing himself to
+      listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe paused for a moment or two, and then started his narrative in
+      tranquil, measured, yet sympathetic tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PANAWE&rsquo;S STORY
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My earliest recollection is of being taken, when three years old
+      (that&rsquo;s equivalent to fifteen of your years, but we develop more
+      slowly here), by my father and mother, to see Broodviol, the wisest man in
+      Tormance. He dwelt in the great Wombflash Forest. We walked through trees
+      for three days, sleeping at night. The trees grew taller as we went along,
+      until the tops were out of sight. The trunks were of a dark red colour and
+      the leaves were of pale ulfire. My father kept stopping to think. If left
+      uninterrupted, he would remain for half a day in deep abstraction. My
+      mother came out of Poolingdred, and was of a different stamp. She was
+      beautiful, generous, and charming&mdash;but also active. She kept urging
+      him on. This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable.
+      On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered on
+      the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water that will not bear a
+      man&rsquo;s weight, and as these light parts don&rsquo;t differ in
+      appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed out
+      a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+      Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same
+      day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest,
+      surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big
+      gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a
+      hundred and twenty of our years, or nearly six hundred of yours. His body
+      was trilateral: he had three legs, three arms, and six eyes, placed at
+      equal distances all around his head. This gave him an aspect of great
+      watchfulness and sagacity. He was standing in a sort of trance. I
+      afterward heard this saying of his: &lsquo;To lie is to sleep, to sit is
+      to dream, to stand is to think.&rsquo; My father caught the infection, and
+      fell into meditation, but my mother roused them both thoroughly. Broodviol
+      scowled at her savagely, and demanded what she required. Then I too
+      learned for the first time the object of our journey. I was a prodigy&mdash;that
+      is to say, I was without sex. My parents were troubled over this, and
+      wished to consult the wisest of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Broodviol smoothed his face, and said, &lsquo;This perhaps will
+      not be so difficult. I will explain the marvel. Every man and woman among
+      us is a walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the
+      female who was born in the same body with him&mdash;if a female, she has
+      killed the male. But in this child the struggle is still continuing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;How shall we end it?&rsquo; asked my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Let the child direct its will to the scene of the combat,
+      and it will be of whichever sex it pleases.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You want, of course, to be a man, don&rsquo;t you?&rsquo;
+      said my mother to me earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Then I shall be slaying your daughter, and that would be a
+      crime.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something in my tone attracted Broodviol&rsquo;s notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That was spoken, not selfishly, but magnanimously. Therefore
+      the male must have spoken it, and you need not trouble further. Before you
+      arrive home, the child will be a boy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father walked away out of sight. My mother bent very low before
+      Broodviol for about ten minutes, and he remained all that time looking
+      kindly at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard that shortly afterward Alppain came into that land for a
+      few hours daily. Broodviol grew melancholy, and died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His prophecy came true&mdash;before we reached home, I knew the
+      meaning of shame. But I have often pondered over his words since, in later
+      years, when trying to understand my own nature; and I have come to the
+      conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite
+      straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in one
+      body, there never was any struggle, but instinctive reverence for life
+      withheld both of us from fighting for existence. Hers was the stronger
+      temperament, and she sacrificed herself&mdash;though not consciously&mdash;for
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or
+      destroy anything that contained life&mdash;and I have kept it ever since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died. My mother&rsquo;s
+      death followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land. I
+      therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother&rsquo;s country, where,
+      as she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hot morning I came to Shaping&rsquo;s Causeway. It is so called
+      either because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous
+      character. It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which links the
+      mountains bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest. The valley lies
+      below at a depth varying from eight to ten thousand feet&mdash;a terrible
+      precipice on either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not
+      much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley
+      on my right hand was plunged in shadow&mdash;that on my left was sparkling
+      with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for
+      some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland,
+      connecting the two chains of mountains, but overtopping even the most
+      towering pinnacles. This is called the Sant Levels. I was never there, but
+      I have heard two curious facts concerning the inhabitants. The first is
+      that they have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to
+      travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples with
+      whom they reside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently I turned giddy, and lay at full length for a great while,
+      clutching the two edges of the path with both hands, and staring at the
+      ground I was lying on with wide-open eyes. When that passed I felt like a
+      different man and grew conceited and gay. About halfway across I saw
+      someone approaching me a long way off. This put fear into my heart again,
+      for I did not see how we could very well pass. However, I went slowly on,
+      and presently we drew near enough together for me to recognise the walker.
+      It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had never met him before, but I
+      knew him by his peculiarities of person. He was of a bright gamboge colour
+      and possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a
+      useful organ, but did not add to his beauty, as I knew beauty. He was
+      dubbed &lsquo;sorcerer&rsquo; from his wondrous skill in budding limbs and
+      organs. The tale is told that one evening he slowly sawed his leg off with
+      a blunt stone and then lay for two days in agony while his new leg was
+      sprouting. He was not reputed to be a consistently wise man, but he had
+      periodical flashes of penetration and audacity that none could equal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sat down and faced one another, about two yards apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Which of us walks over the other?&rsquo; asked Slofork. His
+      manner was as calm as the day itself, but, to my young nature, terrible
+      with hidden terrors. I smiled at him, but did not wish for this
+      humiliation. We continued sitting thus, in a friendly way, for many
+      minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pleasure?&rsquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was at an age when one wishes to be thought equal to any
+      emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to the
+      conversation, as if it were for that purpose we had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Pain,&rsquo; I replied, &lsquo;for pain drives out pleasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pain?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reflected. &lsquo;Love. Because we will accept our loved one&rsquo;s
+      share of pain.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;But what is greater than Love?&rsquo; he persisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nothing, Slofork.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;And what is Nothing?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That you must tell me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Tell you I will. This is Shaping&rsquo;s world. He that is a
+      good child here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards. But
+      there&rsquo;s another world&mdash;not Shaping&rsquo;s&mdash;and there all
+      this is unknown, and another order of things reigns. That world we call
+      Nothing&mdash;but it is not Nothing, but Something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I have heard,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;that you are good at
+      growing and ungrowing organs?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That&rsquo;s not enough for me. Every organ tells me the
+      same story. I want to hear different stories.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Is it true, what men say, that your wisdom flows and ebbs in
+      pulses?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Quite true,&rsquo; replied Slofork. &lsquo;But those you had
+      it from did not add that they have always mistaken the flow for the ebb.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;My experience is,&rsquo; said I sententiously, &lsquo;that
+      wisdom is misery.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps it is, young man, but you have never learned that,
+      and never will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful
+      face. You will never rise above mysticism.... But be happy in your own
+      way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before I realised what he was doing, he jumped tranquilly from the
+      path, down into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum
+      toward the valley below. I screeched, flung myself down on the ground, and
+      shut my eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Often have I wondered which of my ill-considered, juvenile remarks
+      it was that caused this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide.
+      Whichever it might be, since then I have made it a rigid law never to
+      speak for my own pleasure, but only to help others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came eventually to the Marest. I threaded its mazes in terror for
+      four days. I was frightened of death, but still more terrified at the
+      possibility of losing my sacred attitude toward life. When I was nearly
+      through, and was beginning to congratulate myself, I stumbled across the
+      third extraordinary personage of my experience&mdash;the grim Muremaker.
+      It was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I
+      saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was
+      hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff&mdash;a yawning gulf, a
+      thousand feet deep, lay beneath his feet. I climbed as near as I could,
+      and looked on. He saw me, and made a wry grimace, like one who wishes to
+      turn his humiliation into humour. The spectacle so astounded me that I
+      could not even grasp what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I am Muremaker,&rsquo; he cried in a scraping voice which
+      shocked my ears. &lsquo;All my life I have sorbed others&mdash;now I am
+      sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like
+      this. While the strength of his will lasts I shall remain suspended; but
+      when he gets tired&mdash;and it can&rsquo;t be long now&mdash;I drop into
+      those depths.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had it been another man, I would have tried to save him, but this
+      ogre-like being was too well known to me as one who passed his whole
+      existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbing others, for the sake of
+      his own delight. I hurried away, and did not pause again that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Poolingdred I met Joiwind. We walked and talked together for a
+      month, and by that time we found that we loved each other too well to
+      part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe stopped speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a fascinating story,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;Now I
+      begin to know my way around better. But one thing puzzles me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How it happens that men here are ignorant of tools and arts, and
+      have no civilisation, and yet contrive to be social in their habits and
+      wise in their thoughts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you imagine, then, that love and wisdom spring from tools? But I
+      see how it arises. In your world you have fewer sense organs, and to make
+      up for the deficiency you have been obliged to call in the assistance of
+      stones and metals. That&rsquo;s by no means a sign of superiority.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I suppose not,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but I see I have a
+      great deal to unlearn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked together a little longer, and then gradually fell asleep.
+      Joiwind opened her eyes, smiled, and slumbered again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull awoke before the others. He got up, stretched himself, and walked
+      out into the sunlight. Branchspell was already declining. He climbed to
+      the top of the crater edge and looked away toward Ifdawn. The afterglow of
+      Alppain had by now completely disappeared. The mountains stood up wild and
+      grand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are
+      widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and adventure
+      seemed to call to him from them. It was at that moment that the
+      determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and explore its
+      dangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes. &ldquo;Is this
+      selfishness, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;or are you drawn by
+      something stronger than yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be reasonable,&rdquo; he answered, smiling. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t
+      settle down in Poolingdred before I have found out something about this
+      surprising new planet of yours. Remember what a long way I have come....
+      But very likely I shall come back here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you make me a promise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hesitated. &ldquo;Ask nothing difficult, for I hardly know my
+      powers yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not hard, and I wish it. Promise this&mdash;never to raise
+      your hand against a living creature, either to strike, pluck, or eat,
+      without first recollecting its mother, who suffered for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I won&rsquo;t promise that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly,
+      &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll undertake something more tangible. I will never lift
+      my hand against a living creature without first recollecting you, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned a little pale. &ldquo;Now if Panawe knew that Panawe existed,
+      he might be jealous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe put his hand on her gently. &ldquo;You would not talk like that in
+      Shaping&rsquo;s presence,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Forgive me! I&rsquo;m not quite myself. Perhaps it is Maskull&rsquo;s
+      blood in my veins.... Now let us bid him adieu. Let us pray that he will
+      do only honourable deeds, wherever he may be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll set Maskull on his way,&rdquo; said Panawe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no need,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;The way is
+      plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But talking shortens the road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pulled him around toward her softly. &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t think
+      badly of other women on my account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a blessed spirit,&rdquo; answered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She trod quietly to the inner extremity of the cave and stood there
+      thinking. Panawe and Maskull emerged into the open air. Halfway down the
+      cliff face a little spring was encountered. Its water was colourless,
+      transparent, but gaseous. As soon as Maskull had satisfied his thirst he
+      felt himself different. His surroundings were so real to him in their
+      vividness and colour, so unreal in their phantom-like mystery, that he
+      scrambled downhill like one in a winter&rsquo;s dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the plain he saw in front of them an interminable forest
+      of tall trees, the shapes of which were extraordinarily foreign looking.
+      The leaves were crystalline and, looking upward, it was as if he were
+      gazing through a roof of glass. The moment they got underneath the trees
+      the light rays of the sun continued to come through&mdash;white, savage,
+      and blazing&mdash;but they were gelded of heat. Then it was not hard to
+      imagine that they were wandering through cool, bright elfin glades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest, beginning at their very feet an avenue, perfectly
+      straight and not very wide, went forward as far as the eye could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull wanted to talk to his travelling companion, but was somehow unable
+      to find words. Panawe glanced at him with an inscrutable smile&mdash;stern,
+      yet enchanting and half feminine. He then broke the silence, but,
+      strangely enough, Maskull could not make out whether he was singing or
+      speaking. From his lips issued a slow musical recitative, exactly like a
+      bewitching adagio from a low toned stringed instrument&mdash;but there was
+      a difference. Instead of the repetition and variation of one or two short
+      themes, as in music, Panawe&rsquo;s theme was prolonged&mdash;it never
+      came to an end, but rather resembled a conversation in rhythm and melody.
+      And, at the same time, it was no recitative, for it was not declamatory.
+      It was a long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened entranced, yet agitated. The song, if it might be termed
+      song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear and
+      intelligible&mdash;not with the intelligibility of words, but in the way
+      one sympathises with another&rsquo;s moods and feelings; and Maskull felt
+      that something important was about to be uttered, which would explain all
+      that had gone before. But it was invariably postponed, he never understood&mdash;and
+      yet somehow he did understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon they came to a clearing, and there Panawe ceased his
+      recitative. He slowed his pace and stopped, in the fashion of a man who
+      wishes to convey that he intends to go no farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of this country?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Lusion Plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that music in the nature of a temptation&mdash;do you wish me
+      not to go on?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your work lies before you, and not behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was it, then? What work do you allude to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have seemed like something to you, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed like Shaping music to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant he had absently uttered these words, Maskull wondered why he
+      had done so, as they now appeared meaningless to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, showed no surprise. &ldquo;Shaping you will find
+      everywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I dreaming, or awake?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull fell into deep thought. &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; he said, rousing
+      himself. &ldquo;Now I will go on. But where must I sleep tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will reach a broad river. On that you can travel to the foot of
+      the Marest tomorrow; but tonight you had better sleep where the forest and
+      river meet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adieu, then, Panawe! But do you wish to say anything more to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this, Maskull&mdash;wherever you go, help to make the world
+      beautiful, and not ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s more than any of us can undertake. I am a simple man,
+      and have no ambitions in the way of beautifying life&mdash;But tell
+      Joiwind I will try to keep myself pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted rather coldly. Maskull stood erect where they had stopped, and
+      watched Panawe out of sight. He sighed more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He became aware that something was about to happen. The air was
+      breathless. The late-afternoon sunshine, unobstructed, wrapped his frame
+      in voluptuous heat. A solitary cloud, immensely high, raced through the
+      sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance from somewhere behind
+      him. It gave him an impression of being several miles away at first; but
+      then it slowly swelled, and came nearer and nearer at the same time that
+      it increased in volume. Still the same note sounded, but now it was as if
+      blown by a giant trumpeter immediately over his head. Then it gradually
+      diminished in force, and travelled away in front of him. It ended very
+      faintly and distantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt himself alone with Nature. A sacred stillness came over his heart.
+      Past and future were forgotten. The forest, the sun, the day did not exist
+      for him. He was unconscious of himself&mdash;he had no thoughts and no
+      feelings. Yet never had Life had such an altitude for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path. He was so clothed that
+      his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered. He was young rather
+      than old. Maskull observed that his countenance possessed none of the
+      special organs of Tormance, to which he had not even yet become
+      reconciled. He was smooth-faced. His whole person seemed to radiate an
+      excess of life, like the trembling of air on a hot day. His eyes had such
+      force that Maskull could not meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice. It had a double
+      tone. The primary one sounded far away; the second was an undertone, like
+      a sympathetic tanging string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising joy, as he continued standing in the presence of
+      this individual. He believed that something good was happening to him. He
+      found it physically difficult to bring any words out. &ldquo;Why do you
+      stop me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, look well at me. Who am I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again attempted to meet his eyes, but felt as if he were being
+      stabbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that this is my world. Why do you think I have brought you
+      here? I wish you to serve me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could no longer speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those who joke at my world,&rdquo; continued the vision, &ldquo;those
+      who make a mock of its stern, eternal rhythm, its beauty and sublimity,
+      which are not skin-deep, but proceed from fathomless roots&mdash;they
+      shall not escape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not mock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask me your questions, and I will answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is necessary for you to serve me, Maskull. Do you not
+      understand? You are my servant and helper.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not fail.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is for my sake, and not for yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last words had no sooner left Surtur&rsquo;s mouth than Maskull saw
+      him spring suddenly upward and outward. Looking up at the vault of the
+      sky, he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur&rsquo;s form&mdash;not
+      as a concrete man, but as a vast, concave cloud image, looking down and
+      frowning at him. Then the spectacle vanished, as a light goes out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood inactive, with a thumping heart. Now he again heard the
+      solitary trumpet note. The sound began this time faintly in the far
+      distance in front of him, travelled slowly toward him with regularly
+      increasing intensity, passed overhead at its loudest, and then grew more
+      and more quiet, wonderful, and solemn, as it fell away in the rear, until
+      the note was merged in the deathlike silence of the forest. It appeared to
+      Maskull like the closing of a marvellous and important chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simultaneously with the fading away of the sound, the heavens seemed to
+      open up with the rapidity of lightning into a blue vault of immeasurable
+      height. He breathed a great breath, stretched all his limbs, and looked
+      around him with a slow smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a while he resumed his journey. His brain was all dark and confused,
+      but one idea was already beginning to stand out from the rest&mdash;huge,
+      shapeless, and grand, like the growing image in the soul of a creative
+      artist: the staggering thought that he was a man of destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more he reflected upon all that had occurred since his arrival in this
+      new world&mdash;and even before leaving Earth&mdash;the clearer and more
+      indisputable it became, that he could not be here for his own purposes,
+      but must be here for an end. But what that end was, he could not imagine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest he saw Branchspell at last sinking in the west. It
+      looked a stupendous ball of red fire&mdash;now he could realise at his
+      ease what a sun it was! The avenue took an abrupt turn to the left and
+      began to descend steeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wide, rolling river of clear and dark water was visible in front of him,
+      no great way off. It flowed from north to south. The forest path led him
+      straight to its banks. Maskull stood there, and regarded the lapping,
+      gurgling waters pensively. On the opposite bank, the forest continued.
+      Miles to the south, Poolingdred could just be distinguished. On the
+      northern skyline the Ifdawn Mountains loomed up&mdash;high, wild,
+      beautiful, and dangerous. They were not a dozen miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like the first mutterings of a thunderstorm, the first faint breaths of
+      cool wind, Maskull felt the stirrings of passion in his heart. In spite of
+      his bodily fatigue, he wished to test his strength against something. This
+      craving he identified with the crags of the Marest. They seemed to have
+      the same magical attraction for his will as the lodestone for iron. He
+      kept biting his nails, as he turned his eyes in that direction&mdash;wondering
+      if it would not be possible to conquer the heights that evening. But when
+      he glanced back again at Poolingdred, he remembered Joiwind and Panawe,
+      and grew more tranquil. He decided to make his bed at this spot, and to
+      set off as soon after daybreak as he should awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drank at the river, washed himself, and lay down on the bank to sleep.
+      By this time, so far had his idea progressed, that he cared nothing for
+      the possible dangers of the night&mdash;he confided in his star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell set, the day faded, night with its terrible weight came on,
+      and through it all Maskull slept. Long before midnight, however, he was
+      awakened by a crimson glow in the sky. He opened his eyes, and wondered
+      where he was. He felt heaviness and pain. The red glow was a terrestrial
+      phenomenon; it came from among the trees. He got up and went toward the
+      source of the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away from the river, not a hundred feet off, he nearly stumbled across the
+      form of a sleeping woman. The object which emitted the crimson rays was
+      lying on the ground, several yards away from her. It was like a small
+      jewel, throwing off sparks of red light. He barely threw a glance at that,
+      however.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman was clothed in the large skin of an animal. She had big, smooth,
+      shapely limbs, rather muscular than fat. Her magn was not a thin tentacle,
+      but a third arm, terminating in a hand. Her face, which was upturned, was
+      wild, powerful, and exceedingly handsome. But he saw with surprise that in
+      place of a breve on her forehead, she possessed another eye. All three
+      were closed. The colour of her skin in the crimson glow he could not
+      distinguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He touched her gently with his hand. She awoke calmly and looked up at him
+      without stirring a muscle. All three eyes stared at him; but the two lower
+      ones were dull and vacant&mdash;mere carriers of vision. The middle, upper
+      one alone expressed her inner nature. Its haughty, unflinching glare had
+      yet something seductive and alluring in it. Maskull felt a challenge in
+      that look of lordly, feminine will, and his manner instinctively
+      stiffened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you speak my language?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t
+      put such a question, but others have been able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you imagine that I can&rsquo;t read your mind? Is it so
+      extremely complex?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke in a rich, lingering, musical voice, which delighted him to
+      listen to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but you have no breve.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but haven&rsquo;t I a sorb, which is better?&rdquo; And she
+      pointed to the eye on her brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These contemptuous replies began to irritate him, and yet the mere sound
+      of her voice was fascinating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going there tomorrow,&rdquo; he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed, as if against her will, but made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;I am a stranger&mdash;from
+      another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should judge, from your absurd appearance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it would be as well to say at once,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      bluntly, &ldquo;are we, or are we not, to be friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She yawned and stretched her arms, without rising. &ldquo;Why should we be
+      friends? If I thought you were a man, I might accept you as a lover.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must look elsewhere for that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it, Maskull! Now go away, and leave me in peace.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her head again to the ground, but did not at once close her
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing here?&rdquo; he interrogated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we Ifdawn folk occasionally come here to sleep, for <i>there</i>
+      often enough it is a night for us which has no next morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being such a terrible place, and seeing that I am a total stranger,
+      it would be merely courteous if you were to warn me what I have to expect
+      in the way of dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am perfectly and utterly indifferent to what becomes of you,&rdquo;
+      retorted Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning in the morning?&rdquo; persisted Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will go together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She got up again on her elbow. &ldquo;Instead of making plans for other
+      people, I would do a very necessary thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray, tell me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there&rsquo;s no reason why I should, but I will. I would try
+      to convert my women&rsquo;s organs into men&rsquo;s organs. It is a man&rsquo;s
+      country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak more plainly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s plain enough. If you attempt to pass through Ifdawn
+      without a sorb, you are simply committing suicide. And that magn too is
+      worse than useless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably know what you are talking about, Oceaxe. But what do
+      you advise me to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She negligently pointed to the light-emitting stone lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the solution. If you hold that drude to your organs for a
+      good while, perhaps it will start the change, and perhaps nature will do
+      the rest during the night. I promise nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe now really turned her back on Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He considered for a few minutes, and then walked over to where the stone
+      was lying, and took it in his hand. It was a pebble the size of a hen&rsquo;s
+      egg, radiant with crimson light, as though red-hot, and throwing out a
+      continuous shower of small, blood-red sparks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally deciding that Oceaxe&rsquo;s advice was good, he applied the drude
+      first to his magn, and then to his breve. He experienced a cauterising
+      sensation&mdash;a feeling of healing pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 9. OCEAXE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s second day on Tormance dawned. Branchspell was already
+      above the horizon when he awoke. He was instantly aware that his organs
+      had changed during the night. His fleshy breve was altered into an eyelike
+      sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third arm, springing from
+      the breast. The arm gave him at once a sense of greater physical security,
+      but with the sorb he was obliged to experiment, before he could grasp its
+      function.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he lay there in the white sunlight, opening and shutting each of his
+      three eyes in turn, he found that the two lower ones served his
+      understanding, the upper one his will. That is to say, with the lower eyes
+      he saw things in clear detail, but without personal interest; with the
+      sorb he saw nothing as self-existent&mdash;everything appeared as an
+      object of importance or non-importance to his own needs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked about
+      him. He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she
+      were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he made up his mind
+      to bathe in the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a glorious morning. The hot white sun already began to glare, but
+      its heat was tempered by a strong wind, which whistled through the trees.
+      A host of fantastic clouds filled the sky. They looked like animals, and
+      were always changing shape. The ground, as well as the leaves and branches
+      of the forest trees, still held traces of heavy dew or rain during the
+      night. A poignantly sweet smell of nature entered his nostrils. His pain
+      was quiescent, and his spirits were high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he bathed, he viewed the mountains of the Ifdawn Marest. In the
+      morning sunlight they stood out pictorially. He guessed that they were
+      from five to six thousand feet high. The lofty, irregular, castellated
+      line seemed like the walls of a magic city. The cliffs fronting him were
+      composed of gaudy rocks&mdash;vermilion, emerald, yellow, ulfire, and
+      black. As he gazed at them, his heart began to beat like a slow, heavy
+      drum, and he thrilled all over&mdash;indescribable hopes, aspirations, and
+      emotions came over him. It was more than the conquest of a new world which
+      he felt&mdash;it was something different....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bathed and drank, and as he was reclothing himself, Oceaxe strolled
+      indolently up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could now perceive the colour of her skin&mdash;it was a vivid, yet
+      delicate mixture of carmine, white, and jale. The effect was startlingly
+      unearthly. With these new colors she looked like a genuine representative
+      of a strange planet. Her frame also had something curious about it. The
+      curves were womanly, the bones were characteristically female&mdash;yet
+      all seemed somehow to express a daring, masculine underlying will. The
+      commanding eye on her forehead set the same puzzle in plainer language.
+      Its bold, domineering egotism was shot with undergleams of sex and
+      softness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She came to the river&rsquo;s edge and reviewed him from top to toe.
+      &ldquo;Now you are built more like a man,&rdquo; she said, in her lovely,
+      lingering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, the experiment was successful,&rdquo; he answered, smiling
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe continued looking him over. &ldquo;Did some woman give you that
+      ridiculous robe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman did give it to me&rdquo;&mdash;dropping his smile&mdash;&ldquo;but
+      I saw nothing ridiculous in the gift at the time, and I don&rsquo;t now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d look better in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she drawled the words, she began stripping off the skin, which suited
+      her form so well, and motioned to him to exchange garments. He obeyed,
+      rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed exchange was in
+      fact more appropriate to his sex. He found the skin a freer dress. Oceaxe
+      in her drapery appeared more dangerously feminine to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want you to receive gifts at all from other women,&rdquo;
+      she remarked slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? What can I be to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been thinking about you during the night.&rdquo; Her voice
+      was retarded, scornful, viola-like. She sat down on the trunk of a fallen
+      tree, and looked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She returned no answer to his question, but began to pull off pieces of
+      the bark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night you were so contemptuous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night is not today. Do you always walk through the world with
+      your head over your shoulder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Maskull&rsquo;s turn to be silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, if you have male instincts, as I suppose you have, you can&rsquo;t
+      go on resisting me forever.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is preposterous,&rdquo; said Maskull, opening his eyes
+      wide. &ldquo;Granted that you are a beautiful woman&mdash;we can&rsquo;t
+      be quite so primeval.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sighed, and rose to her feet. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can
+      wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that I gather that you intend to make the journey in my
+      society. I have no objection&mdash;in fact I shall be glad&mdash;but only
+      on condition that you drop this language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet you do think me beautiful?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I think so, if it is the fact? I fail to see
+      what that has to do with my feelings. Bring it to an end, Oceaxe. You will
+      find plenty of men to admire&mdash;and love you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that she blazed up. &ldquo;Does love pick and choose, you fool? Do you
+      imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for lovers? Is not
+      Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I am sorry to have hurt your feelings. Now carry the
+      temptation no farther&mdash;for it <i>is</i> a temptation, where a lovely
+      woman is concerned. I am not my own master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not proposing anything so very hateful, am I? Why do you
+      humiliate me so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put his hands behind his back. &ldquo;I repeat, I am not my own
+      master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then who is your master?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you speak with him?&rdquo; she asked curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what he said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can&rsquo;t&mdash;I won&rsquo;t. But whatever he said, his
+      beauty was more tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and that&rsquo;s why I can
+      look at you in cold blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Is love such a manly sport, then? I should have
+      thought it effeminate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. You won&rsquo;t always be so boyish. But
+      don&rsquo;t try my patience too far.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us talk about something else&mdash;and, above all, let us get
+      on our road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he
+      grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms. &ldquo;Oh,
+      Maskull, Maskull&mdash;what a fool you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way am I a fool?&rdquo; he demanded, scowling&mdash;not at
+      her words, but at his own weakness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of
+      lovers? And yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly away
+      from nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality:
+      persistence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read me well, and then it is natural law that you&rsquo;ll think
+      twice and three times before throwing me away.... And now, before we go,
+      we had better eat.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you eat? Is food in the same category as love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What food is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fish from the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind. At the same time, he felt
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there nothing milder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled her mouth scornfully. &ldquo;You came through Poolingdred, didn&rsquo;t
+      you? All the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked
+      at, and not lived. Now that you are visiting Ifdawn, you will have to
+      change your notions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go catch your fish,&rdquo; he returned, pulling down his brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations, from
+      the direction of the mountains. Oceaxe knelt down on the bank, and peered
+      into the depths. Presently her look became tense and concentrated; she
+      dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little monster. It was more
+      like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates and teeth. She threw it
+      on the ground, and it started crawling about. Suddenly she darted all her
+      will into her sorb. The creature leaped into the air, and fell down dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She picked up a sharp-edged slate, and with it removed the scales and
+      entrails. During this operation, her hands and garment became stained with
+      the light scarlet blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Find the drude, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, with a lazy smile.
+      &ldquo;You had it last night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He searched for it. It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown dull and
+      feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it. Oceaxe placed it in the
+      interior of the monster, and left the body lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While it&rsquo;s cooking, I&rsquo;ll wash some of this blood away,
+      which frightens you so much. Have you never seen blood before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her in perplexity. The old paradox came back&mdash;the
+      contrasting sexual characteristics in her person. Her bold, masterful,
+      masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous with the fascinating
+      and disturbing femininity of her voice. A startling idea flashed into his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In your country I&rsquo;m told there is an act of will called
+      &lsquo;absorbing.&rsquo; What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She held her red, dripping hands away from her draperies, and uttered a
+      delicious, clashing laugh. &ldquo;You think I am half a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer my question.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a woman through and through, Maskull&mdash;to the
+      marrowbone. But that&rsquo;s not to say I have never absorbed males.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that means...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New strings for my harp, Maskull. A wider range of passions, a
+      stormier heart...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For you, yes&mdash;But for them?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. The victims don&rsquo;t describe their
+      experiences. Probably unhappiness of some sort&mdash;if they still know
+      anything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a fearful business!&rdquo; he exclaimed, regarding her
+      gloomily. &ldquo;One would think Ifdawn a land of devils.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a beautiful sneer as she took a step toward the river. &ldquo;Better
+      men than you&mdash;better in every sense of the word&mdash;are walking
+      about with foreign wills inside them. You may be as moral as you like,
+      Maskull, but the fact remains, animals were made to be eaten, and simple
+      natures were made to be absorbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And human rights count for nothing!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had bent over the river&rsquo;s edge, to wash her arms and hands, but
+      glanced up over her shoulder to answer his remark. &ldquo;They do count.
+      But we only regard a man as human for just as long as he&rsquo;s able to
+      hold his own with others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flesh was soon cooked, and they breakfasted in silence. Maskull cast
+      heavy, doubtful glances from time to time toward his companion. Whether it
+      was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long abstention, he
+      did not know, but the meal tasted nauseous, and even cannibalistic. He ate
+      little, and the moment he got up he felt defiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me bury this drude, where I can find it some other time,&rdquo;
+      said Oceaxe. &ldquo;On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Maskull
+      with me, to shock.... Now we have to take to the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stepped off the land onto the water. It flowed against them with a
+      sluggish current, but the opposition, instead of hindering them, had the
+      contrary effect&mdash;it caused them to exert themselves, and they moved
+      faster. They climbed the river in this way for several miles. The exercise
+      gradually improved the circulation of Maskull&rsquo;s blood, and he began
+      to look at things in a far more cheerful way. The hot sunshine, the
+      diminished wind, the marvellous cloud scenery, the quiet, crystal forests&mdash;all
+      was soothing and delightful. They approached nearer and nearer to the
+      gaily painted heights of Ifdawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something enigmatic to him in those bright walls. He was
+      attracted by them, yet felt a sort of awe. They looked real, but at the
+      same time very supernatural. If one could see the portrait of a ghost,
+      painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial colors, the feelings
+      produced by such a sight would be exactly similar to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      impressions as he studied the Ifdawn precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke the long silence. &ldquo;Those mountains have most extraordinary
+      shapes. All the lines are straight and perpendicular&mdash;no slopes or
+      curves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked backward on the water, in order to face him. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      typical of Ifdawn. Nature is all hammer blows with us. Nothing soft and
+      gradual.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear you, but I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All over the Marest you&rsquo;ll find patches of ground plunging
+      down or rushing up. Trees grow fast. Women and men don&rsquo;t think twice
+      before acting. One may call Ifdawn a place of quick decisions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was impressed. &ldquo;A fresh, wild, primitive land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it where you come from?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mine is a decrepit world, where nature takes a hundred years to
+      move a foot of solid land. Men and animals go about in flocks. Originality
+      is a lost habit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there women there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As with you, and not very differently formed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed. &ldquo;So much so that it has changed the dress, speech, and
+      thoughts of the whole sex.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably they are more beautiful than I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another rather long silence, as they travelled unsteadily
+      onward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your business in Ifdawn?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated over his answer. &ldquo;Can you grasp that it&rsquo;s
+      possible to have an aim right in front of one, so big that one can&rsquo;t
+      see it as a whole?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stole a long, inquisitive look at him, &ldquo;What sort of aim?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moral aim.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you proposing to set the world right?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I propose nothing&mdash;I am waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t wait too long, for time doesn&rsquo;t wait&mdash;especially
+      in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something will happen,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe threw a subtle smile. &ldquo;So you have no special destination in
+      the Marest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, and if you&rsquo;ll permit me, I will come home with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; she said, with a short, thrilling laugh.
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I have been offering all the time. Of course you
+      will come home with me. As for Crimtyphon...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mentioned that name before. Who is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! My lover, or, as you would say, my husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t improve matters,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It leaves them exactly where they were. We merely have to remove
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are certainly misunderstanding each other,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      quite startled. &ldquo;Do you by any chance imagine that I am making a
+      compact with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do nothing against your will. But you have promised to
+      come home with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, how do you remove husbands in Ifdawn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either you or I must kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her for a full minute. &ldquo;Now we are passing from folly to
+      insanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe. &ldquo;It is the too-sad truth.
+      And when you have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m aware I am on a strange planet,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      slowly, &ldquo;where all sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where
+      the very laws of morality may be different. Still as far as I am
+      concerned, murder is murder, and I&rsquo;ll have no more to do with a
+      woman who wants to make use of me, to get rid of her husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think me wicked?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you had better leave me, Maskull&mdash;only&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to be consistent, don&rsquo;t you? Leave all other mad and
+      wicked people as well. Then you&rsquo;ll find it easier to reform the
+      rest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe, with a half smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll come with you, and I&rsquo;ll see Crimtyphon&mdash;if
+      only to warn him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe broke into a cascade of rich, feminine laughter, but whether at the
+      image conjured up by Maskull&rsquo;s last words, or from some other cause,
+      he did not know. The conversation dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a distance of a couple of miles from the now towering cliffs, the river
+      made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no longer of use to
+      them on their journey. Maskull stared up doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a stiff climb for a hot morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s rest here a little,&rdquo; said she, indicating a
+      smooth flat island of black rock, standing up just out of the water in the
+      middle of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They accordingly went to it, and Maskull sat down. Oceaxe, however,
+      standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward the cliffs opposite,
+      and uttered a piercing and peculiar call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that for?&rdquo; She did not answer. After waiting a
+      minute, she repeated the call. Maskull now saw a large bird detach itself
+      from the top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down toward them.
+      It was followed by two others. The flight of these birds was exceedingly
+      slow and clumsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She still returned no answer, but smiled rather peculiarly and sat down
+      beside him. Before many minutes he was able to distinguish the shapes and
+      colors of the flying monsters. They were not birds, but creatures with
+      long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating in fins
+      which acted as wings. The bodies were of bright blue, the legs and fins
+      were yellow. They were flying, without haste, but in a somewhat ominous
+      fashion, straight toward them. He could make out a long, thin spike
+      projecting from each of the heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are shrowks,&rdquo; explained Oceaxe at last. &ldquo;If you
+      want to know their intention, I&rsquo;ll tell you. To make a meal of us.
+      First of all their spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are
+      really suckers, will drain us dry of blood&mdash;pretty thoroughly too;
+      there are no half measures with shrowks. They are toothless beasts, so don&rsquo;t
+      eat flesh.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you show such admirable sangfroid,&rdquo; said Maskull dryly,
+      &ldquo;I take it there&rsquo;s no particular danger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he instinctively tried to get on to his feet and failed. A
+      new form of paralysis was chaining him to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you trying to get up?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, but those cursed reptiles seem to be nailing me down to
+      the rock with their wills. May I ask if you had any special object in view
+      in waking them up?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assure you the danger is quite real, Maskull. Instead of talking
+      and asking questions, you had much better see what you can do with <i>your</i>
+      will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seem to have no will, unfortunately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, but it was still rich and
+      beautiful. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious you aren&rsquo;t a very heroic
+      protector, Maskull. It seems I must play the man, and you the woman. I
+      expected better things of your big body. Why, my husband would send those
+      creatures dancing all around the sky, by way of a joke, before disposing
+      of them. Now watch me. Two of the three I&rsquo;ll kill; the third we will
+      ride home on. Which one shall we keep?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowks continued their slow, wobbling flight toward them. Their
+      bodies were of huge size. They produced in Maskull the same sensation of
+      loathing as insects did. He instinctively understood that as they hunted
+      with their wills, there was no necessity for them to possess a swift
+      motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose which you please,&rdquo; he said shortly. &ldquo;They are
+      equally objectionable to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll choose the leader, as it is presumably the most
+      energetic animal. Watch now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire. Maskull felt
+      something snap inside his brain. His limbs were free once more. The two
+      monsters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost toward the earth,
+      one after the other. He watched them crash on the ground, and then lie
+      motionless. The leader still came toward them, but he fancied that its
+      flight was altered in character; it was no longer menacing, but tame and
+      unwilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe guided it with her will to the mainland shore opposite their island
+      rock. Its vast bulk lay there extended, awaiting her pleasure. They
+      immediately crossed the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull viewed the shrowk at close quarters. It was about thirty feet
+      long. Its bright-coloured skin was shining, slippery, and leathery; a mane
+      of black hair covered its long neck. Its face was awesome and unnatural,
+      with its carnivorous eyes, frightful stiletto, and blood-sucking cavity.
+      There were true fins on its back and tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a good seat?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe, patting the creature&rsquo;s
+      flank. &ldquo;As I have to steer, let me jump on first.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled up her gown, then climbed up and sat astride the animal&rsquo;s
+      back, just behind the mane, which she clutched. Between her and the fin
+      there was just room for Maskull. He grasped the two flanks with his outer
+      hands; his third, new arm pressed against Oceaxe&rsquo;s back, and for
+      additional security he was compelled to encircle her waist with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Directly he did so, he realised that he had been tricked, and that this
+      ride had been planned for one purpose only&mdash;to inflame his desires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third arm possessed a function of its own, of which hitherto he had
+      been ignorant. It was a developed magn. But the stream of love which was
+      communicated to it was no longer pure and noble&mdash;it was boiling,
+      passionate, and torturing. He gritted his teeth, and kept quiet, but
+      Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious of his
+      feelings. She looked around, with a golden, triumphant smile. &ldquo;The
+      ride will last some time, so hold on well!&rdquo; Her voice was soft like
+      a flute, but rather malicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grinned, and said nothing. He dared not remove his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowk straddled on to its legs. It jerked itself forward, and rose
+      slowly and uncouthly in the air. They began to paddle upward toward the
+      painted cliffs. The motion was swaying, rocking, and sickening; the
+      contact of the brute&rsquo;s slimy skin was disgusting. All this, however,
+      was merely background to Maskull, as he sat there with closed eyes,
+      holding on to Oceaxe. In the front and centre of his consciousness was the
+      knowledge that he was gripping a fair woman, and that her flesh was
+      responding to his touch like a lovely harp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They climbed up and up. He opened his eyes, and ventured to look around
+      him. By this time they were already level with the top of the outer
+      rampart of precipices. There now came in sight a wild archipelago of
+      islands, with jagged outlines, emerging from a sea of air. The islands
+      were mountain summits; or, more accurately speaking, the country was a
+      high tableland, fissured everywhere by narrow and apparently bottomless
+      cracks. These cracks were in some cases like canals, in others like lakes,
+      in others merely holes in the ground, closed in all round. The
+      perpendicular sides of the islands&mdash;that is, the upper, visible parts
+      of the innumerable cliff faces&mdash;were of bare rock, gaudily coloured;
+      but the level surfaces were a tangle of wild plant life. The taller trees
+      alone were distinguishable from the shrowk&rsquo;s back. They were of
+      different shapes, and did not look ancient; they were slender and swaying
+      but did not appear very graceful; they looked tough, wiry, and savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Maskull continued to explore the landscape, he forgot Oceaxe and his
+      passion. Other strange feelings came to the front. The morning was gay and
+      bright. The sun scorched down, quickly-changing clouds sailed across the
+      sky, the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely. Yet he experienced no
+      aesthetic sensations&mdash;he felt nothing but an intense longing for
+      action and possession. When he looked at anything, he immediately wanted
+      to deal with it. The atmosphere of the land seemed not free, but sticky;
+      attraction and repulsion were its constituents. Apart from this wish to
+      play a personal part in what was going on around and beneath him, the
+      scenery had no significance for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp. Oceaxe
+      turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied with what
+      she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cold again so quickly, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; he asked absently, still looking over the
+      side. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to take a hand?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish to get down.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we have a good way to go yet.... So you really feel different?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Different from what? What are you talking about?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, still lost in abstraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe laughed again. &ldquo;It would be strange if we couldn&rsquo;t make
+      a man of you, for the material is excellent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, she turned her back once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air islands differed from water islands in another way. They were not
+      on a plane surface, but sloped upward, like a succession of broken
+      terraces, as the journey progressed. The shrowk had hitherto been flying
+      well above the ground; but now, when a new line of towering cliffs
+      confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast upward, but caused it to
+      enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the mountains like a channel.
+      They were instantly plunged into deep shade. The canal was not above
+      thirty feet wide; the walls stretched upward on both sides for many
+      hundred feet. It was as cool as an ice chamber. When Maskull attempted to
+      plumb the chasm with his eyes, he saw nothing but black obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is at the bottom?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death for you, if you go to look for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know that. I mean, is there any kind of life down there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I have ever heard of,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, &ldquo;but of
+      course all things are possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think very likely there is life,&rdquo; he returned thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her ironical laugh sounded out of the gloom. &ldquo;Shall we go down and
+      see?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You find that amusing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not that. What I do find amusing is the big stranger with the
+      beard, who is so keenly interested in everything except himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then laughed too. &ldquo;I happen to be the only thing in Tormance
+      which is not a novelty for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I am a novelty for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The channel went zigzagging its way through the belly of the mountain, and
+      all the time they were gradually rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least I have heard nothing like your voice before,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, who, since he had no longer anything to look at, was at last
+      ready for conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter with my voice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all that I can distinguish of you now; that&rsquo;s why
+      I mentioned it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it clear&mdash;don&rsquo;t I speak distinctly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s clear enough, but&mdash;it&rsquo;s inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inappropriate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t explain further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      whether you are speaking or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest
+      and strangest instrument I have ever listened to. And yet I repeat, it is
+      inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that my nature doesn&rsquo;t correspond?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was just considering his reply, when their talk was abruptly broken off
+      by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising up from the gulf
+      directly underneath them. It was a low, grinding, roaring thunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ground is rising under us!&rdquo; cried Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no answer, but urged the shrowk&rsquo;s flight upward, at such a
+      steep gradient that they retained their seats with difficulty. The floor
+      of the canyon, upheaved by some mighty subterranean force, could be heard,
+      and almost felt, coming up after them, like a gigantic landslip in the
+      wrong direction. The cliffs cracked, and fragments began to fall. A
+      hundred awful noises filled the air, growing louder and louder each second&mdash;splitting,
+      hissing, cracking, grinding, booming, exploding, roaring. When they had
+      still fifty feet or so to go, to reach the top, a sort of dark, indefinite
+      sea of broken rocks and soil appeared under their feet, ascending rapidly,
+      with irresistible might, accompanied by the most horrible noises. The
+      canal was filled up for two hundred yards, before and behind them.
+      Millions of tons of solid matter seemed to be raised. The shrowk in its
+      ascent was caught by the uplifted debris. Beast and riders experienced in
+      that moment all the horrors of an earthquake&mdash;they were rolled
+      violently over, and thrown among the rocks and dirt. All was thunder,
+      instability, motion, confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the sunlight.
+      The upheaval still continued. In another minute or two the valley floor
+      had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher than the old.
+      Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as if by magic;
+      not a rock moved. Oceaxe and Maskull picked themselves up and examined
+      themselves for cuts and bruises. The shrowk lay on its side, panting
+      violently, and sweating with fright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a nasty affair,&rdquo; said Maskull, flicking the dirt off
+      his person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have been far worse.... I mean, it&rsquo;s bad enough to
+      come up, but it&rsquo;s death to go down, and that happens just as often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever induces you to live in such a country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Maskull. Habit, I suppose. I have often thought
+      of moving out of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
+      place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
+      another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn by degrees,&rdquo; she answered, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get on again, Maskull!&rdquo; she directed, climbing back to her
+      perch. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t too much time to waste.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed. They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
+      mountains, and in full sunlight. Maskull settled down again to his
+      thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into
+      his brain. His will became so restless and uneasy that merely to sit there
+      in inactivity was a torture. He could scarcely endure not to be doing
+      something.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How secretive you are, Maskull!&rdquo; said Oceaxe quietly, without
+      turning her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What secrets&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I know perfectly well what&rsquo;s passing inside you. Now I
+      think it wouldn&rsquo;t be amiss to ask you&mdash;is friendship still
+      enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t ask me anything,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      far too many problems in my head already. I only wish I could answer some
+      of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared stonily at the landscape. The beast was winging its way toward a
+      distant mountain, of singular shape. It was an enormous natural
+      quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and terminating in a
+      broad, flat top, on which what looked like green snow still lingered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What mountain is that?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disscourn. The highest point in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we going there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should we go there? But if you were going on farther, it might
+      be worth your while to pay a visit to the top. It commands the whole land
+      as far as the Sinking Sea and Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;and beyond.
+      You can also see Alppain from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a sight I mean to see before I have finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, Maskull?&rdquo; She turned around and put her hand on his
+      wrist. &ldquo;Stay with me, and one day we&rsquo;ll go to Disscourn
+      together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He grunted unintelligibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were no signs of human existence in the country under their feet.
+      While Maskull was still grimly regarding it, a large tract of forest not
+      far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful
+      roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf. What was solid land one
+      minute became a clean-cut chasm the next. He jumped violently up with the
+      shock. &ldquo;This is frightful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe remained unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, life here must be absolutely impossible,&rdquo; he went on,
+      when he had somewhat recovered himself. &ldquo;A man would need nerves of
+      steel.... Is there no means at all of foreseeing a catastrophe like this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I suppose we wouldn&rsquo;t be alive if there weren&rsquo;t,&rdquo;
+      replied Oceaxe, with composure. &ldquo;We are more or less clever at it&mdash;but
+      that doesn&rsquo;t prevent our often getting caught.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better teach me the signs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have many things to go over together. And among them, I
+      expect, will be whether we are to stay in the land at all.... But first
+      let us get home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far is it now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right in front of you,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, pointing with her
+      forefinger. &ldquo;You can see it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the direction of the finger and, after a few questions, made
+      out the spot she was indicating. It was a broad peninsula, about two miles
+      distant. Three of its sides rose sheer out of a lake of air, the bottom of
+      which was invisible; its fourth was a bottleneck, joining it to the
+      mainland. It was overgrown with bright vegetation, distinct in the
+      brilliant atmosphere. A single tall tree, shooting up in the middle of the
+      peninsula, dwarfed everything else; it was wide and shady with sea-green
+      leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if Crimtyphon is there,&rdquo; remarked Oceaxe. &ldquo;Can
+      I see two figures, or am I mistaken?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I also see something,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes they were directly above the peninsula, at a height of
+      about fifty feet. The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth on the
+      mainland, exactly at the gateway of the isthmus. They both descended&mdash;Maskull
+      with aching thighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we do with the monster?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe. Without
+      waiting for a suggestion, she patted its hideous face with her hand.
+      &ldquo;Fly away home! I may want you some other time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It gave a stupid grunt, elevated itself on its legs again, and, after half
+      running, half flying for a few yards, rose awkwardly into the air, and
+      paddled away in the same direction from which they had come. They watched
+      it out of sight, and then Oceaxe started to cross the neck of land,
+      followed by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s white rays beat down on them with pitiless force. The
+      sky had by degrees become cloudless, and the wind had dropped entirely.
+      The ground was a rich riot of vividly coloured ferns, shrubs, and grasses.
+      Through these could be seen here and there the golden chalky soil&mdash;and
+      occasionally a glittering, white metallic boulder. Everything looked
+      extraordinary and barbaric. Maskull was at last walking in the weird
+      Ifdawn Marest which had created such strange feelings in him when seen
+      from a distance.... And now he felt no wonder or curiosity at all, but
+      only desired to meet human beings&mdash;so intense had grown his will. He
+      longed to test his powers on his fellow creatures, and nothing else seemed
+      of the least importance to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the peninsula all was coolness and delicate shade. It resembled a large
+      copse, about two acres in extent. In the heart of the tangle of small
+      trees and undergrowth was a partially cleared space&mdash;perhaps the
+      roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed off the smaller
+      fry all around it. By the side of the tree sparkled a little, bubbling
+      fountain, whose water was iron-red. The precipices on all sides, overhung
+      with thorns, flowers, and creepers, invested the enclosure with an air of
+      wild and charming seclusion&mdash;a mythological mountain god might have
+      dwelt here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s restless eye left everything, to fall on the two men who
+      formed the centre of the picture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One was reclining, in the ancient Grecian fashion of banqueters on a tall
+      couch of mosses, sprinkled with flowers; he rested on one arm, and was
+      eating a kind of plum, with calm enjoyment. A pile of these plums lay on
+      the couch beside him. The over-spreading branches of the tree completely
+      sheltered him from the sun. His small, boyish form was clad in a rough
+      skin, leaving his limbs naked. Maskull could not tell from his face
+      whether he were a young boy or a grown man. The features were smooth,
+      soft, and childish, their expression was seraphically tranquil; but his
+      violet upper eye was sinister and adult. His skin was of the colour of
+      yellow ivory. His long, curling hair matched his sorb&mdash;it was violet.
+      The second man was standing erect before the other, a few feet away from
+      him. He was short and muscular, his face was broad, bearded, and rather
+      commonplace, but there was something terrible about his appearance. The
+      features were distorted by a deep-seated look of pain, despair, and
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe, without pausing, strolled lightly and lazily up to the outermost
+      shadows of the tree, some distance from the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have met with an uplift,&rdquo; she remarked carelessly, looking
+      toward the youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is your plant man getting on?&rdquo; Her tone was artificial
+      but extremely beautiful. While waiting for an answer, she sat down on the
+      ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and pulled down the
+      skirt of her robe. Maskull remained standing just behind her, with crossed
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you answer your mistress, Sature?&rdquo; said the
+      boy on the couch, in a calm, treble voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man addressed did not alter his expression, but replied in a strangled
+      tone, &ldquo;I am getting on very well, Oceaxe. There are already buds on
+      my feet. Tomorrow I hope to take root.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising storm inside him. He was perfectly aware that
+      although these words were uttered by Sature, they were being dictated by
+      the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What he says is quite true,&rdquo; remarked the latter. &ldquo;Tomorrow
+      roots will reach the ground, and in a few days they ought to be well
+      established. Then I shall set to work to convert his arms into branches,
+      and his fingers into leaves. It will take longer to transform his head
+      into a crown, but still I hope&mdash;in fact I can almost promise that
+      within a month you and I, Oceaxe, will be plucking and enjoying fruit from
+      this new and remarkable tree.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love these natural experiments,&rdquo; he concluded, putting out
+      his hand for another plum. &ldquo;They thrill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be a joke,&rdquo; said Maskull, taking a step forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth looked at him serenely. He made no reply, but Maskull felt as if
+      he were being thrust backward by an iron hand on his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The morning&rsquo;s work is now concluded, Sature. Come here again
+      after Blodsombre. After tonight you will remain here permanently, I
+      expect, so you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for your
+      roots. Never forget&mdash;however fresh and charming these plants appear
+      to you now, in the future they will be your deadliest rivals and enemies.
+      Now you may go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight. Oceaxe
+      yawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall. &ldquo;Are you
+      joking, or are you a devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Crimtyphon. I never joke. For that epithet of yours, I will
+      devise a new punishment for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duel of wills commenced without ceremony. Oceaxe got up, stretched her
+      beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to witness the struggle
+      between her old lover and her new. Crimtyphon smiled too; he reached out
+      his hand for more fruit, but did not eat it. Maskull&rsquo;s self-control
+      broke down and he dashed at the boy, choking with red fury&mdash;his beard
+      wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with whom he had to
+      deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a
+      terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull staggered. He gathered
+      together all the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight continued
+      his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch, trying to get
+      away.... His opposition suddenly collapsed. Maskull stumbled forward,
+      recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the high pile of mosses, to
+      get at his antagonist. He fell on top of him with all his bulk. Grasping
+      his throat, he pulled his little head completely around, so that the neck
+      was broken. Crimtyphon immediately died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull viewed
+      it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder came into
+      his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon&rsquo;s face had
+      undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal character
+      had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask which
+      expressed nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had seen the
+      brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face of the
+      apparition at the séance, after Krag had dealt with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 10. TYDOMIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the
+      plums.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, you had to kill him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, in a rather
+      quizzical voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came away from the corpse and regarded her&mdash;still red, and still
+      breathing hard. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no joking matter. You especially ought
+      to keep quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he was your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think I ought to show grief&mdash;when I feel none?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pretend, woman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe smiled. &ldquo;From your manner one would think you were accusing
+      me of some crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull literally snorted at her words. &ldquo;What, you live with filth&mdash;you
+      live in the arms of a morbid monstrosity and then&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, now I grasp it,&rdquo; she said, in a tone of perfect
+      detachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull,&rdquo; she proceeded, after a pause, &ldquo;and who
+      gave you the right to rule my conduct? Am I not mistress of my own person?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her with disgust, but said nothing. There was another long
+      interval of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never loved him,&rdquo; said Oceaxe at last, looking at the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes it all the worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean&mdash;what do you want?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing from you&mdash;absolutely nothing&mdash;thank heaven!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a hard laugh. &ldquo;You come here with your foreign
+      preconceptions and expect us all to bow down to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What preconceptions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just because Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sports are strange to you, you
+      murder him&mdash;and you would like to murder me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sports! That diabolical cruelty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re sentimental!&rdquo; said Oceaxe contemptuously.
+      &ldquo;Why do you need to make such a fuss over that man? Life is life,
+      all the world over, and one form is as good as another. He was only to be
+      made a tree, like a million other trees. If they can endure the life, why
+      can&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this is Ifdawn morality!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe began to grow angry. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s you who have peculiar ideas.
+      You rave about the beauty of flowers and trees&mdash;you think them
+      divine. But when it&rsquo;s a question of taking on this divine, fresh,
+      pure, enchanting loveliness yourself, in your own person, it immediately
+      becomes a cruel and wicked degradation. Here we have a strange riddle, in
+      my opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe, you&rsquo;re a beautiful, heartless wild beast&mdash;nothing
+      more. If you weren&rsquo;t a woman&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&rdquo;&mdash;curling her lip&mdash;&ldquo;let us hear what
+      would happen if I weren&rsquo;t a woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can&rsquo;t touch you&mdash;though there&rsquo;s
+      certainly not the difference of a hair between you and your boy-husband.
+      For this you may thank my &lsquo;foreign preconceptions.&rsquo;...
+      Farewell!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to go. Oceaxe&rsquo;s eyes slanted at him through their long
+      lashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you off to, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a matter of no importance, for wherever I go it must
+      be a change for the better. You walking whirlpools of crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a minute. I only want to say this. Blodsombre is just
+      starting, and you had better stay here till the afternoon. We can quickly
+      put that body out of sight, and, as you seem to detest me so much, the
+      place is big enough&mdash;we needn&rsquo;t talk, or even see each other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to breathe the same air.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; She was sitting erect and motionless, like a
+      beautiful statue. &ldquo;And what of your wonderful interview with Surtur,
+      and all the undone things which you set out to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You aren&rsquo;t the one I shall speak to about that. But&rdquo;&mdash;he
+      eyed her meditatively&mdash;&ldquo;while I&rsquo;m still here you can tell
+      me this. What&rsquo;s the meaning of the expression on that corpse&rsquo;s
+      face?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that another crime, Maskull? All dead people look like that.
+      Ought they not to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I once heard it called &lsquo;Crystalman&rsquo;s face.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? We are all daughters and sons of Crystalman. It is
+      doubtless the family resemblance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has also been told me that Surtur and Crystalman are one and the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have wise and truthful acquaintances.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how could it have been Surtur whom I saw?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      more to himself than to her. &ldquo;That apparition was something quite
+      different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her mocking manner and, sliding imperceptibly toward him,
+      gently pulled his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see&mdash;we have to talk. Sit down beside me, and ask me your
+      questions. I&rsquo;m not excessively smart, but I&rsquo;ll try to be of
+      assistance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull permitted himself to be dragged down with soft violence. She bent
+      toward him, as if confidentially, and contrived that her sweet, cool,
+      feminine breath should fan his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull? Then
+      what does it matter who sent you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can you possibly know of good and evil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you only instructing the initiated?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who am I, to instruct anybody? However, you&rsquo;re quite right. I
+      wish to do what I can&mdash;not because I am qualified, but because I am
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe&rsquo;s voice dropped to a whisper. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a giant,
+      both in body and soul. What you want to do, you <i>can</i> do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own
+      ends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see how difficult you are making the
+      conversation? Let&rsquo;s talk about your work, not about ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern sky.
+      It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills. While he was
+      observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a disquieting nature,
+      passed through him. He looked at Oceaxe, and it struck him for the first
+      time that he was being unnecessarily brutal to her. He had forgotten that
+      she was a woman, and defenceless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you stay?&rdquo; she asked all of a sudden, quite
+      openly and frankly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think I&rsquo;ll stay,&rdquo; he replied slowly. &ldquo;And
+      another thing, Oceaxe&mdash;if I&rsquo;ve misjudged your character, pray
+      forgive me. I&rsquo;m a hasty, passionate man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are enough easygoing men. Hard knocks are a good medicine for
+      vicious hearts. And you didn&rsquo;t misjudge my character, as far as you
+      went&mdash;only, every woman has more than one character. Don&rsquo;t you
+      know that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and both
+      looked around, startled. They saw a woman stepping slowly across the neck
+      that separated them from the mainland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tydomin,&rdquo; muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice. She
+      immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful. She was no
+      longer quite young. Her face wore the composure of a woman who knows her
+      way about the world. It was intensely pale, and under its quiescence there
+      just was a glimpse of something strange and dangerous. It was curiously
+      alluring, though not exactly beautiful. Her hair was clustering and
+      boyish, reaching only to the neck. It was of a strange indigo colour. She
+      was quaintly attired in a tunic and breeches, pieced together from the
+      square, blue-green plates of some reptile. Her small, ivory-white breasts
+      were exposed. Her sorb was black and sad&mdash;rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided
+      straight toward Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. When she arrived within a few
+      feet of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s other wife, who lives under Disscourn. She&rsquo;s a
+      most dangerous woman. Be careful what you say. If she asks you to do
+      anything, refuse it outright.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor soul looks harmless enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she does&mdash;but the poor soul is quite capable of
+      swallowing up Krag himself.... Now, play the man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murmur of their voices seemed to attract Tydomin&rsquo;s notice, for
+      she now slowly turned her eyes toward them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who killed him?&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was so soft, low, and refined, that Maskull hardly was able to
+      catch the words. The sounds, however, lingered in his ears, and curiously
+      enough seemed to grow stronger, instead of fainter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe whispered, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say a word, leave it all to me.&rdquo;
+      Then she swung her body around to face Tydomin squarely, and said aloud,
+      &ldquo;I killed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s words by this time were ringing in Maskull&rsquo;s head
+      like an actual physical sound. There was no question of being able to
+      ignore them; he had to make an open confession of his act, whatever the
+      consequences might be. Quietly taking Oceaxe by the shoulder and putting
+      her behind him, he said in a low, but perfectly distinct voice, &ldquo;It
+      was I that killed Crimtyphon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe looked both haughty and frightened. &ldquo;Maskull says that so as
+      to shield me, as he thinks. I require no shield, Maskull. I killed him,
+      Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you, Oceaxe. You did murder him. Not with your own
+      strength, for you brought this man along for the purpose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took a couple of steps toward Tydomin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s of little
+      consequence who killed him, for he&rsquo;s better dead than alive, in my
+      opinion. Still, I did it. Oceaxe had no hand in the affair.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin appeared not to hear him&mdash;she looked beyond him at Oceaxe
+      musingly. &ldquo;When you murdered him, didn&rsquo;t it occur to you that
+      I would come here, to find out?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never once thought of you,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe, with an angry
+      laugh. &ldquo;Do you really imagine that I carry your image with me
+      wherever I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If someone were to murder your lover here, what would you do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lying hypocrite!&rdquo; Oceaxe spat out. &ldquo;You never were in
+      love with Crimtyphon. You always hated me, and now you think it an
+      excellent opportunity to make it good... now that Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      gone.... For we both know he would have made a footstool of you, if I had
+      asked him. He worshiped me, but he laughed at you. He thought you ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin flashed a quick, gentle smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Is it necessary
+      for you to listen to all this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without question, and feeling it the right thing to do, he walked away out
+      of earshot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin approached Oceaxe. &ldquo;Perhaps because my beauty fades and I&rsquo;m
+      no longer young, I needed <i>him</i> all the more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a kind of snarl. &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s dead, and that&rsquo;s
+      the end of it. What are you going to do now, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other woman smiled faintly and rather pathetically. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing left to do, except mourn the dead. You won&rsquo;t grudge me that
+      last office?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to stay here?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Oceaxe dear, I wish to be alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is to become of us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that you and your lover&mdash;what is his name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that perhaps you two would go to Disscourn, and spend
+      Blodsombre at my home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe called out aloud to Maskull, &ldquo;Will you come with me now to
+      Disscourn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish,&rdquo; returned Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go first, Oceaxe. I must question your friend about Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      death. I won&rsquo;t keep him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you question me, rather?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe,
+      looking up sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gave the shadow of a smile. &ldquo;We know each other too well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Play no tricks!&rdquo; said Oceaxe, and she turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely you must be dreaming,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      the way&mdash;unless you want to walk over the cliffside.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path Oceaxe had chosen led across the isthmus. The direction which
+      Tydomin proposed for her was over the edge of the precipice, into empty
+      space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping! I must be mad,&rdquo; cried Oceaxe, with a laugh. And she
+      obediently followed the other&rsquo;s finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked straight on toward the edge of the abyss, twenty paces away.
+      Maskull pulled his beard around, and wondered what she was doing. Tydomin
+      remained standing with outstretched finger, watching her. Without
+      hesitation, without slackening her step once, Oceaxe strolled on&mdash;and
+      when she had reached the extreme end of the land she still took one more
+      step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw her limbs wrench as she stumbled over the edge. Her body
+      disappeared, and as it did so an awful shriek sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disillusionment had come to her an instant too late. He tore himself out
+      of his stupor, rushed to the edge of the cliff, threw himself on the
+      ground recklessly, and looked over.... Oceaxe had vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued staring wildly down for several minutes, and then began to
+      sob. Tydomin came up to him, and he got to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood kept rushing to his face and leaving it again. It was some time
+      before he could speak at all. Then he brought out the words with
+      difficulty. &ldquo;You shall pay for this, Tydomin. But first I want to
+      hear why you did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t I cause?&rdquo; she asked, standing with downcast
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it pure fiendishness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was for Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had nothing to do with that death. I told you so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are loyal to her, and I&rsquo;m loyal to him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loyal? You&rsquo;ve made a terrible blunder. She wasn&rsquo;t my
+      mistress. I killed Crimtyphon for quite another reason. She had absolutely
+      no part in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wasn&rsquo;t she your lover?&rdquo; asked Tydomin slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve made a terrible mistake,&rdquo; repeated Maskull.
+      &ldquo;I killed him because he was a wild beast. She was as innocent of
+      his death as you are.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s face took on a hard look. &ldquo;So you are guilty of two
+      deaths.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dreadful silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t you believe me?&rdquo; asked Maskull, who was
+      pale and sweating painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who gave you the right to kill him?&rdquo; demanded Tydomin
+      sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said nothing, and perhaps did not hear her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed two or three times and began to stir restlessly. &ldquo;Since
+      you murdered him, you must help me bury him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s to be done? This is a most fearful crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a most fearful man. Why did you come here, to do all this?
+      What are we to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately you are right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use standing here,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Nothing
+      can be done. You must come with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come with you? Where to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Disscourn. There&rsquo;s a burning lake on the far side of it.
+      He always wished to be cast there after death. We can do that after
+      Blodsombre&mdash;in the meantime we must take him home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a callous, heartless woman. Why should he be buried
+      when that poor girl must remain unburied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that&rsquo;s out of the question,&rdquo; replied Tydomin
+      quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes roamed about agitatedly, apparently seeing nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must do something,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;I shall go. You
+      can&rsquo;t wish to stay here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I couldn&rsquo;t stay here&mdash;and why should I want to? You
+      want me to carry the corpse?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can&rsquo;t carry himself, and you murdered him. Perhaps it will
+      ease your mind to carry it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ease my mind?&rdquo; said Maskull, rather stupidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one relief for remorse, and that&rsquo;s
+      voluntary pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have you no remorse?&rdquo; he asked, fixing her with a heavy
+      eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These crimes are yours, Maskull,&rdquo; she said in a low but
+      incisive voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked over to Crimtyphon&rsquo;s body, and Maskull hoisted it on to
+      his shoulders. It weighed heavier than he had thought. Tydomin did not
+      offer to assist him to adjust the ghastly burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She crossed the isthmus, followed by Maskull. Their path lay through
+      sunshine and shadow. Branchspell was blazing in a cloudless sky, the heat
+      was insufferable&mdash;streams of sweat coursed down his face, and the
+      corpse seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Tydomin always walked in front
+      of him. His eyes were fastened in an unseeing stare on her white, womanish
+      calves; he looked neither to right nor left. His features grew sullen. At
+      the end of ten minutes he suddenly allowed his burden to slip off his
+      shoulders on to the ground, where it lay sprawled every which way. He
+      called out to Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She quickly looked around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here. It has just occurred to me&rdquo;&mdash;he laughed&mdash;&ldquo;why
+      should I be carrying this corpse&mdash;and why should I be following you
+      at all? What surprises me is, why this has never struck me before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She at once came back to him. &ldquo;I suppose you&rsquo;re tired,
+      Maskull. Let us sit down. Perhaps you have come a long way this morning?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s not tiredness, but a sudden gleam of sense. Do you
+      know of any reason why I should be acting as your porter?&rdquo; He
+      laughed again, but nevertheless sat down on the ground beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin neither looked at him nor answered. Her head was half bent, so as
+      to face the northern sky, where the Alppain light was still glowing.
+      Maskull followed her gaze, and also watched the glow for a moment or two
+      in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you speak?&rdquo; he asked at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that light suggest to you, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not speaking of that light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t it suggest anything at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it doesn&rsquo;t. What does it matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew sullen again. &ldquo;Sacrifice of what? What do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hasn&rsquo;t it entered your head yet,&rdquo; said Tydomin, looking
+      straight in front of her, and speaking in her delicate, hard manner,
+      &ldquo;that this adventure of yours will scarcely come to an end until you
+      have made some sort of sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, and she said nothing more. In a few minutes&rsquo;
+      time Maskull got up of his own accord, and irreverently, and almost
+      angrily, threw Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse over his shoulder again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far do we have to go?&rdquo; he asked in a surly tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An hour&rsquo;s walk.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lead on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, this isn&rsquo;t the sacrifice I mean,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly, as she went on in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost immediately they reached more difficult ground. They had to pass
+      from peak to peak, as from island to island. In some cases they were able
+      to stride or jump across, but in others they had to make use of rude
+      bridges of fallen timber. It appeared to be a frequented path. Underneath
+      were the black, impenetrable abysses&mdash;on the surface were the glaring
+      sunshine, the gay, painted rocks, the chaotic tangle of strange plants.
+      There were countless reptiles and insects. The latter were thicker built
+      than those of Earth&mdash;consequently still more disgusting, and some of
+      them were of enormous size. One monstrous insect, as large as a horse,
+      stood right in the centre of their path without budging. It was
+      armour-plated, had jaws like scimitars, and underneath its body was a
+      forest of legs. Tydomin gave one malignant look at it, and sent it
+      crashing into the gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to offer, except my life?&rdquo; Maskull suddenly broke
+      out. &ldquo;And what good is that? It won&rsquo;t bring that poor girl
+      back into the world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sacrifice is not for utility. It&rsquo;s a penalty which we pay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The point is whether you can go on enjoying life, after what has
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She waited for Maskull to come even with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you imagine I&rsquo;m not man enough&mdash;you imagine that
+      because I allowed poor Oceaxe to die for me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did die for you,&rdquo; said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be a second blunder of yours,&rdquo; returned Maskull,
+      just as firmly. &ldquo;I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I&rsquo;m not in
+      love with life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life is not required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I don&rsquo;t understand what you want, or what you are
+      speaking about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull. That
+      would be compliance on your part, but not sacrifice. You must wait until
+      you feel there&rsquo;s nothing else for you to do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all very mysterious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful
+      crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead. It was
+      accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they stood.
+      They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final disappearance
+      of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in front of them.
+      Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with all its teeming
+      animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic story. The new chasm
+      was cut, as if by a knife. Beyond its farther edge the Alppain glow burned
+      blue just over the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we shall have to make a detour,&rdquo; said Tydomin, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand. &ldquo;Listen to me, while
+      I try to describe what I&rsquo;m feeling. When I saw that landslip,
+      everything I have heard about the last destruction of the world came into
+      my mind. It seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it, and that the
+      world were really falling to pieces. Then, where the land was, we now have
+      this empty, awful gulf&mdash;that&rsquo;s to say, <i>nothing</i>&mdash;and
+      it seems to me as if our life will come to the same condition, where there
+      was something there will be nothing. But that terrible blue glare on the
+      opposite side is exactly like the eye of fate. It accuses us, and demands
+      what we have made of our life, which is no more. At the same time, it is
+      grand and joyful. The joy consists in this&mdash;that it is in our power
+      to give freely what will later on be taken from us by force.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin watched him attentively. &ldquo;Then your feeling is that your
+      life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it goes beyond that. I feel that the only thing worth living
+      for is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.
+      Understand me. It isn&rsquo;t cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but
+      heroism.... It&rsquo;s hard to explain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull. It&rsquo;s
+      a heavy one, but that&rsquo;s what you seem to wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so. In my present mood it can&rsquo;t be too heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me. Now that
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s dead, I&rsquo;m tired of being a woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fail to comprehend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. I wish to start a new existence in your body. I wish
+      to be a male. I see it isn&rsquo;t worth while being a woman. I mean to
+      dedicate my own body to Crimtyphon. I shall tie his body and mine
+      together, and give them a common funeral in the burning lake. That&rsquo;s
+      the sacrifice I offer you. As I said, it&rsquo;s a hard one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you do ask me to die. Though how you can make use of my body is
+      difficult to understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t ask you to die. You will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it possible without a body?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gazed at him earnestly. &ldquo;There are many such beings, even in
+      your world. There you call them spirits, apparitions, phantoms. They are
+      in reality living wills, deprived of material bodies, always longing to
+      act and enjoy, but quite unable to do so. Are you noble-minded enough to
+      accept such a state, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s possible, I accept it,&rdquo; replied Maskull
+      quietly. &ldquo;Not in spite of its heaviness, but because of it. But how
+      is it possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Undoubtedly there are very many things possible in our world of
+      which you have no conception. Now let us wait till we get home. I don&rsquo;t
+      hold you to your word, for unless it&rsquo;s a free sacrifice I will have
+      nothing to do with it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a man who speaks lightly. If you can perform this miracle,
+      you have my consent, once for all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we&rsquo;ll leave it like that for the present,&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They proceeded on their way. Owing to the subsidence, Tydomin seemed
+      rather doubtful at first as to the right road, but by making a long
+      divergence they eventually got around to the other side of the newly
+      formed chasm. A little later on, in a narrow copse crowning a miniature,
+      insulated peak, they fell in with a man. He was resting himself against a
+      tree, and looked tired, overheated, and despondent. He was young. His
+      beardless expression bore an expression of unusual sincerity, and in other
+      respects he seemed a hardy, hardworking youth, of an intellectual type.
+      His hair was thick, short, and flaxen. He possessed neither a sorb nor a
+      third arm&mdash;so presumably he was not a native of Ifdawn. His forehead,
+      however, was disfigured by what looked like a haphazard assortment of
+      eyes, eight in number, of different sizes and shapes. They went in pairs,
+      and whenever two were in use, it was indicated by a peculiar shining&mdash;the
+      rest remained dull, until their turn came. In addition to the upper eyes
+      he had the two lower ones, but they were vacant and lifeless. This
+      extraordinary battery of eyes, alternatively alive and dead, gave the
+      young man an appearance of almost alarming mental activity. He was wearing
+      nothing but a sort of skin kilt. Maskull seemed somehow to recognise the
+      face, though he had certainly never set eyes on it before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin suggested to him to set down the corpse, and both sat down to rest
+      in the shade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Question him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, rather carelessly, jerking
+      her head toward the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed and asked aloud, from his seat on the ground, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s
+      your name, and where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man studied him for a few moments, first with one pair of eyes, then
+      with another, then with a third. He next turned his attention to Tydomin,
+      who occupied him a still longer time. He replied at last, in a dry, manly,
+      nervous voice. &ldquo;I am Digrung. I have arrived here from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+      His colour kept changing, and Maskull suddenly realised of whom he
+      reminded him. It was of Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you&rsquo;re going to Poolingdred, Digrung?&rdquo; he
+      inquired, interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a matter of fact I am&mdash;if I can find my way out of this
+      accursed country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly you are acquainted with Joiwind there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s my sister. I&rsquo;m on my way to see her now. Why, do
+      you know her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I met her yesterday.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall tell her I met you. This will be our first meeting for four
+      years. Is she well, and happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both, as far as I could judge. You know Panawe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her husband&mdash;yes. But where do you come from? I&rsquo;ve seen
+      nothing like you before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From another world. Where is Matterplay?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it like there&mdash;how do you amuse yourselves? The same
+      old murders and sudden deaths?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ill?&rdquo; asked Digrung. &ldquo;Who is this woman, why
+      are you following at her heels like a slave? She looks insane to me. What&rsquo;s
+      that corpse&mdash;why are you dragging it around the country with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already heard it said about Matterplay,
+      that if one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately
+      springs up. But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me, Digrung?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t attack you, woman, but I know you. I see into you,
+      and I see insanity. That wouldn&rsquo;t matter, but I don&rsquo;t like to
+      see a man of intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge
+      character. However, I don&rsquo;t mind. Your opinion&rsquo;s nothing to
+      me, Digrung. You&rsquo;d better answer his questions, Maskull. Not for his
+      own sake&mdash;but your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your
+      having been seen carrying a dead man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s underlip shot out. &ldquo;Tell your sister nothing,
+      Digrung. Don&rsquo;t mention my name at all. I don&rsquo;t want her to
+      know about this meeting of ours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish it&mdash;isn&rsquo;t that enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung looked impassive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts and words,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;which don&rsquo;t
+      correspond with the real events of the world are considered most shameful
+      in Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not asking you to lie, only to keep silent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can&rsquo;t
+      accede to your wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look. &ldquo;The
+      dead man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him. Now you&rsquo;ll
+      understand why he wishes you to hold your tongue.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed there was some foul play,&rdquo; said Digrung. &ldquo;It
+      doesn&rsquo;t matter&mdash;I can&rsquo;t falsify facts. Joiwind must know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You refuse to consider her feelings?&rdquo; said Maskull, turning
+      pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on
+      realities, aren&rsquo;t worth considering. But Joiwind&rsquo;s are not of
+      that kind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without
+      seeing her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting
+      when she hears your news.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are these strange relations between you?&rdquo; demanded
+      Digrung, eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. &ldquo;Good God! You don&rsquo;t
+      doubt your own sister. That pure angel!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know Joiwind,
+      but, whoever she is and whatever she&rsquo;s like, I know this&mdash;she&rsquo;s
+      more fortunate in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really value
+      her happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to. Digrung, I shall stop your journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed. &ldquo;I seem to be leaving
+      a wake of corpses behind me on this journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why a corpse? There&rsquo;s no need to kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for that!&rdquo; said Digrung dryly. &ldquo;All the same,
+      some crime is about to burst. I feel it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do, then?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very
+      interested.... If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate
+      long. Don&rsquo;t you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set
+      their feeble, obstinate wills against yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a worse crime,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows? He will live, but he will tell no tales.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung laughed, but changed colour. &ldquo;I was right then. The monster
+      has sprung into the light of day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder. &ldquo;You have the choice, and we
+      are not joking. Do as I ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fallen low, Maskull. But you are walking in a dream, and I
+      can&rsquo;t talk to you. As for you, woman&mdash;sin must be like a
+      pleasant bath to you....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a
+      passer-by, a foreigner. I care nothing for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are
+      legitimate and right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as you please,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;If you come to grief,
+      your thoughts will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the
+      world, which is what you boast about. It is no affair of mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go on, and not back!&rdquo; exclaimed Digrung, with angry
+      emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Bear witness that I
+      have tried to persuade this young man. Now you must come to a quick
+      decision in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance,
+      Digrung&rsquo;s happiness or Joiwind&rsquo;s. Digrung won&rsquo;t allow
+      you to preserve them both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t take me long to decide, Digrung, I gave you a last
+      chance to change your mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as it&rsquo;s in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister
+      against her criminal friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence. Instructed in
+      his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he pressed the young man
+      tightly to his body with all three arms. A feeling of wild, sweet delight
+      immediately passed through him. Then for the first time he comprehended
+      the triumphant joys of &ldquo;absorbing.&rdquo; It satisfied the hunger of
+      the will, exactly as food satisfies the hunger of the body. Digrung proved
+      feeble&mdash;he made little opposition. His personality passed slowly and
+      evenly into Maskull&rsquo;s. The latter became strong and gorged. The
+      victim gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in
+      his arms. He dropped the body, and stood trembling. He had committed his
+      second crime. He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine. He half expected
+      her to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a sign to him to
+      pick up Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. As he obeyed, he wondered why Digrung&rsquo;s
+      dead face did not wear the frightful Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why hasn&rsquo;t he altered?&rdquo; he muttered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin heard him. She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot.
+      &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t dead&mdash;that&rsquo;s why. The expression you mean
+      is waiting for your death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then is that my real character?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed softly. &ldquo;You came here to carve a strange world, and now
+      it appears you are carved yourself. Oh, there&rsquo;s no doubt about it,
+      Maskull. You needn&rsquo;t stand there gaping. You belong to Shaping, like
+      the rest of us. You are not a king, or a god.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since when have I belonged to him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that matter? Perhaps since you first breathed the air of
+      Tormance, or perhaps since five minutes ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his response, she set off through the copse, and
+      strode on to the next island. Maskull followed, physically distressed and
+      looking very grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey continued for half an hour longer, without incident. The
+      character of the scenery slowly changed. The mountaintops became loftier
+      and more widely separated from one another. The gaps were filled with
+      rolling, white clouds, which bathed the shores of the peaks like a
+      mysterious sea. To pass from island to island was hard work, the
+      intervening spaces were so wide&mdash;Tydomin, however, knew the way. The
+      intense light, the violet-blue sky, the patches of vivid landscape,
+      emerging from the white vapour-ocean, made a profound impression on
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind. The glow of Alppain was hidden by the huge mass of
+      Disscourn, which loomed up straight in front of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The green snow on the top of the gigantic pyramid had by now completely
+      melted away. The black, gold, and crimson of its mighty cliffs stood out
+      with terrific brilliance. They were directly beneath the bulk of the
+      mountain, which was not a mile away. It did not appear dangerous to climb,
+      but he was unaware on which side of it their destination lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was split from top to bottom by numerous straight fissures. A few
+      pale-green waterfalls descended here and there, like narrow, motionless
+      threads. The face of the mountain was rugged and bare. It was strewn with
+      detached boulders, and great, jagged rocks projected everywhere like iron
+      teeth. Tydomin pointed to a small black hole near the base, which might be
+      a cave. &ldquo;That is where I live.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an odd choice for a woman&mdash;and you are not
+      unbeautiful, either.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman&rsquo;s life is over at twenty-five,&rdquo; she replied,
+      sighing. &ldquo;And I am far older than that. Ten years ago it would have
+      been I who lived yonder, and not Oceaxe. Then all this wouldn&rsquo;t have
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later they stood within the mouth of the cave. It was
+      ten feet high, and its interior was impenetrably black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put down the body in the entrance, out of the sun,&rdquo; directed
+      Tydomin. He did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She cast a keenly scrutinising glance at him. &ldquo;Does your resolution
+      still hold, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t it hold? My brains are not feathers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Follow me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both stepped into the cave. At that very moment a sickening crash,
+      like heavy thunder just over their heads, set Maskull&rsquo;s weakened
+      heart thumping violently. An avalanche of boulders, stones, and dust,
+      swept past the cave entrance from above. If their going in had been
+      delayed by a single minute, they would have been killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin did not even look up. She took his hand in hers, and started
+      walking with him into the darkness. The temperature became as cold as ice.
+      At the first bend the light from the outer world disappeared, leaving them
+      in absolute blackness. Maskull kept stumbling over the uneven ground, but
+      she kept tight hold of him, and hurried him along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tunnel seemed of interminable length. Presently, however, the
+      atmosphere changed&mdash;or such was his impression. He was somehow led to
+      imagine that they had come to a larger chamber. Here Tydomin stopped, and
+      then forced him down with quiet pressure. His groping hand encountered
+      stone and, by feeling it all over, he discovered that it was a sort of
+      stone slab, or couch, raised a foot or eighteen inches from the ground.
+      She told him to lie down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the time come?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay there waiting in the darkness, ignorant of what was going to
+      happen. He felt her hand clasping his. Without perceiving any gradation,
+      he lost all consciousness of his body; he was no longer able to feel his
+      limbs or internal organs. His mind remained active and alert. Nothing
+      particular appeared to be taking place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chamber began to grow light, like very early morning. He could
+      see nothing, but the retina of his eyes was affected. He fancied that he
+      heard music, but while he was listening for it, it stopped. The light grew
+      stronger, the air grew warmer; he heard the confused sound of distant
+      voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly Tydomin gave his hand a powerful squeeze. He heard someone scream
+      faintly, and then the light leaped up, and he saw everything clearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room, lighted by
+      electricity. His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin, but by a man
+      dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face he was certainly
+      familiar, but under what circumstances he could not recall. Other people
+      stood in the background&mdash;they too were vaguely known to him. He sat
+      up and began to smile, without any especial reason; and then stood
+      upright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion&mdash;he
+      wondered why. Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances. Two in
+      particular he knew&mdash;the man at the farther end of the room, who paced
+      restlessly backward and forward, his face transfigured by stern, holy
+      grandeur; and that other big, bearded man&mdash;who was <i>himself</i>.
+      Yes&mdash;he was looking at his own double. But it was just as if a
+      crime-riddled man of middle age were suddenly confronted with his own
+      photograph as an earnest, idealistic youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His other self spoke to him. He heard the sounds, but did not comprehend
+      the sense. Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a short,
+      brutish-looking individual leaped in. He began to behave in an
+      extraordinary manner to everyone around him; and after that came straight
+      up to him&mdash;Maskull. He spoke some words, but they were
+      incomprehensible. A terrible expression came over the newcomer&rsquo;s
+      face, and he grasped his neck with a pair of hairy hands. Maskull felt his
+      bones bending and breaking, excruciating pains passed through all the
+      nerves of his body, and he experienced a sense of impending death. He
+      cried out, and sank helplessly on the floor, in a heap. The chamber and
+      the company vanished&mdash;the light went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more he found himself in the blackness of the cave. He was this time
+      lying on the ground, but Tydomin was still with him, holding his hand. He
+      was in horrible bodily agony, but this was only a setting for the
+      despairing anguish that filled his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin addressed him in tones of gentle reproach. &ldquo;Why are you back
+      so soon? I&rsquo;ve not had time yet. You must return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He caught hold of her, and pulled himself up to his feet. She gave a low
+      scream, as though in pain. &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what are you
+      doing, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull, but the effort to produce his
+      words choked him, so that he was obliged to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;what of Krag? Tell me quickly what has happened. Free my
+      arm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gripped her arm tighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I&rsquo;ve seen Krag. I&rsquo;m awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! You are awake, awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you must die,&rdquo; said Maskull, in an awful voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why? What has happened?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must die, and I must kill you. Because I am awake, and for no
+      other reason. You blood-stained dancing mistress!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin breathed hard for a little time. Then she seemed suddenly to
+      regain her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t offer me violence, surely, in this black cave?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the sun shall look on, for it is not a murder. But rest assured
+      that you must die&mdash;you must expiate your fearful crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have already said so, and I see you have the power. You have
+      escaped me. It is very curious. Well, then, Maskull, let us come outside.
+      I am not afraid. But kill me courteously, for I have also been courteous
+      to you. I make no other supplication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BY THE TIME that they regained the mouth of the cavern, Blodsombre was at
+      its height. In front of them the scenery sloped downward&mdash;a long
+      succession of mountain islands in a sea of clouds. Behind them the bright,
+      stupendous crags of Disscourn loomed up for a thousand feet or more.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes were red, and his face looked stupid; he was still
+      holding the woman by the arm. She made no attempt to speak, or to get
+      away. She seemed perfectly gentle and composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After gazing at the country for a long time in silence, he turned toward
+      her. &ldquo;Whereabouts is the fiery lake you spoke of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies on the other side of the mountain. But why do you ask?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just as well if we have some way to walk. I shall grow
+      calmer, and that&rsquo;s what I want. I wish you to understand that what
+      is going to happen is not a murder, but an execution.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will taste the same,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I have gone out of this country, I don&rsquo;t wish to feel
+      that I have left a demon behind me, wandering at large. That would not be
+      fair to others. So we will go to the lake, which promises an easy death
+      for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;We must wait till Blodsombre is over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a time for luxurious feelings? However hot it is now, we
+      will both be cool by evening. We must start at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without doubt, you are the master, Maskull.... May I not carry
+      Crimtyphon?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grudge no man his funeral.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She painfully hoisted the body on her narrow shoulders, and they stepped
+      out into the sunlight. The heat struck them like a blow on the head.
+      Maskull moved aside, to allow her to precede him, but no compassion
+      entered his heart. He brooded over the wrongs the woman had done him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way went along the south side of the great pyramid, near its base. It
+      was a rough road, clogged with boulders and crossed by cracks and water
+      gullies; they could see the water, but could not get at it. There was no
+      shade. Blisters formed on their skin, while all the water in their blood
+      seemed to dry up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil&rsquo;s delight at Tydomin&rsquo;s.
+      &ldquo;Sing me a song!&rdquo; he called out presently. &ldquo;A
+      characteristic one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned her head and gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without any
+      sort of expostulation, started singing. Her voice was low and weird. The
+      song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to ascertain whether
+      he was awake or dreaming. The slow surprises of the grotesque melody began
+      to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the words were pure nonsense&mdash;or
+      else their significance was too deep for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where, in the name of all unholy things, did you acquire that
+      stuff, woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sickly smile, while the corpse swayed about with ghastly
+      jerks over her left shoulder. She held it in position with her two left
+      arms. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity we could not have met as friends, Maskull.
+      I could have shown you a side of Tormance which now perhaps you will never
+      see. The wild, mad side. But now it&rsquo;s too late, and it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned the angle of the mountain, and started to traverse the western
+      base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the quickest way out of this miserable land?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is easiest to go to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will we see it from anywhere?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, though it is a long way off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a woman, and interdicted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. I have heard something of the sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t ask me any more questions,&rdquo; said Tydomin, who
+      was becoming faint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped at a little spring. He himself drank, and then made a cup
+      of his hand for the woman, so that she might not have to lay down her
+      burden. The gnawl water acted like magic&mdash;it seemed to replenish all
+      the cells of his body as though they had been thirsty sponge pores,
+      sucking up liquid. Tydomin recovered her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About three-quarters of an hour later they worked around the second
+      corner, and entered into full view of the north aspect of Disscourn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hundred yards lower down the slope on which they were walking, the
+      mountain ended abruptly in a chasm. The air above it was filled with a
+      sort of green haze, which trembled violently like the atmosphere
+      immediately over a furnace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lake is underneath,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked curiously about him. Beyond the crater the country sloped
+      away in a continuous descent to the skyline. Behind them, a narrow path
+      channelled its way up through the rocks toward the towering summit of the
+      pyramid. Miles away, in the north-east quarter, a long, flat-topped
+      plateau raised its head far above all the surrounding country. It was Sant&mdash;and
+      there and then he made up his mind that that should be his destination
+      that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin meanwhile had walked straight to the gulf, and set down Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      body on the edge. In a minute or two, Maskull joined her; arrived at the
+      brink, he immediately flung himself at full length on his chest, to see
+      what could be seen of the lake of fire. A gust of hot, asphyxiating air
+      smote his face and set him coughing, but he did not get up until he had
+      stared his fill at the huge sea of green, molten lava, tossing and
+      swirling at no great distance below, like a living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint sound of drumming came up. He listened intently, and as he did so
+      his heart quickened and the black cares rolled away from his soul. All the
+      world and its accidents seemed at that moment false, and without
+      meaning....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed abstractedly to his feet. Tydomin was talking to her dead
+      husband. She was peering into the hideous face of ivory, and fondling his
+      violet hair. When she perceived Maskull, she hastily kissed the withered
+      lips, and got up from her knees. Lifting the corpse with all three arms,
+      she staggered with it to the extreme edge of the gulf and, after an
+      instant&rsquo;s hesitation, allowed it to drop into the lava. It
+      disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic splash came up. That was
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s funeral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I am ready, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing, erect
+      and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face was wan, and
+      there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew that it was a
+      phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said oddly, &ldquo;and tell me what
+      you see behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see anything,&rdquo; she answered, looking around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I see Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as he was speaking, the apparition vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I present you with your life, Tydomin. <i>She</i> wishes it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I little expected I should ever be beholden for my life to one of
+      my own sex&mdash;but so be it. What really happened to you in my cavern?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really saw Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, some miracle must have taken place.&rdquo; She suddenly
+      shivered. &ldquo;Come, let us leave this horrible spot. I shall never come
+      here again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;it stinks of death and dying. But
+      where are we to go&mdash;what are we to do? Take me to Sant. I must get
+      away from this hellish land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin remained standing, dull and hollow-eyed. Then she gave an abrupt,
+      bitter little laugh. &ldquo;We make our journey together in singular
+      stages. Rather than be alone, I&rsquo;ll come with you&mdash;but you know
+      that if I set foot in Sant they will kill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least set me on the way. I wish to get there before night. Is it
+      possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are willing to take risks with nature. And why should you
+      not take risks today? Your luck holds. But someday or other it won&rsquo;t
+      hold&mdash;your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us start,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;The luck I&rsquo;ve had
+      so far is nothing to brag about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blodsombre was over when they set off; it was early afternoon, but the
+      heat seemed more stifling than ever. They made no more pretence at
+      conversation; both were buried in their own painful thoughts. The land
+      fell away from Disscourn in all other directions, but toward Sant there
+      was a gentle, persistent rise. Its dark, distant plateau continued to
+      dominate the landscape, and after walking for an hour they seemed none the
+      nearer to it. The air was stale and stagnant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by, an upright object, apparently the work of man, attracted
+      Maskull&rsquo;s notice. It was a slender tree stem, with the bark still
+      on, imbedded in the stony ground. From the upper end three branches sprang
+      out, pointing aloft at a sharp angle. They were stripped to twigs and
+      leaves and, getting closer, he saw that they had been artificially
+      fastened on, at equal distances from each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stared at the object, a strange, sudden flush of confident vanity
+      and self-sufficiency seemed to pass through him, but it was so momentary
+      that he could be sure of nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may that be, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Hator&rsquo;s Trifork.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is its purpose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a guide to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who or what is Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator was the founder of Sant&mdash;many thousands of years ago. He
+      laid down the principles they all live by, and that trifork is his symbol.
+      When I was a little child my father told me the legends, but I&rsquo;ve
+      forgotten most of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull regarded it attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it affect you in any way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should it do that?&rdquo; she said, dropping her lip
+      scornfully. &ldquo;I am only a woman, and these are masculine mysteries.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sort of gladness came over me,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      perhaps I am mistaken.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed on. The scenery gradually changed in character. The solid
+      parts of the land grew more continuous, the fissures became narrower and
+      more infrequent. There were now no more subsidences or upheavals. The
+      peculiar nature of the Ifdawn Marest appeared to be giving place to a
+      different order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later on, they encountered a flock of pale blue jellies floating in the
+      air. They were miniature animals. Tydomin caught one in her hand and began
+      to eat it, just as one eats a luscious pear plucked from a tree. Maskull,
+      who had fasted since early morning, was not slow in following her example.
+      A sort of electric vigour at once entered his limbs and body, his muscles
+      regained their elasticity, his heart began to beat with hard, slow, strong
+      throbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food and body seem to agree well in this world,&rdquo; he remarked
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced toward him. &ldquo;Perhaps the explanation is not in the food,
+      but in your body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brought my body with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You brought your soul with you, but that&rsquo;s altering fast,
+      too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a copse they came across a short, wide tree, without leaves, but
+      possessing a multitude of thin, flexible branches, like the tentacles of a
+      cuttlefish. Some of these branches were moving rapidly. A furry animal,
+      somewhat resembling a wildcat, leaped about among them in the most
+      extraordinary way. But the next minute Maskull was shocked to realise that
+      the beast was not leaping at all, but was being thrown from branch to
+      branch by the volition of the tree, exactly as an imprisoned mouse is
+      thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a gruesome reversal of rôles, Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can see you&rsquo;re disgusted,&rdquo; she replied, stifling a
+      yawn. &ldquo;But that is because you are a slave to words. If you called
+      that plant an animal, you would find its occupation perfectly natural and
+      pleasing. And why should you not call it an animal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
+      shall go on listening to this sort of language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They trudged along for an hour or more without talking. The day became
+      overcast. A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the sun changed
+      into an immense ruddy disk which could be stared at without flinching. A
+      chill, damp wind blew against them. Presently it grew still darker, the
+      sun disappeared and, glancing first at his companion and then at himself,
+      Maskull noticed that their skin and clothing were coated by a kind of
+      green hoarfrost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The land was now completely solid. About half a mile, in front of them,
+      against a background of dark fog, a moving forest of tall waterspouts
+      gyrated slowly and gracefully hither and thither. They were green and
+      self-luminous, and looked terrifying. Tydomin explained that they were not
+      waterspouts at all, but mobile columns of lightning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they are dangerous?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we think,&rdquo; she answered, watching them closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone is wandering there who appears to have a different opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the spouts, and entirely encompassed by them, a man was walking with
+      a slow, calm, composed gait, his back turned toward Maskull and Tydomin.
+      There was something unusual in his appearance&mdash;his form looked
+      extraordinarily distinct, solid, and real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s danger, he ought to be warned,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who is always anxious to teach will learn nothing,&rdquo;
+      returned the woman coolly. She restrained Maskull by a pressure of the
+      arm, and continued to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The base of one of the columns touched the man. He remained unharmed, but
+      turned sharply around, as if for the first time made aware of the
+      proximity of these deadly waltzers. Then he raised himself to his full
+      height, and stretched both arms aloft above his head, like a diver. He
+      seemed to be addressing the columns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they looked on, the electric spouts discharged themselves, with a
+      series of loud explosions. The stranger stood alone, uninjured. He dropped
+      his arms. The next moment he caught sight of the two, and stood still,
+      waiting for them to come up. The pictorial clarity of his person grew more
+      and more noticeable as they approached; his body seemed to be composed of
+      some substance heavier and denser than solid matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a Sant man. I have seen no one quite like him before.
+      This is a day of days for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be an individual of great importance,&rdquo; murmured
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now came up to him. He was tall, strong, and bearded, and was clothed
+      in a shirt and breeches of skin. Since turning his back to the wind, the
+      green deposit on his face and limbs had changed to streaming moisture,
+      through which his natural colour was visible; it was that of pale iron.
+      There was no third arm. His face was harsh and frowning, and a projecting
+      chin pushed the beard forward. On his forehead there were two flat
+      membranes, like rudimentary eyes, but no sorb. These membranes were
+      expressionless, but in some strange way seemed to add vigour to the stern
+      eyes underneath. When his glance rested on Maskull, the latter felt as
+      though his brain were being thoroughly travelled through. The man was
+      middle-aged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His physical distinctness transcended nature. By contrast with him, every
+      object in the neighbourhood looked vague and blurred. Tydomin&rsquo;s
+      person suddenly appeared faint, sketch-like, without significance, and
+      Maskull realised that it was no better with himself. A queer, quickening
+      fire began running through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the woman. &ldquo;If this man is going to Sant, I shall bear
+      him company. We can now part. No doubt you will think it high time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Tydomin come too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were delivered in a rough, foreign tongue, but were as
+      intelligible to Maskull as if spoken in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You who know my name, also know my sex,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly. &ldquo;It is death for me to enter Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the old law. I am the bearer of the new law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so&mdash;and will it be accepted?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old skin is cracking, the new skin has been silently forming
+      underneath, the moment of sloughing has arrived.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm gathered. The green snow drove against them, as they stood
+      talking, and it grew intensely cold. None noticed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked Maskull, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name, Maskull, is Spadevil. You, a voyager across the dark ocean
+      of space, shall be my first witness and follower. You, Tydomin, a daughter
+      of the despised sex, shall be my second.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The new law? But what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Until eye sees, of what use it is for ear to hear?.... Come, both
+      of you, to me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin went to him unhesitatingly. Spadevil pressed his hand on her sorb
+      and kept it there for a few minutes, while he closed his own eyes. When he
+      removed it, Maskull observed that the sorb was transformed into twin
+      membranes like Spadevil&rsquo;s own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked dazed. She glanced quietly about for a little while,
+      apparently testing her new faculty. Then the tears started to her eyes
+      and, snatching up Spadevil&rsquo;s hand, she bent over and kissed it
+      hurriedly many times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My past has been bad,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Numbers have received
+      harm from me, and none good. I have killed&mdash;and worse. But now I can
+      throw all that away, and laugh. Nothing can now injure me. Oh, Maskull,
+      you and I have been fools together!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you repent your crimes?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave the past alone,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;it cannot be
+      reshaped. The future alone is ours. It starts fresh and clean from this
+      very minute. Why do you hesitate, Maskull? Are you afraid?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of those organs, and what is their function?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are <i>probes</i>, and they are the gates opening into a new
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law quietly
+      flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream of clean water
+      which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive will. The law was <i>duty</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 12. SPADEVIL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of their
+      own, but only intensified and altered his other senses. When he used his
+      eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him, but
+      his judgment concerning them was different. Previously all external things
+      had existed for him; now he existed for them. According to whether they
+      served his purpose or were in harmony with his nature, or otherwise, they
+      had been pleasant or painful. Now these words &ldquo;pleasure&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;pain&rdquo; simply had no meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted with his
+      new mental outlook. He smiled at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were quite right, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said, in a bold, cheerful
+      voice. &ldquo;We have been fools. So near the light all the time, and we
+      never guessed it. Always buried in the past or future&mdash;systematically
+      ignoring the present&mdash;and now it turns out that apart from the
+      present we have no life at all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Spadevil for it,&rdquo; she answered, more loudly than usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the man&rsquo;s dark, concrete form. &ldquo;Spadevil,
+      now I mean to follow you to the end. I can do nothing less.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The severe face showed no sign of gratification&mdash;not a muscle
+      relaxed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watch that you don&rsquo;t lose your gift,&rdquo; he said gruffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin spoke. &ldquo;You promised that I should enter Sant with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attach yourself to the truth, not to me. For I may die before you,
+      but the truth will accompany you to <i>your</i> death. However, now let us
+      journey together, all three of us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the fine,
+      driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination. He walked with a
+      long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order to keep up with him.
+      The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the middle. The fog was so dense
+      that it was impossible to see a hundred yards ahead. The ground was
+      covered by the green snow. The wind blew in gusts from the Sant highlands
+      and was piercingly cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He that is not more than a man is nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you now come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From brooding, Maskull. Out of no other mother can truth be born. I
+      have brooded, and rejected; and I have brooded again. Now, after many
+      months&rsquo; absence from Sant, the truth at last shines forth for me in
+      its simple splendour, like an upturned diamond.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see its shining,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But how much does it
+      owe to ancient Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowledge has its seasons. The blossom was to Hator, the fruit is
+      to me. Hator also was a brooder&mdash;but now his followers do not brood.
+      In Sant all is icy selfishness, a living death. They hate pleasure, and
+      this hatred is the greatest pleasure to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in what way have they fallen off from Hator&rsquo;s doctrines?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For him, in his sullen purity of nature, all the world was a snare,
+      a limed twig. Knowing that pleasure was everywhere, a fierce, mocking
+      enemy, crouching and waiting at every corner of the road of life, in order
+      to kill with its sweet sting the naked grandeur of the soul, he shielded
+      himself behind <i>pain</i>. This also his followers do, but they do not do
+      it for the sake of the soul, but for the sake of vanity and pride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the Trifork?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stem, Maskull, is hatred of pleasure. The first fork is
+      disentanglement from the sweetness of the world. The second fork is power
+      over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion. The third fork is the
+      healthy glow of one who steps into ice-cold water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From what land did Hator come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not said. He lived in Ifdawn for a while. There are many
+      legends told of him while there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a long way to go,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Relate some
+      of these legends, Spadevil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snow had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell reappeared like a
+      phantom sun, but bitter blasts of wind still swept over the plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those days,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;there existed in Ifdawn
+      a mountain island separated by wide spaces from the land around it. A
+      handsome girl, who knew sorcery, caused a bridge to be constructed across
+      which men and women might pass to it. Having by a false tale drawn Hator
+      on to this rock, she pushed at the bridge with her foot until it tumbled
+      into the depths below. &lsquo;You and I, Hator, are now together, and
+      there is no means of separating. I wish to see how long the famous frost
+      man can withstand the breath, smiles and perfume of a girl.&rsquo; Hator
+      said no word, either then or all that day. He stood till sunset like a
+      tree trunk, and thought of other things. Then the girl grew passionate,
+      and shook her curls. She rose from where she was sitting she looked at
+      him, and touched his arm; but he did not see her. She looked at him, so
+      that all the soul was in her eyes; and then she fell down dead. Hator
+      awoke from his thoughts, and saw her lying, still warm, at his feet, a
+      corpse. He passed to the mainland; but how, it is not related.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shuddered. &ldquo;You too have met your wicked woman, Spadevil;
+      but your method is a nobler one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pity other women,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;but love
+      the <i>right</i>. Hator also once conversed with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of the World?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of Pleasure. It is told how Shaping defended his
+      world, and tried to force Hator to acknowledge loveliness and joy. But
+      Hator, answering all his marvellous speeches in a few concise, iron words,
+      showed how this joy and beauty was but another name for the bestiality of
+      souls wallowing in luxury and sloth. Shaping smiled, and said, &lsquo;How
+      comes it that your wisdom is greater than that of the Master of wisdom?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;My wisdom does not come from you, nor from your world,
+      but from that other world, which you, Shaping, have vainly tried to
+      imitate.&rsquo; Shaping replied, &lsquo;What, then, do you do in my world?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;I am here falsely, and therefore I am subject to your
+      false pleasures. But I wrap myself in <i>pain</i>&mdash;not because it is
+      good, but because I wish to keep myself as far from you as possible. For
+      pain is not yours, neither does it belong to the other world, but it is
+      the shadow cast by your false pleasures.&rsquo; Shaping then said, &lsquo;What
+      is this faraway other world of which you say &ldquo;This is so&mdash;this
+      is not so?&rdquo; How happens it that you alone of all my creatures have
+      knowledge of it?&rsquo; But Hator spat at his feet, and said, &lsquo;You
+      lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You, with your pretty toys, alone
+      obscure it from our view.&rsquo; Shaping asked, &lsquo;What, then, am I?&rsquo;
+      Hator answered, &lsquo;You are the dreamer of impossible dreams.&rsquo;
+      And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased with what had
+      been said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What other world did Hator refer to?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is
+      mean and corrupt-natured.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guard you your pride!&rdquo; returned Spadevil. &ldquo;Do not make
+      law for the universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this
+      small, false life of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?&rdquo;
+      asked Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last
+      hour. When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he determined
+      to destroy himself. He gathered his friends around him; not from vanity,
+      but that they might see to what lengths the human soul can go in its
+      perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body. Standing erect, without
+      support, he died by withholding his breath.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour. Their minds refused
+      to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their thoughts became
+      frozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued power,
+      Maskull&rsquo;s curiosity rose once more. &ldquo;Your fellow countrymen,
+      then, Spadevil, are sick with self-love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men of other countries,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;are the
+      slaves of pleasure and desire, knowing it. But the men of my country are
+      the slaves of pleasure and desire, not knowing it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has
+      something noble in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who studies himself at all is ignoble. Only by despising soul as
+      well as body can a man enter into true life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On what grounds do they reject women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself.
+      Love for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore injurious to
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;But will they allow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil knows, Maskull,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;that be it
+      today or be it tomorrow, love can&rsquo;t be kept out of a land, even by
+      the disciples of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beware of love&mdash;beware of emotion!&rdquo; exclaimed Spadevil.
+      &ldquo;Love is but pleasure once removed. Think not of pleasing others,
+      but of serving them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Right</i> has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you
+      are a woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where there are no women, there are no children,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;How came there to be all these generations of Hator men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the
+      yearning for relief from suffering. Men throng to Sant from all parts, in
+      order to have the scars of their souls healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what
+      simple formula do you offer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iron obedience to duty,&rdquo; answered Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if they ask &lsquo;How far is this consistent with hatred of
+      pleasure?&rsquo; what will your pronouncement be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the
+      question. Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark fires
+      of self. Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one side, calm and
+      undisturbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the criterion of pleasure? How can we always recognise it,
+      in order to avoid it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fearful doubts are in my mind,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;This
+      expedition to Sant may turn out badly. I have seen a vision of you,
+      Spadevil, and myself lying dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not
+      there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others
+      will raise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me a sign that you are not as other men&mdash;so that I may
+      know that our blood will not be wasted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil regarded her sternly. &ldquo;I am not a magician. I don&rsquo;t
+      persuade the senses, but the soul. Does your duty call you to Sant,
+      Tydomin? Then go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther.
+      Is not this simple? What signs are necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning? No common man
+      could have done that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man
+      can do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their
+      eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my life. Will
+      you not still accompany me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;I will follow you to the end. It
+      is all the more essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my
+      remarks, and that means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we
+      are thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be
+      planning or shaping in our mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why was Maskull not in the picture?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical.
+      There is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life. There is only
+      right and wrong. What arises from right or wrong action does not matter.
+      We are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men and women, doing our
+      immediate duty. We may die in Sant&mdash;so you have seen it; but the
+      truth will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull. &ldquo;These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least
+      likely of any to follow a new light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no
+      tree at all can be found, nothing will grow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Here perhaps we are
+      going to martyrdom, but elsewhere we should resemble men preaching to
+      cattle.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before sunset they arrived at the extremity of the upland plain,
+      above which towered the black cliffs of the Sant Levels. A dizzy,
+      artificially constructed staircase, of more than a thousand steps of
+      varying depth, twisting and forking in order to conform to the angles of
+      the precipices, led to the world overhead. In the place where they stood
+      they were sheltered from the cutting winds. Branchspell, radiantly shining
+      at last, but on the point of sinking, filled the cloudy sky with violent,
+      lurid colors, some of the combinations of which were new to Maskull. The
+      circle of the horizon was so gigantic, that had he been suddenly carried
+      back to Earth, he would by comparison have fancied himself to be moving
+      beneath the dome of some little, closed-in cathedral. He realised that he
+      was on a foreign planet. But he was not stirred or uplifted by the
+      knowledge; he was conscious only of moral ideas. Looking backward, he saw
+      the plain, which for several miles past had been without vegetation,
+      stretching back away to Disscourn. So regular had been the ascent, and so
+      great was the distance, that the huge pyramid looked nothing more than a
+      slight swelling on the face of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence. In the evening
+      sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever before. His
+      features were set hard in grimness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned around to his companions. &ldquo;What is the greatest wonder, in
+      all this wonderful scene?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Acquaint us,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure
+      to pleasure. Nowhere is <i>right</i> to be found. It is Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is another wonder,&rdquo; said Tydomin, and she pointed her
+      finger toward the sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small cloud, so low down that it was perhaps not more than five hundred
+      feet above them, was sailing along in front of the dark wall of cliff. It
+      was in the exact shape of an open human hand, with downward-pointing
+      fingers. It was stained crimson by the sun; and one or two tiny cloudlets
+      beneath the fingers looked like falling drops of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can doubt now that our death is close at hand?&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin. &ldquo;I have been close to death twice today. The first time I
+      was ready, but now I am more ready, for I shall die side by side with the
+      man who has given me my first happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not think of death, but of right persistence,&rdquo; replied
+      Spadevil. &ldquo;I am not here to tremble before Shaping&rsquo;s portents;
+      but to snatch men from him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at once proceeded to lead the way up the staircase. Tydomin gazed
+      upward after him for a moment, with an odd, worshiping light in her eyes.
+      Then she followed him, the second of the party. Maskull climbed last. He
+      was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but his soul was at peace. As
+      they steadily ascended the almost perpendicular stairs, the sun got higher
+      in the sky. Its light dyed their bodies a ruddy gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gained the top. There they found rolling in front of them, as far as
+      the eye could see, a barren desert of white sand, broken here and there by
+      large, jagged masses of black rock. Tracts of the sand were reddened by
+      the sinking sun. The vast expanse of sky was filled by evil-shaped clouds
+      and wild colors. The freezing wind, flurrying across the desert, drove the
+      fine particles of sand painfully against their faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where now do you take us?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who guards the old wisdom of Sant must give up that wisdom to
+      me, that I may change it. What he says, others will say. I go to find
+      Maulger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where will you seek him, in this bare country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil struck off toward the north unhesitatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so far,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is his custom to be in
+      that part where Sant overhangs the Wombflash Forest. Perhaps he will be
+      there, but I cannot say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced toward Tydomin. Her sunken cheeks, and the dark circles
+      beneath her eyes told of her extreme weariness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The woman is tired, Spadevil,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s but another step into the land of death. I
+      can manage it. Give me your arm, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun is now sinking,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Will we get
+      there before dark?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is eating up the evil
+      in your nature. The road you are walking cannot remain unwalked. We shall
+      arrive before dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun then disappeared behind the far-distant ridges that formed the
+      western boundary of the Ifdawn Marest. The sky blazed up into more vivid
+      colors. The wind grew colder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed some pools of colourless gnawl water, round the banks of which
+      were planted fruit trees. Maskull ate some of the fruit. It was hard,
+      bitter, and astringent; he could not get rid of the taste, but he felt
+      braced and invigorated by the downward-flowing juices. No other trees or
+      shrubs were to be seen anywhere. No animals appeared, no birds or insects.
+      It was a desolate land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mile or two passed, when they again approached the edge of the plateau.
+      Far down, beneath their feet, the great Wombflash Forest began. But
+      daylight had vanished there; Maskull&rsquo;s eyes rested only on a vague
+      darkness. He faintly heard what sounded like the distant sighing of
+      innumerable treetops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the rapidly darkening twilight, they came abruptly on a man. He was
+      standing in a pool, on one leg. A pile of boulders had hidden him from
+      their view. The water came as far up as his calf. A trifork, similar to
+      the one Maskull had seen on Disscourn, but smaller, had been stuck in the
+      mud close by his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped by the side of the pond, and waited. Immediately he became
+      aware of their presence, the man set down his other leg, and waded out of
+      the water toward them, picking up his trifork in doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not Maulger, but Catice,&rdquo; said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maulger is dead,&rdquo; said Catice, speaking the same tongue as
+      Spadevil, but with an even harsher accent, so that the tympanum of Maskull&rsquo;s
+      ear was affected painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter saw before him a bowed, powerful individual, advanced in years.
+      He wore nothing but a scanty loincloth. His trunk was long and heavy, but
+      his legs were rather short. His face was beardless, lemon-coloured, and
+      anxious-looking. It was disfigured by a number of longitudinal ruts, a
+      quarter of an inch deep, the cavities of which seemed clogged with ancient
+      dirt. The hair of his head was black and sparse. Instead of the twin
+      membranous organs of Spadevil, he possessed but one; and this was in the
+      centre of his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s dark, solid person stood out from the rest like a reality
+      among dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the trifork passed to you?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Why have you brought this woman to Sant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought another thing to Sant. I have brought the new faith.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice stood motionless, and looked troubled. &ldquo;State it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I speak with many words, or few words?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish to say what is <i>not</i>, many words will not suffice.
+      If you wish to say what is, a few words will be enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hate pleasure brings pride with it. Pride is a pleasure. To kill
+      pleasure, we must attach ourselves to <i>duty</i>. While the mind is
+      planning right action, it has no time to think of pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the whole?&rdquo; asked Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth is simple, even for the simplest man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you destroy Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I destroy nature, and set up law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long silence followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My probe is double,&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Suffer me to
+      double yours, and you will see as I see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come you here, you big man!&rdquo; said Catice to Maskull. Maskull
+      advanced a step closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you follow Spadevil in his new faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as death,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice picked up a flint. &ldquo;With this stone I strike out one of your
+      two probes. When you have but one, you will see with me, and you will
+      recollect with Spadevil. Choose you then the superior faith, and I shall
+      obey your choice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the sake of future men,&rdquo;
+      said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pain is nothing,&rdquo; replied Maskull, &ldquo;but I fear the
+      result.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,&rdquo;
+      said Tydomin, stretching out her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He struck at it violently with the flint, and gashed it from wrist to
+      thumb; the pale carmine blood spouted up. &ldquo;What brings this
+      kiss-lover to Sant?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How does she presume to make
+      the rules of life for the sons of Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bit her lip, and stepped back. &ldquo;Well then, Maskull, accept! I
+      certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you hardly can.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he bids me, I must do it,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      knows what will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil spoke. &ldquo;Of all the descendants of Hator, Catice is the most
+      wholehearted and sincere. He will trample my truth underfoot, thinking me
+      a demon sent by Shaping, to destroy the work of this land. But a seed will
+      escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will wash it. Then men will know
+      that my destroying evil is their greatest good. But none here will live to
+      see that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now went quite close to Catice, and offered his head. Catice
+      raised his hand, and after holding the flint poised for a moment, brought
+      it down with adroitness and force upon the left-hand probe. Maskull cried
+      out with the pain. The blood streamed down, and the function of the organ
+      was destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to staunch the
+      blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now do you feel, Maskull? What do you see?&rdquo; inquired
+      Tydomin anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and stared hard at her. &ldquo;I now see straight,&rdquo; he
+      said slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to wipe the blood from his forehead. He looked troubled.
+      &ldquo;Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall fight with my nature, and
+      refuse to feel pleasure. And I advise you to do the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;Do you renounce my teaching?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay. Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      image-like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face he
+      knew to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is false.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?&rdquo; demanded
+      Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t argue as yet,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;At this
+      moment the world with its sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house. I
+      feel a loathing for everything in it, including myself. I know no more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no duty?&rdquo; asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of
+      other people.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin pulled at Spadevil&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;Maskull has betrayed you,
+      as he has so many others. Let us go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood fast. &ldquo;You have changed quickly, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice. &ldquo;Why do men go on
+      living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pain is the native air of Surtur&rsquo;s children. To what other
+      air do you wish to escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s children? Is not Surtur Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the greatest of lies. It is Shaping&rsquo;s masterpiece.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer, Maskull!&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Do you repudiate
+      right action?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me alone. Go back! I am not thinking of you, and your ideas.
+      I wish you no harm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness came on fast. There was another prolonged silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff. &ldquo;The woman
+      must return home,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was persuaded here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil,
+      must die&mdash;backslider as you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin said quietly, &ldquo;He has no power to enforce this. Are you
+      going to allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from
+      death. Catice, I accept your judgment.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today,
+      so I shall die with him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice said to Maskull, &ldquo;Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his
+      mistress, according to the laws of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t do that. I have travelled in friendship with them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You denied duty; and now you must do your duty,&rdquo; said
+      Spadevil, calmly stroking his beard. &ldquo;Whatever law you accept, you
+      must obey, without turning to right or left. Your law commands that we
+      must be stoned; and it will soon be dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you not even this amount of manhood?&rdquo; exclaimed Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull moved heavily. &ldquo;Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was
+      forced on me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator is looking on, and approving,&rdquo; replied Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side of
+      the pool. He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments of rock,
+      the heaviest that he thought he could carry. With these in his arms, he
+      staggered back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath. When he
+      could speak again, he said, &ldquo;I have a bad heart for the business. Is
+      there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning go
+      back to where you have come from. No one shall harm you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s ironic smile was lost in the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after
+      that come back to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose
+      the heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces. Spadevil
+      confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The huge stone hurtled through the air. Its flight looked like a dark
+      shadow. It struck Spadevil full in the face, crushing his features, and
+      breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be very quick, Maskull, and don&rsquo;t let me keep him waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He panted, and raised the second stone. She placed herself in front of
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell. Maskull went to
+      her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There she
+      breathed out her last sighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands, while
+      he peered into the dead face. The transition from its heroic, spiritual
+      expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman came like a
+      flash; but he saw it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the true likeness of Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Shaping stripped of illusion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How comes this horrible world to exist?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice did not answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am wading through too much blood,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Nothing
+      good can come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull meditated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you
+      really have accepted his faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a great-souled man,&rdquo; replied Catice. &ldquo;I see that
+      the pride of our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure. Tomorrow I
+      too shall leave Sant, to reflect on all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shuddered. &ldquo;Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but
+      a crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His part was played and henceforward the woman would have dragged
+      down his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty. Regret nothing, stranger,
+      but go away at once out of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight? Where shall I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Wombflash, where you will meet the deepest minds. I will put you
+      on the way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He linked his arm in Maskull&rsquo;s, and they walked away into the night.
+      For a mile or more they skirted the edge of the precipice. The wind was
+      searching, and drove grit into their faces. Through the rifts of the
+      clouds, stars, faint and brilliant, appeared. Maskull saw no familiar
+      constellations. He wondered if the sun of earth was visible, and if so
+      which one it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the head of a rough staircase, leading down the cliffside. It
+      resembled the one by which he had come up; but this descended to the
+      Wombflash Forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your path,&rdquo; said Catice, &ldquo;and I shall not come
+      any farther.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull detained him. &ldquo;Say just this, before we part company&mdash;why
+      does pleasure appear so shameful to us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because in feeling pleasure, we forget our <i>home</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that is&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel,&rdquo; answered Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made this reply, he disengaged himself, and, turning his back,
+      disappeared into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stumbled down the staircase as best he could. He was tired, but
+      contemptuous of his pains. His uninjured probe began to discharge matter.
+      He lowered himself from step to step during what seemed an interminable
+      time. The rustling and sighing of the trees grew louder as he approached
+      the bottom; the air became still and warm. Inky blackness was all around
+      him.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He at last reached level ground. Still attempting to proceed, he began to
+      trip over roots, and to collide with tree trunks. After this had happened
+      a few times, he determined to go no farther that night. He heaped together
+      some dry leaves for a pillow, and immediately flung himself down to sleep.
+      Deep and heavy unconsciousness seized him almost instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      He awoke to his third day on Tormance. His limbs ached. He lay on his
+      side, looking stupidly at his surroundings. The forest was like night, but
+      that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to break and objects
+      begin to be guessed at, rather than seen. Two or three amazing shadowy
+      shapes, as broad as houses, loomed up out of the twilight. He did not
+      realise that they were trees, until he turned over on his back and
+      followed their course upward. Far overhead, so high up that he dared not
+      calculate the height, he saw their tops glittering in the sunlight,
+      against a tiny patch of blue sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clouds of mist, rolling over the floor of the forest, kept interrupting
+      his view. In their silent passage they were like phantoms flitting among
+      the trees. The leaves underneath him were sodden, and heavy drops of
+      moisture splashed onto his head from time to time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued lying there, trying to reconstruct the events of the
+      preceding day. His brain was lethargic and confused. Something terrible
+      had happened, but what it was he could not for a long time recollect. Then
+      suddenly there came before his eyes that ghastly closing scene at dusk on
+      the Sant plateau&mdash;Spadevil&rsquo;s crushed and bloody features and
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s dying sighs.... He shuddered convulsively, and felt sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peculiar moral outlook that had dictated these brutal murders had
+      departed from him during the night, and now he recognised what he had
+      done! During the whole of the previous day he seemed to have been
+      labouring under a series of heavy enchantments. First Oceaxe had enslaved
+      him, then Tydomin, then Spadevil, and lastly Catice. They had forced him
+      to murder and violate; he had guessed nothing, but had imagined that he
+      was travelling as a free and enlightened stranger. What was this nightmare
+      journey for&mdash;and would it continue, in the same way?...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The silence of the forest was so intense that he heard no sound except the
+      pumping of blood through his arteries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Putting his hand to his face, he found that his remaining probe had
+      disappeared and that he was in possession of three eyes. The third eye was
+      on his forehead, where the old sorb had been. He could not guess its use.
+      He still had his third arm, but it was nerveless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he puzzled his head for a long time, trying unsuccessfully to recall
+      that name which had been the last word spoken by Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, with the intention of resuming his journey. He had no toilet to
+      make, and no meal to prepare. The forest was tremendous. The nearest tree
+      appeared to him to have a circumference of at least a hundred feet. Other
+      dim boles looked equally large. But what gave the scene its aspect of
+      immensity was the vast spaces separating tree from tree. It was like some
+      gigantic, supernatural hall in a life after death. The lowest branches
+      were fifty yards or more from the ground. There was no underbrush; the
+      soil was carpeted only by the dead, wet leaves. He looked all around him,
+      to find his direction, but the cliffs of Sant, which he had descended,
+      were invisible&mdash;every way was like every other way, he had no idea
+      which quarter to attack. He grew frightened, and muttered to himself.
+      Craning his neck back, he stared upward and tried to discover the points
+      of the compass from the direction of the sunlight, but it was impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the drum
+      taps. The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off. The unseen
+      drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur!&rdquo; he said, under his breath. The next moment he
+      marvelled at himself for uttering the name. That mysterious being had not
+      been in his thoughts, nor was there any ostensible connection between him
+      and the drumming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He began to reflect&mdash;but in the meantime the sounds were travelling
+      away. Automatically he started walking in the same direction. The drum
+      beats had this peculiarity&mdash;though odd and mystical, there was
+      nothing awe-inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him of
+      some place and some life with which he was perfectly familiar. Once again
+      they caused all his other sense impressions to appear false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sounds were intermittent. They would go on for a minute, or for five
+      minutes, and then cease for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Maskull followed
+      them as well as he could. He walked hard among the huge, indistinct trees,
+      in the attempt to come up with the origin of the noise, but the same
+      distance always seemed to separate them. The forest from now onward
+      descended. The gradient was mostly gentle&mdash;about one foot in ten&mdash;but
+      in some places it was much steeper, and in other parts again it was
+      practically level ground for quite long stretches. There were great swampy
+      marshes, through which Maskull was obliged to splash. It was a matter of
+      indifference to him how wet he became&mdash;if only he could catch sight
+      of that individual with the drum. Mile after mile was covered, and still
+      he was no nearer to doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gloom of the forest settled down upon his spirits. He felt despondent,
+      tired, and savage. He had not heard the drum beats for some while, and was
+      half inclined to discontinue the pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passing around a great, columnar tree trunk, he almost stumbled against a
+      man who was standing on the farther side. He was leaning against the trunk
+      with one hand, in an attitude of repose. His other hand was resting on a
+      staff. Maskull stopped short and stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was nearly naked, and of gigantic build. He over-topped Maskull by a
+      head. His face and body were faintly phosphorescent. His eyes&mdash;three
+      in number&mdash;were pale green and luminous, shining like lamps. His skin
+      was hairless, but the hair of his head was piled up in thick, black coils,
+      and fastened like a woman&rsquo;s. His features were absolutely tranquil,
+      but a terrible, quiet energy seemed to lie just underneath the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Did the drumming come from you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied in a strange, strained, twisted voice. Maskull gathered that
+      the name he gave was &ldquo;Dreamsinter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it advisable for me to follow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he intends me to. He brought me here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face.
+      &ldquo;Not you, but Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first time that Maskull had heard Nightspore&rsquo;s name
+      since his arrival on the planet. He was so astonished that he could frame
+      no more questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat this,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter. &ldquo;Then we will chase the
+      sound together.&rdquo; He picked something up from the ground and handed
+      it to Maskull. He could not see distinctly, but it felt like a hard, round
+      nut, of the size of a fist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t crack it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter took it between his hands, and broke it into pieces. Maskull
+      then ate some of the pulpy interior, which was intensely disagreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I doing in Tormance, then?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came to steal Muspel-fire, to give a deeper life to men&mdash;never
+      doubting if your soul could endure that burning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could hardly decipher the strangled words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel.... That&rsquo;s the name I&rsquo;ve been trying to remember
+      ever since I awoke.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter suddenly turned his head sideways, and appeared to listen for
+      something. He motioned with his hand to Maskull to keep quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it the drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! They come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was looking toward the upper forest. The now familiar drum rhythm was
+      heard&mdash;this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them, three men
+      in single file separated from one another by only a yard or so. They were
+      travelling down hill at a swift pace, and looked neither to left nor
+      right. They were naked. Their figures were shining against the black
+      background of the forest with a pale, supernatural light&mdash;green and
+      ghostly. When they were abreast of him, about twenty feet off, he
+      perceived who they were. The first man was himself&mdash;Maskull. The
+      second was Krag. The third man was Nightspore. Their faces were grim and
+      set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The source of the drumming was out of sight. The sound appeared to come
+      from some point in front of them. Maskull and Dreamsinter put themselves
+      in motion, to keep up with the swiftly moving marchers. At the same time a
+      low, faint music began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats, but, unlike the latter, it did not
+      seem to proceed from any particular quarter of the forest. It resembled
+      the subjective music heard in dreams, which accompanies the dreamer
+      everywhere, as a sort of natural atmosphere, rendering all his experiences
+      emotional. It seemed to issue from an unearthly orchestra, and was
+      strongly troubled, pathetic and tragic. Maskull marched, and listened; and
+      as he listened, it grew louder and stormier. But the pulse of the drum
+      interpenetrated all the other sounds, like the quiet beating of reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His emotion deepened. He could not have said if minutes or hours were
+      passing. The spectral procession marched on, a little way ahead, on a path
+      parallel with his own and Dreamsinter&rsquo;s. The music pulsated
+      violently. Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long, murderous-looking
+      knife. He sprang forward and, raising it over the phantom Maskull&rsquo;s
+      back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the wound the second time.
+      Maskull threw up his arms, and fell down dead. Krag leaped into the forest
+      and vanished from sight. Nightspore marched on alone, stern and unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The music rose to crescendo. The whole dim, gigantic forest was roaring
+      with sound. The tones came from all sides, from above, from the ground
+      under their feet. It was so grandly passionate that Maskull felt his soul
+      loosening from its bodily envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to follow Nightspore. A strange brightness began to glow in
+      front of them. It was not daylight, but a radiance such as he had never
+      seen before, and such as he could not have imagined to be possible.
+      Nightspore moved straight toward it. Maskull felt his chest bursting. The
+      light flashed higher. The awful harmonies of the music followed hard one
+      upon another, like the waves of a wild, magic ocean.... His body was
+      incapable of enduring such shocks, and all of a sudden he tumbled over in
+      a faint that resembled death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 14. POLECRAB
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The morning slowly passed. Maskull made some convulsive movements, and
+      opened his eyes. He sat up, blinking. All was night-like and silent in the
+      forest. The strange light had gone, the music had ceased, Dreamsinter had
+      vanished. He fingered his beard, clotted with Tydomin&rsquo;s blood, and
+      fell into a deep muse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to Panawe and Catice, this forest contains wise men.
+      Perhaps Dreamsinter was one. Perhaps that vision I have just seen was a
+      specimen of his wisdom. It looked almost like an answer to my question....
+      I ought not to have asked about myself, but about Surtur. Then I would
+      have got a different answer. I might have learned something... I might
+      have seen <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained quiet and apathetic for a bit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I couldn&rsquo;t face that awful glare,&rdquo; he proceeded.
+      &ldquo;It was bursting my body. He warned me, too. And so Surtur does
+      really exist, and my journey stands for something. But why am I here, and
+      what can I do? Who <i>is</i> Surtur? Where is he to be found?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something wild came into his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did Dreamsinter mean by his &lsquo;Not you, but Nightspore&rsquo;?
+      Am I a secondary character&mdash;is he regarded as important; and I as
+      unimportant? Where is Nightspore, and what is he doing? Am I to wait for
+      his time and pleasure&mdash;can I originate nothing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued sitting up, with straight-extended legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must make up my mind that this is a strange journey, and that the
+      strangest things will happen in it. It&rsquo;s no use making plans, for I
+      can&rsquo;t see two steps ahead&mdash;everything is unknown. But one thing&rsquo;s
+      evident: nothing but the wildest audacity will carry me through, and I
+      must sacrifice everything else to that. And therefore if Surtur shows
+      himself again, I shall go forward to meet him, even if it means death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the black, quiet aisles of the forest the drum beats came again.
+      The sound was a long way off and very faint. It was like the last
+      mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm. Maskull listened, without
+      getting up. The drumming faded into silence, and did not return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled queerly, and said aloud, &ldquo;Thanks, Surtur! I accept the
+      omen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was about to get up, he found that the shrivelled skin that had
+      been his third arm was flapping disconcertingly with every movement of his
+      body. He made perforations in it all around, as close to his chest as
+      possible, with the fingernails of both hands; then he carefully twisted it
+      off. In that world of rapid growth and ungrowth he judged that the stump
+      would soon disappear. After that, he rose and peered into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest at that point sloped rather steeply and, without thinking twice
+      about it, he took the downhill direction, never doubting it would bring
+      him somewhere. As soon as he started walking, his temper became gloomy and
+      morose&mdash;he was shaken, tired, dirty, and languid with hunger;
+      moreover, he realised that the walk was not going to be a short one. Be
+      that as it may, he determined to sit down no more until the whole dismal
+      forest was at his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One after another the shadowy, houselike trees were observed, avoided, and
+      passed. Far overhead the little patch of glowing sky was still always
+      visible; otherwise he had no clue to the time of day. He continued
+      tramping sullenly down the slope for many damp, slippery miles&mdash;in
+      some places through bogs. When, presently, the twilight seemed to thin, he
+      guessed that the open world was not far away. The forest grew more
+      palpable and grey, and now he saw its majesty better. The tree trunks were
+      like round towers, and so wide were the intervals that they resembled
+      natural amphitheatres. He could not make out the colour of the bark.
+      Everything he saw amazed him, but his admiration was of the growling,
+      grudging kind. The difference in light between the forest behind him and
+      the forest ahead became so marked that he could no longer doubt that he
+      was on the point of coming out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Real light was in front of him; looking back, he found he had a shadow.
+      The trunks acquired a reddish tint. He quickened his pace. As the minutes
+      went by, the bright patch ahead grew luminous and vivid; it had a tinge of
+      blue. He also imagined that he heard the sound of surf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that part of the forest toward which he was moving became rich with
+      colour. The boles of the trees were of a deep, dark red; their leaves,
+      high above his head, were ulfire-hued; the dead leaves on the ground were
+      of a colour he could not name. At the same time he discovered the use of
+      his third eye. By adding a third angle to his sight, every object he
+      looked at stood out in greater relief. The world looked less <i>flat</i>&mdash;more
+      realistic and significant. He had a stronger attraction toward his
+      surroundings; he seemed somehow to lose his egotism, and to become free
+      and thoughtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now through the last trees he saw full daylight. Less than half a mile
+      separated him from the border of the forest, and, eager to discover what
+      lay beyond, he broke into a run. He heard the surf louder. It was a
+      peculiar hissing sound that could proceed only from water, yet was unlike
+      the sea. Almost immediately he came within sight of an enormous horizon of
+      dancing waves, which he knew must be the Sinking Sea. He fell back into a
+      quick walk, continuing to stare hard. The wind that met him was hot, fresh
+      and sweet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the final fringe of forest, which joined the wide sands
+      of the shore without any change of level, he leaned with his back to a
+      great tree and gazed his fill, motionless, at what lay in front of him.
+      The sands continued east and west in a straight line, broken only here and
+      there by a few creeks. They were of a brilliant orange colour, but there
+      were patches of violet. The forest appeared to stand sentinel over the
+      shore for its entire length. Everything else was sea and sky&mdash;he had
+      never seen so much water. The semicircle of the skyline was so vast that
+      he might have imagined himself on a flat world, with a range of vision
+      determined only by the power of his eye. The sea was unlike any sea on
+      Earth. It resembled an immense liquid opal. On a body colour of rich,
+      magnificent emerald-green, flashes of red, yellow, and blue were
+      everywhere shooting up and vanishing. The wave motion was extraordinary.
+      Pinnacles of water were slowly formed until they attained a height of
+      perhaps ten or twenty feet, when they would suddenly sink downward and
+      outward, creating in their descent a series of concentric rings for long
+      distances around them. Quickly moving currents, like rivers in the sea,
+      could be seen, racing away from land; they were of a darker green and bore
+      no pinnacles. Where the sea met the shore, the waves rushed over the sands
+      far in, with almost sinister rapidity&mdash;accompanied by a weird,
+      hissing, spitting sound, which was what Maskull had heard. The green
+      tongues rolled in without foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About twenty miles distant, as he judged, directly opposite him, a long,
+      low island stood up from the sea, black and not distinguished in outline.
+      It was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. Maskull was less interested in that than
+      in the blue sunset that glowed behind its back. Alppain had set, but the
+      whole northern sky was plunged into the minor key by its afterlight.
+      Branchspell in the zenith was white and overpowering, the day was
+      cloudless and terrifically hot; but where the blue sun had sunk, a sombre
+      shadow seemed to overhang the world. Maskull had a feeling of
+      disintegration&mdash;just as if two chemically distinct forces were
+      simultaneously acting upon the cells of his body. Since the afterglow of
+      Alppain affected him like this, he thought it more than likely that he
+      would never be able to face that sun itself, and go on living. Still, some
+      modification might happen to him that would make it possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea tempted him. He made up his mind to bathe, and at once walked
+      toward the shore. The instant he stepped outside the shadow line of the
+      forest trees, the blinding rays of the sun beat down on him so savagely
+      that for a few minutes he felt sick and his head swam. He trod quickly
+      across the sands. The orange-coloured parts were nearly hot enough to
+      roast food, he judged, but the violet parts were like fire itself. He
+      stepped on a patch in ignorance, and immediately jumped high into the air
+      with a startled yell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was voluptuously warm. It would not bear his weight, so he
+      determined to try swimming. First of all he stripped off his skin garment,
+      washed it thoroughly with sand and water, and laid it in the sun to dry.
+      Then he scrubbed himself as well as he could and washed out his beard and
+      hair. After that, he waded in a long way, until the water reached his
+      breast, and took to swimming&mdash;avoiding the spouts as far as possible
+      He found it no pastime. The water was everywhere of unequal density. In
+      some places he could swim, in others he could barely save himself from
+      drowning, in others again he could not force himself beneath the surface
+      at all. There were no outward signs to show what the water ahead held in
+      store for him. The whole business was most dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came out, feeling clean and invigorated. For a time he walked up and
+      down the sands, drying himself in the hot sunshine and looking around him.
+      He was a naked stranger in a huge, foreign, mystical world, and whichever
+      way he turned, unknown and threatening forces were glaring at him. The
+      gigantic, white, withering Branchspell, the awful, body-changing Alppain,
+      the beautiful, deadly, treacherous sea, the dark and eerie Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island, the spirit-crushing forest out of which he had just escaped&mdash;to
+      all these mighty powers, surrounding him on every side, what resources had
+      he, a feeble, ignorant traveller from a tiny planet on the other side of
+      space, to oppose, to avoid being utterly destroyed?... Then he smiled to
+      himself. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already been here two days, and still I
+      survive. I have luck&mdash;and with that one can balance the universe. But
+      what is luck&mdash;a verbal expression, or a thing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he was putting on his skin, which was now dry, the answer came to him,
+      and this time he was grave. &ldquo;Surtur brought me here, and Surtur is
+      watching over me. That is my &lsquo;luck.&rsquo;... But what is Surtur in
+      this world?... How is he able to protect me against the blind and
+      ungovernable forces of nature? Is he stronger than Nature?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hungry as he was for food, he was hungrier still for human society, for he
+      wished to inquire about all these things. He asked himself which way he
+      should turn his steps. There were only two ways; along the shore, either
+      east or west. The nearest creek lay to the east, cutting the sands about a
+      mile away. He walked toward it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest face was forbidding and enormously high. It was so squarely
+      turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been planed by tools.
+      Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but kept his head
+      constantly turned away from them, toward the sea&mdash;there it was more
+      cheerful. The creek, when he reached it, proved to be broad and
+      flat-banked. It was not a river, but an arm of the sea. Its still, dark
+      green water curved around a bend out of sight, into the forest. The trees
+      on both banks overhung the water, so that it was completely in shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach appeared. A
+      man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet in the water. He
+      was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his limbs bare. He was
+      short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a long, powerful arms,
+      terminating in hands of an extraordinary size. He was oldish. His face was
+      plain, slablike, and expressionless; it was full of wrinkles, and
+      walnut-coloured. Both face and head were bald, and his skin was tough and
+      leathery. He seemed to be some sort of peasant, or fisherman; there was no
+      trace in his face of thought for others, or delicacy of feeling. He
+      possessed three eyes, of different colors&mdash;jade-green, blue, and
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
+      elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Are you another of the wise men of the
+      Wombflash Forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did so.
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman. I know nothing about wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name do you go by?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Polecrab. What&rsquo;s yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull. If you&rsquo;re a fisherman, you ought to have fish. I&rsquo;m
+      famishing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s fish enough. My dinner is cooking in the sands now.
+      It&rsquo;s easy enough to get you some more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found this a pleasant speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how long will it take?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
+      screeching noise. He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered onto
+      the bank. In a minute or two a curious little beast came crawling up to
+      his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately, like a dog. It was
+      about two feet long, and somewhat resembled a small seal, but had six
+      legs, ending in strong claws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arg, go fish!&rdquo; said Polecrab hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The animal immediately tumbled off the bank into the water. It swam
+      gracefully to the middle of the creek and made a pivotal dive beneath the
+      surface, where it remained a great while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simple fishing,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the raft for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To go to sea with. The best fish are out at sea. These are eatable.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That arg seems a highly intelligent creature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted again. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve trained close on a hundred of
+      them. The bigheads learn best, but they&rsquo;re slow swimmers. The
+      narrowheads swim like eels, but can&rsquo;t be taught. Now I&rsquo;ve
+      started interbreeding them&mdash;<i>he&rsquo;s</i> one of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ve got a wife and three boys. My wife&rsquo;s sleeping
+      somewhere, but where the lads are, Shaping knows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull began to feel very much at home with this unsophisticated being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The raft&rsquo;s all crazy,&rdquo; he remarked, staring at it.
+      &ldquo;If you go far out in that, you&rsquo;ve got more pluck than I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay on it,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arg reappeared and started swimming to shore, but this time clumsily,
+      as if it were bearing a heavy weight under the surface. When it landed at
+      its master&rsquo;s feet, they saw that each set of claws was clutching a
+      fish&mdash;six in all. Polecrab took them from it. He proceeded to cut off
+      the heads and tails with a sharp-edged stone which he picked up; these he
+      threw to the arg, which devoured them without any fuss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab beckoned to Maskull to follow him and, carrying the fish, walked
+      toward the open shore, by the same way that he had come. When they reached
+      the sands, he sliced the fish, removed the entrails, and digging a shallow
+      hole in a patch of violet sand, placed the remainder of the carcasses in
+      it, and covered them over again. Then he dug up his own dinner. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      nostrils quivered at the savoury smell, but he was not yet to dine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab, turning to go with the cooked fish in his hands, said, &ldquo;These
+      are mine, not yours. When yours are done, you can come back and join me,
+      supposing you want company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How soon will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About twenty minutes,&rdquo; replied the fisherman, over his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sheltered himself in the shadows of the forest, and waited. When
+      the time had approximately elapsed, he disinterred his meal, scorching his
+      fingers in the operation, although it was only the surface of the sand
+      which was so intensely hot. Then he returned to Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the warm, still air and cheerful shade of the inlet, they munched in
+      silence, looking from their food to the sluggish water, and back again.
+      With every mouthful Maskull felt his strength returning. He finished
+      before Polecrab, who ate like a man for whom time has no value. When he
+      had done, he stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and drink,&rdquo; he said, in his husky voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at him inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man led him a little way into the forest, and walked straight up to a
+      certain tree. At a convenient height in its trunk a hole had been tapped
+      and plugged. Polecrab removed the plug and put his mouth to the aperture,
+      sucking for quite a long time, like a child at its mother&rsquo;s breast.
+      Maskull, watching him, imagined that he saw his eyes growing brighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his own turn came to drink, he found the juice of the tree somewhat
+      like coconut milk in flavour, but intoxicating. It was a new sort of
+      intoxication, however, for neither his will not his emotions were excited,
+      but only his intellect&mdash;and that only in a certain way. His thoughts
+      and images were not freed and loosened, but on the contrary kept labouring
+      and swelling painfully, until they reached the full beauty of an <i>aperçu</i>,
+      which would then flame up in his consciousness, burst, and vanish. After
+      that, the whole process started over again. But there was never a moment
+      when he was not perfectly cool, and master of his senses. When each had
+      drunk twice, Polecrab replugged the hole, and they returned to their bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it Blodsombre yet?&rdquo; asked Maskull, sprawling on the
+      ground, well content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab resumed his old upright sitting posture, with his feet in the
+      water. &ldquo;Just beginning,&rdquo; was his hoarse response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I must stay here till it&rsquo;s over.... Shall we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can,&rdquo; said the other, without enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced at him through half-closed lids, wondering if he were
+      exactly what he seemed to be. In his eyes he thought he detected a wise
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you travelled much, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not what <i>you</i> would call travelling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell me you&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay&mdash;what kind of
+      country is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I went there to pick up flints.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What countries lie beyond it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Threal comes next, as you go north. They say it&rsquo;s a land of
+      mystics... I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mystics?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m told.... Still farther north there&rsquo;s Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re going far afield.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are mountains there&mdash;and altogether it must be a very
+      dangerous place, especially for a full-blooded man like you. Take care of
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is rather premature, Polecrab. How do you know I&rsquo;m going
+      there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you&rsquo;ve come from the south, I suppose you&rsquo;ll go
+      north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s right enough,&rdquo; said Maskull, staring hard
+      at him. &ldquo;But how do you know I&rsquo;ve come from the south?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, perhaps you haven&rsquo;t&mdash;but there&rsquo;s a
+      look of Ifdawn about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of look?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tragical look,&rdquo; said Polecrab. He never even glanced at
+      Maskull, but was gazing at a fixed spot on the water with unblinking eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What lies beyond Lichstorm?&rdquo; asked Maskull, after a minute or
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barey, where you have two suns instead of one&mdash;but beyond that
+      fact I know nothing about it.... Then comes the ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what&rsquo;s on the other side of the ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you must find out for yourself, for I doubt if anybody has
+      ever crossed it and come back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was silent for a little while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it that your people are so unadventurous? I seem to be the
+      only one travelling from curiosity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by &lsquo;your people&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True&mdash;you don&rsquo;t know that I don&rsquo;t belong to your
+      planet at all. I&rsquo;ve come from another world, Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here with Krag and Nightspore&mdash;to follow Surtur. I must
+      have fainted the moment I arrived. When I sat up, it was night and the
+      others had vanished. Since then I&rsquo;ve been travelling at random.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab scratched his nose. &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t found Surtur yet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard his drum taps frequently. In the forest this
+      morning I came quite close to him. Then two days ago, in the Lusion Plain,
+      I saw a vision&mdash;a being in man&rsquo;s shape, who called himself
+      Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, maybe it was Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s impossible,&rdquo; replied Maskull reflectively.
+      &ldquo;It was Crystalman. And it isn&rsquo;t a question of my suspecting
+      it&mdash;I <i>know</i> it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because this is Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and Surtur&rsquo;s world
+      is something quite different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s queer, then,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since I&rsquo;ve come out of that forest,&rdquo; proceeded Maskull,
+      talking half to himself, &ldquo;a change has come over me, and I see
+      things differently. Everything here looks much more solid and real in my
+      eyes than in other places so much so that I can&rsquo;t entertain the
+      least doubt of its existence. It not only <i>looks</i> real, it <i>is</i>
+      real&mdash;and on that I would stake my life.... But at the same time that
+      it&rsquo;s real, it is <i>false</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a dream?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;not at all like a dream, and that&rsquo;s just what I want
+      to explain. This world of yours&mdash;and perhaps of mine too, for that
+      matter&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t give me the slightest impression of a dream, or
+      an illusion, or anything of that sort. I know it&rsquo;s really here at
+      this moment, and it&rsquo;s exactly as we&rsquo;re seeing it, you and I.
+      Yet it&rsquo;s false. It&rsquo;s false in this sense, Polecrab. Side by
+      side with it another world exists, and that other world is the true one,
+      and this one is all false and deceitful, to the very core. And so it
+      occurs to me that reality and falseness are two words for the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps there is such another world,&rdquo; said Polecrab huskily.
+      &ldquo;But did that vision also seem real and false to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very real, but not false then, for then I didn&rsquo;t understand
+      all this. But just because it was real, it couldn&rsquo;t have been
+      Surtur, who has no connection with reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t those drum taps sound real to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had to hear them with my ears, and so they sounded real to me.
+      Still, they were somehow different, and they certainly came from Surtur.
+      If I didn&rsquo;t hear them correctly, that was my fault and not his.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab growled a little. &ldquo;If Surtur chooses to speak to you in
+      that fashion, it appears he&rsquo;s trying to say something.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What else can I think? But, Polecrab, what&rsquo;s your opinion&mdash;is
+      he calling me to the life after death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man stirred uneasily. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a minute or two. &ldquo;I live by killing, and so does
+      everybody. This life seems to me all wrong. So maybe life of any kind is
+      wrong, and Surtur&rsquo;s world is not life at all, but something else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but will death lead me to it, whatever it is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask the dead,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and not a living man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued. &ldquo;In the forest I heard music and saw a light,
+      which could not have belonged to this world. They were too strong for my
+      senses, and I must have fainted for a long time. There was a vision as
+      well, in which I saw myself killed, while Nightspore walked on toward the
+      light, alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab uttered his grunt. &ldquo;You have enough to think over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short silence ensued, which was broken by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So strong is my sense of the untruth of this present life, that it
+      may come to my putting an end to myself.&rdquo; The fisherman remained
+      quiet and immobile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lay on his stomach, propped his face on his hands, and stared at
+      him. &ldquo;What do you think, Polecrab? Is it possible for any man, while
+      in the body, to gain a closer view of that other world than I have done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an ignorant man, stranger, so I can&rsquo;t say. Perhaps there
+      are many others like you who would gladly know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where? I should like to meet them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you were made of one stuff, and the rest of mankind of
+      another stuff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be so presumptuous. Possibly all men are reaching out
+      toward Muspel, in most cases without being aware of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the wrong direction,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave him a strange look. &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t speak from my own wisdom,&rdquo; said Polecrab,
+      &ldquo;for I have none; but I have just now recalled what Broodviol once
+      told me, when I was a young man, and he was an old one. He said that
+      Crystalman tries to turn all things into one, and that whichever way his
+      shapes march, in order to escape from him, they find themselves again face
+      to face with Crystalman, and are changed into new crystals. But that this
+      marching of shapes (which we call &lsquo;forking&rsquo;) springs from the
+      unconscious desire to find Surtur, but is in the opposite direction to the
+      right one. For Surtur&rsquo;s world does not lie on this side of the <i>one</i>,
+      which was the beginning of life, but on the other side; and to get to it
+      we must repass through the one. But this can only be by renouncing our
+      self-life, and reuniting ourselves to the whole of Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      world. And when this has been done, it is only the first stage of the
+      journey; though many good men imagine it to be the whole journey.... As
+      far as I can remember, that is what Broodviol said, but perhaps, as I was
+      then a young and ignorant man, I may have left out words which would
+      explain his meaning better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, who had listened attentively to all this, remained thoughtful at
+      the end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s plain enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But what did he
+      mean by our reuniting ourselves to Crystalman&rsquo;s world? If it is
+      false, are we to make ourselves false as well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t ask him that question, and you are as well qualified
+      to answer it as I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have meant that, as it is, we are each of us living in a
+      false, private world of our own, a world of dreams and appetites and
+      distorted perceptions. By embracing the great world we certainly lose
+      nothing in truth and reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab withdrew his feet from the water, stood up, yawned, and stretched
+      his limbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you all I know,&rdquo; he said in a surly voice.
+      &ldquo;Now let me go to sleep.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept his eyes fixed on him, but made no reply. The old man let
+      himself down stiffly on to the ground, and prepared to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still arranging his position to his liking, a footfall
+      sounded behind the two men, coming from the direction of the forest.
+      Maskull twisted his neck, and saw a woman approaching them. He at once
+      guessed that it was Polecrab&rsquo;s wife. He sat up, but the fisherman
+      did not stir. The woman came and stood in front of them, looking down from
+      what appeared a great height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her dress was similar to her husband&rsquo;s, but covered her limbs more.
+      She was young, tall, slender, and strikingly erect. Her skin was lightly
+      tanned, and she looked strong, but not at all peasantlike. Refinement was
+      stamped all over her. Her face had too much energy of expression for a
+      woman, and she was not beautiful. Her three great eyes kept flashing and
+      glowing. She had great masses of fine, yellow hair, coiled up and
+      fastened, but so carelessly that some of the strands were flowing down her
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she spoke, it was in a rather weak voice, but full of lights and
+      shades, and somehow intense passionateness never seemed to be far away
+      from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgiveness is asked for listening to your conversation,&rdquo; she
+      said, addressing Maskull. &ldquo;I was resting behind the tree, and heard
+      it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up slowly. &ldquo;Are you Polecrab&rsquo;s wife?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is my wife,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and her name is
+      Gleameil. Sit down again, stranger&mdash;and you too, wife, since you are
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both obeyed. &ldquo;I heard everything,&rdquo; repeated Gleameil.
+      &ldquo;But what I did not hear was where you are going to, Maskull, after
+      you have left us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no more than you do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. There&rsquo;s only one place for you to go to, and
+      that is Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. I will ferry you across myself before
+      sunset.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I find there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may go, wife,&rdquo; put in the old man hoarsely, &ldquo;but I
+      won&rsquo;t allow you to go. I will take him over myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you have always put me off,&rdquo; said Gleameil, with some
+      emotion. &ldquo;This time I mean to go. When Teargeld shines at night, and
+      I sit on the shore here, listening to Earthrid&rsquo;s music travelling
+      faintly across the sea, I am tortured&mdash;I can&rsquo;t endure it.... I
+      have long since made up my mind to go to the island, and see what this
+      music is. If it&rsquo;s bad, if it kills me&mdash;well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to do with the man and his music, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the music will answer all your questions better than
+      Polecrab has done&mdash;and possibly in a way that will surprise you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of music can it be to travel all those miles across the
+      sea?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar kind, so we are told. Not pleasant, but painful. And the
+      man that can play the instrument of Earthrid would be able to conjure up
+      the most astonishing forms, which are not phantasms, but realities.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be so,&rdquo; growled Polecrab. &ldquo;But I have been to
+      the island by daylight, and what did I find there? Human bones, new and
+      ancient. Those are Earthrid&rsquo;s victims. And you, wife, shall not go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But will that music play tonight?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, gazing at him intently. &ldquo;When
+      Teargeld rises, which is our moon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Earthrid plays men to death, it appears to me that his own death
+      is due. In any case I should like to hear those sounds for myself. But as
+      for taking you with me, Gleameil&mdash;women die too easily in Tormance. I
+      have only just now washed myself clean of the death blood of another
+      woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil laughed, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now go to sleep,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;When the time comes,
+      I will take you across myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay down again, and closed his eyes. Maskull followed his example; but
+      Gleameil remained sitting erect, with her legs under her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that other woman, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but pretended to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When he awoke, the day was not so bright, and he guessed it was late
+      afternoon. Polecrab and his wife were both on their feet, and another meal
+      of fish had been cooked and was waiting for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it decided who is to go with me?&rdquo; he asked, before sitting
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I go,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you agree, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fisherman growled a little in his throat and motioned to the others to
+      take their seats. He took a mouthful before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something strong is attracting her, and I can&rsquo;t hold her
+      back. I don&rsquo;t think I shall see you again, wife, but the lads are
+      now nearly old enough to fend for themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t take dejected views,&rdquo; replied Gleameil sternly.
+      She was not eating. &ldquo;I shall come back, and make amends to you. It&rsquo;s
+      only for a night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed from one to the other in perplexity. &ldquo;Let me go alone.
+      I would be sorry if anything happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t regard this as a woman&rsquo;s caprice,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;Even if you hadn&rsquo;t passed this way, I would have heard
+      that music soon. I have a hunger for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you any such feeling, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. A woman is a noble and sensitive creature, and there are
+      attractions in nature too subtle for males. Take her with you, since she
+      is set on it. Maybe she&rsquo;s right. Perhaps Earthrid&rsquo;s music will
+      answer your questions, and hers too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are your questions, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman shed a strange smile. &ldquo;You may be sure that a question
+      which requires music for an answer can&rsquo;t be put into words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are not back by the morning,&rdquo; remarked her husband,
+      &ldquo;I will know you are dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was finished in a constrained silence. Polecrab wiped his mouth,
+      and produced a seashell from a kind of pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you say goodbye to the boys? Shall I call them?&rdquo; She
+      considered a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes, I must see them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put the shell to his mouth, and blew; a loud, mournful noise passed
+      through the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later there was a sound of scurrying footsteps, and the boys
+      were seen emerging from the forest. Maskull looked with curiosity at the
+      first children he had seen on Tormance. The oldest boy was carrying the
+      youngest on his back, while the third trotted some distance behind. The
+      child was let down, and all the three formed a semicircle in front of
+      Maskull, standing staring up at him with wide-open eyes. Polecrab looked
+      on stolidly, but Gleameil glanced away from them, with proudly raised head
+      and a baffling expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put the ages of the boys at about nine, seven, and five years,
+      respectively; but he was calculating according to Earth time. The eldest
+      was tall, slim, but strongly built. He, like his brothers, was naked, and
+      his skin from top to toe was ulfire-colored. His facial muscles indicated
+      a wild and daring nature, and his eyes were like green fires. The second
+      showed promise of being a broad, powerful man. His head was large and
+      heavy, and drooped. His face and skin were reddish. His eyes were almost
+      too sombre and penetrating for a child&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That one,&rdquo; said Polecrab, pinching the boy&rsquo;s ear,
+      &ldquo;may perhaps grow up to be a second Broodviol.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that?&rdquo; demanded the boy, bending his head forward to
+      hear the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A big, old man, of marvellous wisdom. He became wise by making up
+      his mind never to ask questions, but to find things out for himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not asked this question, I should not have known about
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would not have mattered,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child was paler and slighter than his brothers. His face was
+      mostly tranquil and expressionless, but it had this peculiarity about it,
+      that every few minutes, without any apparent cause, it would wrinkle up
+      and look perplexed. At these times his eyes, which were of a tawny gold,
+      seemed to contain secrets difficult to associate with one of his age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He puzzles me,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;He has a soul like sap,
+      and he&rsquo;s interested in nothing. He may turn out to be the most
+      remarkable of the bunch.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the child in one hand, and lifted him as high as his head. He
+      took a good look at him, and set him down again. The boy never changed
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of him?&rdquo; asked the fisherman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s on the tip of my tongue to say, but it just escapes me.
+      Let me drink again, and then I shall have it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and drink, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull strode over to the tree, drank, and returned. &ldquo;In ages to
+      come,&rdquo; he said, speaking deliberately, &ldquo;he will be a grand and
+      awful tradition. A seer possibly, or even a divinity. Watch over him well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy looked scornful. &ldquo;I want to be none of those things.
+      I would like to be like that big fellow.&rdquo; And he pointed his finger
+      at Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed, and showed his white teeth through his beard. &ldquo;Thanks
+      for the compliments old warrior!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great and brawny,&rdquo; continued the boy, &ldquo;and
+      can hold his own with other men. Can you hold me up with one arm, as you
+      did that child?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull complied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is being a man!&rdquo; exclaimed the boy. &ldquo;Enough!&rdquo;
+      said Polecrab impatiently. &ldquo;I called you lads here to say goodbye to
+      your mother. She is going away with this man. I think she may not return,
+      but we don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second boy&rsquo;s face became suddenly inflamed. &ldquo;Is she going
+      of her own choice?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she is bad.&rdquo; He brought the words out with such force
+      and emphasis that they sounded like the crack of a whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man cuffed him twice. &ldquo;Is it your mother you are speaking
+      of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy stood his ground, without change of expression, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child spoke, for the first time. &ldquo;My mother will not
+      come back, but she will die dancing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab and his wife looked at one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going to, Mother?&rdquo; asked the eldest lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil bent down, and kissed him. &ldquo;To the Island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, if you don&rsquo;t come back by tomorrow morning, I will
+      go and look for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind. &ldquo;This seems to me to
+      be a man&rsquo;s journey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it would be
+      better for you not to come, Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not to be dissuaded,&rdquo; she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard in perplexity. &ldquo;Is it time to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait
+      there for you and the raft. You will wish to make your farewells,
+      Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then clasped Polecrab by the hand. &ldquo;Adieu, fisherman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have repaid me well for my answers,&rdquo; said the old man
+      gruffly. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not your fault, and in Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world the worst things happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him. &ldquo;Farewell,
+      big man!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But guard my mother well, as well as you
+      are well able to, or I shall follow you, and kill you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend. The
+      glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes
+      again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He continued as far
+      as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled on
+      to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight. The radiance of Alppain
+      had long since disappeared. He drank in the hot, invigorating wind,
+      listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea with its
+      pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all
+      she loves the most?&rdquo; he meditated. &ldquo;It sounds unholy. Will it
+      tell me what I want to know? Can it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning
+      his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.
+      Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole. He passed
+      by Maskull, without looking at him, or making any salutation, and
+      proceeded out to sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys
+      came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet. The eldest-born was
+      holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind. She was calm
+      and smiling, but seemed abstracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your husband doing with the raft?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s putting it in position and we shall wade out and join
+      it,&rdquo; she answered, in her low-toned voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see that current running away from land? See, he is
+      approaching it. That will take us straight there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how can you get back?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a way; but we need not think of that today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I come too?&rdquo; demanded the eldest boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the raft won&rsquo;t carry three. Maskull is a heavy man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said the boy. &ldquo;I know where
+      there is wood for another raft. As soon as you have gone, I shall set to
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab had by this time manoeuvred his flimsy craft to the position he
+      desired, within a few yards of the current, which at that point made a
+      sharp bend from the east. He shouted out some words to his wife and
+      Maskull. Gleameil kissed her children convulsively, and broke down a
+      little. The eldest boy bit his lip till it bled, and tears glistened in
+      his eyes; but the younger children stared wide-eyed, and displayed no
+      emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil now walked into the sea, followed by Maskull. The water covered
+      first their ankles, then their knees, but when it came as high as their
+      waists, they were close on the raft. Polecrab let himself down into the
+      water, and assisted his wife to climb over the side. When she was up, she
+      bent down and kissed him. No words were exchanged. Maskull scrambled up on
+      to the front part of the raft. The woman sat cross-legged in the stern,
+      and seized the pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab shoved them off toward the current, while she worked her pole
+      until they had got within its power. The raft immediately began to travel
+      swiftly away from land, with a smooth, swaying motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys waved from the shore. Gleameil responded; but Maskull turned his
+      back squarely to land, and gazed ahead. Polecrab was wading back to the
+      shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For upward of an hour Maskull did not change his position by an inch. No
+      sound was heard but the splashing of the strange waves all around them,
+      and the streamlike gurgle of the current, which threaded its way smoothly
+      through the tossing, tumultuous sea. From their pathway of safety, the
+      beautiful dangers surrounding them were an exhilarating experience. The
+      air was fresh and clean, and the heat from Branchspell, now low in the
+      west, was at last endurable. The riot of sea colors had long since
+      banished all sadness and anxiety from his heart. Yet he felt such a grudge
+      against the woman for selfishly forsaking those who should have been dear
+      to her that he could not bring himself to begin a conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when, over the now enlarged shape of the dark island, he caught sight
+      of a long chain of lofty, distant mountains, glowing salmon-pink in the
+      evening sunlight, he felt constrained to break the silence by inquiring
+      what they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Lichstorm,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull asked no questions about it; but in turning to address her, his
+      eyes had rested on the rapidly receding Wombflash Forest, and he continued
+      to stare at that. They had travelled about eight miles, and now he could
+      better estimate the enormous height of the trees. Overtopping them, far
+      away, he saw Sant; and he fancied, but was not quite sure, that he could
+      distinguish Disscourn as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that we are alone in a strange place,&rdquo; said Gleameil,
+      averting her head, and looking down over the side of the raft into the
+      water, &ldquo;tell me what you thought of Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused before answering. &ldquo;He seemed to me like a mountain
+      wrapped in cloud. You see the lower buttresses, and think that is all. But
+      then, high up, far above the clouds, you suddenly catch sight of more
+      mountain&mdash;and even then it is not the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read character well, and have great perception,&rdquo; remarked
+      Gleameil quietly. &ldquo;Now say what I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of a human heart, you have a wild harp, and that&rsquo;s
+      all I know about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that you said to my husband about two worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I heard. And I also am conscious of two worlds. My husband and
+      boys are real to me, and I love them fondly. But there is another world
+      for me, as there is for you, Maskull, and it makes my real world appear
+      all false and vulgar.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps we are seeking the same thing. But can it be right to
+      satisfy our self-nature at the expense of other people?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not right. It is wrong, and base. But in that other
+      world these words have no meaning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s useless to discuss such topics,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;The choice is now out of our hands, and we must go where we are
+      taken. What I would rather speak about is what awaits us on the island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ignorant&mdash;except that we shall find Earthrid there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Earthrid, and why is it called Swaylone&rsquo;s Island?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say Earthrid came from Threal, but I know nothing else about
+      him. As for Swaylone, if you like I will tell you his legend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you please,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a far-back age,&rdquo; began Gleameil, &ldquo;when the seas were
+      hot, and clouds hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with
+      transformations, Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never
+      before set foot, and began to play his music&mdash;the first music in
+      Tormance. Nightly, when the moon shone, people used to gather on this
+      shore behind us, and listen to the faint, sweet strains floating from over
+      the sea. One night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was passing this
+      way in company with Krag. They listened a while to the music, and Shaping
+      said &lsquo;Have you heard more beautiful sounds? This is my world and my
+      music.&rsquo; Krag stamped with his foot, and laughed. &lsquo;You must do
+      better than that, if I am to admire it. Let us pass over, and see this
+      bungler at work.&rsquo; Shaping consented, and they passed over to the
+      island. Swaylone was not able to see their presence. Shaping stood behind
+      him, and breathed thoughts into his soul, so that his music became ten
+      times lovelier, and people listening on that shore went mad with sick
+      delight. &lsquo;Can any strains be nobler?&rsquo; demanded Shaping. Krag
+      grinned and said, &lsquo;You are naturally effeminate. Now let me try.&rsquo;
+      Then he stood behind Swaylone, and shot ugly discords fast into his head.
+      His instrument was so cracked, that never since has it played right. From
+      that time forth Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called
+      to folk more than the other sort. Many men crossed over to the island
+      during his lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could endure
+      them; all died. After Swaylone&rsquo;s death, another musician took up the
+      tale; and so the light has passed down from torch to torch, till now
+      Earthrid bears it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An interesting legend,&rdquo; commented Maskull. &ldquo;But who is
+      Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it&mdash;a
+      spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know
+      how to transform. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he
+      dogs Shaping&rsquo;s footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does,
+      he undoes. To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness;
+      to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag&rsquo;s
+      actions, so the lovers of the world call him &lsquo;devil.&rsquo; They don&rsquo;t
+      understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag and beauty!&rdquo; exclaimed he, with a cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so. That same beauty which you and I are now voyaging to
+      discover. That beauty for whose sake I am renouncing husband, children,
+      and happiness.... Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping. To see
+      beauty in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you say I am going to seek beauty, Gleameil? Such an idea is far
+      from my mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not respond to his remark. After waiting for a few minutes, to
+      hear if she would speak again, he turned his back on her once more. There
+      was no more talk until they reached the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air had grown chill and damp by the time they approached its shores.
+      Branchspell was on the point of touching the sea. The Island appeared to
+      be some three or four miles in length. There were first of all broad
+      sands, then low, dark cliffs, and behind these a wilderness of
+      insignificant, swelling hills, entirely devoid of vegetation. The current
+      bore them to within a hundred yards of the coast, when it made a sharp
+      angle, and proceeded to skirt the length of the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil jumped overboard, and began swimming to shore. Maskull followed
+      her example, and the raft, abandoned, was rapidly borne away by the
+      current. They soon touched ground, and were able to wade the rest of the
+      way. By the time they reached dry land, the sun had set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil made straight for the hills; and Maskull, after casting a single
+      glance at the low, dim outline of the Wombflash Forest, followed her. The
+      cliffs were soon scrambled up. Then the ascent was gentle and easy, while
+      the rich, dry, brown mould was good to walk upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little way off, on their left, something white was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not go to it,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;It can be
+      nothing else than one of those skeletons Polecrab talked about. And look&mdash;there
+      is another one over there!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This brings it home!&rdquo; remarked Maskull, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing comical in having died for beauty,&rdquo; said
+      Gleameil, bending her brows at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when in the course of their walk he saw the innumerable human bones,
+      from gleaming white to dirty yellow, lying scattered about, as if it were
+      a naked graveyard among the hills, he agreed with her, and fell into a
+      sombre mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was still light when they reached the highest point, and could set eyes
+      on the other side. The sea to the north of the island was in no way
+      different from that which they had crossed, but its lively colors were
+      fast becoming invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Matterplay,&rdquo; said the woman, pointing her finger
+      toward some low land on the horizon, which seemed to be even farther off
+      than Wombflash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder how Digrung passed over,&rdquo; meditated Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not far away, in a hollow enclosed by a circle of little hills, they saw a
+      small, circular lake, not more than half a mile in diameter. The sunset
+      colors of the sky were reflected in its waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be Irontick,&rdquo; remarked Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard that it&rsquo;s the instrument Earthrid plays on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are getting close,&rdquo; responded he. &ldquo;Let us go and
+      investigate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they drew nearer, they observed that a man was reclining on the
+      farther side, in an attitude of sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s not the man himself, who can it be?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get across the water, if it will bear us; it
+      will save time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now assumed the lead, and took running strides down the slope which
+      bounded the lake on that side. Gleameil followed him with greater dignity,
+      keeping her eyes fixed on the recumbent man as if fascinated. When Maskull
+      reached the water&rsquo;s edge, he tried it with one foot, to discover if
+      it would carry his weight. Something unusual in its appearance led him to
+      have doubts. It was a tranquil, dark, and beautifully reflecting sheet of
+      water; it resembled a mirror of liquid metal. Finding that it would bear
+      him, and that nothing happened, he placed his second foot on its surface.
+      Instantly he sustained a violent shock throughout his body, as from a
+      powerful electric current; and he was hurled in a tumbled heap back on to
+      the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked himself up, brushed the dirt off his person, and started walking
+      around the lake. Gleameil joined him, and they completed the half circuit
+      together. They came to the man, and Maskull prodded him with his foot. He
+      woke up, and blinked at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was pale, weak, and vacant-looking, and had a disagreeable
+      expression. There were thin sprouts of black hair on his chin and head. On
+      his forehead, in place of a third eye, he possessed a perfectly circular
+      organ, with elaborate convolutions, like an ear. He had an unpleasant
+      smell. He appeared to be of young middle age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wake up, man,&rdquo; said Maskull sharply, &ldquo;and tell us if
+      you are Earthrid.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; counterquestioned the man. &ldquo;Does it
+      want long to moonrise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without appearing to care about an answer, he sat up, and turning away
+      from them, began to scoop up the loose soil with his hand, and to eat it
+      halfheartedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, how can you eat that filth?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, in
+      disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be angry, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gleameil, laying hold of
+      his arm, and flushing a little. &ldquo;It is Earthrid&mdash;the man who is
+      to help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not said so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Earthrid,&rdquo; said the other, in his weak and muffled
+      voice, which, however, suddenly struck Maskull as being autocratic.
+      &ldquo;What do you want here? Or rather, you had better get away as
+      quickly as you can, for it will be too late when Teargeld rises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not explain,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;We know your
+      reputation, and we have come to hear your music. But what&rsquo;s that
+      organ for on your forehead?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid glared, and smiled, and glared again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is for rhythm, which is what changes noise into music. Don&rsquo;t
+      stand and argue, but go away. It is no pleasure to me to people the island
+      with corpses. They corrupt the air, and do nothing else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darkness now crept swiftly on over the landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are rather bigmouthed,&rdquo; said Maskull coolly. &ldquo;But
+      after we have heard you play, perhaps I shall adventure a tune myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You? Are you a musician, then? Do you even know what music is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A flame danced in Gleameil&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull thinks music reposes in the instrument,&rdquo; she said in
+      her intense way. &ldquo;But it is in the soul of the Master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Earthrid, &ldquo;but that is not all. I will tell
+      you what it is. In Threal, where I was born and brought up, we learn the
+      mystery of the Three in nature. This world, which lies extended before us,
+      has three directions. Length is the line which shuts off what is, from
+      what is not. Breadth is the surface which shows us in what manner one
+      thing of what-is, lives with another thing. Depth is the path which leads
+      from what-is, to our own body. In music it is not otherwise. Tone is
+      existence, without which nothing at all can be. Symmetry and Numbers are
+      the manner in which tones exist, one with another. Emotion is the movement
+      of our soul toward the wonderful world that is being created. Now, men
+      when they make music are accustomed to build beautiful tones, because of
+      the delight they cause. Therefore their music world is based on pleasure;
+      its symmetry is regular and charming, its emotion is sweet and lovely....
+      But my music is founded on painful tones; and thus its symmetry is wild,
+      and difficult to discover; its emotion is bitter and terrible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not anticipated its being original, I would not have come
+      here,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Still, explain&mdash;why can&rsquo;t
+      harsh tones have simple symmetry of form? And why must they necessarily
+      cause more profound emotions in us who listen?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pleasures may harmonise. Pains must clash; and in the order of
+      their clashing lies the symmetry. The emotions follow the music, which is
+      rough and earnest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may call it music,&rdquo; remarked Maskull thoughtfully,
+      &ldquo;but to me it bears a closer resemblance to actual life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Shaping&rsquo;s plans had gone straight, life would have been
+      like that other sort of music. He who seeks can find traces of that
+      intention in the world of nature. But as it has turned out, real life
+      resembles my music and mine is the true music.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we see living shapes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what my mood will be,&rdquo; returned Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;But when I have finished, you shall adventure your tune, and
+      produce whatever shapes you please&mdash;unless, indeed, the tune is out
+      of your own big body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The shocks you are preparing may kill us,&rdquo; said Gleameil, in
+      a low, taut voice, &ldquo;but we shall die, seeing <i>beauty</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I
+      put into my music. Still, you must have it your own way. It needed a woman
+      to call it &lsquo;beauty.&rsquo; But if this is beauty, what is ugliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you, Master,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, smiling at
+      him. &ldquo;Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues
+      fresh from the womb of nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid stared at her, without response. &ldquo;Teargeld is rising,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;And now you shall see&mdash;though not for long.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the words left his mouth, the full moon peeped over the hills in the
+      dark eastern sky. They watched it in silence, and soon it was wholly up.
+      It was larger than the moon of Earth, and seemed nearer. Its shadowy parts
+      stood out in just as strong relief, but somehow it did not give Maskull
+      the impression of being a dead world. Branchspell shone on the whole of
+      it, but Alppain only on a part. The broad crescent that reflected
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s rays alone was white and brilliant; but the part that
+      was illuminated by both suns shone with a greenish radiance that had
+      almost solar power, and yet was cold and cheerless. On gazing at that
+      combined light, he felt the same sense of disintegration that the
+      afterglow of Alppain had always caused in him; but now the feeling was not
+      physical, but merely aesthetic. The moon did not appear romantic to him,
+      but disturbing and mystical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid rose, and stood quietly for a minute. In the bright moonlight,
+      his face seemed to have undergone a change. It lost its loose, weak,
+      disagreeable look, and acquired a sort of crafty grandeur. He clapped his
+      hands together meditatively two or three times, and walked up and down.
+      The others stood together, watching him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he sat down by the side of the lake, and, leaning on his side, placed
+      his right hand, open palm downward, on the ground, at the same time
+      stretching out his right leg, so that the foot was in contact with the
+      water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was in the act of staring at him and at the lake, he felt a
+      stabbing sensation right through his heart, as though he had been pierced
+      by a rapier. He barely recovered himself from falling, and as he did so he
+      saw that a spout had formed on the water, and was now subsiding again. The
+      next moment he was knocked down by a violent blow in the mouth, delivered
+      by an invisible hand. He picked himself up; and observed that a second
+      spout had formed. No sooner was he on his legs, than a hideous pain
+      hammered away inside his brain, as if caused by a malignant tumour. In his
+      agony, he stumbled and fell again; this time on the arm Krag had wounded.
+      All his other mishaps were forgotten in this one, which half stunned him.
+      It lasted only a moment, and then sudden relief came, and he found that
+      Earthrid&rsquo;s rough music had lost its power over him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw him still stretched in the same position. Spouts were coming thick
+      and fast on the lake, which was full of lively motion. But Gleameil was
+      not on her legs. She was lying on the ground, in a heap, without moving.
+      Her attitude was ugly, and he guessed she <i>was</i> dead. When he reached
+      her, he discovered that she was dead. In what state of mind she had died,
+      he did not know, for her face wore the vulgar Crystalman grin. The whole
+      tragedy had not lasted five minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went over to Earthrid and dragged him forcibly away from his playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been as good as your word, musician,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Gleameil is dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid tried to collect his scattered senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I warned her,&rdquo; he replied, sitting up. &ldquo;Did I not beg
+      her to go away? But she died very easily. She did not wait for the beauty
+      she spoke about. She heard nothing of the passion, nor even of the rhythm.
+      Neither have you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked down at him in indignation, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should not have interrupted me,&rdquo; went on Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;When I am playing, nothing else is of importance. I might have lost
+      the thread of my ideas. Fortunately, I never forget. I shall start over
+      again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If music is to continue, in the presence of the dead, I play next.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man glanced up quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can&rsquo;t be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be,&rdquo; said Maskull decisively. &ldquo;I prefer playing
+      to listening. Another reason is that you will have every night, but I have
+      only tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid clenched and unclenched his fist, and began to turn pale. &ldquo;With
+      your recklessness, you are likely to kill us both. Irontick belongs to me,
+      and until you have learned how to play, you would only break the
+      instrument.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I will break it; but I am going to try.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The musician jumped to his feet and confronted him. &ldquo;Do you intend
+      to take it from me by violence?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep calm! You will have the same choice that you offered us. I
+      shall give you time to go away somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will that serve me, if you spoil my lake? You don&rsquo;t
+      understand what you are doing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, or stay!&rdquo; responded Maskull. &ldquo;I give you till the
+      water gets smooth again. After that, I begin playing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid kept swallowing. He glanced at the lake and back to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you swear it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long that will take, you know better than I; but till then you
+      are safe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid cast him a look of malice, hesitated for an instant, and then
+      moved away, and started to climb the nearest hill. Halfway up he glanced
+      over his shoulder apprehensively, as if to see what was happening. In
+      another minute or so, he had disappeared over the crest, travelling in the
+      direction of the shore that faced Matterplay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, when the water was once more tranquil, Maskull sat down by its
+      edge, in imitation of Earthrid&rsquo;s attitude. He knew neither how to
+      set about producing his music, nor what would come of it. But audacious
+      projects entered his brain and he willed to create physical shapes&mdash;and,
+      above all, one shape, that of Surtur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before putting his foot to the water, he turned things over a little in
+      his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, &ldquo;What <i>themes</i> are in common music, <i>shapes</i> are
+      in this music. The composer does not find his theme by picking out single
+      notes; but the whole theme flashes into his mind by inspiration. So it
+      must be with shapes. When I start playing, if I am worth anything, the
+      undivided ideas will pass from my unconscious mind to this lake, and then,
+      reflected back in the dimensions of reality, I shall be for the first time
+      made acquainted with them. So it must be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant his foot touched the water, he felt his thoughts flowing from
+      him. He did not know what they were, but the mere act of flowing created a
+      sensation of joyful mastery. With this was curiosity to learn what they
+      would prove to be. Spouts formed on the lake in increasing numbers, but he
+      experienced no pain. His thoughts, which he knew to be music, did not
+      issue from him in a steady, unbroken stream, but in great, rough gushes,
+      succeeding intervals of quiescence. When these gushes came, the whole lake
+      broke out in an eruption of spouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
+      intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will. He
+      could not decide what character they should have, but he was able to force
+      them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first nothing changed around him. Then the moon grew dimmer, and a
+      strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape. It increased so
+      imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised it as the
+      Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest. He could not give
+      it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort of stern and sacred
+      awe. He called up the resources of his powerful will. The spouts thickened
+      like a forest, and many of them were twenty feet high. Teargeld looked
+      faint and pale; the radiance became intense; but it cast no shadows. The
+      wind got up, but where Maskull was sitting, it was calm. Shortly afterward
+      it began to shriek and whistle, like a full gale. He saw no shapes, and
+      redoubled his efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His ideas were now rushing out onto the lake so furiously that his whole
+      soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance. But still he did not know
+      their nature. A huge spout shot up and at the same moment the hills began
+      to crack and break. Great masses of loose soil were erupted from their
+      bowels, and in the next period of quietness, he saw that the landscape had
+      altered. Still the mysterious light intensified. The moon disappeared
+      entirely. The noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying, but Maskull
+      played heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would take shape. The
+      hillsides were cleft with chasms. The water escaping from the tops of the
+      spouts, swamped the land; but where he was, it was dry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The radiance grew terrible. It was everywhere, but Maskull fancied that it
+      was far brighter in one particular quarter. He thought that it was
+      becoming localised, preparatory to contracting into a solid form. He
+      strained and strained....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided. Its waters fell
+      through, and his instrument was broken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Muspel-light vanished. The moon shone out again, but Maskull could not
+      see it. After that unearthly shining, he seemed to himself to be in total
+      blackness. The screaming wind ceased; there was a dead silence. His
+      thoughts finished flowing toward the lake, and his foot no longer touched
+      water, but hung in space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was too stunned by the suddenness of the change to either think or
+      feel. While he was still lying dazed, a vast explosion occurred in the
+      newly opened depths beneath the lakebed. The water in its descent had met
+      fire. Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many yards high, and came down
+      heavily. He lost consciousness....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came to his senses again, he saw everything. Teargeld was gleaming
+      brilliantly. He was lying by the side of the old lake, but it was now a
+      crater, to the bottom of which his eyes could not penetrate. The hills
+      encircling it were torn, as if by heavy gunfire. A few thunderclouds were
+      floating in the air at no great height, from which branched lightning
+      descended to the earth incessantly, accompanied by alarming and singular
+      crashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got on his legs, and tested his actions. Finding that he was uninjured,
+      he first of all viewed the crater at closer quarters, and then started to
+      walk painfully toward the northern shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had attained the crest above the lake, the landscape sloped gently
+      down for two miles to the sea. Everywhere he passed through traces of his
+      rough work. The country was carved into scarps, grooves, channels, and
+      craters. He arrived at the line of low cliffs overlooking the beach, and
+      found that these also were partly broken down by landslips. He got down
+      onto the sand and stood looking over the moonlit, agitated sea, wondering
+      how he could contrive to escape from this island of failure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he saw Earthrid&rsquo;s body, lying quite close to him. It was on its
+      back. Both legs had been violently torn off and he could not see them
+      anywhere. Earthrid&rsquo;s teeth were buried in the flesh of his right
+      forearm, indicating that the man had died in unreasoning physical agony.
+      The skin gleamed green in the moonlight, but it was stained by darker
+      discolourations, which were wounds. The sand about him was dyed by the
+      pool of blood which had long since filtered through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull left the corpse in dismay, and walked a long way along the
+      sweet-smelling shore. Sitting down on a rock, he waited for daybreak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At midnight, when Teargeld was in the south, throwing his shadow straight
+      toward the sea and making everything nearly as bright as day, he saw a
+      great tree floating in the water, not far out. It was thirty feet out of
+      the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must have been enormously
+      deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast, through the heavy seas.
+      Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few minutes. Then it dawned on him that
+      it might be a good thing to investigate its nature. Without stopping to
+      weigh the danger, he immediately swam out, caught hold of the lowest
+      branch, and swung himself up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
+      terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made his
+      way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were covered
+      with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving at the crown,
+      he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there were membranes
+      like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting some form of low
+      intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the shore,
+      and began to bump heavily. To steady himself, Maskull put his hand out,
+      and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the membranes. The tree
+      sheered off the land, as if by an act of will. When it was steady again,
+      Maskull removed his hand; they at once drifted back to shore. He thought a
+      bit, and then started experimenting with the eyelike membranes. It was as
+      he had guessed&mdash;these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon,
+      and whichever way the light came from, the tree would travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull&rsquo;s face as it struck him that
+      it might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
+      Matterplay. He lost no time in putting the conception into execution.
+      Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up all the membranes
+      except the ones that faced the north. The tree instantly left the island,
+      and definitely put out to sea. It travelled due north. It was not moving
+      at more than a mile an hour, however, while Matterplay was possibly forty
+      miles distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
+      breaking seas hissed through the lower branches&mdash;Maskull rested high
+      and dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow rate of
+      progress. Presently he sighted a current racing along toward the
+      north-west, and that put another idea into his head. He began to juggle
+      with the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in piloting his
+      tree into the fast-running stream. As soon as they were fairly in its
+      rapids, he blinded the crown entirely, and thenceforward the current acted
+      in the double capacity of road and steed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made himself secure among the branches and slept for the remainder
+      of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his eyes opened again, the island was out of sight. Teargeld was
+      setting in the western sea. The sky in the east was bright with the
+      colours of the approaching day. The air was cool and fresh; the light over
+      the sea was beautiful, gleaming, and mysterious. Land&mdash;probably
+      Matterplay&mdash;lay ahead, a long, dark line of low cliffs, perhaps a
+      mile away. The current no longer ran toward the shore, but began to skirt
+      the coast without drawing any closer to it. As soon as Maskull realised
+      the fact, he manoeuvred the tree out of its channel and started drifting
+      it inshore. The eastern sky blazed up suddenly with violent dyes, and the
+      outer rim of Branchspell lifted itself above the sea. The moon had already
+      sunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shore loomed nearer and nearer. In physical character it was like
+      Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;the same wide sands, small cliffs, and
+      rounded, insignificant hills inland, without vegetation. In the
+      early-morning sunlight, however, it looked romantic. Maskull, hollow-eyed
+      and morose, cared nothing for all that, but the moment the tree grounded,
+      clambered swiftly down through the branches and dropped into the sea. By
+      the time he had swam ashore, the white, stupendous sun was high above the
+      horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked along the sands toward the east for a considerable distance,
+      without having any special intention in his mind. He thought he would go
+      on until he came to some creek or valley, and then turn up it. The sun&rsquo;s
+      rays were cheering, and began to relieve him of his oppressive night
+      weight. After strolling along the beach for about a mile, he was stopped
+      by a broad stream that flowed into the sea out of a kind of natural
+      gateway in the line of cliffs. Its water was of a beautiful, limpid green,
+      all filled with bubbles. So ice-cold, aerated, and enticing did it look
+      that he flung himself face downward on the ground and took a prolonged
+      draught. When he got up again his eyes started to play pranks&mdash;they
+      became alternately blurred and clear.... It may have been pure
+      imagination, but he fancied that Digrung was moving inside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the bank of the stream through the gap in the cliffs, and then
+      for the first time saw the real Matterplay. A valley appeared, like a
+      jewel enveloped by naked rock. All the hill country was bare and lifeless,
+      but this valley lying in the heart of it was extremely fertile; he had
+      never seen such fertility. It wound up among the hills, and all that he
+      was looking at was its broad lower end. The floor of the valley was about
+      half a mile wide; the stream that ran down its middle was nearly a hundred
+      feet across, but was exceedingly shallow&mdash;in most places not more
+      than a few inches deep. The sides of the valley were about seventy feet
+      high, but very sloping; they were clothed from top to bottom with little,
+      bright-leaved trees&mdash;not of varied tints of one colour, like Earth
+      trees, but of widely diverse colours, most of which were brilliant and
+      positive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The floor itself was like a magician&rsquo;s garden. Densely interwoven
+      trees, shrubs, and parasitical climbers fought everywhere for possession
+      of it. The forms were strange and grotesque, and each one seemed
+      different; the colours of leaf, flower, sexual organs, and stem were
+      equally peculiar&mdash;all the different combinations of the five primary
+      colours of Tormance seemed to be represented, and the result, for Maskull
+      was a sort of eye chaos. So rank was the vegetation that he could not
+      fight his way through it; he was obliged to take to the riverbed. The
+      contact of the water created an odd tingling sensation throughout his
+      body, like a mild electric shock. There were no birds, but a few
+      extraordinary-looking winged reptiles of small size kept crossing the
+      valley from hill to hill. Swarms of flying insects clustered around him,
+      threatening mischief, but in the end it turned out that his blood was
+      disagreeable to them, for he was not bitten once. Repulsive crawling
+      creatures resembling centipedes, scorpions, snakes, and so forth were in
+      myriads on the banks of the stream, but they also made no attempt to use
+      their weapons on his bare legs and feet, as he passed through them into
+      the water.... Presently however, he was confronted in midstream by a
+      hideous monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape&mdash;if
+      it resembled anything&mdash;a sea crustacean; and then he came to a halt.
+      They stared at one another, the beast with wicked eyes, Maskull with cool
+      and wary ones. While he was staring, a singular thing happened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes blurred again. But when in a minute or two this blurring passed
+      away and he saw clearly once more, his vision had changed in character. He
+      was looking right through the animal&rsquo;s body and could distinguish
+      all its interior parts. The outer crust, however, and all the hard tissues
+      were misty and semi-transparent; through them a luminous network of
+      blood-red veins and arteries stood out in startling distinctness. The hard
+      parts faded away to nothingness, and the blood system alone was left. Not
+      even the fleshy ducts remained. The naked blood alone was visible, flowing
+      this way and that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the shape of the
+      monster. Then this blood began to change too. Instead of a continuous
+      liquid stream, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a million
+      individual points. The red colour had been an illusion caused by the rapid
+      motion of the points; he now saw clearly that they resembled minute suns
+      in their scintillating brightness. They seemed like a double drift of
+      stars, streaming through space. One drift was travelling toward a fixed
+      point in the centre, while the other was moving away from it. He
+      recognised the former as the veins of the beast, the latter as the
+      arteries, and the fixed point as the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network went out
+      suddenly like an extinguished flame. Where the crustacean had stood, there
+      was nothing. Yet through this &ldquo;nothing&rdquo; he could not see the
+      landscape. Something was standing there that intercepted the light, though
+      it possessed neither shape, colour, nor substance. And now the object,
+      which could no longer be perceived by vision, began to be felt by emotion.
+      A delightful, springlike sense of rising sap, of quickening pulses of
+      love, adventure, mystery, beauty, femininity&mdash;took possession of his
+      being, and, strangely enough, he identified it with the monster. Why that
+      invisible brute should cause him to feel young, sexual, and audacious, he
+      did not ask himself, for he was fully occupied with the effect. But it was
+      as if flesh, bones, and blood had been discarded, and he were face to face
+      with naked Life itself, which slowly passed into his own body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sensations died away. There was a brief interval, and then the
+      streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space. It changed to the
+      red-blood system. The hard parts of the body reappeared, with more and
+      more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood grew fainter.
+      Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed by the crust&mdash;the
+      creature stood opposite Maskull in its old formidable ugliness, hard,
+      painted, and concrete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and stumbled
+      awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive movements,
+      toward the other bank of the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s apathy left him after this adventure. He became uneasy and
+      thoughtful. He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
+      Digrung&rsquo;s eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately
+      ahead. The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down with his
+      will, and nothing happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley ascended with many windings toward the hills. It narrowed
+      considerably, and the wooded slopes on either side grew steeper and
+      higher. The stream shrunk to about twenty feet across, but it was deeper&mdash;it
+      was alive with motion, music, and bubbles. The electric sensations caused
+      by its water became more pronounced, almost disagreeably so; but there was
+      nowhere else to walk. With its deafening confusion of sounds from the
+      multitude of living creatures, the little valley resembled a vast
+      conversation hall of Nature. The life was still more prolific than before;
+      every square foot of space was a tangle of struggling wills, both animal
+      and vegetable. For a naturalist it would have been paradise, for no two
+      shapes were alike, and all were fantastic, with individual character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked as if life forms were being coined so fast by Nature that there
+      was not physical room for all. Nevertheless it was not as on Earth, where
+      a hundred seeds are scattered in order that one may be sown. Here the
+      young forms seemed to survive, while, to find accommodation for them, the
+      old ones perished; everywhere he looked they were withering and dying,
+      without any ostensible cause&mdash;they were simply being killed by new
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other creatures sported so wildly, in front of his very eyes, that they
+      became of different &ldquo;kingdoms&rdquo; altogether. For example, a
+      fruit was lying on the ground, of the size and shape of a lemon, but with
+      a tougher skin. He picked it up, intending to eat the contained pulp; but
+      inside it was a fully formed young tree, just on the point of bursting its
+      shell. Maskull threw it away upstream. It floated back toward him; by the
+      time he was even with it, its downward motion had stopped and it was
+      swimming against the current. He fished it out and discovered that it had
+      sprouted six rudimentary legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sang no paeans of praise in honour of the gloriously overcrowded
+      valley. On the contrary, he felt deeply cynical and depressed. He thought
+      that the unseen power&mdash;whether it was called Nature, Life, Will, or
+      God&mdash;that was so frantic to rush forward and occupy this small,
+      vulgar, contemptible world, could not possess very high aims and was not
+      worth much. How this sordid struggle for an hour or two of physical
+      existence could ever be regarded as a deeply earnest and important
+      business was beyond his comprehension The atmosphere choked him, he longed
+      for air and space. Thrusting his way through to the side of the ravine, he
+      began to climb the overhanging cliff, swinging his way up from tree to
+      tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the top, Branchspell beat down on him with such brutal,
+      white intensity that he saw that there was no staying there. He looked
+      around, to ascertain what part of the country he had come to. He had
+      travelled about ten miles from the sea, as the crow flies. The bare,
+      undulating wolds sloped straight down toward it; the water glittered in
+      the distance; and on the horizon he was just able to make out Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island. Looking north, the land continued sloping upward as far as he
+      could see. Over the crest&mdash;that is to say, some miles away&mdash;a
+      line of black, fantastic-shaped rocks of quite another character showed
+      themselves; this was probably Threal. Behind these again, against the sky,
+      perhaps fifty or even a hundred miles off, were the peaks of Lichstorm,
+      most of them covered with greenish snow that glittered in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were stupendously high and of weird contours. Most of them were
+      conical to the top, but from the top, great masses of mountain balanced
+      themselves at what looked like impossible angles&mdash;overhanging without
+      apparent support. A land like that promised something new, he thought:
+      extraordinary inhabitants. The idea took shape in his mind to go there,
+      and to travel as swiftly as possible, it might even be feasible to get
+      there before sunset. It was less the mountains themselves that attracted
+      him than the country which lay beyond&mdash;the prospect of setting eyes
+      on the blue sun, which he judged to be the wonder of wonders in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The direct route was over the hills, but that was out of the question,
+      because of the killing heat and the absence of shade. He guessed, however,
+      that the valley would not take him far out of his way, and decided to keep
+      to that for the time being, much as he hated and feared it. Into the
+      hotbed of life, therefore, he once more swung himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once down, he continued to follow the windings of the valley for several
+      miles through sunlight and shadow. The path became increasingly difficult.
+      The cliffs closed in on either side until they were less than a hundred
+      yards apart, while the bed of the ravine was blocked by boulders, great
+      and small, so that the little stream, which was now diminished to the
+      proportions of a brook, had to come down where and how it could. The forms
+      of life grew stranger. Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by
+      degrees, and their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to
+      partake of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
+      but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the ground
+      by preference, and they fed only on soil and air. Maskull saw no sexual
+      organs and failed to understand how the young came into existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he witnessed an astonishing sight. A large and fully developed
+      plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space. He
+      could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long time in
+      amazement. It went on calmly moving and burrowing before him, as thought
+      it had been there all its life. Giving up the puzzle, Maskull resumed his
+      striding from rock to rock up the gorge, and then, quietly and without
+      warning, the same phenomenon occurred again. No longer could he doubt that
+      he was seeing miracles&mdash;that Nature was precipitating its shapes into
+      the world without making use of the medium of parentage.... No solution of
+      the problem presented itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brook too had altered in character. A trembling radiance came up from
+      its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the air. He had
+      not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test its quality. He
+      felt new life entering his body, from his feet upward; it resembled a
+      slowly moving cordial, rather than mere heat. The sensation was quite new
+      in his experience, yet he knew by instinct what it was. The energy emitted
+      by the brook was ascending his body neither as friend nor foe but simply
+      because it happened to be the direct road to its objective elsewhere. But,
+      although it had no hostile intentions, it was likely to prove a rough
+      traveller&mdash;he was clearly conscious that its passage through his body
+      threatened to bring about some physical transformation, unless he could do
+      something to prevent it. Leaping quickly out of the water, he leaned
+      against a rock, tightened his muscles, and braced himself against the
+      impending change. At that very moment the blurring again attacked his
+      sight, and, while he was guarding against that, his forehead sprouted out
+      into a galaxy of new eyes. He put his hand up and counted six, in addition
+      to his old ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The danger was past and Maskull laughed, congratulating himself on having
+      got off so easily. Then he wondered what the new organs were for&mdash;whether
+      they were a good or a bad thing. He had not taken a dozen steps up the
+      ravine before he found out. Just as he was in the act of jumping down from
+      the top of a boulder, his vision altered and he came to an automatic
+      standstill. He was perceiving two worlds simultaneously. With his own eyes
+      he saw the gorge as before, with its rocks, brook, plant-animals,
+      sunshine, and shadows. But with his acquired eyes he saw differently. All
+      the details of the valley were visible, but the light seemed turned down,
+      and everything appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured. The sun was obscured
+      by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This vapour was in violent
+      and almost living motion. It was thick in extension, but thin in texture;
+      some parts, however, were far denser than others, as the particles were
+      crushed together or swept apart by the motion. The green sparks from the
+      brook, when closely watched, could be distinguished individually, each one
+      wavering up toward the clouds, but the moment they got within them a
+      fearful struggle seemed to begin. The spark endeavoured to escape through
+      to the upper air, while the clouds concentrated around it whichever way it
+      darted, trying to create so dense a prison that further movement would be
+      impossible. As far as Maskull could detect, most of the sparks succeeded
+      eventually in finding their way out after frantic efforts; but one that he
+      was looking at was caught, and what happened was this. A complete ring of
+      cloud surrounded it, and, in spite of its furious leaps and flashes in all
+      directions&mdash;as if it were a live, savage creature caught in a net&mdash;nowhere
+      could it find an opening, but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with
+      it, wherever it went. The vapours continued to thicken around it, until
+      they resembled the black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad
+      thunderstorm. Then the green spark, which was still visible in the
+      interior, ceased its efforts, and remained for a time quite quiescent. The
+      cloud shape went on consolidating itself, and became nearly spherical; as
+      it grew heavier and stiller, it started slowly to descend toward the
+      valley floor. When it was directly opposite Maskull, with its lower end
+      only a few feet off the ground, its motion stopped altogether and there
+      was a complete pause for at least two minutes. Suddenly, like a stab of
+      forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became small, indented,
+      and coloured, and as a plant-animal started walking around on legs and
+      rooting up the ground in search of food. The concluding stage of the
+      phenomenon he witnessed with his normal eyesight. It showed him the
+      creature&rsquo;s appearing miraculously out of nowhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was shaken. His cynicism dropped from him and gave place to
+      curiosity and awe. &ldquo;That was exactly like the birth of a <i>thought</i>,&rdquo;
+      he said to himself, &ldquo;but who was the thinker? Some great Living Mind
+      is at work in this spot. He has intelligence, for all his shapes are
+      different, and he has character, for all belong to the same general
+      type.... If I&rsquo;m not wrong, and if it&rsquo;s the force called
+      Shaping or Crystalman, I&rsquo;ve seen enough to make me want to find out
+      something more about him.... It would be ridiculous to go on to other
+      riddles before I have solved these.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A voice called out to him from behind, and, turning around, he saw a human
+      figure hastening toward him from some distance down the ravine. It looked
+      more like a man than a woman. He was rather tall, but nimble, and was
+      clothed in a dark, frocklike garment that reached from the neck to below
+      the knees. Around his head was rolled a turban. Maskull waited for him,
+      and when he was nearer went a little way to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he experienced another surprise, for this person, although clearly a
+      human being, was neither man nor woman, nor anything between the two, but
+      was unmistakably of a third positive sex, which was remarkable to behold
+      and difficult to understand. In order to translate into words the sexual
+      impression produced in Maskull&rsquo;s mind by the stranger&rsquo;s
+      physical aspect, it is necessary to coin a new pronoun, for none in
+      earthly use would be applicable. Instead of &ldquo;he,&rdquo; &ldquo;she,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;it,&rdquo; therefore &ldquo;ae&rdquo; will be used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found himself incapable of grasping at first why the bodily
+      peculiarities of this being should strike him as springing from sex, and
+      not from race, and yet there was no doubt about the fact itself. Body,
+      face, and eyes were absolutely neither male nor female, but something
+      quite different. Just as one can distinguish a man from a woman at the
+      first glance by some indefinable difference of expression and atmospheres
+      altogether apart from the contour of the figure, so the stranger was
+      separated in appearance from both. As with men and women, the whole person
+      expressed a latent sensuality, which gave body and face alike their
+      peculiar character.... Maskull decided that it was <i>love</i>&mdash;but
+      what love&mdash;love for whom? It was neither the shame-carrying passion
+      of a male, nor the deep-rooted instinct of a female to obey her destiny.
+      It was as real and irresistible as these, but quite different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
+      intuitive feeling that aer lover was no other than Shaping himself. It
+      came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance of the
+      race but the immortality on earth of the individual. No children were
+      produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal child. Further, ae
+      sought like a man, but received like a woman. All these things were dimly
+      and confusedly expressed by this extraordinary being, who seemed to have
+      dropped out of another age, when creation was different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance, this
+      one struck him as infinitely the most <i>foreign</i>&mdash;that is, the
+      farthest removed from him in spiritual structure. If they were to live
+      together for a hundred years, they could never be companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing the
+      newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to account for
+      the marvellous things told him by his intuitions. Ae possessed broad
+      shoulders and big bones, and was without female breasts, and so far ae
+      resembled a man. But the bones were so flat and angular that aer flesh
+      presented something of the character of a crystal, having plane surfaces
+      in place of curves. The body looked as if it had not been ground down by
+      the sea of ages into smooth and rounded regularity but had sprung together
+      in angles and facets as the result of a single, sudden <i>idea</i>. The
+      face too was broken and irregular. With his racial prejudices, Maskull
+      found little beauty in it, yet beauty there was, though neither of a
+      masculine nor of a feminine type, for it had the three essentials of
+      beauty: character, intelligence, and repose. The skin was copper-coloured
+      and strangely luminous, as if lighted from within. The face was beardless,
+      but the hair of the head was as long as a woman&rsquo;s, and, dressed in a
+      single plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles. Ae possessed only two
+      eyes. That part of the turban which went across the forehead protruded so
+      far in front that it evidently concealed some organ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared active,
+      vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes were
+      powerful and alert&mdash;ae might well be in early youth. Nevertheless,
+      the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of unbelievable
+      ancientness came upon him&mdash;aer real youth seemed as far away as the
+      view observed through a reversed telescope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
+      conversing with a dream. &ldquo;To what sex do you belong?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but was
+      oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world
+      was peopled by &lsquo;phaens.&rsquo; I think I am the only survivor of all
+      those beings who were then passing through Faceny&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faceny?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman. The superficial names
+      invented by a race of superficial creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s your own name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae. And yours is Maskull. I read in your mind that you have
+      just come through some wonderful adventures. You seem to possess
+      extraordinary luck. If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit?... But never
+      mind that now. It is your <i>sex</i> that interests me. How do you satisfy your
+      desires?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on her brow. &ldquo;With that I
+      gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
+      valleys. The streams spring direct from Faceny. My whole life has been
+      spent trying to find Faceny himself. I&rsquo;ve hunted so long that if I
+      were to state the number of years you would believe I lied.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the phaen slowly. &ldquo;In Ifdawn I met someone else
+      from Matterplay&mdash;a young man called Digrung. I absorbed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be telling me this out of vanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a fearful crime. What will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile. &ldquo;In Matterplay he will
+      stir inside you, for he smells the air. Already you have his eyes.... I
+      knew him.... Take care of yourself, or something more startling may
+      happen. Keep out of the water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t torment yourself about Digrung. The valleys belong by
+      right to the phaens&mdash;the men here are interlopers. It is a good work
+      to remove them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued thoughtful. &ldquo;I say no more, but I see I will have
+      to be cautious. What did you mean about my helping you with my luck?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your luck is fast weakening, but it may still be strong enough to
+      serve me. Together we will <i>search</i> for Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Search for Threal&mdash;why, is it so hard to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you that my whole life has been spent in the quest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said Faceny, Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gazed at him with queer, ancient eyes, and smiled again. &ldquo;This
+      stream, Maskull, like every other life stream in Matterplay, has its
+      source in Faceny. But as all these streams issue out from Threal, it is in
+      Threal that we must look for Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s to prevent your finding Threal? Surely it&rsquo;s
+      a well-known country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies underground. Its communications with the upper world are
+      few, and where they are, no one that I have ever spoken to knows. I have
+      scoured the valleys and the hills. I have been to the very gates of
+      Lichstorm. I am old, so that your aged men would appear newborn infants
+      beside me, but I am as far from Threal as when I was a green youth,
+      dwelling among a throng of fellow phaens.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if my luck is good, yours is very bad.... But when you have
+      found Faceny, what do you gain?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae looked at him in silence. The smile faded from aer face, and
+      its place was taken by such a look of unearthly pain and sorrow that
+      Maskull had no need to press his question. Ae was consumed by the grief
+      and yearning of a lover eternally separated from the loved one, the scents
+      and traces of whose person were always present. This passion stamped aer
+      features at that moment with a wild, stern, spiritual beauty, far
+      transcending any beauty of woman or man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the expression vanished suddenly, and then the abrupt contrast showed
+      Maskull the real Leehallfae. Aer sensuality was solitary, but vulgar&mdash;it
+      was like the heroism of a lonely nature, pursuing animal aims with
+      untiring persistence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the phaen askance, and drummed his fingers against his thigh.
+      &ldquo;Well, we will go together. We may find something, and in any case I
+      shan&rsquo;t be sorry to converse with such a singular individual as
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I should warn you, Maskull. You and I are of different
+      creations. A phaen&rsquo;s body contains the whole of life, a man&rsquo;s
+      body contains only the half of life&mdash;the other half is in woman.
+      Faceny may be too strong a draught for your body to endure.... Do you not
+      feel this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dull with my different feelings. I must take what precautions
+      I can, and chance the rest.&rdquo; He bent down, and, taking hold of the
+      phaen&rsquo;s thin and ragged robe, tore off a broad strip, which he
+      proceeded to swathe in folds around his forehead. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not
+      forgetting your advice, Leehallfae. I would not like to start the walk as
+      Maskull and finish it as Digrung.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave a twisted grin, and they began to move upstream. The road
+      was difficult. They had to stride from boulder to boulder, and found it
+      warm work. Occasionally a worse obstacle presented itself, which they
+      could surmount only by climbing. There was no more conversation for a long
+      time. Maskull, as far as possible, adopted his companion&rsquo;s counsel
+      to avoid the water, but here and there he was forced to set foot in it.
+      The second or third time he did so, he felt a sudden agony in his arm,
+      where it had been wounded by Krag. His eyes grew joyful; his fears
+      vanished; and he began deliberately to tread the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae stroked aer chin and watched him with screwed-up eyes, trying
+      to comprehend what had happened. &ldquo;Is your luck speaking to you,
+      Maskull, or what is the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen. You are a being of antique experience, and ought to know,
+      if anyone does. What is Muspel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen&rsquo;s face was blank. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know the name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is another world of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That cannot be. There is only this one world&mdash;Faceny&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull came up to aer, linked arms, and began to talk. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      glad I fell in with you, Leehallfae, for this valley and everything
+      connected with it need a lot of explaining. For example, in this spot
+      there are hardly any organic forms left&mdash;why have they all
+      disappeared? You call this brook a &lsquo;life stream,&rsquo; yet the
+      nearer its source we get, the less life it produces. A mile or two lower
+      down we had those spontaneous plant-animals appearing out of nowhere,
+      while right down by the sea, plants and animals were tumbling over one
+      another. Now, if all this is connected in some mysterious way or other
+      with your Faceny, it seems to me he must have a most paradoxical nature.
+      His essence doesn&rsquo;t start creating shapes until it has become
+      thoroughly weakened and watered.... But perhaps both of us are talking
+      nonsense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae shook aer head. &ldquo;Everything hangs together. The stream is
+      life, and it is throwing off sparks of life all the time. When these
+      sparks are caught and imprisoned by matter, they become living shapes. The
+      nearer the stream is to its source, the more terrible and vigorous is its
+      life. You&rsquo;ll see for yourself when we reach the head of the valley
+      that there are no living shapes there at all. That means that there is no
+      kind of matter tough enough to capture and hold the terrible sparks that
+      are to be found there. Lower down the stream, most of the sparks are
+      vigorous enough to escape to the upper air, but some are held when they
+      are a little way up, and these burst suddenly into shapes. I myself am of
+      this nature. Lower down still, toward the sea, the stream has lost a great
+      part of its vital power and the sparks are lazy and sluggish. They spread
+      out, rather than rise into the air. There is hardly any kind of matter,
+      however delicate, that is incapable of capturing these feeble sparks, and
+      they are captured in multitudes&mdash;that accounts for the innumerable
+      living shapes you see there. But not only that&mdash;the sparks are passed
+      from one body to another by way of generation, and can never hope to cease
+      being so until they are worn out by decay. Lowest of all, you have the
+      Sinking Sea itself. There the degenerate and enfeebled life of the
+      Matterplay streams has for its body the whole sea. So weak is it&rsquo;s
+      power that it can&rsquo;t succeed in creating any shapes at all but you
+      can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to do so, in those spouts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness
+      of the life germ in their case?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly. It can&rsquo;t attain all its desires at once. And now you
+      can see how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring spontaneously
+      from the more electric and vigorous sparks.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When life dies, it becomes matter. Matter itself dies, but its
+      place is constantly taken by new matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left
+      his brain they are nothing&mdash;mere dying embers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a cheerless philosophy,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      is Faceny himself, then, and why does he think at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile. &ldquo;That I&rsquo;ll explain
+      too. Faceny is of this nature. He faces Nothingness in all directions. He
+      has no back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It
+      must necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between him and
+      Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates
+      Nothingness. He draws his inspirations from it; in no other way could he
+      feel himself. For the same reason, phaens and even men love to be in empty
+      places and vast solitudes, for each one is a little Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That rings true,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny&rsquo;s face backward. Since
+      his face is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior. A draught
+      of thought thus continuously flows from Nothingness to the inside of
+      Faceny, which is the world. The thoughts become shapes, and people the
+      world. This outer world, therefore, which is lying all around us, is not
+      outside at all, as it happens, but inside. The visible universe is like a
+      gigantic stomach, and the real outside of the world we shall never see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pondered deeply for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae, I fail to see what you personally have to hope for,
+      since you are nothing more than a discarded, dying thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you never loved a woman?&rdquo; asked the phaen, regarding him
+      fixedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you loved, did you have no high moments?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s asking the same question in other words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those moments you were approaching Faceny. If you could have
+      drawn nearer still, would you not have done so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would, regardless of the consequences.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even if you personally had nothing to hope for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have <i>that</i> to hope for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae walked on in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man is the half of Life,&rdquo; ae broke out suddenly. &ldquo;A
+      woman is the other half of life, but a phaen is the whole of life.
+      Moreover, when life becomes split into halves, something else has dropped
+      out of it&mdash;something that belongs only to the whole. Between your
+      love and mine there is no comparison. If even your sluggish blood is drawn
+      to Faceny, without stopping to ask what will come of it, how do you
+      suppose it is with <i>me</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t question the genuineness of your passion,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s a pity you can&rsquo;t see your way
+      to carry it forward into the next world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a distorted grin, expressing heaven knows what emotion.
+      &ldquo;Men think what they like, but phaens are so made that they can see
+      the world only as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That ended the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was high in the sky, and they appeared to be approaching the head
+      of the ravine. Its walls had still further closed in and, except at those
+      moments when Branchspell was directly behind them, they strode along all
+      the time in deep shade; but still it was disagreeably hot and relaxing.
+      All life had ceased. A beautiful, fantastic spectacle was presented by the
+      cliff faces, the rocky ground, and the boulders that choked the entire
+      width of the gorge. They were of a snow-white crystalline limestone,
+      heavily scored by veins of bright, gleaming blue. The rivulet was no
+      longer green, but a clear, transparent crystal. Its noise was musical, and
+      altogether it looked most romantic and charming, but Leehallfae seemed to
+      find something else in it&mdash;aer features grew more and more set and
+      tortured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About half an hour after all the other life forms had vanished, another
+      plant-animal was precipitated out of space, in front of their eyes. It was
+      as tall as Maskull himself, and had a brilliant and vigorous appearance,
+      as befitted a creature just out of Nature&rsquo;s mint. It started to walk
+      about; but hardly had it done so when it burst silently asunder. Nothing
+      remained of it&mdash;the whole body disappeared instantaneously into the
+      same invisible mist from which it had sprung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bears out what you said,&rdquo; commented Maskull, turning
+      rather pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Leehallfae, &ldquo;we have now come to the
+      region of terrible life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, since you&rsquo;re right in this, I must believe all that you&rsquo;ve
+      been telling me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he uttered the words, they were just turning a bend of the ravine.
+      There now loomed up straight ahead a perpendicular cliff about three
+      hundred feet in height, composed of white, marbled rock. It was the head
+      of the valley, and beyond it they could not proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In return for my wisdom,&rdquo; said the phaen, &ldquo;you will now
+      lend me your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked up to the base of the cliff, and Maskull looked at it
+      reflectively. It was possible to climb it, but the ascent would be
+      difficult. The now tiny brook issued from a hole in the rock only a few
+      feet up. Apart from its musical running, not a sound was to be heard. The
+      floor of the gorge was in shadow, but about halfway up the precipice the
+      sun was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want me to do?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.</p>
+<p>	  &ldquo;Everything
+      is now in your hands, and I have no suggestions to make. Now it&rsquo;s
+      your luck that must help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued gazing up a little while longer. &ldquo;We had better
+      wait till the afternoon, Leehallfae. I&rsquo;ll probably have to climb to
+      the top, but it&rsquo;s too hot at present&mdash;and besides, I&rsquo;m
+      tired. I&rsquo;ll snatch a few hours&rsquo; sleep. After that, we&rsquo;ll
+      see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae seemed annoyed, but raised no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 17. CORPANG
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre. Leehallfae was standing
+      by his side, looking down at him. It was doubtful whether ae had slept at
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting
+      up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day is passing,&rdquo; was the vague reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m
+      going to climb <i>that</i>. No need for both of us to risk our necks, so
+      you wait here, and if I find anything on top I&rsquo;ll call you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A phaen glanced at him strangely. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing up there
+      except a bare hillside. I&rsquo;ve been there often. Have you anything
+      special in mind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heights often bring me inspiration. Sit down, and wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of the
+      cliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush. Then it grew
+      precipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection and
+      intelligence. There were few hand- or footholds: he had to reflect before
+      every step. On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was no novice at
+      the sport. Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that it half blinded
+      him with its glittering whiteness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top. He was hot, sweating
+      copiously, and rather dizzy. To reach a ledge he caught hold of two
+      projecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time scrambling upward,
+      his legs between the rocks. The left-hand rock, which was the larger of
+      the two, became dislodged by his weight, and, flying like a huge, dark
+      shadow past his head, crashed down with a terrifying sound to the foot of
+      the precipice, followed by an avalanche of smaller stones. Maskull
+      steadied himself as well as he could, but it was some moments before he
+      dared to look down behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae. Then he caught sight of legs
+      and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom. He perceived
+      that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was scrutinising something,
+      and waited for aer to reappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike voice,
+      &ldquo;The entrance is here!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming down!&rdquo; roared Maskull. &ldquo;Wait for me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He descended swiftly&mdash;without taking too much care, for he thought he
+      recognised his &ldquo;luck&rdquo; in this discovery&mdash;and within
+      twenty minutes was standing beside the phaen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the
+      spring. It tore it out of its bed. See&mdash;now there&rsquo;s room for us
+      to get in!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get excited!&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a
+      remarkable accident, but we have plenty of time. Let me look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big man without
+      stooping. Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark, yet a peculiar
+      glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough. A rock tunnel went
+      straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out of sight. The valley
+      brook did not flow along the floor of this tunnel, as he had expected, but
+      came up as a spring just inside the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh? Still, observe
+      that your stream parts company with us here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion was
+      trembling from head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart. &ldquo;The stream leaves us, but
+      what makes the stream what it is continues with us. Faceny is there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely you don&rsquo;t expect to see him in person? Why are you
+      shaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it will be too much for me after all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? How is it affecting you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm&rsquo;s length,
+      endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. &ldquo;Faceny&rsquo;s
+      thoughts are obscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he
+      grants to you what he denies to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he grant to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it&rsquo;s
+      immaterial. Tomorrow both of us will be dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull impatiently shook himself free. &ldquo;Your sensations may be
+      reliable in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is flaming up inside you,&rdquo; replied Leehallfae, shaking
+      aer head. &ldquo;But after it has reached its climax&mdash;perhaps tonight&mdash;it
+      will sink rapidly and you&rsquo;ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter
+      Threal I shan&rsquo;t come out again. A smell of death is being wafted to
+      me out of this hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not frightened,&rdquo; said Leehallfae quietly&mdash;ae had
+      been gradually recovering aer tranquillity&mdash;&ldquo;but when one has
+      lived as long as I have, it is a serious matter to die. Every year one
+      puts out new roots.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Decide what you&rsquo;re going to do,&rdquo; said Maskull with a
+      touch of contempt, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m going in at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after that
+      walked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching his head,
+      followed close at aer heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
+      altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear and
+      refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. The daylight
+      disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that, Maskull could not
+      say where the light came from. The air itself must have been luminous, for
+      though it was as light as full moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae
+      cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of
+      the tunnel and their own bodies appeared colourless. Everything was black
+      and white, like a lunar landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal
+      feelings created by the atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to widen
+      out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could have walked
+      side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae dragged aerself along
+      slowly and painfully, with sunken head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of aer. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go on like that. Better
+      let me take you back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen smiled, and staggered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m dying.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. It&rsquo;s only a passing
+      indisposition. Let me take you back to the daylight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sick must have their way,&rdquo; said Maskull. Lifting aer
+      bodily in his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or
+      so. They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of
+      which he had never set eyes upon before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Set me down!&rdquo; directed Leehallfae feebly. &ldquo;Here I&rsquo;ll
+      die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground. The
+      phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with
+      fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain, lighted
+      as if by the moon&mdash;but there was of course no moon, and there were no
+      shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Beside them were
+      trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, but the branches
+      also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No other plants could be
+      seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice. Beyond a mile or
+      two in any direction the light merged into obscurity. At their back a
+      great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was not square like a
+      wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indented line of sea
+      cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight. Here and there
+      a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered, towered aloft into
+      the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof. There were no colours&mdash;every
+      detail of the landscape was black, white, or grey. The scene appeared so
+      still, so solemn and religious, that all his feelings quieted down to
+      absolute tranquillity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, and
+      helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like a
+      candle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin of
+      Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen&rsquo;s dead features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone standing
+      beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not at once rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another phaen dead,&rdquo; said the newcomer in a grave, toneless,
+      and intellectual voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was not
+      disfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features were energetic
+      and rather coarse&mdash;yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure, hard
+      life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyes carried a
+      twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem was apparently in the
+      forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; the hair of his head was
+      short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothed in a black, sleeveless
+      robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. There was an air of cleanness and
+      austerity about the whole man that was attractive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so, kept
+      passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. &ldquo;They all
+      find their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they live to
+      an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because of their
+      spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favoured children of
+      Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you
+      doing here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe.
+      As for what I am doing here&mdash;I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen,
+      from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a man doesn&rsquo;t accompany a phaen out of friendship. What
+      do you want in Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then this <i>is</i> Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. &ldquo;Are you
+      ignorant, or merely reticent, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred,
+      and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, as
+      though they were in a cathedral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do you want my society, or not?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is&mdash;not to talk
+      about myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must at least tell me where you want to go to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can guide you through, if that&rsquo;s all you want. Come, let us
+      start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let&rsquo;s do our duty and bury the dead, if possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around,&rdquo; directed Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what has happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for
+      it to be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was the phaen an illusion, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In no sense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be
+      going mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing unintelligible in it, if you&rsquo;ll only
+      listen calmly. The phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible
+      world&mdash;to Faceny. This underworld is not Faceny&rsquo;s world, but
+      Thire&rsquo;s, and Faceny&rsquo;s creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere.
+      As this applies not only to whole bodies, but even to the last particles
+      of bodies, the phaen has dissolved into Nothingness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t you and I belong to the outside world too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We belong to all three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What three worlds&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three worlds,&rdquo; said Corpang composedly. &ldquo;The
+      first is Faceny&rsquo;s, the second is Amfuse&rsquo;s, the third is Thire&rsquo;s.
+      From him Threal gets its name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three
+      worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. &ldquo;All this we can discuss
+      as we go along. It&rsquo;s a torment to me to be standing still.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had lain,
+      quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely
+      tear himself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpang
+      called to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,
+      directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, the
+      absence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out of the
+      jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathly
+      silence, the knowledge that he was underground&mdash;the combination of
+      all these things predisposed Maskull&rsquo;s mind to mysticism, and he
+      prepared himself with some anxiety to hear Corpang&rsquo;s explanation of
+      the land and its wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of
+      the outside world and the reality of this world were two quite different
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what sense are there three worlds?&rdquo; he demanded, repeating
+      his former question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. &ldquo;First of all,
+      Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it&rsquo;s mere intellectual
+      curiosity, tell me, for we mustn&rsquo;t play with awful matters.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it isn&rsquo;t that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      not a student. My journey is no holiday tour.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t there blood on your soul?&rdquo; asked Corpang, eying
+      him intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood rose steadily to Maskull&rsquo;s face, but in that light it
+      caused it to appear black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately there is, and not a little.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other&rsquo;s face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so you see,&rdquo; went on Maskull, with a short laugh, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      in the very best condition for receiving your instruction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang still paused. &ldquo;Underneath your crimes I see a man,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a few minutes. &ldquo;On that account, and because we are
+      commanded to help one another, I won&rsquo;t leave you at present, though
+      I little thought to be walking with a murderer.... Now to your
+      question.... Whatever a man sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three
+      ways&mdash;length, breadth, depth. Length is existence, breadth is
+      relation, depth is feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who
+      came from Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know him. What else did he tell you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went on to apply it to music. Continue, and pardon the
+      interruption.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These three states of perception are the three worlds. Existence is
+      Faceny&rsquo;s world, relation is Amfuse&rsquo;s world, feeling is Thire&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we come down to hard facts?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      frowning. &ldquo;I understand no more than I did before what you mean by
+      three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The first
+      world is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out of
+      nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The second world is Love&mdash;by which I don&rsquo;t mean lust.
+      Without love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable
+      deliberately to act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy&mdash;not
+      even hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect
+      and distorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny&rsquo;s world of
+      Nature, therefore, we have Amfuse&rsquo;s world of Love, or Relation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world
+      is not contained in the first?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover
+      lives for others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so. It&rsquo;s rather mystical. But go on&mdash;who is
+      Thire?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and
+      love without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is the
+      need of men to stretch out toward their creator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean prayer and worship?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in
+      either the first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as
+      depth is the line between object and subject, feeling is the line between
+      Thire and man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is Thire himself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire is the afterworld.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Do you
+      believe in three separate gods, or are these merely three ways of
+      regarding one God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic. Yet they
+      are somehow united.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected a while. &ldquo;How have you arrived at these
+      conclusions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None other are possible in Threal, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why in Threal&mdash;what is there peculiar here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will show you presently.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested what
+      had been said. When they came to the first trees, which grew along the
+      banks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,&rdquo;
+      he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull removed it. He found that the line of his brow was smooth and
+      uninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How has this come about&mdash;and how did you know it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were Faceny&rsquo;s organs. They have vanished, just as the
+      phaen&rsquo;s body vanished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept rubbing his forehead. &ldquo;I feel more human without them.
+      But why isn&rsquo;t the rest of my body affected?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because its living will contains the element of Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are we stopping here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and
+      proffered it to him. &ldquo;Eat this, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For food, or something else?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food for body and soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap was
+      bleeding. It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a change of
+      perception. The landscape, without alteration of light or outline, became
+      several degrees more stern and sacred. When he looked at Corpang he was
+      impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness, but the perplexed expression
+      was still in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Occasionally I go above, but not often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fastens you to this gloomy world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The search for Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it&rsquo;s still a search?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain, the
+      conversation became even more earnest in character than before. &ldquo;Although
+      I was not born here,&rdquo; proceeded Corpang, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lived
+      here for twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing
+      nearer to Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it&mdash;the
+      first stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones.
+      The longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In the
+      beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as a
+      voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, and
+      harsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million miles
+      off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you explain that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is troubling you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My days are spent in torture.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You still persist, though? This day darkness can&rsquo;t be the
+      ultimate state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My questions will be answered.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you propose to show me?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three
+      Figures, which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There,
+      we will pray.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily
+      forget.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two
+      parallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hills
+      on either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as it
+      curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. They came
+      to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed a trickling
+      brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it was flowing <i>up</i>
+      the valley instead of <i>down</i>. Before long it was joined by other
+      miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sized stream.
+      Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature has other laws here, it seems?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet the water is flowing somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t explain it, but there are three wills in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without
+      Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought this over for some minutes. &ldquo;That must be so,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;Without life there can be no love, and without
+      love there can be no religious feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the valley
+      presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. The sides
+      were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrower at every
+      step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural and sepulchral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull said, &ldquo;I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still do not know what you are doing here,&rdquo; answered
+      Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name I&rsquo;ve heard&mdash;but under what circumstances?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously troubled.
+      &ldquo;Who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touching
+      fingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the rock
+      walls on either side. It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-sac, but just
+      when the road seemed least promising, and they were shut in by cliffs on
+      all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought them suddenly into the
+      open. They emerged through a mere crack in the line of precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to the
+      way they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few hundred
+      yards. Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm with
+      perpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred feet, but
+      its bottom could not be seen. On both sides of the chasm, facing one
+      another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they too
+      proceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emerged
+      onto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higher than
+      that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a double line of
+      lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straight
+      forward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as a waterfall,
+      it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge. It then disappeared
+      through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Maskull&rsquo;s mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnatural
+      phenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable here than
+      on the open plain. It made the place look like a hall of phantoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left. When they
+      had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred feet. Three large
+      rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they resembled three upright
+      giants, standing motionless side by side on the extreme edge of the chasm.
+      Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and then Maskull saw that they were
+      statues. Each was about thirty feet high, and the workmanship was of the
+      rudest. They represented naked men, but the limbs and trunks had been
+      barely chipped into shape&mdash;the faces alone had had care bestowed on
+      them, and even these faces were merely generalised. It was obviously the
+      work of primitive artists. The statues stood erect with knees closed and
+      arms hanging straight down their sides. All three were exactly alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a representation of your three Beings?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull, awed by the spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask no questions, but kneel,&rdquo; replied Corpang. He dropped
+      onto his own knees, but Maskull remained standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently. After a few
+      minutes the light sensibly faded. Then Maskull knelt as well, but he
+      continued looking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night. Sight
+      and sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again. But it had
+      ceased to be a statue&mdash;it was a living person. Out of the blackness
+      of space a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by a mystic, rosy
+      glow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun. As the light grew
+      stronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent and that the glow came
+      from within. The limbs of the apparition were wreathed in mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly. It was that of
+      a beardless youth of twenty years. It possessed the beauty of a girl and
+      the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic smile. Maskull felt
+      the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and rapture of one who awakes
+      from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the gleaming, dark, delicate
+      colours of the half-dawn. The vision smiled, kept still, and looked beyond
+      him. He began to shudder, with delight&mdash;and many emotions. As he
+      gazed, his poetic sensibility acquired such a nervous and indefinable
+      character that he could endure it no more; he burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a few
+      moments more he was plunged back into total darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared. It too was transfigured into
+      a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the details of its face and
+      body, because of the brightness of the light that radiated from them. This
+      light, which started as pale gold, ended as flaming golden fire. It
+      illumined the whole underground landscape. The rock ledges, the cliffs,
+      himself and Corpang on their knees, the two unlighted statues&mdash;all
+      appeared as if in sunlight, and the shadows were black and strongly
+      defined. The light carried heat with it, but a singular heat. Maskull was
+      unaware of any rise in temperature, but he felt his heart melting to
+      womanish softness. His male arrogance and egotism faded imperceptibly
+      away; his personality seemed to disappear. What was left behind was not
+      freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionate and nearly savage
+      mental state of pity and distress. He felt a tormenting desire to <i>serve</i>.
+      All this came from the heat of the statue, and was without an object. He
+      glanced anxiously around him, and fastened his eyes on Corpang. He put a
+      hand on his shoulder and aroused him from his praying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know what I am feeling, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to
+      the invisible worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light to die
+      away from the landscape. Maskull&rsquo;s emotion slowly subsided, but it
+      was not until he was once more in complete darkness that he became master
+      of himself again. Then he felt ashamed of his boyish exhibition of
+      enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be something wanting in
+      his character. He got up onto his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The very moment that he arose, a man&rsquo;s voice sounded, not a yard
+      from his ear. It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could
+      distinguish that it was not Corpang&rsquo;s. As he listened he was unable
+      to prevent himself from physically trembling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, you are to die,&rdquo; said the unseen speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have only a few hours of life left. Don&rsquo;t trifle the time
+      away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could bring nothing out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have despised life,&rdquo; went on the low-toned voice. &ldquo;Do
+      you really imagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life is
+      a joke?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice died away. Maskull waited in silence for it to speak again. All
+      remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have taken his
+      departure. Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a sort of
+      catalepsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment he saw one of the statues <i>fading away</i>, from a pale,
+      white glow to darkness. He had not previously seen it shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned. Corpang got
+      up, and shook him out of his trance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around, but saw no third person. &ldquo;Whose statue was
+      the last?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+<p>
+“Thire’s.”
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear me speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard your voice, but no one else&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long
+      to live. Leehallfae prophesied the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head. &ldquo;What value do you set on life?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little. But it&rsquo;s a fearful thing all the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your death is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but this warning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped talking. A profound silence reigned. Neither of the two men
+      seemed to know what to do next, or where to go. Then both of them heard
+      the sound of drumming. It was slow, emphatic, and impressive, a long way
+      off and not loud, but against the background of quietness, very marked. It
+      appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of where they
+      were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat
+      quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that sound be?&rdquo; asked Corpang, peering into the
+      obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once again, who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiance
+      was in the air, in the direction of the drumming. It increased in
+      intensity and gradually occupied the whole scene. Things were no longer
+      seen by Their&rsquo;s light, but by this new light. It cast no shadows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly.
+      &ldquo;What fire is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both glanced instinctively at the three statues. In the strange glow
+      they had undergone a change. The face of each figure was clothed in the
+      sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes. &ldquo;What can this
+      mean?&rdquo; he asked a minute later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too,
+      whether he is one person or three.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a shocking
+      sight. &ldquo;Dare we believe this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;You have always served the
+      highest, and you must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that
+      Thire is not the highest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. &ldquo;Life
+      is clearly false&mdash;I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I
+      find&mdash;this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had
+      eternity to practice his cunning in, so it&rsquo;s no wonder if a man can&rsquo;t
+      see straight, even with the best intentions. What have you decided to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drumming seems to be moving away. Will you follow it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where will it take us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps out of Threal altogether.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds to me more real than reality,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+      &ldquo;Tell me, who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of
+      which this world is a distorted copy. Crystalman is life, but Surtur is
+      other than life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has sprung together somehow&mdash;from inspiration, from
+      experience, from conversation with the wise men of your planet. Every hour
+      it grows truer for me and takes a more definite shape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,
+      energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution. &ldquo;I believe
+      you, Maskull. No better proof is required than <i>that</i>. Thire is not
+      the highest; he is even in a certain sense the <i>lowest</i>. Nothing but
+      the thoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits.... I am coming
+      with you&mdash;but don&rsquo;t play the traitor. These signs may be for
+      you, and not for me at all, and if you leave me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I make no promises. I don&rsquo;t ask you to come with me. If you
+      prefer to stay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it,
+      you had better not come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. I shall never forget your service to
+      me... Let us make haste, or we shall lose the sound.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull. They walked fast in the
+      direction of the drumming. For upward of two miles the path went along the
+      ledge without any change of level. The mysterious radiance gradually
+      departed, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal. The rhythmical
+      beats continued, but a very long way ahead&mdash;neither was able to
+      diminish the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of man are you?&rdquo; Corpang suddenly broke out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what respect?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible? How is it
+      that I&rsquo;ve never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my
+      never-ending prayers and mortifications? In what way are you superior to
+      me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hear voices perhaps can&rsquo;t be made a profession,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull. &ldquo;I have a simple and unoccupied mind&mdash;that may
+      be why I sometimes hear things that up to the present you have not been
+      able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to his
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform on
+      the opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to the right,
+      and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a bridge, coming
+      out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line of precipices
+      immediately confronted them. They followed the drumming along the base of
+      these heights, but as they were passing the mouth of a large cave the
+      sound came from its recesses, and they turned their steps inward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This leads to the outer world,&rdquo; remarked Corpang. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      occasionally been there by this passage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that&rsquo;s where it is taking us, no doubt. I confess I shan&rsquo;t
+      be sorry to see sunlight once more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you find time to think of sunlight?&rdquo; asked Corpang with a
+      rough smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love the sun, and perhaps I&rsquo;m rather lacking in the spirit
+      of a zealot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet, for all that, you may get <i>there</i> before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be bitter,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell
+      you another thing. Muspel can&rsquo;t be willed, for the simple reason
+      that Muspel does not concern the will. To will is a property of this
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is your journey for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over
+      the walk, and quite another to run there at top speed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I&rsquo;m not so easily deceived as you think,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang with another smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light persisted in the cave. The path narrowed and became a steep
+      ascent. Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and they had to
+      climb. The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was reminded of the
+      confined dreams of his childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not long afterward, daylight appeared. They hastened to complete the last
+      stage. Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and, all dirty
+      and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on a hillside, bathed
+      in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine. Corpang followed closely at his
+      heels. He was obliged to shield his eyes with his hands for a few minutes,
+      so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell&rsquo;s blinding rays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drum beats have stopped!&rdquo; he exclaimed suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t expect music all the time,&rdquo; answered Maskull
+      dryly. &ldquo;We mustn&rsquo;t be luxurious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But now we have no guide. We&rsquo;re no better off than before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Tormance is a big place. But I have an infallible rule,
+      Corpang. As I come from the south, I always go due north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will take us to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them. &ldquo;I
+      saw these rocks from Matterplay. The mountains look as far off now as they
+      did then, and there&rsquo;s not much of the day left. How far is Lichstorm
+      from here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked away to the distant range. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, but
+      unless a miracle happens we shan&rsquo;t get there tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a feeling,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;that we shall not
+      only get there tonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my
+      life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he sat down passively to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 18. HAUNTE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull sat, Corpang walked restlessly to and fro, swinging his
+      arms. He had lost his staff. His face was inflamed with suppressed
+      impatience, which accentuated its natural coarseness. At last he stopped
+      short in front of Maskull and looked down at him. &ldquo;What do you
+      intend to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced up and idly waved his hand toward the distant mountains.
+      &ldquo;Since we can&rsquo;t walk, we must wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know... How&rsquo;s this, though? Those peaks have
+      changed colour, from red to green.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the lich wind is travelling this way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lich wind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the atmosphere of Lichstorm. It always clings to the
+      mountains, but when the wind blows from the north it comes as far as
+      Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sort of fog, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar sort, for they say it excites the sexual passions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to have lovemaking,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you won&rsquo;t find it so joyous,&rdquo; replied Corpang a
+      little grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me&mdash;these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast fading
+      into obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Passion keeps them from falling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of spirit.
+      &ldquo;What, the love of rock for rock?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is comical, but true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take a closer peep at them presently. Beyond the
+      mountains is Barey, is it not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then the Ocean. But what is the name of that Ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is told only to those who die beside it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the secret so precious, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than two
+      hours of daylight remaining. The air all around them became murky. It was
+      a thin mist, neither damp nor cold. The Lichstorm Range now appeared only
+      as a blur on the sky. The air was electric and tingling, and was exciting
+      in its effect. Maskull felt a sort of emotional inflammation, as though a
+      very slight external cause would serve to overturn his self-control.
+      Corpang stood silent with a mouth like iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That seems to me a good watchtower. Perhaps we shall see something
+      from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his companion&rsquo;s opinion, he began to scramble up
+      the tor, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit. Corpang joined
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to the
+      sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water. Leaving
+      all that, however, Maskull&rsquo;s eyes immediately fastened themselves on
+      a small, boat-shaped object, about two miles away, which was travelling
+      rapidly toward them, suspended only a few feet in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of that?&rdquo; he asked in a tone of
+      astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within two minutes the flying object, whatever it was, had diminished the
+      distance between them by one half. It resembled a boat more and more, but
+      its flight was erratic, rather than smooth; its nose was continually
+      jerking upward and downward, and from side to side. Maskull now made out a
+      man sitting in the stern, and what looked like a large dead animal lying
+      amidships. As the aerial craft drew nearer, he observed a thick, blue haze
+      underneath it, and a similar haze behind, but the front, facing them, was
+      clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here must be what we are waiting for, Corpang. But what on earth
+      carries it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard contemplatively, and then, fearing that they had not
+      been seen, stepped onto the highest rock, bellowed loudly, and made wild
+      motions with his arm. The flying-boat, which was only a few hundred yards
+      distant, slightly altered its course, now heading toward them in a way
+      that left no doubt that the steersman had detected their presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat slackened speed until it was travelling no faster than a walking
+      man, but the irregularity of its movements continued. It was shaped rather
+      queerly. About twenty feet long, its straight sides tapered off from a
+      flat bow, four feet broad, to a sharp-angled stern. The flat bottom was
+      not above ten feet from the ground. It was undecked, and carried only one
+      living occupant; the other object they had distinguished was really the
+      carcass of an animal, of about the size of a large sheep. The blue haze
+      trailing behind the boat appeared to emanate from the glittering point of
+      a short upright pole fastened in the stern. When the craft was within a
+      few feet of them, and they were looking down at it in wonder from above,
+      the man removed this pole and covered the brightly shining tip with a cap.
+      The forward motion then ceased altogether, and the boat began to drift
+      hither and thither, but still it remained suspended in the air, while the
+      haze underneath persisted. Finally the broad side came gently up against
+      the pile of rocks on which they were standing. The steersman jumped ashore
+      and immediately clambered up to meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull offered him a hand, but he refused it disdainfully. He was a young
+      man, of middle height. He wore a close-fitting fur garment. His limbs were
+      quite ordinary, but his trunk was disproportionately long, and he had the
+      biggest and deepest chest that Maskull had ever seen in a man. His
+      hairless face was sharp, pointed, and ugly, with protruding teeth, and a
+      spiteful, grinning expression. His eyes and brows sloped upward. On his
+      forehead was an organ which looked as though it had been mutilated&mdash;it
+      was a mere disagreeable stump of flesh. His hair was short and thin.
+      Maskull could not name the colour of his skin, but it seemed to stand in
+      the same relation to jale as green to red.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once up, the stranger stood for a minute or two, scrutinising the two
+      companions through half-closed lids, all the time smiling insolently.
+      Maskull was all eagerness to exchange words, but did not care to be the
+      first to speak. Corpang stood moodily, a little in the background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What men are you?&rdquo; demanded the aerial navigator at last. His
+      voice was extremely loud, and possessed a most unpleasant timbre. It
+      sounded to Maskull like a large volume of air trying to force its way
+      through a narrow orifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Maskull; my friend is Corpang. He comes from Threal, but where
+      I come from, don&rsquo;t ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Haunte, from Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where may that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half an hour ago I could have shown it to you, but now it has got
+      too murky. It is a mountain in Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning there now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how long will it take to get there in that boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two&mdash;three hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it accommodate us too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, are you for Lichstorm as well? What can you want there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see the sights,&rdquo; responded Maskull with twinkling eyes.
+      &ldquo;But first of all, to dine. I can&rsquo;t remember having eaten all
+      day. You seem to have been hunting to some purpose, so we won&rsquo;t lack
+      for food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte eyed him quizzically. &ldquo;You certainly don&rsquo;t lack
+      impudence. However, I&rsquo;m a man of that sort myself, and it is the
+      sort I prefer. Your friend, now, would probably rather starve than ask a
+      meal of a stranger. He looks to me just like a bewildered toad dragged up
+      out of a dark hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took Corpang&rsquo;s arm, and constrained him to silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been hunting, Haunte?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Matterplay. I had the worst luck&mdash;I speared one wold horse,
+      and there it lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Lichstorm like?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are men there, and there are women there, but there are no
+      men-women, as with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call men-women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Persons of mixed sex, like yourself. In Lichstorm the sexes are
+      pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always regarded myself as a man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely you have; but the test is, do you hate and fear women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, do you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grinned and showed his teeth. &ldquo;Things are different in
+      Lichstorm.... So you want to see the sights?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess I am curious to see your women, for example, after what
+      you say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll introduce you to Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment after making this remark, and then suddenly uttered a
+      great, bass laugh, so that his chest shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us share the joke,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;ll understand it later.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you play pranks with me, I won&rsquo;t stand on ceremony with
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed again. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be the one to play pranks.
+      Sullenbode will be deeply obliged to me. If I don&rsquo;t visit her myself
+      as often as she would like, I&rsquo;m always glad to serve her in other
+      ways.... Well, you shall have your boat ride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull rubbed his nose doubtfully. &ldquo;If the sexes hate one another
+      in your land, is it because passion is weaker, or stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In other parts of the world there is soft passion, but in Lichstorm
+      there is hard passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you call hard passion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where men are called to women by pain, and not pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I intend to understand, before I&rsquo;ve finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Haunte, with a taunting look, &ldquo;it would
+      be a pity to let the chance slip, since you&rsquo;re going to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Corpang&rsquo;s turn to take Maskull by the arm. &ldquo;This
+      journey will end badly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your goal was Muspel a short while ago; now it is women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me alone,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Give luck a slack rein.
+      What brought this boat here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this talk about Muspel?&rdquo; demanded Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang caught his shoulder roughly, and stared straight into his eyes.
+      &ldquo;What do you know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much, but something, perhaps. Ask me at supper. Now it is high
+      time to start. Navigating the mountains by night isn&rsquo;t child&rsquo;s
+      play, let me tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not forget,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed down at the boat. &ldquo;Are we to get in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, my friend. It&rsquo;s only canework and skin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First of all, you might enlighten me as to how you have contrived
+      to dispense with the laws of gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte smiled sarcastically. &ldquo;A secret in your ear, Maskull. All
+      laws are female. A true male is an outlaw&mdash;outside the law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great body of the earth is continually giving out female
+      particles, and the male parts of rocks and living bodies are equally
+      continually trying to reach them. That&rsquo;s gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how do you manage with your boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My two male stones do the work. The one underneath the boat
+      prevents it from falling to the ground; the one in the stern shuts it off
+      from solid objects in the rear. The only part of the boat attracted by any
+      part of the earth is the bow, for that&rsquo;s the only part the light of
+      the male stones does not fall on. So in that direction the boat travels.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what are these wondrous male stones?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They really are male stones. There is nothing female in them; they
+      are showering out male sparks all the time. These sparks devour all the
+      female particles rising from the earth. No female particles are left over
+      to attract the male parts of the boat, and so they are not in the least
+      attracted in that direction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull ruminated for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your hunting, and boatbuilding, and science, you seem a very
+      handy, skilful fellow, Haunte.... But the sun&rsquo;s sinking, and we&rsquo;d
+      better start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get down first, then, and shift that carcass farther forward. Then
+      you and your gloomy friend can sit amidships.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately climbed down, and dropped himself into the boat; but
+      then he received a surprise. The moment he stood on the frail bottom,
+      still clinging to the rock, not only did his weight entirely disappear, as
+      though he were floating in some heavy medium, like salt water, but the
+      rock he held onto drew him, as by a mild current of electricity, and he
+      was able to withdraw his hands only with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the first moment&rsquo;s shock, he quietly accepted the new order of
+      things, and set about shifting the carcass. Since there was no weight in
+      the boat this was effected without any great labour. Corpang then
+      descended. The astonishing physical change had no power to disturb his
+      settled composure, which was founded on moral ideas. Haunte came last;
+      grasping the staff which held the upper male stone, he proceeded to erect
+      it, after removing the cap. Maskull then obtained his first near view of
+      the mysterious light, which, by counteracting the forces of Nature, acted
+      indirectly not only as elevator but as motive force. In the last ruddy
+      gleams of the great sun, its rays were obscured, and it looked little more
+      impressive than an extremely brilliant, scintillating blue-white jewel,
+      but its power could be gauged by the visible, coloured mist that it threw
+      out for many yards around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steering was effected by means of a shutter attached by a cord to the
+      top of the staff, which could be so manipulated that any segment of the
+      male stone&rsquo;s rays, or all the rays, or none at all, could be shut
+      off at will. No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial vessel quietly
+      detached itself from the rock to which it had been drawn, and passed
+      slowly forward in the direction of the mountains. Branchspell sank below
+      the horizon. The gathering mist blotted out everything outside a radius of
+      a few miles. The air grew cool and fresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon the rock masses ceased on the great, rising plain. Haunte withdrew
+      the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,&rdquo;
+      exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;I would have thought it impossible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grunted. &ldquo;You will have to take risks, and think yourself
+      fortunate if you come off with nothing worse than a cracked skull. But one
+      thing I can tell you&mdash;if you go on disturbing me with your chitchat
+      we shan&rsquo;t get as far as the mountains.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereafter Maskull was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The twilight deepened; the murk grew denser. There was little to look at,
+      but much to feel. The motion of the boat, which was due to the
+      never-ending struggle between the male stones and the force of
+      gravitation, resembled in an exaggerated fashion the violent tossing of a
+      small craft on a choppy sea. The two passengers became unhappy. Haunte,
+      from his seat in the stern, gazed at them sardonically with one eye. The
+      darkness now came on rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About ninety minutes after the commencement of the voyage they arrived at
+      the foothills of Lichstorm. They began to mount. There was no daylight
+      left to see by. Beneath them, however, on both sides of them and in the
+      rear, the landscape was lighted up for a considerable distance by the now
+      vivid blue rays of the twin male stones. Ahead, where these rays did not
+      shine, Haunte was guided by the self-luminous nature of the rocks, grass,
+      and trees. These were faintly phosphorescent; the vegetation shone out
+      more strongly than the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was not shining and there were no stars; Maskull therefore
+      inferred that the upper atmosphere was dense with mist. Once or twice,
+      from his sensations of choking, he thought that they were entering a
+      fogbank, but it was a strange kind of fog, for it had the effect of
+      doubling the intensity of every light in front of them. Whenever this
+      happened, nightmare feelings attacked him; he experienced transitory,
+      unreasoning fright and horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they passed high above the valley that separated the foothills from
+      the mountains themselves. The boat began an ascent of many thousands of
+      feet and, as the cliffs were near, Haunte had to manoeuvre carefully with
+      the rear light in order to keep clear of them. Maskull watched the
+      delicacy of his movements, not without admiration. A long time went by. It
+      grew much colder; the air was damp and drafty. The fog began to deposit
+      something like snow on their persons. Maskull kept sweating with terror,
+      not because of the danger they were in, but because of the cloud banks
+      that continued to envelop them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They cleared the first line of precipices. Still mounting, but this time
+      with a forward motion, as could be seen by the vapours illuminated by the
+      male stones through which they passed, they were soon altogether out of
+      sight of solid ground. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly the moon broke
+      through. In the upper atmosphere thick masses of fog were seen crawling
+      hither and thither, broken in many places by thin rifts of sky, through
+      one of which Teargeld was shining. Below them, to their left, a gigantic
+      peak, glittering with green ice, showed itself for a few seconds, and was
+      then swallowed up again. All the rest of the world was hidden by the mist.
+      The moon went in again. Maskull had seen quite enough to make him long for
+      the aerial voyage to end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light from the male stones presently illuminated the face of a new
+      cliff. It was grand, rugged, and perpendicular. Upward, downward, and on
+      both sides, it faded imperceptibly into the night. After coasting it a
+      little way, they observed a shelf of rock jutting out. It was square,
+      measuring about a dozen feet each way. Green snow covered it to a depth of
+      some inches. Immediately behind it was a dark slit in the rock, which
+      promised to be the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte skilfully landed the boat on this platform. Standing up, he raised
+      the staff bearing the keel light and lowered the other; then removed both
+      male stones, which he continued to hold in his hand. His face was thrown
+      into strong relief by the vivid, sparkling blue-white rays. It looked
+      rather surly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we get out?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I live here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for the successful end of a dangerous journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it has been touch-and-go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang jumped onto the platform. He was smiling coarsely. &ldquo;There
+      has been no danger, for our destinies lie elsewhere. You are merely a
+      ferryman, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that so?&rdquo; returned Haunte, with a most unpleasant laugh.
+      &ldquo;I thought I was carrying men, not gods.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are we?&rdquo; asked Maskull. As he spoke, he got out, but
+      Haunte remained standing a minute in the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is Sarclash&mdash;the second highest mountain in the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the highest, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adage. Between Sarclash and Adage there is a long ridge&mdash;very
+      difficult in places. About halfway along the ridge, at the lowest point,
+      lies the top of the Mornstab Pass, which goes through to Barey. Now you
+      know the lay of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the woman Sullenbode live near here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Near enough.&rdquo; Haunte grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He leaped out of the boat and, pushing past the others without ceremony,
+      walked straight into the cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull followed, with Corpang at his heels. A few stone steps led to a
+      doorway, curtained by the skin of some large beast. Their host pushed his
+      way in, never offering to hold the skin aside for them. Maskull made no
+      comment, but grabbed it with his fist and tugged it away from its
+      fastenings to the ground. Haunte looked at the skin, and then stared hard
+      at Maskull with his disagreeable smile, but neither said anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place in which they found themselves was a large oblong cavern, with
+      walls, floor, and ceiling of natural rock. There were two doorways: that
+      by which they had entered, and another of smaller size directly opposite.
+      The cave was cold and cheerless; a damp draft passed from door to door.
+      Many skins of wild animals lay scattered on the ground. A number of lumps
+      of sun-dried flesh were hanging on a string along the wall, and a few
+      bulging liquor skins reposed in a corner. There were tusks, horns, and
+      bones everywhere. Resting against the wall were two short hunting spears,
+      having beautiful crystal heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte set down the two male stones on the ground, near the farther door;
+      thire light illuminated the whole cave. He then walked over to the meat
+      and, snatching a large piece, began to gnaw it ravenously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we invited to the feast?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte pointed to the hanging flesh and to the liquor skins, but did not
+      pause in his chewing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s a cup?&rdquo; inquired Maskull, lifting one of the
+      skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte indicated a clay goblet lying on the floor. Maskull picked it up,
+      undid the neck of the skin, and, resting it under his arm, filled the cup.
+      Tasting the liquor, he discovered it to be raw spirit. He tossed off the
+      draught, and then felt much better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second cupful he proffered to Corpang. The latter took a single sip,
+      swallowed it, and then passed the cup back without a word. He refused to
+      drink again, as long as they were in the cave. Maskull finished the cup,
+      and began to throw off care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Going to the meat line, he took down a large double handful, and sat down
+      on a pile of skins to eat at his ease. The flesh was tough and coarse, but
+      he had never tasted anything sweeter. He could not understand the flavour,
+      which was not surprising in a world of strange animals. The meal proceeded
+      in silence. Corpang ate sparingly, standing up, and afterward lay down on
+      a bundle of furs. His bold eyes watched all the movements of the other
+      two. Haunte had not drunk as yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Maskull concluded his meal. He emptied another cup, sighed
+      pleasantly, and prepared to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now explain further about your women, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fetched another skin of liquor and a second cup. He tore off the
+      string with his teeth, and poured out and drank cup after cup in quick
+      succession. Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and turned to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they are objectionable?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are deadly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deadly? In what way can they possibly be deadly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn. I was watching you in the boat, Maskull. You had
+      some bad feelings, eh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t conceal it. There were times when I felt as if I were
+      struggling with a nightmare. What caused it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The female atmosphere of Lichstorm. Sexual passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had no passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>was</i> passion&mdash;the first stage. Nature tickles your
+      people into marriage, but it tortures us. Wait till you get outside. You&rsquo;ll
+      have a return of those sensations&mdash;only ten times worse. The drink
+      you&rsquo;ve had will see to that.... How do you suppose it will all end?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I knew, I wouldn&rsquo;t be asking you questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed loudly. &ldquo;Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean it will end in my seeking Sullenbode?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what will come of it, Maskull? What will she give you? Sweet,
+      fainting, white-armed, feminine voluptuousness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull coolly drank another cup. &ldquo;And why should she give all that
+      to a passerby?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, as a matter of fact, she hasn&rsquo;t it to give. No, what
+      she will give you, and what you&rsquo;ll accept from her, because you can&rsquo;t
+      help it, is&mdash;anguish, insanity, possibly death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be talking sense, but it sounds like raving to me. Why
+      should I accept insanity and death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because your passion will force you to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about yourself?&rdquo; Maskull asked, biting his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have my male stones. I am immune.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all that prevents you from being like other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but don&rsquo;t attempt any tricks, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went on drinking steadily, and said nothing for a time. &ldquo;So
+      men and women here are hostile to each other, and love is unknown?&rdquo;
+      he proceeded at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That magic word.... Shall I tell you what love is, Maskull? Love
+      between male and female is impossible. When Maskull loves a woman, it is
+      Maskull&rsquo;s female ancestors who are loving her. But here in this land
+      the men are pure males. They have drawn nothing from the female side.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do the male stones come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, they are not freaks. There must be whole beds of the stuff
+      somewhere. It is all that prevents the world from being a pure female
+      world. It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without individual
+      shapes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The life of an absolute male is fierce. An excess of life is
+      dangerous to the body. How can it be anything else than torturing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte. &ldquo;I remind you of
+      your promise to tell about Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile. &ldquo;Ha! The underground
+      man has come to life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, tell us,&rdquo; put in Maskull carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte drank, and laughed a little. &ldquo;Well, the tale&rsquo;s short,
+      and hardly worth telling, but since you&rsquo;re interested.... A stranger
+      came here five years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light. His name was Lodd.
+      He came from the east. He came up to me one bright morning in summer,
+      outside this very cave. If you ask me to describe him&mdash;I can&rsquo;t
+      imagine a second man like him. He looked so proud, noble, superior, that I
+      felt my own blood to be dirty by comparison. You can guess I don&rsquo;t
+      have this feeling for everyone. Now that I am recalling him, he was not so
+      much superior as different. I was so impressed that I rose and talked to
+      him standing. He inquired the direction of the mountain Adage. He went on
+      to say, &lsquo;They say Muspel-light is sometimes seen there. What do you
+      know of such a thing?&rsquo; I told him the truth&mdash;that I knew
+      nothing about it, and then he went on, &lsquo;Well, I am going to Adage.
+      And tell those who come after me on the same errand that they had better
+      do the same thing.&rsquo; That was the whole conversation. He started on
+      his way, and I&rsquo;ve never seen him or heard of him since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you didn&rsquo;t have the curiosity to follow him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in
+      the man somehow seemed to vanish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably because he was useless to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang glanced at Maskull. &ldquo;Our road is marked out for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it would appear,&rdquo; said Maskull indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and grew
+      restless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
+      daylight? It struck me as strange.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolm,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A compound of ulfire and blue,&rdquo; explained Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I know. These colours are puzzling for a stranger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What colours have you in your world?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how
+      it comes about I can&rsquo;t imagine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two sets of three primary colours here,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang, &ldquo;but as one of the colours&mdash;blue&mdash;is identical in
+      both sets, altogether there are five primary colours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why two sets?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Produced by the two suns. Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and
+      red; Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me
+      before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity of
+      nature. Blue is existence. It is darkness seen through light; a
+      contrasting of existence and nothingness. Yellow is relation. In yellow
+      light we see the relation of objects in the clearest way. Red is feeling.
+      When we see red, we are thrown back on our personal feelings.... As
+      regards the Alppain colours, blue stands in the middle and is therefore
+      not existence, but relation. Ulfire is existence; so it must be a
+      different sort of existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte yawned. &ldquo;There are marvellous philosophers in your
+      underground hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up and looked about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does that other door lead to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better explore,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging the
+      curtain aside and disappearing into the night. Haunte rose abruptly and
+      hurried after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang too got to his feet. He went over to the untouched spirit skins,
+      untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to the floor.
+      Next he took the hunting spears, and snapped off the points between his
+      hands. Before he had time to resume his seat, Haunte and Maskull
+      reappeared. The host&rsquo;s quick, shifty eyes at once took in what had
+      happened. He smiled, and turned pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t been idle, friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fixed Haunte with his bold, heavy gaze. &ldquo;I thought it well
+      to draw your teeth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull burst out laughing. &ldquo;The toad&rsquo;s come into the light to
+      some purpose, Haunte. Who would have expected it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte, after staring hard at Corpang for two or three minutes, suddenly
+      uttered a strange cry, like an evil spirit, and flung himself upon him.
+      The two men began to wrestle like wildcats. They were as often on the
+      floor as on their legs, and Maskull could not see who was getting the
+      better of it. He made no attempt to separate them. A thought came into his
+      head and, snatching up the two male stones, he ran with them, laughing,
+      through the upper doorway, into the open night air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door overlooked an abyss on another face of the mountain. A narrow
+      ledge, sprinkled with green snow, wound along the cliff to the right; it
+      was the only available path. He pitched the pebbles over the edge of the
+      chasm. Although hard and heavy in his hand, they sank more like feathers
+      than stones, and left a long trail of vapour behind. While Maskull was
+      still watching them disappear, Haunte came rushing out of the cavern,
+      followed by Corpang. He gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What in Krag&rsquo;s name have you done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Overboard they have gone,&rdquo; replied Maskull, renewing his
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You accursed madman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
+      light were breathing. Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme exertion of
+      his will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know this kills me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you been doing your best this last hour to make me
+      ripe for Sullenbode? Well then, cheer up, and join the pleasure party!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say it as a joke, but it is the miserable truth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s jeering malevolence had completely vanished. He looked a
+      sick man&mdash;yet somehow his face had become nobler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would be very sorry for you, Haunte, if it did not entail my
+      being also very sorry for myself. We are now all three together on the
+      same errand&mdash;which doesn&rsquo;t appear to have struck you yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why this errand at all?&rdquo; asked Corpang quietly. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t
+      you men exercise self-control till you have arrived out of danger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fixed him with wild eyes. &ldquo;No. The phantoms come trooping in
+      on me already.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down moodily, but the next minute was up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I cannot wait.... the game is started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon afterward, by silent consent, they began to walk the ledge, Haunte in
+      front. It was narrow, ascending, and slippery, so that extreme caution was
+      demanded. The way was lighted by the self-luminous snow and rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had covered about half a mile, Maskull, who went second of the
+      party, staggered, caught the cliff, and finally sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drink works. My old sensations are returning, but worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned back. &ldquo;Then you are a doomed man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation, imagined
+      that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless, supernatural being, who
+      was trying to clasp him. He was filled with horror, trembled violently,
+      yet could not move a limb. Sweat tumbled off his face in great drops. The
+      waking nightmare lasted a long time, but during that space it kept coming
+      and going. At one moment the vision seemed on the point of departing; the
+      next it almost took shape&mdash;which he knew would be his death. Suddenly
+      it vanished altogether&mdash;he was free. A fresh spring breeze fanned his
+      face; he heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet bird; and it seemed
+      to him as if a poem had shot together in his soul. Such flashing,
+      heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all his life! Almost
+      immediately that too vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly, like
+      one who has been visited by an angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your colour changed to white,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;What
+      happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I passed through torture to love,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up. Haunte gazed at him sombrely. &ldquo;Will you not describe
+      that passage?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully. &ldquo;When I was in Matterplay,
+      I saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured, living
+      animals. In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now seemed to
+      consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of joy. The joy
+      would not have been possible without the preliminary nightmare. It is not
+      accidental; Nature intends it so. The truth has just flashed through my
+      brain.... You men of Lichstorm don&rsquo;t go far enough. You stop at the
+      pangs, without realising that they are birth pangs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this is true, you are a great pioneer,&rdquo; muttered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does this sensation differ from common love?&rdquo;
+      interrogated Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fingered his chin awhile. &ldquo;The Lichstorm men, however, will
+      never reach this stage, for they are too masculine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned pale. &ldquo;Why should we alone suffer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature is freakish and cruel, and doesn&rsquo;t act according to
+      justice.... Follow us, Haunte, and escape from it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; muttered Haunte. &ldquo;Perhaps I will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have we far to go, to Sullenbode?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, her home&rsquo;s under the hanging cap of Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to happen tonight?&rdquo; Maskull spoke to himself, but
+      Haunte answered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t expect anything pleasant, in spite of what has just
+      occurred. She is not a woman, but a mass of pure sex. Your passion will
+      draw her out into human shape, but only for a moment. If the change were
+      permanent, you would have endowed her with a soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the change might be made permanent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To do that, it is not enough to desire her; she must desire you as
+      well. But why should she desire you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing turns out as one expects,&rdquo; said Maskull, shaking his
+      head. &ldquo;We had better get on again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They resumed the journey. The ledge still rose, but, on turning a corner
+      of the cliff, Haunte quitted it and began to climb a steep gully, which
+      mounted directly to the upper heights. Here they were compelled to use
+      both hands and feet. Maskull thought all the while of nothing but the
+      overwhelming sweetness he had just experienced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flat ground on top was dry and springy. There was no more snow, and
+      bright plants appeared. Haunte turned sharply to the left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be under the cap,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is; and within five minutes you will see Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he spoke his words, Maskull&rsquo;s lips surprised him by their
+      tender sensitiveness. Their action against each other sent thrills
+      throughout his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grass shone dimly. A huge tree, with glowing branches, came into
+      sight. It bore a multitude of red fruit, like hanging lanterns, but no
+      leaves. Underneath this tree Sullenbode was sitting. Her beautiful light&mdash;a
+      mingling of jale and white&mdash;gleamed softly through the darkness. She
+      sat erect, on crossed legs, asleep. She was clothed in a singular skin
+      garment, which started as a cloak thrown over one shoulder, and ended as
+      loose breeches terminating above the knees. Her forearms were lightly
+      folded, and in one hand she held a half-eaten fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood over her and looked down, deeply interested. He thought he
+      had never seen anything half so feminine. Her flesh was almost melting in
+      its softness. So undeveloped were the facial organs that they looked
+      scarcely human; only the lips were full, pouting, and expressive. In their
+      richness, these lips seemed like a splash of vivid will on a background of
+      slumbering protoplasm. Her hair was undressed. Its colour could not be
+      distinguished. It was long and tangled, and had been tucked into her
+      garment behind, for convenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly agitated.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart was hammering away under his chest. Haunte pulled
+      him, and said, &ldquo;My head feels as if it were being torn from my
+      shoulders.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet there&rsquo;s a horrible joy in it,&rdquo; added Haunte, with a
+      sickly smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his hand on the woman&rsquo;s shoulder. She awoke softly, glanced
+      up at them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit. Maskull did not
+      imagine that she had intelligence enough to speak. Haunte suddenly dropped
+      on his knees, and kissed her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not repulse him. During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull
+      noticed with a shock that her face was altering. The features emerged from
+      their indistinctness and became human, and almost powerful. The smile
+      faded, a scowl took its place. She thrust Haunte away, rose to her feet,
+      and stared beneath bent brows at the three men, each one in turn. Maskull
+      came last; his face she studied for quite a long time, but nothing
+      indicated what she thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning. She
+      suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he
+      fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with
+      an electric wire. The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay there
+      motionless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang sprang forward to his assistance. But, when he saw what had
+      happened, he left him where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, come here quickly!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte&rsquo;s skin, as Maskull bent
+      over. The man was dead. His face was unrecognisable. The head had been
+      split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with
+      strange-coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an
+      axe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This couldn&rsquo;t be from the fall,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sullenbode did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman. She had resumed her former
+      attitude on the ground. The momentary intelligence had vanished from her
+      face, and she was again smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 19. SULLENBODE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the
+      clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless,
+      smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang spoke out of the night. &ldquo;She looks like an evil spirit
+      filled with deadliness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was like deliberately kissing lightning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte was insane with passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So am I,&rdquo; said Maskull quietly. &ldquo;My body seems full of
+      rocks, all grinding against one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is what I was afraid of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears I shall have to kiss her too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang pulled his arm. &ldquo;Have you lost all manliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at his
+      beard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this had
+      gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and
+      lifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the rugged tree
+      trunk, he kissed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame. He thought that it was
+      death, and lost consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder with
+      one hand at arm&rsquo;s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes. At
+      first he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but
+      another. Then he gradually realised that her face was identical with that
+      which Haunte&rsquo;s action had called into existence. A great calmness
+      came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul. Her skin was firm, her
+      features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.
+      She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements. Her
+      face was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth
+      crossed the lower half like a gash of fire. The lips were as voluptuous as
+      before. Her brows were heavy. There was nothing vulgar in her&mdash;she
+      looked the <i>kingliest</i> of all women. She appeared not more than
+      twenty-five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little way
+      and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth into a
+      long, bowlike smile. &ldquo;Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull felt himself in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She motioned to him to come a step nearer. &ldquo;Listen, Maskull. Man
+      after man has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me there,
+      for I did not wish it. But now you have drawn me into it for all time, for
+      good or evil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and said
+      quietly, &ldquo;What have you to say about <i>him</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that was Haunte. The news will travel far and wide. He was a
+      famous man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a horrible affair. I can&rsquo;t think that you killed
+      him deliberately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our only
+      protection. We do not want these visits; we loathe them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might have died, too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came together?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were three of us. Corpang still stands over there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see a faintly glimmering form. What do you want of me, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go away, and leave me with Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No need, Corpang. I am coming with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not that pleasure, then?&rdquo; demanded the low, earnest
+      voice, out of the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that pleasure has not returned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode gripped his arm hard. &ldquo;What pleasure are you speaking of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you feel now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Calm and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling
+      sea of elemental passions. &ldquo;I do not know how it will end, Maskull,
+      but we will still keep together a little. Where are you going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Adage,&rdquo; said Corpang, stepping forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to
+      find Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<p>
+“What light is that?”
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the light of another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The quest is grand. But cannot women see that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one condition,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;They must forget
+      their sex. Womanhood and love belong to life, while Muspel is above life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I give you all other men,&rdquo; said Sullenbode. &ldquo;Maskull is
+      mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to remind him of
+      the existence of nobler things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a good man. But you two alone will never strike the road to
+      Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you acquainted with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the woman gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;What is love&mdash;which
+      Corpang despises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode went on, &ldquo;Love is that
+      which is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the sake
+      of the beloved.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang wrinkled his forehead. &ldquo;A magnanimous female lover is new in
+      my experience.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, &ldquo;Are
+      you contemplating a sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gazed at her feet, and smiled. &ldquo;What does it matter what my
+      thoughts are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest
+      first? It&rsquo;s a rough road to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in your mind?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash
+      and Adage, perhaps I shall turn back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak,
+      but if it is dark it&rsquo;s hardly likely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not what I meant. What will become of you after we
+      have parted company?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall return somewhere&mdash;perhaps here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better. &ldquo;Shall
+      you sink back into&mdash;the old state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, thank heaven.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how will you live?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. There
+      was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. &ldquo;And who said I would go
+      on living?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before he
+      spoke again. &ldquo;You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can&rsquo;t
+      leave you like this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us
+      go.... Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others&mdash;who
+      aren&rsquo;t so single-minded&mdash;can do is to help him to his
+      destination. We mustn&rsquo;t inquire whether the destination of
+      single-minded men is as a rule worth arriving at.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gave a wry smile. &ldquo;During your long sleep you appear to have
+      picked up wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can we not bury that poor fellow?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not
+      include Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I
+      am the real murderer. I stole his protecting light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.&rdquo;
+      They left the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three
+      men had arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the
+      same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,
+      pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies
+      shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but
+      Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.
+      They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
+      fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an
+      alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
+      maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a false
+      step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right. After a
+      while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground, and they
+      seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The ascending slope on
+      the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards more. Then Sullenbode
+      bore sharply to the left, and they found level ground all around them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are on the ridge,&rdquo; announced the woman, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst through
+      the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was
+      quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining down
+      on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide, smoothly
+      descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage, though Adage
+      itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred yards wide. It
+      was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but in other places
+      the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From where they stood
+      they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath. On
+      the right hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct.
+      There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of Barey.
+      But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty pinnacles, near and
+      far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight. All glittered green, and
+      all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps that characterised the
+      Lichstorm range. These caps were of fantastic shapes, and each one was
+      different. The valley directly opposite them was filled with rolling mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two
+      ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or more of
+      empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood. The
+      southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of the mountain
+      where Haunte&rsquo;s cave was situated. The connecting curve was the steep
+      slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a few
+      summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over the
+      south side of the horseshoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw her
+      for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on his lips.
+      The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and the face,
+      pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almost
+      beautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hair was
+      a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that she
+      resembled a spirit, rather than a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What puzzles you?&rdquo; she asked, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you never will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life must be most solitary.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. &ldquo;Why
+      do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means
+      I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode laughed outright. &ldquo;It assuredly does not mean the
+      approach of night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
+      broke in. &ldquo;The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I&rsquo;ll
+      go on alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we&rsquo;ll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little way,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;but not to Adage, to
+      pit my strength against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know
+      how to renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang
+      is as ignorant as myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked him full in the face. &ldquo;Maskull, you are quite well
+      aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of a
+      beautiful woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. &ldquo;What Corpang doesn&rsquo;t tell you,
+      Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than he,
+      and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be saying his
+      prayers in Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, what he says must be true,&rdquo; she replied, looking from
+      one to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so I am not to be allowed to&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not
+      backward, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need not quarrel yet,&rdquo; he remarked, with a forced smile.
+      &ldquo;No doubt things will straighten themselves out.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. &ldquo;I picked up
+      another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell it to me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed their
+      strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but the
+      law-abiders live at their ease&mdash;they have conquered nothing for
+      themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and
+      perfect. You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were
+      abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
+      comparatively smooth. The freezing point seemed higher than on Earth, for
+      the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt almost warm to
+      their naked feet. Maskull&rsquo;s soles were by now like tough hides. The
+      moonlit snow was green and dazzling. Their slanting, abbreviated shadows
+      were sharply defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked on
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s right hand, looked constantly to the left, toward the
+      galaxy of glorious distant peaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot belong to this world,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Men
+      of your stamp are not to be looked for here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have come here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that larger than our world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smaller, I think. Small, and overcrowded with men and women. With
+      all those people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and
+      therefore the laws are of iron. As adventure would be impossible without
+      encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of adventure
+      among the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do men hate women there, and women men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful. So poignant
+      is the sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open eyes.
+      There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion.
+      But now say&mdash;why did you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longer
+      interested me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long have you been in this world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the end of my fourth day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days.
+      You cannot have been inactive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great misfortunes have happened to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from the
+      moment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert. Sullenbode listened,
+      with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time. Only twice did
+      she interrupt him. After his description of Tydomin&rsquo;s death, she
+      said, speaking in a low voice&mdash;&ldquo;None of us women ought by right
+      of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one act of hers,
+      I almost love her, although she brought evil to your door.&rdquo; Again,
+      speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, &ldquo;That grand-souled girl I admire
+      the most of all. She listened to her inner voice, and to nothing else
+      besides. Which of us others is strong enough for that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, &ldquo;Does it not strike
+      you, Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than the
+      men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recognise that. We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for a
+      substantial cause. For you women almost any cause will serve. You love the
+      sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are naturally noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so sweet,
+      that he was struck into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he said, &ldquo;Now
+      you understand the sort of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scant
+      pity for anyone&mdash;Oh, it has been a bloody journey!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laid her hand on his arm. &ldquo;I, for one, would not have it less
+      rugged.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing good can be said of my crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not
+      what.... The grandest that life holds.... You at least have no cause to
+      look up to women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Sullenbode!&rdquo; he responded, with a troubled smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is thrown out of
+      your road. You go on, looking neither to right nor left.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care that you are not thrown as well,&rdquo; said Corpang
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull! And for
+      whatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a heart you have a bag
+      of loose dust. Someone has described love to you. You have had it
+      described to you. You have heard that it is a small, fearful, selfish joy.
+      It is not that&mdash;it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, and
+      bloody.... How should you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selfishness has far too many disguises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only do not deceive yourself. Act decisively, or fate will be too
+      swift for you both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode studied him through her lashes. &ldquo;Do you mean death&mdash;his
+      death as well as mine?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go too far, Corpang,&rdquo; said Maskull, turning a shade
+      darker. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers. &ldquo;I wish you to
+      stay with us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you may know what you are talking about. I don&rsquo;t wish
+      to bring harm to Maskull. Presently I&rsquo;ll leave you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be best,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked angry. &ldquo;I shall decide&mdash;Sullenbode, whether you
+      go on, or back, I stay with you. My mind is made up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her efforts
+      to conceal it. &ldquo;Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered brows.
+      After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly. &ldquo;Wait, Sullenbode!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the woman
+      smiled. Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her lips. Then he
+      relinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hereafter, never dare to come between us. Sullenbode belongs to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I say no more; but you are a fated man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A heavy gleam appeared in the woman&rsquo;s eyes. &ldquo;Now things are
+      changed, Maskull. Where are you taking me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose, you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man I love must complete his journey. I won&rsquo;t have it
+      otherwise. You shall not stand lower than Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you go, I will go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I&mdash;as long as your love endures, I will accompany you&mdash;even
+      to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you doubt its lasting?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I refused to tell you
+      before. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love me no
+      longer, I must die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why?&rdquo; asked Maskull slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s the responsibility you incurred when you kissed
+      me for the first time. I never meant to tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no other life but what you give me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowly
+      placed his arms around her body. During this embrace he turned very pale,
+      but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky and
+      nearer the south. They had descended many hundred feet, and the character
+      of the ridge began to alter for the worse. The thin snow disappeared, and
+      gave way to moist, boggy ground. It was all little grassy hillocks and
+      marshes. They began to slip about and become draggled with mud.
+      Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and the men followed in her
+      tracks. The southern half of the landscape grew grander. The greenish
+      light of the brilliant moon, shining on the multitude of snow-green peaks,
+      caused it to appear like a spectral world. Their nearest neighbour towered
+      high above them on the other side of the valley, due south, some five
+      miles distant. It was a slender, inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock,
+      the angles of which were too steep to retain snow. A great upward-curving
+      horn of rock sprang out from its topmost pinnacle. For a long time it
+      constituted their cheif landmark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture. The surface soil
+      was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed in the damp mists
+      by night, and breathed them out again by day, under Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays. The walking grew first unpleasant, then difficult, and finally
+      dangerous. None of the party could distinguish firm ground from bog.
+      Sullenbode sank up to her waist in a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her,
+      but after this incident took the lead himself. Corpang was the next to
+      meet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he tumbled into
+      liquid mud up to his shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death. After
+      Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded once more;
+      but now the scramble changed from bad to worse. Each step had to be
+      thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so the test
+      frequently failed. All of them went in so often, that in the end they no
+      longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plastered from top to
+      toe with black filth. The hardest work fell to Maskull. He not only had
+      the exhausting task of beating the way, but was continually called upon to
+      help his companions out of their difficulties. Without him they could not
+      have got through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.
+      Corpang&rsquo;s breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless,
+      and depressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at them doubtfully. &ldquo;Does this continue?&rdquo; he
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I think,&rdquo; replied the woman, &ldquo;we can&rsquo;t be far
+      from the Mornstab Pass. After that we shall begin to climb again, and then
+      the road will improve perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you have been here before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are tired out, Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of it?&rdquo; she replied, smiling faintly. &ldquo;When one
+      has a terrible lover, one must pay the price.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter we
+      come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I leave it to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paced up and down, while the others sat. &ldquo;Do you regret anything?&rdquo;
+      he demanded suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, nothing. I regret nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your feelings are unchanged?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love can&rsquo;t go back&mdash;it can only go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eternally on. It is so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t mean that. There is a climax, but when the climax
+      has been reached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a dreadful creed,&rdquo; he said in a low voice,
+      turning pale beneath his coating of mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don&rsquo;t know
+      what I feel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journey
+      recommenced. Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to drain
+      off the moisture of the soil. Sullenbode led them to the northern edge of
+      the ridge, to show them the nature of the country. The pass was nothing
+      but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the ridge, where it was the
+      lowest above the underlying land. A series of huge broken terraces of
+      earth and rock descended toward Barey. They were overgrown with stunted
+      vegetation. It was quite possible to get down to the lowlands that way,
+      but rather difficult. On either side of the landslip, to east and west,
+      the ridge came down in a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs. A low haze
+      concealed Barey from view. Complete stillness was in the air, broken only
+      by the distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country. The
+      moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as an Earth
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight is like life,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;Poor girl, you are unhappy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you&mdash;are you happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought a while, and then replied&mdash;&ldquo;No. No, I&rsquo;m not
+      happy. Love is not happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Restlessness&mdash;unshed tears&mdash;thoughts too grand for our
+      soul to think...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time she asked, &ldquo;Why were we created, just to live for a few
+      years and then disappear?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are told that we shall live again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps in Muspel,&rdquo; he added thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of life will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious a
+      thing to remain uncompleted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. &ldquo;This dream is
+      untrue. Love is completed here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by
+      Fate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is completed by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be enjoyment
+      for us? Can&rsquo;t we suffer&mdash;can&rsquo;t we go on suffering,
+      forever and ever? Maskull, until love crushes our spirit, finally and
+      without remedy, we don&rsquo;t begin to feel ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression. &ldquo;Can the memory of
+      love be worth more than its presence and reality?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t understand. Those pangs are more precious than all
+      the rest beside.&rdquo; She caught at him. &ldquo;Oh, if you could only
+      see inside my mind, Maskull! You would see strange things.... I can&rsquo;t
+      explain. It is all confused, even to myself.... This love is quite
+      different from what I thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sighed again. &ldquo;Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong
+      for human beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in different
+      ways.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them with
+      unseeing eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said Sullenbode at last, with a
+      smile, getting up. &ldquo;Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come,
+      let us be off!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull too got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Corpang?&rdquo; he asked listlessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage. At the point
+      where they stood it was nearly a mile wide. It sloped perceptibly toward
+      the southern edge, giving all the earth the appearance of a heavy list.
+      Toward the west the ground continued level for a thousand yards, but then
+      a high, sloping, grassy hill went right across the ridge from side to
+      side, like a vast billow on the verge of breaking. It shut out all further
+      view beyond. The whole crest of this hill, from one end to the other, was
+      crowned by a long row of enormous stone posts, shining brightly in the
+      moonlight against a background of dark sky. There were about thirty in
+      all, and they were placed at such regular intervals that there was little
+      doubt that they had been set there by human hands. Some were
+      perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extreme
+      antiquity was given to the entire colonnade. Corpang was seen climbing the
+      hill, not far from the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wishes to arrive,&rdquo; said Maskull, watching the energetic
+      ascent with a rather cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heavens won&rsquo;t open for Corpang,&rdquo; returned
+      Sullenbode. &ldquo;He need not be in such a hurry.... What do these
+      pillars seem like to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They might be the entrance to some mighty temple. Who can have
+      planted them there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not answer. They watched Corpang gain the summit of the hill, and
+      disappear through the line of posts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned again to Sullenbode. &ldquo;Now we two are alone in a
+      lonely world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She regarded him steadily. &ldquo;Our last night on this earth must be a
+      grand one. I am ready to go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you are fit to go on. It will be better to go
+      down the pass a little, and find shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She half smiled. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t study our poor bodies tonight. I
+      mean you to go to Adage, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long,
+      terrible climb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand to
+      him. &ldquo;Come, Maskull!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      When they had covered half the distance that separated them from the foot
+      of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps. They came from behind the hill,
+      and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He glanced at Sullenbode, but she
+      appeared to hear nothing. A minute later the whole sky behind and above
+      the long chain of stone posts on the crest of the hill began to be
+      illuminated by a strange radiance. The moonlight in that quarter faded;
+      the posts stood out black on a background of fire. It was the light of
+      Muspel. As the moments passed, it grew more and more vivid, peculiar, and
+      awful. It was of no colour, and resembled nothing&mdash;it was
+      supernatural and indescribable. Maskull&rsquo;s spirit swelled. He stood
+      fast, with expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode touched him lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you see, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood. It burned
+      with a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before. He forgot the
+      existence of Sullenbode. The drum beats grew deafeningly loud. Each beat
+      was like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the sky and making
+      the air tremble. Presently the crashes coalesced, and one continuous roar
+      of thunder rocked the world. But the rhythm persisted&mdash;the four
+      beats, with the third accented, still came pulsing through the atmosphere,
+      only now against a background of thunder, and not of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat wildly. His body was like a prison. He longed
+      to throw it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the sublime
+      universe which was beginning to unveil itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissed him&mdash;passionately,
+      again and again. He made no response; he was unaware of what she was
+      doing. She unclasped him and, with bent head and streaming eyes, went
+      noiselessly away. She started to go back toward the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade. The thunder died down.
+      The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside were again
+      bright. In a short time the supernatural light had entirely vanished, but
+      the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled rhythm, from behind the
+      hill. Maskull started violently, and stared around him like a suddenly
+      awakened sleeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards off.
+      At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, calling out....
+      She did not look around. When he had lessened the distance between them by
+      a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and fall. She did not get up again,
+      but lay motionless where she fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flew toward her, and bent over her body. His worst fears were realised.
+      Life had departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly Crystalman
+      grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had never appeared so beautiful
+      to him as at that moment.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees. He wept&mdash;but,
+      between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time, and
+      listened to the distant drum beats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour passed&mdash;two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west.
+      Maskull lifted Sullenbode&rsquo;s dead body on to his shoulders, and
+      started to walk toward the Pass. He cared no more for Muspel. He intended
+      to look for water in which to wash the corpse of his beloved, and earth in
+      which to bury her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which they
+      had sat together, he lowered his burden, and, placing the dead girl on the
+      stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over toward Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 20. BAREY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskull awoke
+      from his miserable sleep. He sat up and yawned feebly. The air was cool
+      and sweet. Far away down the landslip a bird was singing; the song
+      consisted of only two notes, but it was so plaintive and heartbreaking
+      that he scarcely knew how to endure it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band of
+      chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The atmosphere was blue-tinted,
+      mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash nor Adage was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had descended
+      that distance overnight. The landslip continued downward, like a huge
+      flying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay perhaps fifteen
+      hundred feet beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and the angle was
+      excessively steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mile across. On
+      each side of it, east and west, the dark walls of the ridge descended
+      sheer. At the point where the pass sprang outward they were two thousand
+      feet from top to bottom, but as the ridge went upward, on the one hand
+      toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attained almost
+      unbelievable heights. Despite the great breadth and solidity of the pass,
+      Maskull felt as though he were suspended in midair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away marked
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s grave. He had interred her by the light of the moon,
+      with a long, flat stone for a spade. A little lower down, the white steam
+      of a hot spring was curling about in the twilight. From where he sat he
+      was unable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately flowed, but it
+      was in that pool that he had last night washed first of all the dead girl&rsquo;s
+      body, and then his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him dully.
+      For a long time he eyed the grave. The half-darkness changed by
+      imperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear. The sky
+      was nearly cloudless. The whole wonderful extent of the mighty ridge
+      behind him began to emerge from the morning mist... there was a part of
+      Sarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic Adage itself, which he could
+      only take in by throwing his head right back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul. All his desires
+      were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do nothing. He thought
+      he would go to Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting
+      beside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought that he was dreaming. The man was clothed in a skin shirt
+      and breeches. His face was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyed Maskull
+      without smiling or getting up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where in the devil&rsquo;s name have you come from, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great point is, I am here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not far away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two leave me
+      in such a damnable fashion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were strong enough to get through alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it turned out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you&rsquo;ve
+      timed it well. It seems I am to die today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag scowled. &ldquo;You will die this morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am to, I shall. But where have you heard it from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are ripe for it. You have run through the gamut. What else is
+      there to live for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said Maskull, uttering a short laugh. &ldquo;I am
+      quite ready. I have failed in everything. I only wondered how you knew....
+      So now you&rsquo;ve come to rejoin me. Where are we going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through Barey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what about Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t wait
+      for him. He&rsquo;ll be there as soon as we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At our destination.... Come! The sun&rsquo;s rising.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell, huge
+      and white, leaped fiercely into the sky. All the delicacy of the dawn
+      vanished, and another vulgar day began. They passed some trees and plants,
+      the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it the sunshine doesn&rsquo;t open them?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long will it be before that sun rises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some time yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I live to see it, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At one time I did, but now I&rsquo;m indifferent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep in that humour, and you&rsquo;ll do well. Once for all, there&rsquo;s
+      nothing worth seeing on Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few minutes Maskull said, &ldquo;Why did we come here, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. But where is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?... There is
+      supernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehow
+      connected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what is
+      Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t disturb yourself about that. You will never know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do <i>you</i> know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; snarled Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil here is called Krag,&rdquo; went on Maskull, peering into
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I
+      to believe of you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued descending the landslip. The sun&rsquo;s rays had grown
+      insufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,
+      Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
+      travelling toward a lake district.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
+      Krag? What happened to the torpedo?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just about on the same mental level as a man who sees
+      a brand-new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What palace have you been building, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have not been idle,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;While you have been
+      murdering and lovemaking, we have had our work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re an open book. Now you&rsquo;ve got a mortal heart
+      wound on account of a woman you knew for six hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned pale. &ldquo;Sneer away, Krag! If you lived with a woman
+      for six hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your leather
+      heart. You haven&rsquo;t even the feelings of an insect.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold the child defending its toys!&rdquo; said Krag, grinning
+      faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped short. &ldquo;What do you want with me, and why did you
+      bring me here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, pulling him into motion again. &ldquo;The distance has got to
+      be covered, however often we pull up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through his
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go on regarding you as a man, Krag. You&rsquo;re
+      something more than a man&mdash;whether good or evil, I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked yellow and formidable. He did not reply to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      remark, but after a pause said, &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ve been trying to find
+      Surtur on your own account, during the intervals between killing and
+      fondling?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that drumming?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t look so important. We know you had your ear to
+      the keyhole. But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing
+      for you, my friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled rather bitterly. &ldquo;At all events, I listen through no
+      more keyholes. I have finished with life. I belong to nobody and nothing
+      any more, from this time forward.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave words, brave words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will
+      make one more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don&rsquo;t you? Well,
+      that may prove to be the last and strongest illusion of all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation ceased. They reached the foot of the landslip an hour
+      later. Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky. It was
+      approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not it would
+      clear its peak. The heat was sweltering. The long, massive, saucer-shaped
+      ridge behind them, with its terrific precipices, was glowing with bright
+      morning colours. Adage, towering up many thousands of feet higher still,
+      guarded the end of it like a lonely Colossus. In front of them, starting
+      from where they stood, was a cool and enchanting wilderness of little
+      lakes and forests. The water of the lakes was dark green; the forests were
+      asleep, waiting for the rising of Alppain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we now in Barey?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;and there is one of the natives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskull did
+      not see it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees, apparently
+      waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, and beardless, and was
+      still in early manhood. He was clothed in a dark blue, loosely flowing
+      robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat. His face, which was not
+      disfigured by any special organs, was pale, earnest, and grave, yet
+      somehow remarkably pleasing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull&rsquo;s hand, but even
+      while he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag. The
+      latter responded with a scowling grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating baritone, but
+      it was at the same time strangely womanish in its modulations and variety
+      of tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Welcome to Barey, Maskull! Let&rsquo;s hope you&rsquo;ll forget
+      your sorrows here, you over-tested man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. &ldquo;What made you
+      expect me, and how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      Gangnet. I know most things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you a greeting for me too&mdash;Gangnet?&rdquo; asked
+      Krag, thrusting his forbidding features almost into the other&rsquo;s
+      face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I know you, Gangnet&mdash;you man-woman.... Well, we are here
+      together, and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the
+      Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smile faded from Gangnet&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t drive you
+      away, Krag&mdash;but I can make you the unwelcome third.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. &ldquo;That
+      bargain suits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have
+      the shadow, and much good may it do you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that it&rsquo;s all arranged so satisfactorily,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, with a hard smile, &ldquo;permit me to say that I don&rsquo;t
+      desire any society at all at present.... You take too much for granted,
+      Krag. You have played the false friend once already.... I presume I&rsquo;m
+      a free agent?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be a free man, one must have a universe of one&rsquo;s own,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, with a jeering look. &ldquo;What do you say, Gangnet&mdash;is
+      this a free world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man&rsquo;s
+      privilege,&rdquo; returned Gangnet tranquilly. &ldquo;Maskull is quite
+      within his rights, and if you&rsquo;ll engage to leave him I&rsquo;ll do
+      the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won&rsquo;t
+      get rid of me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; muttered Maskull. &ldquo;Let
+      everyone join in the procession. In a few hours I shall finally be free,
+      anyhow, if what they say is true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll lead the way,&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t
+      know this country, of course, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some
+      miles farther down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we
+      must walk, I fear.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you fear&mdash;you fear!&rdquo; broke out Krag, in a
+      highpitched, scraping voice. &ldquo;You eternal loller!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed to
+      be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate
+      previous acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a
+      mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed
+      beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were
+      all folded. There was no underbrush&mdash;they walked on clean, brown
+      earth, A distant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air was
+      pleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lake
+      outside looked cool and poetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet pressed Maskull&rsquo;s arm affectionately. &ldquo;If the bringing
+      of you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have
+      brought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escaped
+      the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference
+      whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the
+      shadows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly
+      prefer to know it as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      thoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty and
+      Pleasantness. Even Krag won&rsquo;t have the effrontery to deny that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very nice here,&rdquo; said Krag, looking around him
+      malignantly. &ldquo;One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to
+      complete it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. &ldquo;Last night, when I was
+      struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight&mdash;then I thought
+      the world beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Sullenbode!&rdquo; said Gangnet, sighing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! You knew her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know her through you. By mourning for a noble woman, you show
+      your own nobility. I think all women are noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be millions of noble women, but there&rsquo;s only one
+      Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Sullenbode can exist,&rdquo; said Gangnet, &ldquo;the world
+      cannot be a bad place.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Change the subject.... The world&rsquo;s hard and cruel, and I am
+      thankful to be leaving it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one point, though, you both agree,&rdquo; said Krag, smiling
+      evilly. &ldquo;Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced at him coldly. &ldquo;We know your peculiar theories,
+      Krag. You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could
+      not go on being, without pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Gangnet thinks!&rdquo; jeered Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a
+      little cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh series of
+      lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain slope,
+      built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border they had been
+      travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to the lower level in
+      half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white and throwing off spray.
+      The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men found it easy to negotiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they
+      had nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through the
+      heart of it; they followed its bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has occurred to me,&rdquo; said Maskull, addressing Gangnet,
+      &ldquo;that Alppain may be my death. Is that so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These trees don&rsquo;t fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is
+      a wonderful, life-bringing sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason I ask is&mdash;I&rsquo;ve seen its afterglow, and it
+      produced such violent sensations that a very little more would have proved
+      too much.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain
+      itself, it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of
+      wills inside you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,&rdquo; said Krag,
+      grinning, &ldquo;is Crystalman&rsquo;s trump card.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see. You&rsquo;ll renounce the world so eagerly that
+      you&rsquo;ll want to stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled. &ldquo;Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither
+      enjoy, nor renounce. What <i>are</i> you to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned toward Krag. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, but I don&rsquo;t
+      understand your creed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. &ldquo;What,
+      because they have left off stroking you?&rdquo; he exclaimed, laughing and
+      showing his discoloured teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever you are, and whatever you want,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      &ldquo;you seem very certain of yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      you! That would be an excellent way of destroying lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped and picked
+      up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To eat?&rdquo; asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one
+      mustn&rsquo;t insult Krag by offering him a pleasure&mdash;especially such
+      a low pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the liquid
+      contents. They tasted rather alcoholic. Krag snatched the remaining egg
+      out of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk, where it broke and
+      stuck, a splash of slime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a
+      filthier sight than a smashed pleasure?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had alternately walked through forests and descended cliffs and
+      slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered. A steep
+      mountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of miles,
+      during which space the land must have dropped nearly four thousand feet,
+      at a practically uniform gradient. Maskull had seen nothing like this
+      immense slide of country anywhere. The hill slope carried an enormous
+      forest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those they
+      had hitherto passed through. The leaves of the trees were curled in sleep,
+      but the boughs were so close and numerous that, but for the fact that they
+      were translucent, the rays of the sun would have been completely
+      intercepted. As it was, the whole forest was flooded with light, and this
+      light, being tinged with the colour of the branches, was a soft and lovely
+      rose. So gay, feminine, and dawnlike was the illumination, that Maskull&rsquo;s
+      spirits immediately started to rise, although he did not wish it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!&rdquo;
+      rasped Krag mockingly. &ldquo;Why isn&rsquo;t Sullenbode here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree. Krag
+      recovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a whit
+      discomposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still what I said&mdash;was it true or untrue?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;You seem to regard yourself as a
+      necessary evil. I&rsquo;m under no obligation to go on with you any
+      farther. I think we had better part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do <i>you</i> say&mdash;do we part when Maskull pleases, or
+      when I please?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep your temper, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gangnet, showing Krag his
+      back. &ldquo;I know the man better than you do. Now that he has fastened
+      onto you there&rsquo;s only one way of making him lose his hold, by
+      ignoring him. Despise him&mdash;say nothing to him, don&rsquo;t answer his
+      questions. If you refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m beginning to be tired of it all,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;It seems as if I shall add one more to my murders, before I have
+      finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I smell murder in the air,&rdquo; exclaimed Krag, pretending to
+      sniff. &ldquo;But whose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on
+      fire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this
+      accursed forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s some way yet, but when we&rsquo;re once out we can take
+      to the water, and you will be able to rest, and think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And brood comfortably over your sufferings,&rdquo; added Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into the open
+      day. The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced to run,
+      rather than walk, and this would have prevented any conversation, even if
+      they had otherwise felt inclined toward it. In less than half an hour they
+      were through. A flat, open landscape lay stretched in front of them as far
+      as they could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water. It was a succession
+      of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of tree-covered land.
+      The lake immediately before them had its small end to the forest. It was
+      there about a third of a mile wide. The water at the sides and end was
+      shallow, and choked with dolm-colored rushes; but in the middle, beginning
+      a few yards from the shore, there was a perceptible current away from
+      them. In view of this current, it was difficult to decide whether it was a
+      lake or a river. Some little floating islands were in the shallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it here that we take to the water?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, here,&rdquo; answered Gangnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of those islands will serve. It only needs to move it into the
+      stream.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Where will it carry us to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, get on, get on!&rdquo; said Krag, laughing uncouthly. &ldquo;The
+      morning&rsquo;s wearing away, and you have to die before noon. We are
+      going to the Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gangnet will murder you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You lie!&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;I wish Maskull nothing but
+      good.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events, he will be the cause of your death. But what does it
+      matter? The great point is you are quitting this futile world.... Well,
+      Gangnet, I see you&rsquo;re as slack as ever. I suppose I must do the
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,
+      splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was up
+      to his thighs. The island was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feet from
+      end to end. It was composed of a sort of light brown peat; there was no
+      form of living vegetation on its surface. Krag went behind it, and started
+      shoving it toward the current, apparently without having unduly to exert
+      himself. When it was within the influence of the stream the others waded
+      out to him, and all three climbed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voyage began. The current was not travelling at more than two miles an
+      hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and there was no
+      shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the edge, and
+      periodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunches
+      next to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick steps, like an
+      animal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more, and the width of the
+      stream increased in proportion, until they seemed to themselves to be
+      floating on the bosom of some broad, flowing estuary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet&rsquo;s hat, crushing it
+      together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?&rdquo; he asked with
+      a harsh guffaw&mdash;&ldquo;Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has seen it
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom. His
+      dark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and noble,
+      and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man that was
+      strangely appealing to the feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Maskull judge,&rdquo; he said with proud composure, &ldquo;whether
+      I have anything to be ashamed of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,&rdquo;
+      muttered Maskull, staring hard at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A capital valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happens
+      when poets try to carry through practical enterprises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What enterprises?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two forms of practical activity,&rdquo; replied Gangnet
+      calmly. &ldquo;One may either build up, or destroy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there&rsquo;s a third species. One may steal&mdash;and not even
+      know one is stealing. One may take the purse and leave the money.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull raised his eyebrows. &ldquo;Where have you two met before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull, but once upon a
+      time Gangnet paid me a visit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my home&mdash;whatever that is. Gangnet is a common thief.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are speaking in riddles, and I don&rsquo;t understand you. I
+      don&rsquo;t know either of you, but it&rsquo;s clear that if Gangnet is a
+      poet, you&rsquo;re a buffoon. Must you go on talking? I want to be quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag laughed, but said no more. Presently he lay down at full length, with
+      his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, and snoring
+      disagreeably. Maskull kept glancing over at his yellow, repulsive face
+      with strong disfavour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours passed. The land on either side was more than a mile distant. In
+      front of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the Lichstorm
+      Mountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had gathered together.
+      The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of a strange colour. It
+      was an intense jale-blue. The whole northern atmosphere was stained with
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind grew disturbed. &ldquo;Alppain is rising, Gangnet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled wistfully. &ldquo;It begins to trouble you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so solemn&mdash;tragical, almost&mdash;yet it recalls me to
+      Earth. Life was no longer important&mdash;but this is important.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you
+      will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day.
+      Then you will ask yourself how you could have been blind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in the
+      north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary colours,
+      among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principal character of
+      an ordinary dawn is <i>mystery</i>, the outstanding character of this dawn
+      was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but the heart. Maskull
+      felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate the sunrise, and make
+      it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormented him, like the
+      opening bars of a supernatural symphony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked back to the south, Branchspell&rsquo;s day had lost its
+      glare, and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. He
+      instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness to
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If those were Crystalman&rsquo;s thoughts that you showed me
+      before, Gangnet, these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I
+      am feeling now, he must have felt before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is all <i>feeling</i>, Maskull&mdash;don&rsquo;t you understand
+      that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
+      reply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
+      beginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious that
+      Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had by this
+      time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides they were
+      surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out all sight
+      of land. Krag was still sleeping&mdash;an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its dark
+      green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing remains except my death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think of death, but life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s growing brighter&mdash;at the same time, more sombre.
+      Krag seems to be fading away....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is Alppain!&rdquo; said Gangnet, touching his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea. Maskull was
+      struck to silence. He was hardly so much looking, as feeling. His emotions
+      were unutterable. His soul seemed too strong for his body. The great blue
+      orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an awful eye watching him.... it
+      shot above the sea with a bound, and Alppain&rsquo;s day commenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you feel?&rdquo; Gangnet still held his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have set myself against the Infinite,&rdquo; muttered Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful idea swept
+      through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Gangnet&mdash;I am <i>nothing</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you are nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mist closed in all around them. Nothing was visible except the two
+      suns, and a few feet of sea. The shadows of the three men cast by Alppain
+      were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing can hurt me,&rdquo; said Maskull with a peculiar
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled too. &ldquo;How could it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scraped
+      away, leaving me clean and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you now understand life, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet&rsquo;s face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual
+      beauty; he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more. But this
+      <i>is</i> life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?&rdquo; said a
+      jeering voice above them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both rose. At the same moment the gathering mist began to obscure
+      Alppain&rsquo;s disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want with us, Krag?&rdquo; asked Maskull with simple
+      composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds. The water lapped around
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made no response. Krag rested an arm lightly on his shoulder, and
+      suddenly he felt sick and faint. He sank to the ground, near the edge of
+      the island raft. His heart was thumping heavily and queerly; its beating
+      reminded him of the drum taps. He gazed languidly at the rippling water,
+      and it seemed to him as if he could see right <i>through</i> it... away,
+      away down... to a strange fire....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water disappeared. The two suns were extinguished. The island was
+      transformed into a cloud, and Maskull&mdash;alone on it&mdash;was floating
+      through the atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire&mdash;the fire of
+      Muspel. The light mounted higher and higher, until it filled the whole
+      world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, without
+      top or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was dealing
+      terrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer. The rhythmical,
+      clanging sounds were hideous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drum beats.
+      &ldquo;What are you doing, Krag?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beating on your heart, Maskull,&rdquo; was his grinning response.
+</p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      The cliff and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in the air&mdash;but
+      it was not Gangnet&mdash;it was Crystalman. He seemed to be trying to
+      escape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and licking him,
+      whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire caught him. He
+      shrieked horribly. Maskull caught one glimpse of a vulgar, slobbering face&mdash;and
+      then that too disappeared.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He opened his eyes. The floating island was still faintly illuminated by
+      Alppain. Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this Ocean called?&rdquo; asked Maskull, bringing out the
+      words with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time. He rested his face on his
+      arm. &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag bent over him with a grave expression. &ldquo;You are Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull&rsquo;s heart,
+      and he died immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned his head around. &ldquo;The night is really past at last,
+      Nightspore.... The day is here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull&rsquo;s body. &ldquo;Why
+      was all this necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask Crystalman,&rdquo; replied Krag sternly. &ldquo;His world is no
+      joke. He has a strong clutch&mdash;but I have a stronger... Maskull was
+      his, but Nightspore is mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 21. MUSPEL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The fog thickened so that the two suns wholly disappeared, and all grew as
+      black as night. Nightspore could no longer see his companion. The water
+      lapped gently against the side of the island raft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say the night is past,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;But the
+      night is still here. Am I dead, or alive?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still in Crystalman&rsquo;s world, but you belong to it no
+      more. We are approaching Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air&mdash;a rhythmical
+      pulsation, in four-four time. &ldquo;There is the drumming,&rdquo; he
+      exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you understand it, or have you forgotten?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I half understand it, but I&rsquo;m all confused.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s evident Crystalman has dug his claws into you pretty
+      deeply,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;The sound comes from Muspel, but the
+      rhythm is caused by its travelling through Crystalman&rsquo;s atmosphere.
+      His nature is rhythm as he loves to call it&mdash;or dull, deadly
+      repetition, as I name it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; said Nightspore, biting his nails in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The throbbing became audible; it now sounded like a distant drum. A small
+      patch of strange light in the far distance, straight ahead of them, began
+      faintly to illuminate the floating island and the glassy sea around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do all men escape from that ghastly world, or only I, and a few
+      like me?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If all escaped, I shouldn&rsquo;t sweat, my friend... There&rsquo;s
+      hard work, and anguish, and the risk of total death, waiting for us
+      yonder.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart sank. &ldquo;Have I not yet finished, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish it. You have got through. But will you wish it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming grew loud and painful. The light resolved itself into a tiny
+      oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night. Krag&rsquo;s grim
+      and rocklike features were revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t face rebirth,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;The
+      horror of death is nothing to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will choose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do nothing. Crystalman is too powerful. I barely escaped with
+      my own soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,&rdquo;
+      said Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall something. The
+      water around them was so still, colourless, and transparent, that they
+      scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid matter at all. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      corpse had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming was now like the clanging of iron. The oblong patch of light
+      grew much bigger; it burned, fierce and wild. The darkness above, below,
+      and on either side of it, began to shape itself into the semblance of a
+      huge, black wall, without bounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that really a wall we are coming to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will soon find out. What you see is Muspel, and that light is
+      the gate you have to enter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart beat wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I remember?&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you&rsquo;ll remember.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accompany me, Krag, or I shall be lost.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing for me to do in there. I shall wait outside for
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are returning to the struggle?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore,
+      gnawing his fingertips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head like
+      actual blows. The light glared so vividly that he was no longer able to
+      look at it. It had the startling irregularity of continuous lightning, but
+      it possessed this further peculiarity&mdash;that it seemed somehow to give
+      out not actual light, but emotion, seen as light. They continued to
+      approach the wall of darkness, straight toward the door. The glasslike
+      water flowed right against it, its surface reaching up almost to the
+      threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They could not speak any more; the noise was too deafening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were before the gateway. Nightspore turned his back
+      and hid his eyes in his two hands, but even then he was blinded by the
+      light. So passionate were his feelings that his body seemed to enlarge
+      itself. At every frightful beat of sound, he quivered violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance was doorless. Krag jumped onto the rocky platform and pulled
+      Nightspore after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once through the gateway, the light vanished. The rhythmical sound&mdash;blows
+      totally ceased. Nightspore dropped his hands.... All was dark and quiet as
+      an opened tomb. But the air was filled with grim, burning passion, which
+      was to light and sound what light itself is to opaque colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore pressed his hand to his heart. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I
+      can endure it,&rdquo; he said, looking toward Krag. He <i>felt</i> his
+      person far more vividly and distinctly than if he had been able to see
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go in, and lose no time, Nightspore.... Time here is more precious
+      than on earth. We can&rsquo;t squander the minutes. There are terrible and
+      tragic affairs to attend to, which won&rsquo;t wait for us... Go in at
+      once. Stop for nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I go to?&rdquo; muttered Nightspore. &ldquo;I have
+      forgotten everything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enter, enter! There is only one way. You can&rsquo;t mistake it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you bid me go in, if I am to come out again?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To have your wounds healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost before the words had left his mouth, Krag sprang back on to the
+      island raft. Nightspore involuntarily started after him, but at once
+      recovered himself and remained standing where he was. Krag was completely
+      invisible; everything outside was black night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment he had gone, a feeling shot up in Nightspore&rsquo;s heart like
+      a thousand trumpets.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      Straight in front of him, almost at his feet, was the lower end of a
+      steep, narrow, circular flight of stone steps. There was no other way
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his foot on the bottom stair, at the same time peering aloft. He
+      saw nothing, yet as he proceeded upward every inch of the way was
+      perceptible to his inner feelings. The staircase was cold, dismal, and
+      deserted, but it seemed to him, in his exaltation of soul, like a ladder
+      to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had mounted a dozen steps or so, he paused to take breath. Each
+      step was increasingly difficult to ascend; he felt as though he were
+      carrying a heavy man on his shoulders. It struck a familiar chord in his
+      mind. He went on and, ten stairs higher up, came to a window set in a high
+      embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On to this he clambered, and looked through. The window was of a sort of
+      glass, but he could see nothing. Coming to him, however, from the world
+      outside, a disturbance of the atmosphere struck his senses, causing his
+      blood to run cold. At one moment it resembled a low, mocking, vulgar
+      laugh, travelling from the ends of the earth; at the next it was like a
+      rhythmical vibration of the air&mdash;the silent, continuous throbbing of
+      some mighty engine. The two sensations were identical, yet different. They
+      seemed to be related in the same manner as soul and body. After feeling
+      them for a long time, Nightspore got down from the embrasure, and
+      continued his ascent, having meanwhile grown very serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climbing became still more laborious, and he was forced to stop at
+      every third or fourth step, to rest his muscles and regain breath. When he
+      had mounted another twenty stairs in this way, he came to a second window.
+      Again he saw nothing. The laughing disturbance of the air, too, had
+      ceased; but the atmospheric throb was now twice as distinct as before, and
+      its rhythm had become <i>double</i>. There were two separate pulses; one was in
+      the time of a march, the other in the time of a waltz. The first was
+      bitter and petrifying to feel, but the second was gay, enervating, and
+      horrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore spent little time at that window, for he felt that he was on
+      the eve of a great discovery, and that something far more important
+      awaited him higher up. He proceeded aloft. The ascent grew more and more
+      exhausting, so much so that he had frequently to sit down, utterly crushed
+      by his own dead weight. Still, he got to the third window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed into the embrasure. His feelings translated themselves into
+      vision, and he saw a sight that caused him to turn pale. A gigantic,
+      self-luminous sphere was hanging in the sky, occupying nearly the whole of
+      it. This sphere was composed entirely of two kinds of active beings. There
+      were a myriad of tiny green corpuscles, varying in size from the very
+      small to the almost indiscernible. They were not green, but he somehow saw
+      them so. They were all striving in one direction&mdash;toward himself,
+      toward Muspel, but were too feeble and miniature to make any headway.
+      Their action produced the marching rhythm he had previously felt, but this
+      rhythm was not intrinsic in the corpuscles themselves, but was a
+      consequence of the obstruction they met with. And, surrounding these atoms
+      of life and light, were far larger whirls of white light that gyrated
+      hither and thither, carrying the green corpuscles with them wherever they
+      desired. Their whirling motion was accompanied by the waltzing rhythm. It
+      seemed to Nightspore that the green atoms were not only being danced about
+      against their will but were suffering excruciating shame and degradation
+      in consequence. The larger ones were steadier than the extremely small, a
+      few were even almost stationary, and one was advancing in the direction it
+      wished to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his back to the window, buried his face in his hands, and
+      searched in the dim recesses of his memory for an explanation of what he
+      had just seen. Nothing came straight, but horror and wrath began to take
+      possession of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his way upward to the next window, invisible fingers seemed to him to
+      be squeezing his heart and twisting it about here and there; but he never
+      dreamed of turning back. His mood was so grim that he did not once permit
+      himself to pause. Such was his physical distress by the time that he had
+      clambered into the recess, that for several minutes he could see nothing
+      at all&mdash;the world seemed to be spinning round him rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last he looked, he saw the same sphere as before, but now all was
+      changed on it. It was a world of rocks, minerals, water, plants, animals,
+      and men. He saw the whole world at one view, yet everything was so
+      magnified that he could distinguish the smallest details of life. In the
+      interior of every individual, of every aggregate of individuals, of every
+      chemical atom, he clearly perceived the presence of the green corpuscles.
+      But, according to the degree of dignity of the life form, they were
+      fragmentary or comparatively large. In the crystal, for example, the
+      green, imprisoned life was so minute as to be scarcely visible; in some
+      men it was hardly bigger; but in other men and women it was twenty or a
+      hundred times greater. But, great or small, it played an important part in
+      every individual. It appeared as if the whirls of white light, which were
+      the individuals, and plainly showed themselves beneath the enveloping
+      bodies, were delighted with existence and wished only to enjoy it, but the
+      green corpuscles were in a condition of eternal discontent, yet, blind and
+      not knowing which way to turn for liberation, kept changing form, as
+      though breaking a new path, by way of experiment. Whenever the old
+      grotesque became metamorphosed into the new grotesque, it was in every
+      case the direct work of the green atoms, trying to escape toward Muspel,
+      but encountering immediate opposition. These subdivided sparks of living,
+      fiery spirit were hopelessly imprisoned in a ghastly mush of soft
+      pleasure. They were being effeminated and corrupted&mdash;that is to say,
+      <i>absorbed</i> in the foul, sickly enveloping forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a sickening shame in his soul as he looked on at that
+      spectacle. His exaltation had long since vanished. He bit his nails, and
+      understood why Krag was waiting for him below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted slowly to the fifth window. The pressure of air against him was
+      as strong as a full gale, divested of violence and irregularity, so that
+      he was not for an instant suffered to relax his efforts. Nevertheless, not
+      a breath stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight. The sphere was
+      still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which he was standing
+      he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any distinguishable shape, but
+      somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting sweetness. Nightspore knew that
+      it was Crystalman. A flood of fierce light&mdash;but it was not light, but
+      passion&mdash;was streaming all the time from Muspel to the Shadow, and
+      through it. When, however, it emerged on the other side, which was the
+      sphere, the light was altered in character. It became split, as by a
+      prism, into the two forms of life which he had previously seen&mdash;the
+      green corpuscles and the whirls. What had been fiery spirit but a moment
+      ago was now a disgusting mass of crawling, wriggling individuals, each
+      whirl of pleasure-seeking will having, as nucleus, a fragmentary spark of
+      living green fire. Nightspore recollected the back rays of Starkness, and
+      it flashed across him with the certainty of truth that the green sparks
+      were the back rays, and the whirls the forward rays, of Muspel. The former
+      were trying desperately to return to their place of origin, but were
+      overpowered by the brute force of the latter, which wished only to remain
+      where they were. The individual whirls were jostling and fighting with,
+      and even devouring, each other. This created pain, but, whatever pain they
+      felt, it was always pleasure that they sought. Sometimes the green sparks
+      were strong enough for a moment to move a little way in the direction of
+      Muspel; the whirls would then accept the movement, not only without demur,
+      but with pride and pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork&mdash;but
+      they never saw beyond the Shadow, they thought that they were travelling
+      toward <i>it</i>. The instant the direct movement wearied them, as
+      contrary to their whirling nature, they fell again to killing, dancing,
+      and loving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to be the
+      last. Nothing would have kept him from ascending to it, for he guessed
+      that the nature of Crystalman himself would there become manifest. Every
+      step upward was like a bloody life-and-death struggle. The stairs nailed
+      him to the ground; the air pressure caused blood to gush from his nose and
+      ears; his head clanged like an iron bell. When he had fought his way up a
+      dozen steps, he found himself suddenly at the top; the staircase
+      terminated in a small, bare chamber of cold stone, possessing a single
+      window. On the other side of the apartment another short flight of stairs
+      mounted through a trap, apparently to the roof of the building. Before
+      ascending these stairs, Nightspore hastened to the window and stared out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadow form of Crystalman had drawn much closer to him, and filled the
+      whole sky, but it was not a shadow of darkness, but a bright shadow. It
+      had neither shape, nor colour, yet it in some way suggested the delicate
+      tints of early morning. It was so nebulous that the sphere could be
+      clearly distinguished through it; in extension, however, it was thick. The
+      sweet smell emanating from it was strong, loathsome, and terrible; it
+      seemed to spring from a sort of loose, mocking slime inexpressibly vulgar
+      and ignorant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spirit stream from Muspel flashed with complexity and variety. It was
+      not below individuality, but above it. It was not the One, or the Many,
+      but something else far beyond either. It approached Crystalman, and
+      entered his body&mdash;if that bright mist could be called a body. It
+      passed right through him, and the passage caused him the most exquisite
+      pleasure. <i>The Muspel-stream was Crystalman&rsquo;s food</i>. The stream
+      emerged from the other side on to the sphere, in a double condition. Part
+      of it reappeared intrinsically unaltered, but shivered into a million
+      fragments. These were the green corpuscles. In passing through Crystalman
+      they had escaped absorption by reason of their extreme minuteness. The
+      other part of the stream had not escaped. Its fire had been abstracted,
+      its cement was withdrawn, and, after being fouled and softened by the
+      horrible sweetness of the host, it broke into individuals, which <i>were</i>
+      the whirls of living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore shuddered. He comprehended at last how the whole world of will
+      was doomed to eternal anguish in order that one Being might feel joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he set foot on the final flight leading to the roof; for he
+      remembered vaguely that now only that remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Halfway up, he fainted&mdash;but when he recovered consciousness he
+      persisted as though nothing had happened to him. As soon as his head was
+      above the trap, breathing the free air, he had the same physical sensation
+      as a man stepping out of water. He pulled his body up, and stood
+      expectantly on the stone-floored roof, looking round for his first glimpse
+      of Muspel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>There was nothing</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was standing upon the top of a tower, measuring not above fifteen feet
+      each way. Darkness was all around him. He sat down on the stone parapet,
+      with a sinking heart; a heavy foreboding possessed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, he had the distinct
+      impression that the darkness around him, on all four sides, was
+      grinning.... As soon as that happened, he understood that he was wholly
+      surrounded by Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and that Muspel consisted of
+      himself and the stone tower on which he was sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fire flashed in his heart.... Millions upon millions of grotesque, vulgar,
+      ridiculous, sweetened individuals&mdash;once <i>Spirit</i>&mdash;were
+      calling out from their degradation and agony for salvation from Muspel....
+      To answer that cry there was only himself... and Krag waiting below... and
+      Surtur&mdash;But where was Surtur?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth forced itself on him in all its cold, brutal reality. Muspel was
+      no all-powerful Universe, tolerating from pure indifference the existence
+      side by side with it of another false world, which had no right to be.
+      Muspel was fighting for its life&mdash;against all that is most shameful
+      and frightful&mdash;against sin masquerading as eternal beauty, against
+      baseness masquerading as Nature, against the Devil masquerading as God....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he understood everything. The moral combat was no mock one, no
+      Valhalla, where warriors are cut to pieces by day and feast by night; but
+      a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death&mdash;namely,
+      spiritual death&mdash;inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel.... By
+      what means could he hold back from this horrible war!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self&mdash;the corruption
+      of his life on Earth&mdash;were scorched out of Nightspore&rsquo;s soul,
+      perhaps not for the first time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend. Without warning, a
+      strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world. Starting in awful
+      mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery that he could
+      not doubt for a moment whence it originated. It was the voice of
+      Crystalman.
+</p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+Krag was waiting for him on the island raft. He threw a stern
+      glance at Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen everything?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The struggle is hopeless,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not say I am the stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the stronger and the mightier. Crystalman&rsquo;s Empire is
+      but a shadow on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the
+      bloodiest blows.... What do you mean to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him strangely. &ldquo;Are you not Surtur, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise.
+      &ldquo;But what is your name on Earth?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, too, I must have known.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft.
+      Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/old/1329-h.htm b/old/old/1329-h.htm
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/old/1329-h.htm
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .50em; margin-bottom: .50em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voyage to Arcturus
+
+Author: David Lindsay
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1329]
+Last Updated: March 3, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By David Lindsay
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter 1. THE SIANCE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter 2. IN THE STREET </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter 3. STARKNESS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter 4. THE VOICE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter 6. JOIWIND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter 7. PANAWE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter 9. OCEAXE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter 10. TYDOMIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter 12. SPADEVIL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter 14. POLECRAB </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter 17. CORPANG </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter 18. HAUNTE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter 19. SULLENBODE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter 20. BAREY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter 21. MUSPEL </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 1. THE SEANCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On a March evening, at eight o&rsquo;clock, Backhouse, the medium&mdash;a
+      fast-rising star in the psychic world&mdash;was ushered into the study at
+      Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was
+      illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire. The host, eying him with
+      indolent curiosity, got up, and the usual conventional greetings were
+      exchanged. Having indicated an easy chair before the fire to his guest,
+      the South American merchant sank back again into his own. The electric
+      light was switched on. Faull&rsquo;s prominent, clear-cut features,
+      metallic-looking skin, and general air of bored impassiveness, did not
+      seem greatly to impress the medium, who was accustomed to regard men from
+      a special angle. Backhouse, on the contrary, was a novelty to the
+      merchant. As he tranquilly studied him through half closed lids and the
+      smoke of a cigar, he wondered how this little, thickset person with the
+      pointed beard contrived to remain so fresh and sane in appearance, in view
+      of the morbid nature of his occupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you smoke?&rdquo; drawled Faull, by way of starting the
+      conversation. &ldquo;No? Then will you take a drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at present, I thank you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything is satisfactory? The materialisation will take place?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no reason to doubt it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s good, for I would not like my guests to be
+      disappointed. I have your check written out in my pocket.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afterward will do quite well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine o&rsquo;clock was the time specified, I believe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation continued to flag. Faull sprawled in his chair, and
+      remained apathetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you care to hear what arrangements I have made?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am unaware that any are necessary, beyond chairs for your guests.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean the decoration of the siance room, the music, and so forth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stared at his host. &ldquo;But this is not a theatrical
+      performance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s correct. Perhaps I ought to explain.... There will be
+      ladies present, and ladies, you know, are aesthetically inclined.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case I have no objection. I only hope they will enjoy the
+      performance to the end.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke rather dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all right, then,&rdquo; said Faull. Flicking his
+      cigar into the fire, he got up and helped himself to whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come and see the room?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, no. I prefer to have nothing to do with it till the time
+      arrives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let&rsquo;s go to see my sister, Mrs. Jameson, who is in the
+      drawing room. She sometimes does me the kindness to act as my hostess, as
+      I am unmarried.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be delighted,&rdquo; said Backhouse coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They found the lady alone, sitting by the open pianoforte in a pensive
+      attitude. She had been playing Scriabin and was overcome. The medium took
+      in her small, tight, patrician features and porcelain-like hands, and
+      wondered how Faull came by such a sister. She received him bravely, with
+      just a shade of quiet emotion. He was used to such receptions at the hands
+      of the sex, and knew well how to respond to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What amazes me,&rdquo; she half whispered, after ten minutes of
+      graceful, hollow conversation, &ldquo;is, if you must know it, not so much
+      the manifestation itself&mdash;though that will surely be wonderful&mdash;as
+      your assurance that it will take place. Tell me the grounds of your
+      confidence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dream with open eyes,&rdquo; he answered, looking around at the
+      door, &ldquo;and others see my dreams. That is all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s beautiful,&rdquo; responded Mrs. Jameson. She
+      smiled rather absently, for the first guest had just entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Kent-Smith, the ex-magistrate, celebrated for his shrewd judicial
+      humour, which, however, he had the good sense not to attempt to carry into
+      private life. Although well on the wrong side of seventy, his eyes were
+      still disconcertingly bright. With the selective skill of an old man, he
+      immediately settled himself in the most comfortable of many comfortable
+      chairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to see wonders tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fresh material for your autobiography,&rdquo; remarked Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you should not have mentioned my unfortunate book. An old
+      public servant is merely amusing himself in his retirement, Mr. Backhouse.
+      You have no cause for alarm&mdash;I have studied in the school of
+      discretion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not alarmed. There can be no possible objection to your
+      publishing whatever you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are most kind,&rdquo; said the old man, with a cunning smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trent is not coming tonight,&rdquo; remarked Mrs. Jameson, throwing
+      a curious little glance at her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never thought he would. It&rsquo;s not in his line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Trent, you must understand,&rdquo; she went on, addressing the
+      ex-magistrate, &ldquo;has placed us all under a debt of gratitude. She has
+      decorated the old lounge hall upstairs most beautifully, and has secured
+      the services of the sweetest little orchestra.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is Roman magnificence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Backhouse thinks the spirits should be treated with more deference,&rdquo;
+      laughed Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Mr. Backhouse&mdash;a poetic environment...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me. I am a simple man, and always prefer to reduce things to
+      elemental simplicity. I raise no opposition, but I express my opinion.
+      Nature is one thing, and art is another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am not sure that I don&rsquo;t agree with you,&rdquo; said
+      the ex-magistrate. &ldquo;An occasion like this ought to be simple, to
+      guard against the possibility of deception&mdash;if you will forgive my
+      bluntness, Mr. Backhouse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall sit in full light,&rdquo; replied Backhouse, &ldquo;and
+      every opportunity will be given to all to inspect the room. I shall also
+      ask you to submit me to a personal examination.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather embarrassed silence followed. It was broken by the arrival of two
+      more guests, who entered together. These were Prior, the prosperous City
+      coffee importer, and Lang, the stockjobber, well known in his own circle
+      as an amateur prestidigitator. Backhouse was slightly acquainted with the
+      latter. Prior, perfuming the room with the faint odour of wine and tobacco
+      smoke, tried to introduce an atmosphere of joviality into the proceedings.
+      Finding that no one seconded his efforts, however, he shortly subsided and
+      fell to examining the water colours on the walls. Lang, tall, thin, and
+      growing bald, said little, but stared at Backhouse a good deal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coffee, liqueurs, and cigarettes were now brought in. Everyone partook,
+      except Lang and the medium. At the same moment, Professor Halbart was
+      announced. He was the eminent psychologist, the author and lecturer on
+      crime, insanity, genius, and so forth, considered in their mental aspects.
+      His presence at such a gathering somewhat mystified the other guests, but
+      all felt as if the object of their meeting had immediately acquired
+      additional solemnity. He was small, meagre-looking, and mild in manner,
+      but was probably the most stubborn-brained of all that mixed company.
+      Completely ignoring the medium, he at once sat down beside Kent-Smith,
+      with whom he began to exchange remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a few minutes past the appointed hour Mrs. Trent entered, unannounced.
+      She was a woman of about twenty-eight. She had a white, demure, saintlike
+      face, smooth black hair, and lips so crimson and full that they seemed to
+      be bursting with blood. Her tall, graceful body was most expensively
+      attired. Kisses were exchanged between her and Mrs. Jameson. She bowed to
+      the rest of the assembly, and stole a half glance and a smile at Faull.
+      The latter gave her a queer look, and Backhouse, who lost nothing, saw the
+      concealed barbarian in the complacent gleam of his eye. She refused the
+      refreshment that was offered her, and Faull proposed that, as everyone had
+      now arrived, they should adjourn to the lounge hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Trent held up a slender palm. &ldquo;Did you, or did you not, give me
+      carte blanche, Montague?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I did,&rdquo; said Faull, laughing. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have been rather presumptuous. I don&rsquo;t know. I have
+      invited a couple of friends to join us. No, no one knows them.... The two
+      most extraordinary individuals you ever saw. And mediums, I am sure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds very mysterious. Who are these conspirators?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least tell us their names, you provoking girl,&rdquo; put in
+      Mrs. Jameson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One rejoices in the name of Maskull, and the other in that of
+      Nightspore. That&rsquo;s nearly all that I know about them, so don&rsquo;t
+      overwhelm me with any more questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where did you pick them up? You must have picked them up
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is a cross-examination. Have I sinned against convention?
+      I swear I will tell you not another word about them. They will be here
+      directly, and then I will deliver them to your tender mercy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know them,&rdquo; said Faull, &ldquo;and nobody else
+      seems to, but, of course, we will all be very pleased to have them....
+      Shall we wait, or what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said nine, and it&rsquo;s past that now. It&rsquo;s quite
+      possible they may not turn up after all.... Anyway, don&rsquo;t wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would prefer to start at once,&rdquo; said Backhouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lounge, a lofty room, forty feet long by twenty wide, had been divided
+      for the occasion into two equal parts by a heavy brocade curtain drawn
+      across the middle. The far end was thus concealed. The nearer half had
+      been converted into an auditorium by a crescent of armchairs. There was no
+      other furniture. A large fire was burning halfway along the wall, between
+      the chairbacks and the door. The room was brilliantly lighted by electric
+      bracket lamps. A sumptuous carpet covered the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having settled his guests in their seats, Faull stepped up to the curtain
+      and flung it aside. A replica, or nearly so, of the Drury Lane
+      presentation of the temple scene in <i>The Magic Flute</i> was then
+      exposed to view: the gloomy, massive architecture of the interior, the
+      glowing sky above it in the background, and, silhouetted against the
+      latter, the gigantic seated statue of the Pharaoh. A fantastically carved
+      wooden couch lay before the pedestal of the statue. Near the curtain,
+      obliquely placed to the auditorium, was a plain oak armchair, for the use
+      of the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of those present felt privately that the setting was quite
+      inappropriate to the occasion and savoured rather unpleasantly of
+      ostentation. Backhouse in particular seemed put out. The usual
+      compliments, however, were showered on Mrs. Trent as the deviser of so
+      remarkable a theatre. Faull invited his friends to step forward and
+      examine the apartment as minutely as they might desire. Prior and Lang
+      were the only ones to accept. The former wandered about among the
+      pasteboard scenery, whistling to himself and occasionally tapping a part
+      of it with his knuckles. Lang, who was in his element, ignored the rest of
+      his party and commenced a patient, systematic search, on his own account,
+      for secret apparatus. Faull and Mrs. Trent stood in a corner of the
+      temple, talking together in low tones; while Mrs. Jameson, pretending to
+      hold Backhouse in conversation, watched them as only a deeply interested
+      woman knows how to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang, to his own disgust, having failed to find anything of a suspicious
+      nature, the medium now requested that his own clothing should be searched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All these precautions are quite needless and beside the matter in
+      hand, as you will immediately see for yourselves. My reputation demands,
+      however, that other people who are not present would not be able to say
+      afterward that trickery has been resorted to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Lang again fell the ungrateful task of investigating pockets and
+      sleeves. Within a few minutes he expressed himself satisfied that nothing
+      mechanical was in Backhouse&rsquo;s possession. The guests reseated
+      themselves. Faull ordered two more chairs to be brought for Mrs. Trent&rsquo;s
+      friends, who, however, had not yet arrived. He then pressed an electric
+      bell, and took his own seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The signal was for the hidden orchestra to begin playing. A murmur of
+      surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning, the
+      beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart&rsquo;s &ldquo;temple&rdquo; music
+      pulsated through the air. The expectation of everyone was raised, while,
+      beneath her pallor and composure, it could be seen that Mrs. Trent was
+      deeply moved. It was evident that aesthetically she was by far the most
+      important person present. Faull watched her, with his face sunk on his
+      chest, sprawling as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stood up, with one hand on the back of his chair, and began
+      speaking. The music instantly sank to pianissimo, and remained so for as
+      long as he was on his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a materialisation.
+      That means you will see something appear in space that was not previously
+      there. At first it will appear as a vaporous form, but finally it will be
+      a solid body, which anyone present may feel and handle&mdash;and, for
+      example, shake hands with. For this body will be in the human shape. It
+      will be a real man or woman&mdash;which, I can&rsquo;t say&mdash;but a man
+      or woman without known antecedents. If, however, you demand from me an
+      explanation of the origin of this materialised form&mdash;where it comes
+      from, whence the atoms and molecules composing its tissues are derived&mdash;I
+      am unable to satisfy you. I am about to produce the phenomenon; if anyone
+      can explain it to me afterward, I shall be very grateful.... That is all I
+      have to say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resumed his seat, half turning his back on the assembly, and paused for
+      a moment before beginning his task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was precisely at this minute that the manservant opened the door and
+      announced in a subdued but distinct voice: &ldquo;Mr. Maskull, Mr.
+      Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everyone turned round. Faull rose to welcome the late arrivals. Backhouse
+      also stood up, and stared hard at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two strangers remained standing by the door, which was closed quietly
+      behind them. They seemed to be waiting for the mild sensation caused by
+      their appearance to subside before advancing into the room. Maskull was a
+      kind of giant, but of broader and more robust physique than most giants.
+      He wore a full beard. His features were thick and heavy, coarsely
+      modelled, like those of a wooden carving; but his eyes, small and black,
+      sparkled with the fires of intelligence and audacity. His hair was short,
+      black, and bristling. Nightspore was of middle height, but so
+      tough-looking that he appeared to be trained out of all human frailties
+      and susceptibilities. His hairless face seemed consumed by an intense
+      spiritual hunger, and his eyes were wild and distant. Both men were
+      dressed in tweeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before any words were spoken, a loud and terrible crash of falling masonry
+      caused the assembled party to start up from their chairs in consternation.
+      It sounded as if the entire upper part of the building had collapsed.
+      Faull sprang to the door, and called to the servant to say what was
+      happening. The man had to be questioned twice before he gathered what was
+      required of him. He said he had heard nothing. In obedience to his master&rsquo;s
+      order, he went upstairs. Nothing, however, was amiss there, neither had
+      the maids heard anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime Backhouse, who almost alone of those assembled had
+      preserved his sangfroid, went straight up to Nightspore, who stood gnawing
+      his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you can explain it, sir?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was supernatural,&rdquo; said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled
+      voice, turning away from his questioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed so. It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard
+      it so loud.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then went among the guests, reassuring them. By degrees they settled
+      down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-humoured
+      interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained watchfulness.
+      Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to them. Mrs. Trent kept
+      stealing uneasy glances at them. Throughout the entire incident, Mozart&rsquo;s
+      hymn continued to be played. The orchestra also had heard nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse now entered on his task. It was one that began to be familiar to
+      him, and he had no anxiety about the result. It was not possible to effect
+      the materialisation by mere concentration of will, or the exercise of any
+      faculty; otherwise many people could have done what he had engaged himself
+      to do. His nature was phenomenal&mdash;the dividing wall between himself
+      and the spiritual world was broken in many places. Through the gaps in his
+      mind the inhabitants of the invisible, when he summoned them, passed for a
+      moment timidly and awfully into the solid, coloured universe.... He could
+      not say how it was brought about.... The experience was a rough one for
+      the body, and many such struggles would lead to insanity and early death.
+      That is why Backhouse was stern and abrupt in his manner. The coarse,
+      clumsy suspicion of some of the witnesses, the frivolous aestheticism of
+      others, were equally obnoxious to his grim, bursting heart; but he was
+      obliged to live, and, to pay his way, must put up with these
+      impertinences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down facing the wooden couch. His eyes remained open but seemed to
+      look inward. His cheeks paled, and he became noticeably thinner. The
+      spectators almost forgot to breathe. The more sensitive among them began
+      to feel, or imagine, strange presences all around them. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      eyes glittered with anticipation, and his brows went up and down, but
+      Nightspore appeared bored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long ten minutes the pedestal of the statue was seen to become
+      slightly blurred, as though an intervening mist were rising from the
+      ground. This slowly developed into a visible cloud, coiling hither and
+      thither, and constantly changing shape. The professor half rose, and held
+      his glasses with one hand further forward on the bridge of his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By slow stages the cloud acquired the dimensions and approximate outline
+      of an adult human body, although all was still vague and blurred. It
+      hovered lightly in the air, a foot or so above the couch. Backhouse looked
+      haggard and ghastly. Mrs. Jameson quietly fainted in her chair, but she
+      was unnoticed, and presently revived. The apparition now settled down upon
+      the couch, and at the moment of doing so seemed suddenly to grow dark,
+      solid, and manlike. Many of the guests were as pale as the medium himself,
+      but Faull preserved his stoical apathy, and glanced once or twice at Mrs.
+      Trent. She was staring straight at the couch, and was twisting a little
+      lace handkerchief through the different fingers of her hand. The music
+      went on playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure was by this time unmistakably that of a man lying down. The
+      face focused itself into distinctness. The body was draped in a sort of
+      shroud, but the features were those of a young man. One smooth hand fell
+      over, nearly touching the floor, white and motionless. The weaker spirits
+      of the company stared at the vision in sick horror; the rest were grave
+      and perplexed. The seeming man was <i>dead</i>, but somehow it did not
+      appear like a death succeeding life, but like a death preliminary to life.
+      All felt that he might sit up at any minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop that music!&rdquo; muttered Backhouse, tottering from his
+      chair and facing the party. Faull touched the bell. A few more bars
+      sounded, and then total silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anyone who wants to may approach the couch,&rdquo; said Backhouse
+      with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang at once advanced, and stared awestruck at the supernatural youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are at liberty to touch,&rdquo; said the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Lang did not venture to, nor did any of the others, who one by one
+      stole up to the couch&mdash;until it came to Faull&rsquo;s turn. He looked
+      straight at Mrs. Trent, who seemed frightened and disgusted at the
+      spectacle before her, and then not only touched the apparition but
+      suddenly grasped the drooping hand in his own and gave it a powerful
+      squeeze. Mrs. Trent gave a low scream. The ghostly visitor opened his
+      eyes, looked at Faull strangely, and sat up on the couch. A cryptic smile
+      started playing over his mouth. Faull looked at his hand; a feeling of
+      intense pleasure passed through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught Mrs. Jameson in his arms; she was attacked by another spell
+      of faintness. Mrs. Trent ran forward, and led her out of the room. Neither
+      of them returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phantom body now stood upright, looking about him, still with his
+      peculiar smile. Prior suddenly felt sick, and went out. The other men more
+      or less hung together, for the sake of human society, but Nightspore paced
+      up and down, like a man weary and impatient, while Maskull attempted to
+      interrogate the youth. The apparition watched him with a baffling
+      expression, but did not answer. Backhouse was sitting apart, his face
+      buried in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this moment that the door was burst open violently, and a
+      stranger, unannounced, half leaped, half strode a few yards into the room,
+      and then stopped. None of Faull&rsquo;s friends had ever seen him before.
+      He was a thick, shortish man, with surprising muscular development and a
+      head far too large in proportion to his body. His beardless yellow face
+      indicated, as a first impression, a mixture of sagacity, brutality, and
+      humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha-i, gentlemen!&rdquo; he called out loudly. His voice was
+      piercing, and oddly disagreeable to the ear. &ldquo;So we have a little
+      visitor here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back, but everyone else stared at the intruder in
+      astonishment. He took another few steps forward, which brought him to the
+      edge of the theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask, sir, how I come to have the honour of being your host?&rdquo;
+      asked Faull sullenly. He thought that the evening was not proceeding as
+      smoothly as he had anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer looked at him for a second, and then broke into a great,
+      roaring guffaw. He thumped Faull on the back playfully&mdash;but the play
+      was rather rough, for the victim was sent staggering against the wall
+      before he could recover his balance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good evening, my host!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And good evening to you too, my lad!&rdquo; he went on, addressing
+      the supernatural youth, who was now beginning to wander about the room, in
+      apparent unconsciousness of his surroundings. &ldquo;I have seen someone
+      very like you before, I think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intruder thrust his head almost up to the phantom&rsquo;s face.
+      &ldquo;You have no right here, as you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shape looked back at him with a smile full of significance, which,
+      however, no one could understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful what you are doing,&rdquo; said Backhouse quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, spirit usher?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who you are, but if you use physical violence
+      toward <i>that</i>, as you seem inclined to do, the consequences may prove
+      very unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And without pleasure our evening would be spoiled, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      it, my little mercenary friend?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Humour vanished from his face, like sunlight from a landscape, leaving it
+      hard and rocky. Before anyone realised what he was doing, he encircled the
+      soft, white neck of the materialised shape with his hairy hands and, with
+      a double turn, twisted it completely round. A faint, unearthly shriek
+      sounded, and the body fell in a heap to the floor. Its face was uppermost.
+      The guests were unutterably shocked to observe that its expression had
+      changed from the mysterious but fascinating smile to a vulgar, sordid,
+      bestial grin, which cast a cold shadow of moral nastiness into every
+      heart. The transformation was accompanied by a sickening stench of the
+      graveyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The features faded rapidly away, the body lost its consistence, passing
+      from the solid to the shadowy condition, and, before two minutes had
+      elapsed, the spirit-form had entirely disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short stranger turned and confronted the party, with a long, loud
+      laugh, like nothing in nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The professor talked excitedly to Kent-Smith in low tones. Faull beckoned
+      Backhouse behind a wing of scenery, and handed him his check without a
+      word. The medium put it in his pocket, buttoned his coat, and walked out
+      of the room. Lang followed him, in order to get a drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger poked his face up into Maskull&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, giant, what do you think of it all? Wouldn&rsquo;t you like
+      to see the land where this sort of fruit grows wild?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of fruit?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That specimen goblin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull waved him away with his huge hand. &ldquo;Who are you, and how did
+      you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call up your friend. Perhaps he may recognise me.&rdquo; Nightspore
+      had moved a chair to the fire, and was watching the embers with a set,
+      fanatical expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Krag come to me, if he wants me,&rdquo; he said, in his strange
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, he does know me,&rdquo; uttered Krag, with a humorous
+      look. Walking over to Nightspore, he put a hand on the back of his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still the same old gnawing hunger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is doing these days?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore disdainfully,
+      without altering his attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur has gone, and we are to follow him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you two come to know each other, and of whom are you
+      speaking?&rdquo; asked Maskull, looking from one to the other in
+      perplexity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag has something for us. Let us go outside,&rdquo; replied
+      Nightspore. He got up, and glanced over his shoulder. Maskull, following
+      the direction of his eye, observed that the few remaining men were
+      watching their little group attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 2. IN THE STREET
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The three men gathered in the street outside the house. The night was
+      slightly frosty, but particularly clear, with an east wind blowing. The
+      multitude of blazing stars caused the sky to appear like a vast scroll of
+      hieroglyphic symbols. Maskull felt oddly excited; he had a sense that
+      something extraordinary was about to happen. &ldquo;What brought you to
+      this house tonight, Krag, and what made you do what you did? How are we
+      understand that apparition?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must have been Crystalman&rsquo;s expression on its face,&rdquo;
+      muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have discussed that, haven&rsquo;t we, Maskull? Maskull is
+      anxious to behold that rare fruit in its native wilds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at Krag carefully, trying to analyse his own feelings
+      toward him. He was distinctly repelled by the man&rsquo;s personality, yet
+      side by side with this aversion a savage, living energy seemed to spring
+      up in his heart that in some strange fashion was attributable to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you insist on this simile?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it is apropos. Nightspore&rsquo;s quite right. That was
+      Crystalman&rsquo;s face, and we are going to Crystalman&rsquo;s country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is this mysterious country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a quaint name. But where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned, showing his yellow teeth in the light of the street lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the residential suburb of Arcturus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is he talking about, Nightspore?... Do you mean the star of
+      that name?&rdquo; he went on, to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which you have in front of you at this very minute,&rdquo; said
+      Krag, pointing a thick finger toward the brightest star in the
+      south-eastern sky. &ldquo;There you see Arcturus, and Tormance is its one
+      inhabited planet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the heavy, gleaming star, and again at Krag. Then he
+      pulled out a pipe, and began to fill it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have cultivated a new form of humour, Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad if I can amuse you, Maskull, if only for a few days.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant to ask you&mdash;how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be odd if I didn&rsquo;t, seeing that I only came here on
+      your account. As a matter of fact, Nightspore and I are old friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused with his suspended match. &ldquo;You came here on my
+      account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely. On your account and Nightspore&rsquo;s. We three are to be
+      fellow travellers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now lit his pipe and puffed away coolly for a few moments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Krag, but I must assume you are mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw his head back, and gave a scraping laugh. &ldquo;Am I mad,
+      Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Surtur gone to Tormance?&rdquo; ejaculated Nightspore in a
+      strangled voice, fixing his eyes on Krag&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and he requires that we follow him at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart began to beat strangely. It all sounded to him like
+      a dream conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And since how long, Krag, have I been <i>required</i> to do things
+      by a total stranger.... Besides, who is this individual?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&rsquo;s chief,&rdquo; said Nightspore, turning his head away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The riddle is too elaborate for me. I give up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are looking for mysteries,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;so
+      naturally you are finding them. Try and simplify your ideas, my friend.
+      The affair is plain and serious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared hard at him and smoked rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from now?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the old observatory at Starkness.... Have you heard of the
+      famous Starkness Observatory, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the north-east coast of Scotland. Curious discoveries are made
+      there from time to time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As, for example, how to make voyages to the stars. So this Surtur
+      turns out to be an astronomer. And you too, presumably?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned again. &ldquo;How long will it take you to wind up your
+      affairs? When can you be ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too considerate,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing outright.
+      &ldquo;I was beginning to fear that I would be hauled away at once....
+      However, I have neither wife, land, nor profession, so there&rsquo;s
+      nothing to wait for.... What is the itinerary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a fortunate man. A bold, daring heart, and no encumbrances.&rdquo;
+      Krag&rsquo;s features became suddenly grave and rigid. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+      be a fool, and refuse a gift of luck. A gift declined is not offered a
+      second time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply, returning his pipe to his
+      pocket. &ldquo;I ask you to put yourself in my place. Even if I were a man
+      sick for adventures, how could I listen seriously to such an insane
+      proposition as this? What do I know about you, or your past record? You
+      may be a practical joker, or you may have come out of a madhouse&mdash;I
+      know nothing about it. If you claim to be an exceptional man, and want my
+      cooperation, you must offer me exceptional proofs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what proofs would you consider adequate, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. A sharp, chilling pain
+      immediately passed through the latter&rsquo;s body and at the same moment
+      his brain caught fire. A light burst in upon him like the rising of the
+      sun. He asked himself for the first time if this fantastic conversation
+      could by any chance refer to real things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, Krag,&rdquo; he said slowly, while peculiar images and
+      conceptions started to travel in rich disorder through his mind. &ldquo;You
+      talk about a certain journey. Well, if that journey were a possible one,
+      and I were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come
+      back. For twenty-four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give my
+      life. That is my attitude toward that journey.... Now prove to me that you&rsquo;re
+      not talking nonsense. Produce your credentials.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag stared at him all the time he was speaking, his face gradually
+      resuming its jesting expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you will get your twenty-four hours, and perhaps longer, but
+      not much longer. You&rsquo;re an audacious fellow, Maskull, but this trip
+      will prove a little strenuous, even for you.... And so, like the
+      unbelievers of old, you want a sign from heaven?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;But the whole thing is ridiculous. Our brains are
+      overexcited by what took place in <i>there</i>. Let us go home, and sleep
+      it off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag detained him with one hand, while groping in his breast pocket with
+      the other. He presently fished out what resembled a small folding lens.
+      The diameter of the glass did not exceed two inches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First take a peep at Arcturus through this, Maskull. It may serve
+      as a provisional sign. It&rsquo;s the best I can do, unfortunately. I am
+      not a travelling magician.... Be very careful not to drop it. It&rsquo;s
+      somewhat heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the lens in his hand, struggled with it for a minute, and
+      then looked at Krag in amazement. The little object weighed at least
+      twenty pounds, though it was not much bigger than a crown piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What stuff can this be, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look through it, my good friend. That&rsquo;s what I gave it to you
+      for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull held it up with difficulty, directed it toward the gleaming
+      Arcturus, and snatched as long and as steady a glance at the star as the
+      muscles of his arm would permit. What he saw was this. The star, which to
+      the naked eye appeared as a single yellow point of light, now became
+      clearly split into two bright but minute suns, the larger of which was
+      still yellow, while its smaller companion was a beautiful blue. But this
+      was not all. Apparently circulating around the yellow sun was a
+      comparatively small and hardly distinguishable satellite, which seemed to
+      shine, not by its own, but by reflected light.... Maskull lowered and
+      raised his arm repeatedly. The same spectacle revealed itself again and
+      again, but he was able to see nothing else. Then he passed back the lens
+      to Krag, without a word, and stood chewing his underlip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take a glimpse too,&rdquo; scraped Krag, proffering the glass
+      to Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back and began to pace up and down. Krag laughed
+      sardonically, and returned the lens to his pocket. &ldquo;Well, Maskull,
+      are you satisfied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arcturus, then, is a double sun. And is that third point the planet
+      Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our future home, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued to ponder. &ldquo;You inquire if I am satisfied. I don&rsquo;t
+      know, Krag. It&rsquo;s miraculous, and that&rsquo;s all I can say about
+      it.... But I&rsquo;m satisfied of one thing. There must be very wonderful
+      astronomers at Starkness and if you invite me to your observatory I will
+      surely come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do invite you. We set off from there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, Nightspore?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The journey has to be made,&rdquo; answered his friend in
+      indistinct tones, &ldquo;though I don&rsquo;t see what will come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag shot a penetrating glance at him. &ldquo;More remarkable adventures
+      than this would need to be arranged before we could excite Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet he is coming.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not <i>con amore</i>. He is coming merely to bear you company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary might,
+      in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart swelled with
+      grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was unable to account
+      to his own intellect. He felt that his destiny was in some way bound up
+      with this gigantic, far-distant sun. But still he did not dare to admit to
+      himself Krag&rsquo;s seriousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard his parting remarks in deep abstraction, and only after the lapse
+      of several minutes, when, alone with Nightspore, did he realise that they
+      referred to such mundane matters as travelling routes and times of trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does Krag travel north with us, Nightspore? I didn&rsquo;t catch
+      that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. We go on first, and he joins us at Starkness on the evening of
+      the day after tomorrow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained thoughtful. &ldquo;What am I to think of that man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For your information,&rdquo; replied Nightspore wearily, &ldquo;I
+      have never known him to lie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 3. STARKNESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A couple of days later, at two o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, Maskull and
+      Nightspore arrived at Starkness Observatory, having covered the seven
+      miles from Haillar Station on foot. The road, very wild and lonely, ran
+      for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty cliffs,
+      within sight of the North Sea. The sun shone, but a brisk east wind was
+      blowing and the air was salt and cold. The dark green waves were flecked
+      with white. Throughout the walk, they were accompanied by the plaintive,
+      beautiful crying of the gulls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The observatory presented itself to their eyes as a self-contained little
+      community, without neighbours, and perched on the extreme end of the land.
+      There were three buildings: a small, stone-built dwelling house, a low
+      workshop, and, about two hundred yards farther north, a square tower of
+      granite masonry, seventy feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house and the shop were separated by an open yard, littered with
+      waste. A single stone wall surrounded both, except on the side facing the
+      sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the cliff. No one
+      appeared. The windows were all closed, and Maskull could have sworn that
+      the whole establishment was shut up and deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed through the open gate, followed by Nightspore, and knocked
+      vigorously at the front door. The knocker was thick with dust and had
+      obviously not been used for a long time. He put his ear to the door, but
+      could hear no movements inside the house. He then tried the handle; the
+      door was looked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked around the house, looking for another entrance, but there was
+      only the one door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t promising,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      no one here..... Now you try the shed, while I go over to that tower.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore, who had not spoken half a dozen words since leaving the train,
+      complied in silence, and started off across the yard. Maskull passed out
+      of the gate again. When he arrived at the foot of the tower, which stood
+      some way back from the cliff, he found the door heavily padlocked. Gazing
+      up, he saw six windows, one above the other at equal distances, all on the
+      east face&mdash;that is, overlooking the sea. Realising that no
+      satisfaction was to be gained here, he came away again, still more
+      irritated than before. When he rejoined his friend, Nightspore reported
+      that the workshop was also locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did we, or did we not, receive an invitation?&rdquo; demanded
+      Maskull energetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house is empty,&rdquo; replied Nightspore, biting his nails.
+      &ldquo;Better break a window.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t mean to camp out till Krag condescends to
+      come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up an old iron bolt from the yard and, retreating to a safe
+      distance, hurled it against a sash window on the ground floor. The lower
+      pane was completely shattered. Carefully avoiding the broken glass,
+      Maskull thrust his hand through the aperture and pushed back the frame
+      fastening. A minute later they had climbed through and were standing
+      inside the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room, which was a kitchen, was in an indescribably filthy and
+      neglected condition. The furniture scarcely held together, broken utensils
+      and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap, everything was
+      covered with a deep deposit of dust. The atmosphere was so foul that
+      Maskull judged that no fresh air had passed into the room for several
+      months. Insects were crawling on the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the other rooms on the lower floor&mdash;a scullery, a
+      barely furnished dining room, and a storing place for lumber. The same
+      dirt, mustiness, and neglect met their eyes. At least half a year must
+      have elapsed since these rooms were last touched, or even entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your faith in Krag still hold?&rdquo; asked Maskull. &ldquo;I
+      confess mine is at vanishing point. If this affair isn&rsquo;t one big
+      practical joke, it has every promise of being one. Krag never lived here
+      in his life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come upstairs first,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The upstairs rooms proved to consist of a library and three bedrooms. All
+      the windows were tightly closed, and the air was insufferable. The beds
+      had been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never been made
+      since. The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually preserved the
+      impressions of the sleepers. There was no doubt that these impressions
+      were ancient, for all sorts of floating dirt had accumulated on the sheets
+      and coverlets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who could have slept here, do you think?&rdquo; interrogated
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The observatory staff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More likely travellers like ourselves. They left suddenly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flung the windows wide open in every room he came to, and held his
+      breath until he had done so. Two of the bedrooms faced the sea; the third,
+      the library, the upward-sloping moorland. This library was now the only
+      room left unvisited, and unless they discovered signs of recent occupation
+      here Maskull made up his mind to regard the whole business as a gigantic
+      hoax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the library, like all the other rooms, was foul with stale air and
+      dust-laden. Maskull, having flung the window up and down, fell heavily
+      into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now what is your opinion of Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the window.
+      &ldquo;He may still have left a message for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What message? Why? Do you mean in this room?&mdash;I see no
+      message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
+      upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old bottles on
+      one of the shelves and nothing else. Maskull glanced at him and at the
+      cupboard. Then, without a word, he got up to examine the bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest. The
+      smaller ones were about eight inches long. All were torpedo-shaped, but
+      had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand upright. Two of the
+      smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the others contained a colourless
+      liquid, and possessed queer-looking, nozzle-like stoppers that were
+      connected by a thin metal rod with a catch halfway down the side of the
+      bottle. They were labelled, but the labels were yellow with age and the
+      writing was nearly undecipherable. Maskull carried the filled bottles with
+      him to the table in front of the window, in order to get better light.
+      Nightspore moved away to make room for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now made out on the larger bottle the words &ldquo;Solar Back Rays&rdquo;;
+      and on the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could
+      distinguish something like &ldquo;Arcturian Back Rays.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked up, to stare curiously at his friend. &ldquo;Have you been here
+      before, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed Krag would leave a message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;it may be a message, but it means
+      nothing to us, or at all events to me. What are &lsquo;back rays&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Light that goes back to its source,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what kind of light would that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore seemed unwilling to answer, but, finding Maskull&rsquo;s eyes
+      still fixed on him, he brought out: &ldquo;Unless light pulled, as well as
+      pushed, how would flowers contrive to twist their heads around after the
+      sun?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. But the point is, what are these bottles for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still talking, with his hand on the smaller bottle, the
+      other, which was lying on its side, accidentally rolled over in such a
+      manner that the metal caught against the table. He made a movement to stop
+      it, his hand was actually descending, when&mdash;the bottle suddenly
+      disappeared before his eyes. It had not rolled off the table, but had
+      really vanished&mdash;it was nowhere at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at the table. After a minute he raised his brows, and
+      turned to Nightspore with a smile. &ldquo;The message grows more
+      intricate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked bored. &ldquo;The valve became unfastened. The contents
+      have escaped through the open window toward the sun, carrying the bottle
+      with them. But the bottle will be burned up by the earth&rsquo;s
+      atmosphere, and the contents will dissipate, and will not reach the sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened attentively, and his smile faded. &ldquo;Does anything
+      prevent us from experimenting with this other bottle?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Replace it in the cupboard,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;Arcturus
+      is still below the horizon, and you would succeed only in wrecking the
+      house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained standing before the window, pensively gazing out at the
+      sunlit moors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag treats me like a child,&rdquo; he remarked presently. &ldquo;And
+      perhaps I really am a child.... My cynicism must seem most amusing to
+      Krag. But why does he leave me to find out all this by myself&mdash;for I
+      don&rsquo;t include you, Nightspore.... But what time will Krag be here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not before dark, I expect,&rdquo; his friend replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 4. THE VOICE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was by this time past three o&rsquo;clock. Feeling hungry, for they had
+      eaten nothing since early morning, Maskull went downstairs to forage, but
+      without much hope of finding anything in the shape of food. In a safe in
+      the kitchen he discovered a bag of mouldy oatmeal, which was untouchable,
+      a quantity of quite good tea in an airtight caddy, and an unopened can of
+      ox tongue. Best of all, in the dining-room cupboard he came across an
+      uncorked bottle of first-class Scotch whisky. He at once made preparations
+      for a scratch meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pump in the yard ran clear after a good deal of hard working at it, and
+      he washed out and filled the antique kettle. For firewood, one of the
+      kitchen chairs was broken up with a chopper. The light, dusty wood made a
+      good blaze in the grate, the kettle was boiled, and cups were procured and
+      washed. Ten minutes later the friends were dining in the library.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore ate and drank little, but Maskull sat down with good appetite.
+      There being no milk, whisky took the place of it; the nearly black tea was
+      mixed with an equal quantity of the spirit. Of this concoction Maskull
+      drank cup after cup, and long after the tongue had disappeared he was
+      still imbibing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him queerly. &ldquo;Do you intend to finish the
+      bottle before Krag comes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag won&rsquo;t want any, and one must do something. I feel
+      restless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us take a look at the country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cup, which was on its way to Maskull&rsquo;s lips, remained poised in
+      the air. &ldquo;Have you anything in view, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk out to the Gap of Sorgie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A showplace,&rdquo; answered Nightspore, biting his lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull finished off the cup, and rose to his feet. &ldquo;Walking is
+      better than soaking at any time, and especially on a day like this.... How
+      far is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three or four miles each way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably mean something,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m
+      beginning to regard you as a second Krag. But if so, so much the better. I
+      am growing nervous, and need incidents.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the house by the door, which they left ajar, and immediately
+      found themselves again on the moorland road that had brought them from
+      Haillar. This time they continued along it, past the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, as they went by, regarded the erection with puzzled interest.
+      &ldquo;What <i>is</i> that tower, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sail from the platform on the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight?&rdquo;&mdash;throwing him a quick look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave. &ldquo;Then we are looking at the
+      gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You no longer think it impossible, I fancy,&rdquo; mumbled
+      Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
+      sharply inland, across the hills. With Nightspore as guide, they left it
+      and took to the grass. A faint sheep path marked the way along the cliff
+      edge for some distance, but at the end of another mile it vanished. The
+      two men then had some rough walking up and down hillsides and across deep
+      gullies. The sun disappeared behind the hills, and twilight imperceptibly
+      came on. They soon reached a spot where further progress appeared
+      impossible. The buttress of a mountain descended at a steep angle to the
+      very edge of the cliff, forming an impassable slope of slippery grass.
+      Maskull halted, stroked his beard, and wondered what the next step was to
+      be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a little scrambling here,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+      &ldquo;We are both used to climbing, and there is not much in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice a few
+      yards beneath where they were standing. It averaged from fifteen to thirty
+      inches in width. Without waiting for Maskull&rsquo;s consent to the
+      undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and started walking along
+      this ledge at a rapid pace. Maskull, seeing that there was no help for it,
+      followed him. The shelf did not extend for above a quarter of a mile, but
+      its passage was somewhat unnerving; there was a sheer drop to the sea,
+      four hundred feet below. In a few places they had to sidle along without
+      placing one foot before another. The sound of the breakers came up to them
+      in a low, threatening roar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon rounding a corner, the ledge broadened out into a fair-sized platform
+      of rock and came to a sudden end. A narrow inlet of the sea separated them
+      from the continuation of the cliffs beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As we can&rsquo;t get any further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;I
+      presume this is your Gap of Sorgie?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered his friend, first dropping on his knees and
+      then lying at full length, face downward. He drew his head and shoulders
+      over the edge and began to stare straight down at the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is there interesting down there, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Receiving no reply, however, he followed his friend&rsquo;s example, and
+      the next minute was looking for himself. Nothing was to be seen; the gloom
+      had deepened, and the sea was nearly invisible. But, while he was
+      ineffectually gazing, he heard what sounded like the beating of a drum on
+      the narrow strip of shore below. It was very faint, but quite distinct.
+      The beats were in four-four time, with the third beat slightly accented.
+      He now continued to hear the noise all the time he was lying there. The
+      beats were in no way drowned by the far louder sound of the surf, but
+      seemed somehow to belong to a different world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were on their feet again, he questioned Nightspore. &ldquo;We
+      came here solely to hear that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore cast one of his odd looks at him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s called
+      locally &lsquo;The Drum Taps of Sorgie.&rsquo; You will not hear that name
+      again, but perhaps you will hear the sound again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I do, what will it imply?&rdquo; demanded Maskull in
+      amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It bears its own message. Only try always to hear it more and more
+      distinctly.... Now it&rsquo;s growing dark, and we must get back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled out his watch automatically, and looked at the time. It was
+      past six.... But he was thinking of Nightspore&rsquo;s words, and not of
+      the time.
+    </p>
+
+    <p>
+      Night had already fallen by the time they regained the tower. The black
+      sky was glorious with liquid stars. Arcturus was a little way above the
+      sea, directly opposite them, in the east. As they were passing the base of
+      the tower, Maskull observed with a sudden shock that the gate was open. He
+      caught hold of Nightspore&rsquo;s arm violently. &ldquo;Look! Krag is
+      back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must make haste to the house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not the tower? He&rsquo;s probably in there, since the gate
+      is open. I&rsquo;m going up to look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore grunted, but made no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was pitch-black inside the gate. Maskull struck a match, and the
+      flickering light disclosed the lower end of a circular flight of stone
+      steps. &ldquo;Are you coming up?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ll wait here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately began the ascent. Hardly had he mounted half a dozen
+      steps, however, before he was compelled to pause, to gain breath. He
+      seemed to be carrying upstairs not one Maskull, but three. As he
+      proceeded, the sensation of crushing weight, so far from diminishing, grew
+      worse and worse. It was nearly physically impossible to go on; his lungs
+      could not take in enough oxygen, while his heart thumped like a ship&rsquo;s
+      engine. Sweat coursed down his face. At the twentieth step he completed
+      the first revolution of the tower and came face to face with the first
+      window, which was set in a high embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Realising that he could go no higher, he struck another match, and climbed
+      into the embrasure, in order that he might at all events see something
+      from the tower. The flame died, and he stared through the window at the
+      stars. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that it was not a window
+      at all but a lens.... The sky was not a wide expanse of space containing a
+      multitude of stars, but a blurred darkness, focused only in one part,
+      where two very bright stars, like small moons in size, appeared in close
+      conjunction; and near them a more minute planetary object, as brilliant as
+      Venus and with an observable disk. One of the suns shone with a glaring
+      white light; the other was a weird and awful blue. Their light, though
+      almost solar in intensity, did not illuminate the interior of the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was gazing was
+      what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus.... He had seen the sight
+      before, through Krag&rsquo;s glass, but then the scale had been smaller,
+      the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in their naked reality....
+      These colors seemed to him most marvellous, as if, in seeing them through
+      earth eyes, he was not seeing them correctly.... But it was at Tormance
+      that he stared the longest and the most earnestly. On that mysterious and
+      terrible earth, countless millions of miles distant, it had been promised
+      him that he would set foot, even though he might leave his bones there.
+      The strange creatures that he was to behold and touch were already living,
+      at this very moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard away.
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an
+      instrument, to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when
+      he wakes you must die. You will go, but he will return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was
+      in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he redescended
+      to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his sensation of weight
+      was instantly removed, but he continued panting and palpitating, like a
+      man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s dark form came forward. &ldquo;Was Krag there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he was, I didn&rsquo;t see him. But I heard someone speak.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not Krag&mdash;but a voice warned me against you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you will hear these voices too,&rdquo; said Nightspore
+      enigmatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and the
+      door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not there.
+      Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every room&mdash;at
+      the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the man they were
+      expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the premises. Groping their
+      way into the library, they sat down in the total darkness to wait, for
+      nothing else remained to be done. Maskull lit his pipe, and began to drink
+      the remainder of the whisky. Through the open window sounded in their ears
+      the trainlike grinding of the sea at the foot of the cliffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag must be in the tower after all,&rdquo; remarked Maskull,
+      breaking the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is getting ready.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he doesn&rsquo;t expect us to join him there. It was beyond
+      my powers&mdash;but why, heaven knows. The stairs must have a magnetic
+      pull of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Tormantic gravity,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you&mdash;or, rather, I don&rsquo;t&mdash;but it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on smoking in silence, occasionally taking a mouthful of the neat
+      liquor. &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo; he demanded abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We others are gropers and bunglers, but he is a <i>master</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull digested this. &ldquo;I fancy you are right, for though I know
+      nothing about him his mere name has an exciting effect on me.... Are you
+      personally acquainted with him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be... I forget...&rdquo; replied Nightspore in a choking
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked up, surprised, but could make nothing out in the blackness
+      of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know so many extraordinary men that you can forget some of
+      them?... Perhaps you can tell me this... will we meet him, where we are
+      going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will meet death, Maskull.... Ask me no more questions&mdash;I
+      can&rsquo;t answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go on waiting for Krag,&rdquo; said Maskull coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the front door slammed, and a light, quick footstep was
+      heard running up the stairs. Maskull got up, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag appeared on the threshold of the door, bearing in his hand a feebly
+      glimmering lantern. A hat was on his head, and he looked stern and
+      forbidding. After scrutinising the two friends for a moment or so, he
+      strode into the room and thrust the lantern on the table. Its light hardly
+      served to illuminate the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have got here, then, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems&mdash;but I shan&rsquo;t thank you for your
+      hospitality, for it has been conspicuous by its absence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag ignored the remark. &ldquo;Are you ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means&mdash;when you are. It is not so entertaining here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag surveyed him critically. &ldquo;I heard you stumbling about in the
+      tower. You couldn&rsquo;t get up, it seems.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore informs me that the start
+      takes place from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But your other doubts are all removed?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, Krag, that I now possess an open mind. I am quite willing
+      to see what you can do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing more is asked.... But this tower business. You know that
+      until you are able to climb to the top you are unfit to stand the
+      gravitation of Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I repeat, it&rsquo;s an awkward obstacle, for I certainly can&rsquo;t
+      get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag hunted about in his pockets, and at length produced a clasp knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remove your coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve,&rdquo; he
+      directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you propose to make an incision with that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and don&rsquo;t start difficulties, because the effect is
+      certain, but you can&rsquo;t possibly understand it beforehand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, a cut with a pocket-knife&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will answer, Maskull,&rdquo; interrupted Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then bare your arm too, you aristocrat of the universe,&rdquo; said
+      Krag. &ldquo;Let us see what your blood is made of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag pulled out the big blade of the knife, and made a careless and almost
+      savage slash at Maskull&rsquo;s upper arm. The wound was deep, and blood
+      flowed freely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I bind it up?&rdquo; asked Maskull, scowling with pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag spat on the wound. &ldquo;Pull your shirt down, it won&rsquo;t bleed
+      any more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then turned his attention to Nightspore, who endured his operation with
+      grim indifference. Krag threw the knife on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An awful agony, emanating from the wound, started to run through Maskull&rsquo;s
+      body, and he began to doubt whether he would not have to faint, but it
+      subsided almost immediately, and then he felt nothing but a gnawing ache
+      in the injured arm, just strong enough to make life one long discomfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s finished,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;Now you can follow
+      me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door. The others hastened
+      after him, to take advantage of the light, and a moment later their
+      footsteps, clattering down the uncarpeted stairs, resounded through the
+      deserted house. Krag waited till they were out, and then banged the front
+      door after them with such violence that the windows shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were walking swiftly across to the tower, Maskull caught his
+      arm. &ldquo;I heard a voice up those stairs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did it say?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smiled. &ldquo;The journey is getting notorious,&rdquo; he remarked,
+      after a pause. &ldquo;There must be ill-wishers about.... Well, do you
+      want to return?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I want. But I thought the thing was curious
+      enough to be mentioned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not a bad thing to hear voices,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;but
+      you mustn&rsquo;t for a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you
+      out of the night world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he immediately set
+      foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and ran nimbly up, bearing
+      the lantern. Maskull followed him with some trepidation, in view of his
+      previous painful experience on these stairs, but when, after the first
+      half-dozen steps, he discovered that he was still breathing freely, his
+      dread changed to relief and astonishment, and he could have chattered like
+      a girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stopping, but
+      Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his acquaintance
+      with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group. The lens had lost
+      its magic property. It had become a common sheet of glass, through which
+      the ordinary sky field appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again mounted
+      and stared out, but still the common sights presented themselves. After
+      that, he gave up and looked through no more windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so that he
+      had to complete the ascent in darkness. When he was near the top, he saw
+      yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened door. His
+      companions were standing just inside a small room, shut off from the
+      staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely furnished and contained
+      nothing of astronomical interest. The lantern was resting on a table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity. &ldquo;Are we at
+      the top?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except for the platform over our heads,&rdquo; replied Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in
+      the evening?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you missed your opportunity,&rdquo; said Krag, grinning.
+      &ldquo;If you had finished your climb then, you would have seen
+      heart-expanding sights. From the fifth window, for example, you would have
+      seen Tormance like a continent in relief; from the sixth you would have
+      seen it like a landscape.... But now there&rsquo;s no need.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not&mdash;and what has need got to do with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours. For the
+      same reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there was no
+      necessity to stop and gape at illusions <i>en route</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Maskull, not quite understanding what he
+      meant. &ldquo;But is this Surtur&rsquo;s den?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has spent time here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag. We may
+      not get another chance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur. There&rsquo;s
+      no need to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately
+      going on to the reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go.&rdquo; He pressed his eyeballs wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we strip?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naturally,&rdquo; answered Krag, and he began to tear off his
+      clothes with slow, uncouth movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, following, however, the example of
+      the other two men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag thumped his vast chest, which was covered with thick hairs, like an
+      ape&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Who knows what the Tormance fashions are like? We may
+      sprout limbs&mdash;I don&rsquo;t say we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A-ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull, pausing in the middle of his
+      undressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smote him on the back. &ldquo;New pleasure organs possible, Maskull.
+      You like that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three men stood as nature made them. Maskull&rsquo;s spirits rose
+      fast, as the moment of departure drew near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A farewell drink to success!&rdquo; cried Krag, seizing a bottle
+      and breaking its head off between his fingers. There were no glasses, but
+      he poured the amber-coloured wine into some cracked cups.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull tossed off his cupful. It was as
+      if he had swallowed a draught of liquid electricity.... Krag dropped onto
+      the floor and rolled around on his back, kicking his legs in the air. He
+      tried to drag Maskull down on top of him, and a little horseplay went on
+      between the two. Nightspore took no part in it, but walked to and fro,
+      like a hungry caged animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged, piercing wail,
+      such as a banshee might be imagined to utter. It ceased abruptly, and was
+      not repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; called out Maskull, disengaging himself
+      impatiently from Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag rocked with laughter. &ldquo;A Scottish spirit trying to reproduce
+      the bagpipes of its earth life&mdash;in honour of our departure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned to Krag. &ldquo;Maskull will sleep throughout the
+      journey?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you too, if you wish, my altruistic friend. I am pilot, and you
+      passengers can amuse yourselves as you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we off at last?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you are about to cross your Rubicon, Maskull. But what a
+      Rubicon!... Do you know that it takes light a hundred years or so to
+      arrive here from Arcturus? Yet we shall do it in nineteen hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you assert that Surtur is already there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur is where he is. He is a great traveller.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t I see him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag went up to him and looked him in the eyes. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget
+      that you have asked for it, and wanted it. Few people in Tormance will
+      know more about him than you do, but your memory will be your worst
+      friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He led the way up a short iron ladder, mounting through a trap to the flat
+      roof above. When they were up, he switched on a small electric torch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull beheld with awe the torpedo of crystal that was to convey them
+      through the whole breadth of visible space. It was forty feet long, eight
+      wide, and eight high; the tank containing the Arcturian back rays was in
+      front, the car behind. The nose of the torpedo was directed toward the
+      south-eastern sky. The whole machine rested upon a flat platform, raised
+      about four feet above the level of the roof, so as to encounter no
+      obstruction on starting its flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag flashed the light on to the door of the car, to enable them to enter.
+      Before doing so, Maskull gazed sternly once again at the gigantic,
+      far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now onward. He frowned,
+      shivered slightly, and got in beside Nightspore. Krag clambered past them
+      onto his pilot&rsquo;s seat. He threw the flashlight through the open
+      door, which was then carefully closed, fastened, and screwed up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pulled the starting lever. The torpedo glided gently from its platform,
+      and passed rather slowly away from the tower, seaward. Its speed increased
+      sensibly, though not excessively, until the approximate limits of the
+      earth&rsquo;s atmosphere were reached. Krag then released the speed valve,
+      and the car sped on its way with a velocity more nearly approaching that
+      of thought than of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull had no opportunity of examining through the crystal walls the
+      rapidly changing panorama of the heavens. An extreme drowsiness oppressed
+      him. He opened his eyes violently a dozen times, but on the thirteenth
+      attempt he failed. From that time forward he slept heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bored, hungry expression never left Nightspore&rsquo;s face. The
+      alterations in the aspect of the sky seemed to possess not the least
+      interest for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag sat with his hand on the lever, watching with savage intentness his
+      phosphorescent charts and gauges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 6. JOIWIND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS DENSE NIGHT when Maskull awoke from his profound sleep. A wind was
+      blowing against him, gentle but wall-like, such as he had never
+      experienced on earth. He remained sprawling on the ground, as he was
+      unable to lift his body because of its intense weight. A numbing pain,
+      which he could not identify with any region of his frame, acted from now
+      onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his other sensations. It gnawed
+      away at him continuously; sometimes it embittered and irritated him, at
+      other times he forgot it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt something hard on his forehead. Putting his hand up, he discovered
+      there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum, having a cavity in
+      the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom. Then he also became
+      aware of a large knob on each side of his neck, an inch below the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded. It was as long as his
+      arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new organs,
+      his heart began to pump. Whatever might, or might not, be their use, they
+      proved one thing&mdash;that he was in a new world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest. Maskull cried out
+      to his companions, but received no response. This frightened him. He went
+      on shouting out, at irregular intervals&mdash;equally alarmed at the
+      silence and at the sound of his own voice. Finally, as no answering hail
+      came, he thought it wiser not to make too much noise, and after that he
+      lay quiet, waiting in cold blood for what might happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were not
+      his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black night,
+      while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one would have said
+      that day was breaking. The brightness went on imperceptibly increasing for
+      a very long time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the sand
+      was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with black stems
+      and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before long
+      the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the midday
+      sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull welcomed it&mdash;it
+      relieved his pain and diminished his sense of crushing weight. The wind
+      had dropped with the rising of the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling. He was
+      unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially dissolved, and all
+      that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of red sand dotted with ten
+      or twenty bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started forward in
+      nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the sand. Looking up
+      over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see a woman standing beside
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
+      classically draped. According to earth standards she was not beautiful,
+      for, although her face was otherwise human, she was endowed&mdash;or
+      afflicted&mdash;with the additional disfiguring organs that Maskull had
+      discovered in himself. She also possessed the heart tentacle. But when he
+      sat up, and their eyes met and remained in sympathetic contact, he seemed
+      to see right into a soul that was the home of love, warmth, kindness,
+      tenderness, and intimacy. Such was the noble familiarity of that gaze,
+      that he thought he knew her. After that, he recognised all the loveliness
+      of her person. She was tall and slight. All her movements were as graceful
+      as music. Her skin was not of a dead, opaque colour, like that of an earth
+      beauty, but was opalescent; its hue was continually changing, with every
+      thought and emotion, but none of these tints was vivid&mdash;all were
+      delicate, half-toned, and poetic. She had very long, loosely plaited,
+      flaxen hair. The new organs, as soon as Maskull had familiarised himself
+      with them, imparted something to her face that was unique and striking. He
+      could not quite define it to himself, but subtlety and inwardness seemed
+      added. The organs did not contradict the love of her eyes or the angelic
+      purity of her features, but nevertheless sounded a deeper note&mdash;a
+      note that saved her from mere girlishness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely any
+      humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless. She realised his
+      plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had been carrying over
+      her arm. It was similar to the one she was wearing, but of a darker, more
+      masculine colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you can put it on by yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
+      complications of the drapery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor man&mdash;how you are suffering!&rdquo; she said, in the same
+      inaudible language. This time he discovered that the sense of what she
+      said was received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where am I? Is this Tormance?&rdquo; he asked. As he spoke, he
+      staggered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She caught him, and helped him to sit down. &ldquo;Yes. You are with
+      friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in English.
+      Her voice somehow reminded him of an April day, it was so fresh, nervous,
+      and girlish. &ldquo;I can now understand your language. It was strange at
+      first. In the future I&rsquo;ll speak to you with my mouth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is extraordinary! What is this organ?&rdquo; he asked,
+      touching his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is named the &lsquo;breve.&rsquo; By means of it we read one
+      another&rsquo;s thoughts. Still, speech is better, for then the heart can
+      be read too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;They say that speech is given us to deceive others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can deceive with thought, too. But I&rsquo;m thinking of the
+      best, not the worst.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen my friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She scrutinised him quietly, before answering. &ldquo;Did you not come
+      alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came with two other men, in a machine. I must have lost
+      consciousness on arrival, and I haven&rsquo;t seen them since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s very strange! No, I haven&rsquo;t seen them. They can&rsquo;t
+      be here, or we would have known it. My husband and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, and your husband&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine is Joiwind&mdash;my husband&rsquo;s is Panawe. We live a very
+      long way from here; still, it came to us both last night that you were
+      lying here insensible. We almost quarrelled about which of us should come
+      to you, but in the end I won.&rdquo; Here she laughed. &ldquo;I won,
+      because I am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in
+      perception.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind!&rdquo; said Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. &ldquo;Oh, why do
+      you say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at
+      the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this?&rdquo; he demanded, rather puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.
+      Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flushed. &ldquo;I feel like a complete ignoramus here.... Won&rsquo;t
+      it hurt you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your blood pains you, I suppose it will pain me. But we will
+      share the pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a new kind of hospitality to me,&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you do the same for me?&rdquo; asked Joiwind, half
+      smiling, half agitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer for any of my actions in this world. I
+      scarcely know where I am.... Why, yes&mdash;of course I would, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were talking it had become full day. The mists had rolled away
+      from the ground, and only the upper atmosphere remained fog-charged. The
+      desert of scarlet sand stretched in all directions, except one, where
+      there was a sort of little oasis&mdash;some low hills, clothed sparsely
+      with little purple trees from base to summit. It was about a quarter of a
+      mile distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind had brought with her a small flint knife. Without any trace of
+      nervousness, she made a careful, deep incision on her upper arm. Maskull
+      expostulated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, this part of it is nothing,&rdquo; she said, laughing.
+      &ldquo;And if it were&mdash;a sacrifice that is no sacrifice&mdash;what
+      merit is there in that?... Come now&mdash;your arm!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood was streaming down her arm. It was not red blood, but a milky,
+      opalescent fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that one!&rdquo; said Maskull, shrinking. &ldquo;I have already
+      been cut there.&rdquo; He submitted the other, and his blood poured forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind delicately and skilfully placed the mouths of the two wounds
+      together, and then kept her arm pressed tightly against Maskull&rsquo;s
+      for a long time. He felt a stream of pleasure entering his body through
+      the incision. His old lightness and vigour began to return to him. After
+      about five minutes a duel of kindness started between them; he wanted to
+      remove his arm, and she to continue. At last he had his way, but it was
+      none too soon&mdash;she stood there pale and dispirited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him with a more serious expression than before, as if
+      strange depths had opened up before her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from, with this awful blood?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From a world called Earth.... The blood is clearly unsuitable for
+      this world, Joiwind, but after all, that was only to be expected. I am
+      sorry I let you have your way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t say that! There was nothing else to be done. We
+      must all help one another. Yet, somehow&mdash;forgive me&mdash;I feel
+      polluted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And well you may, for it&rsquo;s a fearful thing for a girl to
+      accept in her own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet.
+      If I had not been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have insisted. Are we not all brothers and sisters? Why
+      did you come here, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment. &ldquo;Will you
+      think it foolish if I say I hardly know?&mdash;I came with those two men.
+      Perhaps I was attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of
+      adventure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;I wonder... These friends of
+      yours must be terrible men. Why did they come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you. They came to follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face grew troubled. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand it. One of them at
+      least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur&mdash;or
+      Shaping, as he is called here&mdash;he can&rsquo;t be really bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you know of Surtur?&rdquo; asked Maskull in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain moved
+      restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. &ldquo;I see....
+      and yet I don&rsquo;t see,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;It is very
+      difficult.... Your God is a dreadful Being&mdash;bodyless, unfriendly,
+      invisible. Here we don&rsquo;t worship a God like that. Tell me, has any
+      man set eyes on your God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean, Joiwind? Why speak of God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In ancient times, when the earth was young and grand, a few holy
+      men are reputed to have walked and spoken with God, but those days are
+      past.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our world is still young,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;Shaping goes
+      among us and converses with us. He is real and active&mdash;a friend and
+      lover. Shaping made us, and he loves his work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have <i>you</i> met him?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, hardly believing
+      his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I have done nothing to deserve it yet. Some day I may have an
+      opportunity to sacrifice myself, and then I may be rewarded by meeting and
+      talking with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have certainly come to another world. But why do you say he is
+      the same as Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is the same. We women call him Shaping, and so do most men,
+      but a few name him Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nail. &ldquo;Have you ever heard of Crystalman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Shaping once again. You see, he has many names&mdash;which
+      shows how much he occupies our minds. Crystalman is a name of affection.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s odd,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I came here with quite
+      different ideas about Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind shook her hair. &ldquo;In that grove of trees over there stands a
+      desert shrine of his. Let us go and pray there, and then we&rsquo;ll go on
+      our way to Poolingdred. That is my home. It&rsquo;s a long way off, and we
+      must get there before Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, what is Blodsombre?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays are so hot that no one can endure them. We call it Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed. &ldquo;Naturally we don&rsquo;t
+      take our names from you, Maskull. I don&rsquo;t think our names are very
+      poetic, but they follow nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
+      tree-covered hills. As they went along, the sun broke through the upper
+      mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from a furnace,
+      struck Maskull&rsquo;s head. He involuntarily looked up, but lowered his
+      eyes again like lightning. All that he saw in that instant was a glaring
+      ball of electric white, three times the apparent diameter of the sun. For
+      a few minutes he was quite blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s like this in
+      early morning you must be right enough about Blodsombre.&rdquo; When he
+      had somewhat recovered himself he asked, &ldquo;How long are the days
+      here, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he felt his brain being probed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At this time of the year, for every hour&rsquo;s daylight that you
+      have in summer, we have two.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heat is terrific&mdash;and yet somehow I don&rsquo;t feel so
+      distressed by it as I would have expected.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel it more than usual. It&rsquo;s not difficult to account for
+      it; you have some of my blood, and I have some of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, every time I realise that, I&mdash;Tell me, Joiwind, will my
+      blood alter, if I stay here long enough?&mdash;I mean, will it lose its
+      redness and thickness, and become pure and thin and light-coloured, like
+      yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? If you live as we live, you will assuredly grow like us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean food and drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We eat no food, and drink only water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on that you manage to sustain life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull, our water is good water,&rdquo; replied Joiwind,
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he could see again he stared around at the landscape. The
+      enormous scarlet desert extended everywhere to the horizon, excepting
+      where it was broken by the oasis. It was roofed by a cloudless, deep blue,
+      almost violet, sky. The circle of the horizon was far larger than on
+      earth. On the skyline, at right angles to the direction in which they were
+      walking, appeared a chain of mountains, apparently about forty miles
+      distant. One, which was higher than the rest, was shaped like a cup.
+      Maskull would have felt inclined to believe he was travelling in
+      dreamland, but for the intensity of the light, which made everything
+      vividly real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to the cup-shaped mountain. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      Poolingdred.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t come from there!&rdquo; he exclaimed, quite
+      startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I did indeed. And that is where we have to go to now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the single object of finding me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colour mounted to his face. &ldquo;Then you are the bravest and
+      noblest of all girls,&rdquo; he said quietly, after a pause. &ldquo;Without
+      exception. Why, this is a journey for an athlete!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pressed his arm, while a score of unpaintable, delicate hues stained
+      her cheeks in rapid transition. &ldquo;Please don&rsquo;t say any more
+      about it, Maskull. It makes me feel unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. But can we possibly get there before midday?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. And you mustn&rsquo;t be frightened at the distance. We
+      think nothing of long distances here&mdash;we have so much to think about
+      and feel. Time goes all too quickly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During their conversation they had drawn near the base of the hills, which
+      sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height. Maskull now began
+      to see strange specimens of vegetable life. What looked like a small patch
+      of purple grass, above five feet square, was moving across the sand in
+      their direction. When it came near enough he perceived that it was not
+      grass; there were no blades, but only purple roots. The roots were
+      revolving, for each small plant in the whole patch, like the spokes of a
+      rimless wheel. They were alternately plunged in the sand, and withdrawn
+      from it, and by this means the plant proceeded forward. Some uncanny,
+      semi-intelligent instinct was keeping all the plants together, moving at
+      one pace, in one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
+      dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air. Joiwind
+      caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm, and showed it
+      to Maskull. It had roots and presumably lived in the air and fed on the
+      chemical constituents of the atmosphere. But what was peculiar about it
+      was its colour. It was an entirely new colour&mdash;not a new shade or
+      combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid as blue, red, or yellow,
+      but quite different. When he inquired, she told him that it was known as
+      &ldquo;ulfire.&rdquo; Presently he met with a second new colour. This she
+      designated &ldquo;jale.&rdquo; The sense impressions caused in Maskull by
+      these two additional primary colors can only be vaguely hinted at by
+      analogy. Just as blue is delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and
+      unsubtle, and red sanguine and passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild
+      and painful, and jale dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
+      shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured, covered
+      the slopes and top. Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and through. Some hard
+      fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a large apple, and shaped
+      like an egg, was lying in profusion underneath the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don&rsquo;t you eat it?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him tranquilly. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t eat living things. The
+      thought is horrible to us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to say against that, theoretically. But do you
+      really sustain your bodies on water?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Supposing you could find nothing else to live on, Maskull&mdash;would
+      you eat other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither will we eat plants and animals, which are our fellow
+      creatures. So nothing is left to us but water, and as one can really live
+      on anything, water does very well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull picked up one of the fruits and handled it curiously. As he did so
+      another of his newly acquired sense organs came into action. He found that
+      the fleshy knobs beneath his ears were in some novel fashion acquainting
+      him with the inward properties of the fruit. He could not only see, feel,
+      and smell it, but could detect its intrinsic nature. This nature was hard,
+      persistent and melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind answered the questions he had not asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those organs are called &lsquo;poigns.&rsquo; Their use is to
+      enable us to understand and sympathise with all living creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What advantage do you derive from that, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The advantage of not being cruel and selfish, dear Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw the fruit away and flushed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked into his swarthy, bearded face without embarrassment and
+      slowly smiled. &ldquo;Have I said too much? Have I been too familiar? Do
+      you know why you think so? It&rsquo;s because you are still impure. By and
+      by you will listen to all language without shame.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he realised what she was about to do, she threw her tentacle round
+      his neck, like another arm. He offered no resistance to its cool pressure.
+      The contact of her soft flesh with his own was so moist and sensitive that
+      it resembled another kind of kiss. He saw who it was that embraced him&mdash;a
+      pale, beautiful girl. Yet, oddly enough, he experienced neither
+      voluptuousness nor sexual pride. The love expressed by the caress was
+      rich, glowing, and personal, but there was not the least trace of sex in
+      it&mdash;and so he received it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and
+      penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I wish to be pure,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Without that
+      what can I ever be but a weak, squirming devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind released him. &ldquo;This we call the &lsquo;magn,&rsquo;&rdquo;
+      she said, indicating her tentacle. &ldquo;By means of it what we love
+      already we love more, and what we don&rsquo;t love at all we begin to
+      love.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A godlike organ!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the one we guard most jealously,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shade of the trees afforded a timely screen from the now almost
+      insufferable rays of Branchspell, which was climbing steadily upward to
+      the zenith. On descending the other side of the little hills, Maskull
+      looked anxiously for traces of Nightspore and Krag, but without result.
+      After staring about him for a few minutes he shrugged his shoulders; but
+      suspicions had already begun to gather in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small, natural amphitheatre lay at their feet, completely circled by the
+      tree-clad heights. The centre was of red sand. In the very middle shot up
+      a tall, stately tree, with a black trunk and branches, and transparent,
+      crystal leaves. At the foot of this tree was a natural, circular well,
+      containing dark green water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had reached the bottom, Joiwind took him straight over to the
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at it intently. &ldquo;Is this the shrine you talked about?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It is called Shaping&rsquo;s Well. The man or woman who wishes
+      to invoke Shaping must take up some of the gnawl water, and drink it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray for me,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Your unspotted prayer will
+      carry more weight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you wish for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For purity,&rdquo; answered Maskull, in a troubled voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind made a cup of her hand, and drank a little of the water. She held
+      it up to Maskull&rsquo;s mouth. &ldquo;You must drink too.&rdquo; He
+      obeyed. She then stood erect, closed her eyes, and, in a voice like the
+      soft murmurings of spring, prayed aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping, my father, I am hoping you can hear me. A strange man has
+      come to us weighed down with heavy blood. He wishes to be pure. Let him
+      know the meaning of love, let him live for others. Don&rsquo;t spare him
+      pain, dear Shaping, but let him seek his own pain. Breathe into him a
+      noble soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened with tears in his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Joiwind finished speaking, a blurred mist came over his eyes, and, half
+      buried in the scarlet sand, appeared a large circle of dazzlingly white
+      pillars. For some minutes they flickered to and fro between distinctness
+      and indistinctness, like an object being focused. Then they faded out of
+      sight again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a sign from Shaping?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in a low, awed
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it is. It is a time mirage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that be, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, dear Maskull, the temple does not yet exist but it will do
+      so, because it must. What you and I are now doing in simplicity, wise men
+      will do hereafter in full knowledge.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right for man to pray,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Good and
+      evil in the world don&rsquo;t originate from nothing. God and Devil must
+      exist. And we should pray to the one, and fight the other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must fight Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name did you say?&rdquo; asked Maskull in amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;the author of evil and misery&mdash;whom you call Devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He immediately concealed his thoughts. To prevent Joiwind from learning
+      his relationship to this being, he made his mind a blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you hide your mind from me?&rdquo; she demanded, looking at
+      him strangely and changing colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this bright, pure, radiant world, evil seems so remote, one can
+      scarcely grasp its meaning.&rdquo; But he lied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind continued gazing at him, straight out of her clean soul. &ldquo;The
+      world is good and pure, but many men are corrupt. Panawe, my husband, has
+      travelled, and he has told me things I would almost rather have not heard.
+      One person he met believed the universe to be, from top to bottom, a
+      conjurer&rsquo;s cave.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to meet your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we are going home now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children, but
+      was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She read the mental question. &ldquo;What need is there? Is not the whole
+      world full of lovely children? Why should I want selfish possessions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
+      distinct notes. It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body, paddled
+      by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. &ldquo;I love that beast, grotesque
+      as it is&mdash;perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had
+      children of my own, would I still love it? Which is best&mdash;to love two
+      or three, or to love all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every woman can&rsquo;t be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to
+      have a few like you. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be as well,&rdquo; he went on,
+      &ldquo;since we&rsquo;ve got to walk through that sun-baked wilderness, to
+      make turbans for our heads out of some of those long leaves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled rather pathetically. &ldquo;You will think me foolish, but
+      every tearing off of a leaf would be a wound in my heart. We have only to
+      throw our robes over our heads.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt that will answer the same purpose, but tell me&mdash;weren&rsquo;t
+      these very robes once part of a living creature?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no&mdash;no, they are the webs of a certain animal, but they
+      have never been in themselves alive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You reduce life to extreme simplicity,&rdquo; remarked Maskull
+      meditatively, &ldquo;but it is very beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began
+      their march across the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked side by side. Joiwind directed their course straight toward
+      Poolingdred. From the position of the sun, Maskull judged their way to lie
+      due north. The sand was soft and powdery, very tiring to his naked feet.
+      The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him semi-blind. He was hot,
+      parched, and tormented with the craving to drink; his undertone of pain
+      emerged into full consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is queer&mdash;if it is accidental,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      with a peculiar intonation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly!&rdquo; agreed Maskull. &ldquo;If they had met with a
+      mishap, their bodies would still be there. It begins to look like a piece
+      of bad work to me. They must have gone on, and left me.... Well, I am
+      here, and I must make the best of it. I will trouble no more about them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to speak ill of anyone,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      &ldquo;but my instinct tells me that you are better away from those men.
+      They did not come here for your sake, but for their own.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for a long time. Maskull was beginning to feel faint. She
+      twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current of
+      confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind! But am I not weakening <i>you</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance. &ldquo;But
+      not much&mdash;and it gives me great happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-born
+      lamb, waltzing along on three legs. Each leg in turn moved to the front,
+      and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a series of complete
+      rotations. It was vividly coloured, as though it had been dipped into pots
+      of bright blue and yellow paint. It looked up with small, shining eyes, as
+      they passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind nodded and smiled to it. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a personal friend of
+      mine, Maskull. Whenever I come this way, I see it. It&rsquo;s always
+      waltzing, and always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is
+      no need for anyone to get anywhere. What I don&rsquo;t quite understand is
+      how you manage to pass your days without ennui.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a strange word. It means, does it not, craving for
+      excitement?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the kind,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be a disease brought on by rich food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are you never dull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could we be? Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh
+      is clean and unclogged, inside and out.... Before long I hope you will
+      understand what sort of question you have asked.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon. In the heart of the
+      desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air, with a
+      cool and pleasant hissing sound. It differed, however, from a fountain in
+      this respect&mdash;that the water of which it was composed did not return
+      to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at the summit. It was in
+      fact a tall, graceful column of dark green fluid, with a capital of
+      coiling and twisting vapours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came closer, Maskull perceived that this water column was the
+      continuation and termination of a flowing brook, which came down from the
+      direction of the mountains. The explanation of the phenomenon was
+      evidently that the water at this spot found chemical affinities in the
+      upper air, and consequently forsook the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now let us drink,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw herself unaffectedly at full length on the sand, face downward,
+      by the side of the brook, and Maskull was not long in following her
+      example. She refused to quench her thirst until she had seen him drink. He
+      found the water heavy, but bubbling with gas. He drank copiously. It
+      affected his palate in a new way&mdash;with the purity and cleanness of
+      water was combined the exhilaration of a sparkling wine, raising his
+      spirits&mdash;but somehow the intoxication brought out his better nature,
+      and not his lower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We call it &lsquo;gnawl water&rsquo;,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;This
+      is not quite pure, as you can see by the colour. At Poolingdred it is
+      crystal clear. But we would be ungrateful if we complained. After this you&rsquo;ll
+      find we&rsquo;ll get along much better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now began to realise his environment, as it were for the first
+      time. All his sense organs started to show him beauties and wonders that
+      he had not hitherto suspected. The uniform glaring scarlet of the sands
+      became separated into a score of clearly distinguished shades of red. The
+      sky was similarly split up into different blues. The radiant heat of
+      Branchspell he found to affect every part of his body with unequal
+      intensities. His ears awakened; the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the
+      sands hummed, even the sun&rsquo;s rays had a sound of their own&mdash;a
+      kind of faint Aeolian harp. Subtle, puzzling perfumes assailed his
+      nostrils. His palate lingered over the memory of the gnawl water. All the
+      pores of his skin were tickled and soothed by hitherto unperceived
+      currents of air. His poigns explored actively the inward nature of
+      everything in his immediate vicinity. His magn touched Joiwind, and drew
+      from her person a stream of love and joy. And lastly by means of his breve
+      he exchanged thoughts with her in silence. This mighty sense symphony
+      stirred him to the depths, and throughout the walk of that endless morning
+      he felt no more fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it was drawing near to Blodsombre, they approached the sedgy margin
+      of a dark green lake, which lay underneath Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sitting on a dark rock, waiting for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 7. PANAWE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The husband got up to meet his wife and their guest. He was clothed in
+      white. He had a beardless face, with breve and poigns. His skin, on face
+      and body alike, was so white, fresh, and soft, that it scarcely looked
+      skin at all&mdash;it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh,
+      extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the
+      artificially whitened skin of an over-civilised woman. Its whiteness and
+      delicacy aroused no voluptuous thoughts; it was obviously the
+      manifestation of a cold and almost cruel chastity of nature. His hair,
+      which fell to the nape of his neck, also was white; but again, from
+      vigour, not decay. His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was still
+      a young man, but so stern were his features that he had the appearance of
+      a lawgiver, and this in spite of their great beauty and harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His magn and Joiwind&rsquo;s intertwined for a single moment and Maskull
+      saw his face soften with love, while she looked exultant. She put him in
+      her husband&rsquo;s arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and
+      smiling. Maskull felt rather embarrassed at being embraced by a man, but
+      submitted to it; a sense of cool, pleasant languor passed through him in
+      the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stranger is red-blooded, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was startled by Panawe&rsquo;s speaking in English, and the voice too
+      was extraordinary. It was absolutely tranquil, but its tranquillity seemed
+      in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of
+      thoughts and feelings so great that their motion could not be detected.
+      How this could be, he did not know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to speak in a tongue you have never heard before?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thought is a rich, complex thing. I can&rsquo;t say if I am really
+      speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are translating my
+      thoughts into your tongue as I utter them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already you see that Panawe is wiser than I am,&rdquo; said Joiwind
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked the husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name must have a meaning&mdash;but again, thought is a strange
+      thing. I connect that name with something&mdash;but with what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try to discover,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has there been a man in your world who stole something from the
+      Maker of the universe, in order to ennoble his fellow creatures?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is such a myth. The hero&rsquo;s name was Prometheus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you seem to be identified in my mind with that action&mdash;but
+      what it all means I can&rsquo;t say, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accept it as a good omen, for Panawe never lies, and never speaks
+      thoughtlessly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There must be some confusion. These are heights beyond me,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull calmly, but looking rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the planet of a distant sun, called Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was tired of vulgarity,&rdquo; returned Maskull laconically. He
+      intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyagers, in order that Krag&rsquo;s
+      name should not come to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an honourable motive,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;And
+      what&rsquo;s more, it may be true, though you spoke it as a prevarication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as it goes, it&rsquo;s quite true,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      staring at him with annoyance and surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were
+      standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds
+      showed themselves here and there through the shallows. The water was dark
+      green. Maskull did not see how they were going to cross it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind caught his arm. &ldquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t know that the lake
+      will bear us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe walked onto the water; it was so heavy that it carried his weight.
+      Joiwind followed with Maskull. He instantly started to slip about&mdash;nevertheless
+      the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by watching and imitating
+      Panawe, that he was soon able to balance himself without assistance. After
+      that he found the sport excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the same reason that women excel in dancing, Joiwind&rsquo;s half
+      falls and recoveries were far more graceful and sure than those of either
+      of the men. Her slight, draped form&mdash;dipping, bending, rising,
+      swaying, twisting, upon the surface of the dark water&mdash;this was a
+      picture Maskull could not keep his eyes away from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lake grew deeper. The gnawl water became green-black. The crags,
+      gullies, and precipices of the shore could now be distinguished in detail.
+      A waterfall was visible, descending several hundred feet. The surface of
+      the lake grew disturbed&mdash;so much so that Maskull had difficulty in
+      keeping his balance. He therefore threw himself down and started swimming
+      on the face of the water. Joiwind turned her head, and laughed so joyously
+      that all her teeth flashed in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They landed in a few more minutes on a promontory of black rock. The water
+      on Maskull&rsquo;s garment and body evaporated very quickly. He gazed
+      upward at the towering mountain, but at that moment some strange movements
+      on the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was working
+      convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his hand to his
+      mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured pebble. He
+      looked at it carefully for some seconds. Joiwind also looked, over his
+      shoulder, with quickly changing colors. After this inspection, Panawe let
+      the object&mdash;whatever it was&mdash;fall to the ground, and took no
+      more interest in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I look?&rdquo; asked Maskull; and, without waiting for
+      permission, he picked it up. It was a delicately beautiful egg-shaped
+      crystal of pale green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did this come from?&rdquo; he asked queerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe turned away, but Joiwind answered for him. &ldquo;It came out of my
+      husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I thought, but I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. But
+      what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that it has either name or use. It is merely an
+      overflowing of beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beauty?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind smiled. &ldquo;If you were to regard nature as the husband, and
+      Panawe as the wife, Maskull, perhaps everything would be explained.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On Earth,&rdquo; he said after a minute, &ldquo;men like Panawe are
+      called artists, poets, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and
+      out of them again. The only distinction is that <i>their</i> productions
+      are more human and intelligible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing comes from it but vanity,&rdquo; said Panawe, and, taking
+      the crystal out of Maskull&rsquo;s hand, he threw it into the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The precipice they now had to climb was several hundred feet in height.
+      Maskull was more anxious for Joiwind than for himself. She was evidently
+      tiring, but she refused all help, and was in fact still the nimbler of the
+      two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet thoughts.
+      The rock was sound, and did not crumble under their weight. The heat of
+      Branchspell, however, was by this time almost killing, the radiance was
+      shocking in its white intensity, and Maskull&rsquo;s pain steadily grew
+      worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they got to the top, a plateau of dark rock appeared, bare of
+      vegetation, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see. It
+      was of a nearly uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of the
+      cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills varied
+      in height. The cup-shaped Poolingdred was approximately a thousand feet
+      above them. The upper part of it was covered with a kind of glittering
+      vegetation which he could not comprehend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind put her hand on Maskull&rsquo;s shoulder, and pointed upward.
+      &ldquo;Here you have the highest peak in the whole land&mdash;that is,
+      until you come to the Ifdawn Marest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable
+      sensation of wild vigour and restlessness&mdash;but it passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside. The lower
+      half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb. Halfway up, however, it
+      grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growth
+      became thicker as they continued to ascend, and when they neared the
+      summit, tall forest trees appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the small
+      twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal. They cast no shadows
+      from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and branches were
+      fantastically shaped. What surprised Maskull the most, however, was the
+      fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two plants belonged to the
+      same species.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you help Maskull out of his difficulty?&rdquo; said
+      Joiwind, pulling her husband&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;ll forgive me for again trespassing in his
+      brain. But the difficulty is small. Life on a new planet, Maskull, is
+      necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is
+      still fluid&mdash;not yet rigid&mdash;and matter is plastic. The will
+      forks and sports incessantly, and thus no two creatures are alike.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I understand all that,&rdquo; replied Maskull, after
+      listening attentively. &ldquo;But what I don&rsquo;t grasp is this&mdash;if
+      living creatures here sport so energetically, how does it come about that
+      human beings wear much the same shape as in my world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll explain that too,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;All
+      creatures that resemble Shaping must of necessity resemble one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is most wonderful,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Then the
+      brotherhood of man is not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour. Panawe relapsed into sternness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon. The jale-coloured blossoms
+      of a crystal bush were emitting mental waves, which with his breve he
+      could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, &ldquo;To me! To me!&rdquo;
+      While he looked, a flying worm guided itself through the air to one of
+      these blossoms and began to suck its nectar. The floral cry immediately
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now gained the crest of the mountain, and looked down beyond. A lake
+      occupied its crater-like cavity. A fringe of trees partly intercepted the
+      view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this mountain lake was nearly
+      circular and perhaps a quarter of a mile across. Its shore stood a hundred
+      feet below them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Observing that his hosts did not propose to descend, he begged them to
+      wait for him, and scrambled down to the surface. When he got there, he
+      found the water perfectly motionless and of a colourless transparency. He
+      walked onto it, lay down at full length, and peered into the depths. It
+      was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance, without
+      arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out of reach of
+      his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very faint and mysterious,
+      seemed to come up through the gnawl water from an immense depth. It was
+      like the rhythm of a drum. There were four beats of equal length, but the
+      accent was on the third. It went on for a considerable time, and then
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that in
+      which he was travelling. The latter was mystical, dreamlike, and
+      unbelievable&mdash;the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality.
+      It resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only
+      occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rejoined Panawe and Joiwind, but said nothing to them about his
+      experience. They all walked round the rim of the crater, and gazed down on
+      the opposite side. Precipices similar to those that had overlooked the
+      desert here formed the boundary of a vast moorland plain, whose dimensions
+      could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he could not make
+      out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of transparent glass, but it
+      did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in it could be distinguished,
+      except a rolling river in the far distance, and, farther off still, on the
+      horizon, a line of dark mountains, of strange shapes. Instead of being
+      rounded, conical, or hogbacked, these heights were carved by nature into
+      the semblance of castle battlements, but with extremely deep indentations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky immediately above the mountains was of a vivid, intense blue. It
+      contrasted in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the
+      heavens. It seemed more luminous and radiant, and was in fact like the
+      afterglow of a gorgeous <i>blue</i> sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept on looking. The more he gazed, the more restless and noble
+      became his feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sterner than usual, while his wife clung to his arm. &ldquo;It
+      is Alppain&mdash;our second sun,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Those hills are
+      the Ifdawn Marest.... Now let us get to our shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it imagination, or am I really being affected&mdash;tormented by
+      that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not imagination&mdash;it&rsquo;s real. How can it be
+      otherwise when two suns, of different natures, are drawing you at the same
+      time? Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itself. It&rsquo;s invisible
+      here. You would need to go at least as far as Ifdawn, to set eyes on it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you say &lsquo;luckily&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the agony caused by those opposing forces would perhaps be
+      more than you could bear.... But I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the short distance that remained of their walk, Maskull was very
+      thoughtful and uneasy. He understood nothing. Whatever object his eye
+      chanced to rest on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and
+      stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and <i>waiting</i>.
+      Panawe gave him a friendly, anxious look, and without further delay led
+      the way down a little track, which traversed the side of the mountain and
+      terminated in the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This cave was the home of Panawe and Joiwind. It was dark inside. The host
+      took a shell and, filling it with liquid from a well, carelessly sprinkled
+      the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent light
+      gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, and continued to
+      illuminate it for the whole time they were there. There was no furniture.
+      Some dried, fernlike leaves served for couches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment she got in, Joiwind fell down in exhaustion. Her husband tended
+      her with calm concern. He bathed her face, put drink to her lips,
+      energised her with his magn, and finally laid her down to sleep. At the
+      sight of the noble woman thus suffering on his account, Maskull was
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, endeavoured to reassure him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite true
+      this has been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will
+      lighten all her other journeys for her.... Such is the nature of
+      sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t conceive how I have walked so far in a morning,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull, &ldquo;and she has been twice the distance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love flows in her veins, instead of blood, and that&rsquo;s why she
+      is so strong.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know she gave me some of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Otherwise you couldn&rsquo;t even have started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall never forget that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The languorous heat of the day outside, the bright mouth of the cavern,
+      the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, invited
+      Maskull to sleep. But curiosity got the better of his lassitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it disturb her if we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how do you feel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I require little sleep. In any case, it&rsquo;s more important that
+      you should hear something about your new life. It&rsquo;s not all as
+      innocent and idyllic as this. If you intend to go through, you ought to be
+      instructed about the dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I guessed as much. But how shall we arrange&mdash;shall I put
+      questions, or will you tell me what you think is most essential?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe motioned to Maskull to sit down on a pile of ferns, and at the same
+      time reclined himself, leaning on one arm, with outstretched legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell some incidents of my life. You will begin to learn from
+      them what sort of place you have come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be grateful,&rdquo; said Maskull, preparing himself to
+      listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe paused for a moment or two, and then started his narrative in
+      tranquil, measured, yet sympathetic tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PANAWE&rsquo;S STORY
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My earliest recollection is of being taken, when three years old
+      (that&rsquo;s equivalent to fifteen of your years, but we develop more
+      slowly here), by my father and mother, to see Broodviol, the wisest man in
+      Tormance. He dwelt in the great Wombflash Forest. We walked through trees
+      for three days, sleeping at night. The trees grew taller as we went along,
+      until the tops were out of sight. The trunks were of a dark red colour and
+      the leaves were of pale ulfire. My father kept stopping to think. If left
+      uninterrupted, he would remain for half a day in deep abstraction. My
+      mother came out of Poolingdred, and was of a different stamp. She was
+      beautiful, generous, and charming&mdash;but also active. She kept urging
+      him on. This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable.
+      On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered on
+      the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water that will not bear a
+      man&rsquo;s weight, and as these light parts don&rsquo;t differ in
+      appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed out
+      a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+      Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same
+      day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest,
+      surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big
+      gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a
+      hundred and twenty of our years, or nearly six hundred of yours. His body
+      was trilateral: he had three legs, three arms, and six eyes, placed at
+      equal distances all around his head. This gave him an aspect of great
+      watchfulness and sagacity. He was standing in a sort of trance. I
+      afterward heard this saying of his: &lsquo;To lie is to sleep, to sit is
+      to dream, to stand is to think.&rsquo; My father caught the infection, and
+      fell into meditation, but my mother roused them both thoroughly. Broodviol
+      scowled at her savagely, and demanded what she required. Then I too
+      learned for the first time the object of our journey. I was a prodigy&mdash;that
+      is to say, I was without sex. My parents were troubled over this, and
+      wished to consult the wisest of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Broodviol smoothed his face, and said, &lsquo;This perhaps will
+      not be so difficult. I will explain the marvel. Every man and woman among
+      us is a walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the
+      female who was born in the same body with him&mdash;if a female, she has
+      killed the male. But in this child the struggle is still continuing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;How shall we end it?&rsquo; asked my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Let the child direct its will to the scene of the combat,
+      and it will be of whichever sex it pleases.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You want, of course, to be a man, don&rsquo;t you?&rsquo;
+      said my mother to me earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Then I shall be slaying your daughter, and that would be a
+      crime.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something in my tone attracted Broodviol&rsquo;s notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That was spoken, not selfishly, but magnanimously. Therefore
+      the male must have spoken it, and you need not trouble further. Before you
+      arrive home, the child will be a boy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father walked away out of sight. My mother bent very low before
+      Broodviol for about ten minutes, and he remained all that time looking
+      kindly at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard that shortly afterward Alppain came into that land for a
+      few hours daily. Broodviol grew melancholy, and died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His prophecy came true&mdash;before we reached home, I knew the
+      meaning of shame. But I have often pondered over his words since, in later
+      years, when trying to understand my own nature; and I have come to the
+      conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite
+      straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in one
+      body, there never was any struggle, but instinctive reverence for life
+      withheld both of us from fighting for existence. Hers was the stronger
+      temperament, and she sacrificed herself&mdash;though not consciously&mdash;for
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or
+      destroy anything that contained life&mdash;and I have kept it ever since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died. My mother&rsquo;s
+      death followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land. I
+      therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother&rsquo;s country, where,
+      as she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hot morning I came to Shaping&rsquo;s Causeway. It is so called
+      either because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous
+      character. It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which links the
+      mountains bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest. The valley lies
+      below at a depth varying from eight to ten thousand feet&mdash;a terrible
+      precipice on either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not
+      much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley
+      on my right hand was plunged in shadow&mdash;that on my left was sparkling
+      with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for
+      some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland,
+      connecting the two chains of mountains, but overtopping even the most
+      towering pinnacles. This is called the Sant Levels. I was never there, but
+      I have heard two curious facts concerning the inhabitants. The first is
+      that they have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to
+      travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples with
+      whom they reside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently I turned giddy, and lay at full length for a great while,
+      clutching the two edges of the path with both hands, and staring at the
+      ground I was lying on with wide-open eyes. When that passed I felt like a
+      different man and grew conceited and gay. About halfway across I saw
+      someone approaching me a long way off. This put fear into my heart again,
+      for I did not see how we could very well pass. However, I went slowly on,
+      and presently we drew near enough together for me to recognise the walker.
+      It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had never met him before, but I
+      knew him by his peculiarities of person. He was of a bright gamboge colour
+      and possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a
+      useful organ, but did not add to his beauty, as I knew beauty. He was
+      dubbed &lsquo;sorcerer&rsquo; from his wondrous skill in budding limbs and
+      organs. The tale is told that one evening he slowly sawed his leg off with
+      a blunt stone and then lay for two days in agony while his new leg was
+      sprouting. He was not reputed to be a consistently wise man, but he had
+      periodical flashes of penetration and audacity that none could equal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sat down and faced one another, about two yards apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Which of us walks over the other?&rsquo; asked Slofork. His
+      manner was as calm as the day itself, but, to my young nature, terrible
+      with hidden terrors. I smiled at him, but did not wish for this
+      humiliation. We continued sitting thus, in a friendly way, for many
+      minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pleasure?&rsquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was at an age when one wishes to be thought equal to any
+      emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to the
+      conversation, as if it were for that purpose we had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Pain,&rsquo; I replied, &lsquo;for pain drives out pleasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pain?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reflected. &lsquo;Love. Because we will accept our loved one&rsquo;s
+      share of pain.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;But what is greater than Love?&rsquo; he persisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nothing, Slofork.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;And what is Nothing?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That you must tell me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Tell you I will. This is Shaping&rsquo;s world. He that is a
+      good child here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards. But
+      there&rsquo;s another world&mdash;not Shaping&rsquo;s&mdash;and there all
+      this is unknown, and another order of things reigns. That world we call
+      Nothing&mdash;but it is not Nothing, but Something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I have heard,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;that you are good at
+      growing and ungrowing organs?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That&rsquo;s not enough for me. Every organ tells me the
+      same story. I want to hear different stories.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Is it true, what men say, that your wisdom flows and ebbs in
+      pulses?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Quite true,&rsquo; replied Slofork. &lsquo;But those you had
+      it from did not add that they have always mistaken the flow for the ebb.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;My experience is,&rsquo; said I sententiously, &lsquo;that
+      wisdom is misery.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps it is, young man, but you have never learned that,
+      and never will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful
+      face. You will never rise above mysticism.... But be happy in your own
+      way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before I realised what he was doing, he jumped tranquilly from the
+      path, down into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum
+      toward the valley below. I screeched, flung myself down on the ground, and
+      shut my eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Often have I wondered which of my ill-considered, juvenile remarks
+      it was that caused this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide.
+      Whichever it might be, since then I have made it a rigid law never to
+      speak for my own pleasure, but only to help others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came eventually to the Marest. I threaded its mazes in terror for
+      four days. I was frightened of death, but still more terrified at the
+      possibility of losing my sacred attitude toward life. When I was nearly
+      through, and was beginning to congratulate myself, I stumbled across the
+      third extraordinary personage of my experience&mdash;the grim Muremaker.
+      It was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I
+      saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was
+      hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff&mdash;a yawning gulf, a
+      thousand feet deep, lay beneath his feet. I climbed as near as I could,
+      and looked on. He saw me, and made a wry grimace, like one who wishes to
+      turn his humiliation into humour. The spectacle so astounded me that I
+      could not even grasp what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I am Muremaker,&rsquo; he cried in a scraping voice which
+      shocked my ears. &lsquo;All my life I have sorbed others&mdash;now I am
+      sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like
+      this. While the strength of his will lasts I shall remain suspended; but
+      when he gets tired&mdash;and it can&rsquo;t be long now&mdash;I drop into
+      those depths.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had it been another man, I would have tried to save him, but this
+      ogre-like being was too well known to me as one who passed his whole
+      existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbing others, for the sake of
+      his own delight. I hurried away, and did not pause again that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Poolingdred I met Joiwind. We walked and talked together for a
+      month, and by that time we found that we loved each other too well to
+      part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe stopped speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a fascinating story,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;Now I
+      begin to know my way around better. But one thing puzzles me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How it happens that men here are ignorant of tools and arts, and
+      have no civilisation, and yet contrive to be social in their habits and
+      wise in their thoughts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you imagine, then, that love and wisdom spring from tools? But I
+      see how it arises. In your world you have fewer sense organs, and to make
+      up for the deficiency you have been obliged to call in the assistance of
+      stones and metals. That&rsquo;s by no means a sign of superiority.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I suppose not,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but I see I have a
+      great deal to unlearn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked together a little longer, and then gradually fell asleep.
+      Joiwind opened her eyes, smiled, and slumbered again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull awoke before the others. He got up, stretched himself, and walked
+      out into the sunlight. Branchspell was already declining. He climbed to
+      the top of the crater edge and looked away toward Ifdawn. The afterglow of
+      Alppain had by now completely disappeared. The mountains stood up wild and
+      grand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are
+      widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and adventure
+      seemed to call to him from them. It was at that moment that the
+      determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and explore its
+      dangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes. &ldquo;Is this
+      selfishness, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;or are you drawn by
+      something stronger than yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be reasonable,&rdquo; he answered, smiling. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t
+      settle down in Poolingdred before I have found out something about this
+      surprising new planet of yours. Remember what a long way I have come....
+      But very likely I shall come back here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you make me a promise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hesitated. &ldquo;Ask nothing difficult, for I hardly know my
+      powers yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not hard, and I wish it. Promise this&mdash;never to raise
+      your hand against a living creature, either to strike, pluck, or eat,
+      without first recollecting its mother, who suffered for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I won&rsquo;t promise that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly,
+      &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll undertake something more tangible. I will never lift
+      my hand against a living creature without first recollecting you, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned a little pale. &ldquo;Now if Panawe knew that Panawe existed,
+      he might be jealous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe put his hand on her gently. &ldquo;You would not talk like that in
+      Shaping&rsquo;s presence,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Forgive me! I&rsquo;m not quite myself. Perhaps it is Maskull&rsquo;s
+      blood in my veins.... Now let us bid him adieu. Let us pray that he will
+      do only honourable deeds, wherever he may be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll set Maskull on his way,&rdquo; said Panawe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no need,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;The way is
+      plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But talking shortens the road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pulled him around toward her softly. &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t think
+      badly of other women on my account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a blessed spirit,&rdquo; answered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She trod quietly to the inner extremity of the cave and stood there
+      thinking. Panawe and Maskull emerged into the open air. Halfway down the
+      cliff face a little spring was encountered. Its water was colourless,
+      transparent, but gaseous. As soon as Maskull had satisfied his thirst he
+      felt himself different. His surroundings were so real to him in their
+      vividness and colour, so unreal in their phantom-like mystery, that he
+      scrambled downhill like one in a winter&rsquo;s dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the plain he saw in front of them an interminable forest
+      of tall trees, the shapes of which were extraordinarily foreign looking.
+      The leaves were crystalline and, looking upward, it was as if he were
+      gazing through a roof of glass. The moment they got underneath the trees
+      the light rays of the sun continued to come through&mdash;white, savage,
+      and blazing&mdash;but they were gelded of heat. Then it was not hard to
+      imagine that they were wandering through cool, bright elfin glades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest, beginning at their very feet an avenue, perfectly
+      straight and not very wide, went forward as far as the eye could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull wanted to talk to his travelling companion, but was somehow unable
+      to find words. Panawe glanced at him with an inscrutable smile&mdash;stern,
+      yet enchanting and half feminine. He then broke the silence, but,
+      strangely enough, Maskull could not make out whether he was singing or
+      speaking. From his lips issued a slow musical recitative, exactly like a
+      bewitching adagio from a low toned stringed instrument&mdash;but there was
+      a difference. Instead of the repetition and variation of one or two short
+      themes, as in music, Panawe&rsquo;s theme was prolonged&mdash;it never
+      came to an end, but rather resembled a conversation in rhythm and melody.
+      And, at the same time, it was no recitative, for it was not declamatory.
+      It was a long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened entranced, yet agitated. The song, if it might be termed
+      song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear and
+      intelligible&mdash;not with the intelligibility of words, but in the way
+      one sympathises with another&rsquo;s moods and feelings; and Maskull felt
+      that something important was about to be uttered, which would explain all
+      that had gone before. But it was invariably postponed, he never understood&mdash;and
+      yet somehow he did understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon they came to a clearing, and there Panawe ceased his
+      recitative. He slowed his pace and stopped, in the fashion of a man who
+      wishes to convey that he intends to go no farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of this country?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Lusion Plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that music in the nature of a temptation&mdash;do you wish me
+      not to go on?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your work lies before you, and not behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was it, then? What work do you allude to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have seemed like something to you, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed like Shaping music to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant he had absently uttered these words, Maskull wondered why he
+      had done so, as they now appeared meaningless to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, showed no surprise. &ldquo;Shaping you will find
+      everywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I dreaming, or awake?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull fell into deep thought. &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; he said, rousing
+      himself. &ldquo;Now I will go on. But where must I sleep tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will reach a broad river. On that you can travel to the foot of
+      the Marest tomorrow; but tonight you had better sleep where the forest and
+      river meet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adieu, then, Panawe! But do you wish to say anything more to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this, Maskull&mdash;wherever you go, help to make the world
+      beautiful, and not ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s more than any of us can undertake. I am a simple man,
+      and have no ambitions in the way of beautifying life&mdash;But tell
+      Joiwind I will try to keep myself pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted rather coldly. Maskull stood erect where they had stopped, and
+      watched Panawe out of sight. He sighed more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He became aware that something was about to happen. The air was
+      breathless. The late-afternoon sunshine, unobstructed, wrapped his frame
+      in voluptuous heat. A solitary cloud, immensely high, raced through the
+      sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance from somewhere behind
+      him. It gave him an impression of being several miles away at first; but
+      then it slowly swelled, and came nearer and nearer at the same time that
+      it increased in volume. Still the same note sounded, but now it was as if
+      blown by a giant trumpeter immediately over his head. Then it gradually
+      diminished in force, and travelled away in front of him. It ended very
+      faintly and distantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt himself alone with Nature. A sacred stillness came over his heart.
+      Past and future were forgotten. The forest, the sun, the day did not exist
+      for him. He was unconscious of himself&mdash;he had no thoughts and no
+      feelings. Yet never had Life had such an altitude for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path. He was so clothed that
+      his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered. He was young rather
+      than old. Maskull observed that his countenance possessed none of the
+      special organs of Tormance, to which he had not even yet become
+      reconciled. He was smooth-faced. His whole person seemed to radiate an
+      excess of life, like the trembling of air on a hot day. His eyes had such
+      force that Maskull could not meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice. It had a double
+      tone. The primary one sounded far away; the second was an undertone, like
+      a sympathetic tanging string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising joy, as he continued standing in the presence of
+      this individual. He believed that something good was happening to him. He
+      found it physically difficult to bring any words out. &ldquo;Why do you
+      stop me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, look well at me. Who am I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again attempted to meet his eyes, but felt as if he were being
+      stabbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that this is my world. Why do you think I have brought you
+      here? I wish you to serve me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could no longer speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those who joke at my world,&rdquo; continued the vision, &ldquo;those
+      who make a mock of its stern, eternal rhythm, its beauty and sublimity,
+      which are not skin-deep, but proceed from fathomless roots&mdash;they
+      shall not escape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not mock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask me your questions, and I will answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is necessary for you to serve me, Maskull. Do you not
+      understand? You are my servant and helper.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not fail.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is for my sake, and not for yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last words had no sooner left Surtur&rsquo;s mouth than Maskull saw
+      him spring suddenly upward and outward. Looking up at the vault of the
+      sky, he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur&rsquo;s form&mdash;not
+      as a concrete man, but as a vast, concave cloud image, looking down and
+      frowning at him. Then the spectacle vanished, as a light goes out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood inactive, with a thumping heart. Now he again heard the
+      solitary trumpet note. The sound began this time faintly in the far
+      distance in front of him, travelled slowly toward him with regularly
+      increasing intensity, passed overhead at its loudest, and then grew more
+      and more quiet, wonderful, and solemn, as it fell away in the rear, until
+      the note was merged in the deathlike silence of the forest. It appeared to
+      Maskull like the closing of a marvellous and important chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simultaneously with the fading away of the sound, the heavens seemed to
+      open up with the rapidity of lightning into a blue vault of immeasurable
+      height. He breathed a great breath, stretched all his limbs, and looked
+      around him with a slow smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a while he resumed his journey. His brain was all dark and confused,
+      but one idea was already beginning to stand out from the rest&mdash;huge,
+      shapeless, and grand, like the growing image in the soul of a creative
+      artist: the staggering thought that he was a man of destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more he reflected upon all that had occurred since his arrival in this
+      new world&mdash;and even before leaving Earth&mdash;the clearer and more
+      indisputable it became, that he could not be here for his own purposes,
+      but must be here for an end. But what that end was, he could not imagine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest he saw Branchspell at last sinking in the west. It
+      looked a stupendous ball of red fire&mdash;now he could realise at his
+      ease what a sun it was! The avenue took an abrupt turn to the left and
+      began to descend steeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wide, rolling river of clear and dark water was visible in front of him,
+      no great way off. It flowed from north to south. The forest path led him
+      straight to its banks. Maskull stood there, and regarded the lapping,
+      gurgling waters pensively. On the opposite bank, the forest continued.
+      Miles to the south, Poolingdred could just be distinguished. On the
+      northern skyline the Ifdawn Mountains loomed up&mdash;high, wild,
+      beautiful, and dangerous. They were not a dozen miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like the first mutterings of a thunderstorm, the first faint breaths of
+      cool wind, Maskull felt the stirrings of passion in his heart. In spite of
+      his bodily fatigue, he wished to test his strength against something. This
+      craving he identified with the crags of the Marest. They seemed to have
+      the same magical attraction for his will as the lodestone for iron. He
+      kept biting his nails, as he turned his eyes in that direction&mdash;wondering
+      if it would not be possible to conquer the heights that evening. But when
+      he glanced back again at Poolingdred, he remembered Joiwind and Panawe,
+      and grew more tranquil. He decided to make his bed at this spot, and to
+      set off as soon after daybreak as he should awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drank at the river, washed himself, and lay down on the bank to sleep.
+      By this time, so far had his idea progressed, that he cared nothing for
+      the possible dangers of the night&mdash;he confided in his star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell set, the day faded, night with its terrible weight came on,
+      and through it all Maskull slept. Long before midnight, however, he was
+      awakened by a crimson glow in the sky. He opened his eyes, and wondered
+      where he was. He felt heaviness and pain. The red glow was a terrestrial
+      phenomenon; it came from among the trees. He got up and went toward the
+      source of the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away from the river, not a hundred feet off, he nearly stumbled across the
+      form of a sleeping woman. The object which emitted the crimson rays was
+      lying on the ground, several yards away from her. It was like a small
+      jewel, throwing off sparks of red light. He barely threw a glance at that,
+      however.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman was clothed in the large skin of an animal. She had big, smooth,
+      shapely limbs, rather muscular than fat. Her magn was not a thin tentacle,
+      but a third arm, terminating in a hand. Her face, which was upturned, was
+      wild, powerful, and exceedingly handsome. But he saw with surprise that in
+      place of a breve on her forehead, she possessed another eye. All three
+      were closed. The colour of her skin in the crimson glow he could not
+      distinguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He touched her gently with his hand. She awoke calmly and looked up at him
+      without stirring a muscle. All three eyes stared at him; but the two lower
+      ones were dull and vacant&mdash;mere carriers of vision. The middle, upper
+      one alone expressed her inner nature. Its haughty, unflinching glare had
+      yet something seductive and alluring in it. Maskull felt a challenge in
+      that look of lordly, feminine will, and his manner instinctively
+      stiffened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you speak my language?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t
+      put such a question, but others have been able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you imagine that I can&rsquo;t read your mind? Is it so
+      extremely complex?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke in a rich, lingering, musical voice, which delighted him to
+      listen to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but you have no breve.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but haven&rsquo;t I a sorb, which is better?&rdquo; And she
+      pointed to the eye on her brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These contemptuous replies began to irritate him, and yet the mere sound
+      of her voice was fascinating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going there tomorrow,&rdquo; he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed, as if against her will, but made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;I am a stranger&mdash;from
+      another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should judge, from your absurd appearance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it would be as well to say at once,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      bluntly, &ldquo;are we, or are we not, to be friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She yawned and stretched her arms, without rising. &ldquo;Why should we be
+      friends? If I thought you were a man, I might accept you as a lover.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must look elsewhere for that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it, Maskull! Now go away, and leave me in peace.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her head again to the ground, but did not at once close her
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing here?&rdquo; he interrogated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we Ifdawn folk occasionally come here to sleep, for <i>there</i>
+      often enough it is a night for us which has no next morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being such a terrible place, and seeing that I am a total stranger,
+      it would be merely courteous if you were to warn me what I have to expect
+      in the way of dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am perfectly and utterly indifferent to what becomes of you,&rdquo;
+      retorted Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning in the morning?&rdquo; persisted Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will go together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She got up again on her elbow. &ldquo;Instead of making plans for other
+      people, I would do a very necessary thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray, tell me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there&rsquo;s no reason why I should, but I will. I would try
+      to convert my women&rsquo;s organs into men&rsquo;s organs. It is a man&rsquo;s
+      country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak more plainly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s plain enough. If you attempt to pass through Ifdawn
+      without a sorb, you are simply committing suicide. And that magn too is
+      worse than useless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably know what you are talking about, Oceaxe. But what do
+      you advise me to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She negligently pointed to the light-emitting stone lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the solution. If you hold that drude to your organs for a
+      good while, perhaps it will start the change, and perhaps nature will do
+      the rest during the night. I promise nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe now really turned her back on Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He considered for a few minutes, and then walked over to where the stone
+      was lying, and took it in his hand. It was a pebble the size of a hen&rsquo;s
+      egg, radiant with crimson light, as though red-hot, and throwing out a
+      continuous shower of small, blood-red sparks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally deciding that Oceaxe&rsquo;s advice was good, he applied the drude
+      first to his magn, and then to his breve. He experienced a cauterising
+      sensation&mdash;a feeling of healing pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 9. OCEAXE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s second day on Tormance dawned. Branchspell was already
+      above the horizon when he awoke. He was instantly aware that his organs
+      had changed during the night. His fleshy breve was altered into an eyelike
+      sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third arm, springing from
+      the breast. The arm gave him at once a sense of greater physical security,
+      but with the sorb he was obliged to experiment, before he could grasp its
+      function.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he lay there in the white sunlight, opening and shutting each of his
+      three eyes in turn, he found that the two lower ones served his
+      understanding, the upper one his will. That is to say, with the lower eyes
+      he saw things in clear detail, but without personal interest; with the
+      sorb he saw nothing as self-existent&mdash;everything appeared as an
+      object of importance or non-importance to his own needs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked about
+      him. He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she
+      were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he made up his mind
+      to bathe in the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a glorious morning. The hot white sun already began to glare, but
+      its heat was tempered by a strong wind, which whistled through the trees.
+      A host of fantastic clouds filled the sky. They looked like animals, and
+      were always changing shape. The ground, as well as the leaves and branches
+      of the forest trees, still held traces of heavy dew or rain during the
+      night. A poignantly sweet smell of nature entered his nostrils. His pain
+      was quiescent, and his spirits were high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he bathed, he viewed the mountains of the Ifdawn Marest. In the
+      morning sunlight they stood out pictorially. He guessed that they were
+      from five to six thousand feet high. The lofty, irregular, castellated
+      line seemed like the walls of a magic city. The cliffs fronting him were
+      composed of gaudy rocks&mdash;vermilion, emerald, yellow, ulfire, and
+      black. As he gazed at them, his heart began to beat like a slow, heavy
+      drum, and he thrilled all over&mdash;indescribable hopes, aspirations, and
+      emotions came over him. It was more than the conquest of a new world which
+      he felt&mdash;it was something different....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bathed and drank, and as he was reclothing himself, Oceaxe strolled
+      indolently up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could now perceive the colour of her skin&mdash;it was a vivid, yet
+      delicate mixture of carmine, white, and jale. The effect was startlingly
+      unearthly. With these new colors she looked like a genuine representative
+      of a strange planet. Her frame also had something curious about it. The
+      curves were womanly, the bones were characteristically female&mdash;yet
+      all seemed somehow to express a daring, masculine underlying will. The
+      commanding eye on her forehead set the same puzzle in plainer language.
+      Its bold, domineering egotism was shot with undergleams of sex and
+      softness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She came to the river&rsquo;s edge and reviewed him from top to toe.
+      &ldquo;Now you are built more like a man,&rdquo; she said, in her lovely,
+      lingering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, the experiment was successful,&rdquo; he answered, smiling
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe continued looking him over. &ldquo;Did some woman give you that
+      ridiculous robe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman did give it to me&rdquo;&mdash;dropping his smile&mdash;&ldquo;but
+      I saw nothing ridiculous in the gift at the time, and I don&rsquo;t now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d look better in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she drawled the words, she began stripping off the skin, which suited
+      her form so well, and motioned to him to exchange garments. He obeyed,
+      rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed exchange was in
+      fact more appropriate to his sex. He found the skin a freer dress. Oceaxe
+      in her drapery appeared more dangerously feminine to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want you to receive gifts at all from other women,&rdquo;
+      she remarked slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? What can I be to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been thinking about you during the night.&rdquo; Her voice
+      was retarded, scornful, viola-like. She sat down on the trunk of a fallen
+      tree, and looked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She returned no answer to his question, but began to pull off pieces of
+      the bark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night you were so contemptuous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night is not today. Do you always walk through the world with
+      your head over your shoulder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Maskull&rsquo;s turn to be silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, if you have male instincts, as I suppose you have, you can&rsquo;t
+      go on resisting me forever.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is preposterous,&rdquo; said Maskull, opening his eyes
+      wide. &ldquo;Granted that you are a beautiful woman&mdash;we can&rsquo;t
+      be quite so primeval.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sighed, and rose to her feet. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can
+      wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that I gather that you intend to make the journey in my
+      society. I have no objection&mdash;in fact I shall be glad&mdash;but only
+      on condition that you drop this language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet you do think me beautiful?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I think so, if it is the fact? I fail to see
+      what that has to do with my feelings. Bring it to an end, Oceaxe. You will
+      find plenty of men to admire&mdash;and love you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that she blazed up. &ldquo;Does love pick and choose, you fool? Do you
+      imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for lovers? Is not
+      Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I am sorry to have hurt your feelings. Now carry the
+      temptation no farther&mdash;for it <i>is</i> a temptation, where a lovely
+      woman is concerned. I am not my own master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not proposing anything so very hateful, am I? Why do you
+      humiliate me so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put his hands behind his back. &ldquo;I repeat, I am not my own
+      master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then who is your master?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you speak with him?&rdquo; she asked curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what he said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can&rsquo;t&mdash;I won&rsquo;t. But whatever he said, his
+      beauty was more tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and that&rsquo;s why I can
+      look at you in cold blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Is love such a manly sport, then? I should have
+      thought it effeminate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. You won&rsquo;t always be so boyish. But
+      don&rsquo;t try my patience too far.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us talk about something else&mdash;and, above all, let us get
+      on our road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he
+      grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms. &ldquo;Oh,
+      Maskull, Maskull&mdash;what a fool you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way am I a fool?&rdquo; he demanded, scowling&mdash;not at
+      her words, but at his own weakness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of
+      lovers? And yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly away
+      from nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality:
+      persistence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read me well, and then it is natural law that you&rsquo;ll think
+      twice and three times before throwing me away.... And now, before we go,
+      we had better eat.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you eat? Is food in the same category as love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What food is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fish from the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind. At the same time, he felt
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there nothing milder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled her mouth scornfully. &ldquo;You came through Poolingdred, didn&rsquo;t
+      you? All the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked
+      at, and not lived. Now that you are visiting Ifdawn, you will have to
+      change your notions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go catch your fish,&rdquo; he returned, pulling down his brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations, from
+      the direction of the mountains. Oceaxe knelt down on the bank, and peered
+      into the depths. Presently her look became tense and concentrated; she
+      dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little monster. It was more
+      like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates and teeth. She threw it
+      on the ground, and it started crawling about. Suddenly she darted all her
+      will into her sorb. The creature leaped into the air, and fell down dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She picked up a sharp-edged slate, and with it removed the scales and
+      entrails. During this operation, her hands and garment became stained with
+      the light scarlet blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Find the drude, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, with a lazy smile.
+      &ldquo;You had it last night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He searched for it. It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown dull and
+      feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it. Oceaxe placed it in the
+      interior of the monster, and left the body lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While it&rsquo;s cooking, I&rsquo;ll wash some of this blood away,
+      which frightens you so much. Have you never seen blood before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her in perplexity. The old paradox came back&mdash;the
+      contrasting sexual characteristics in her person. Her bold, masterful,
+      masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous with the fascinating
+      and disturbing femininity of her voice. A startling idea flashed into his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In your country I&rsquo;m told there is an act of will called
+      &lsquo;absorbing.&rsquo; What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She held her red, dripping hands away from her draperies, and uttered a
+      delicious, clashing laugh. &ldquo;You think I am half a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer my question.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a woman through and through, Maskull&mdash;to the
+      marrowbone. But that&rsquo;s not to say I have never absorbed males.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that means...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New strings for my harp, Maskull. A wider range of passions, a
+      stormier heart...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For you, yes&mdash;But for them?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. The victims don&rsquo;t describe their
+      experiences. Probably unhappiness of some sort&mdash;if they still know
+      anything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a fearful business!&rdquo; he exclaimed, regarding her
+      gloomily. &ldquo;One would think Ifdawn a land of devils.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a beautiful sneer as she took a step toward the river. &ldquo;Better
+      men than you&mdash;better in every sense of the word&mdash;are walking
+      about with foreign wills inside them. You may be as moral as you like,
+      Maskull, but the fact remains, animals were made to be eaten, and simple
+      natures were made to be absorbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And human rights count for nothing!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had bent over the river&rsquo;s edge, to wash her arms and hands, but
+      glanced up over her shoulder to answer his remark. &ldquo;They do count.
+      But we only regard a man as human for just as long as he&rsquo;s able to
+      hold his own with others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flesh was soon cooked, and they breakfasted in silence. Maskull cast
+      heavy, doubtful glances from time to time toward his companion. Whether it
+      was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long abstention, he
+      did not know, but the meal tasted nauseous, and even cannibalistic. He ate
+      little, and the moment he got up he felt defiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me bury this drude, where I can find it some other time,&rdquo;
+      said Oceaxe. &ldquo;On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Maskull
+      with me, to shock.... Now we have to take to the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stepped off the land onto the water. It flowed against them with a
+      sluggish current, but the opposition, instead of hindering them, had the
+      contrary effect&mdash;it caused them to exert themselves, and they moved
+      faster. They climbed the river in this way for several miles. The exercise
+      gradually improved the circulation of Maskull&rsquo;s blood, and he began
+      to look at things in a far more cheerful way. The hot sunshine, the
+      diminished wind, the marvellous cloud scenery, the quiet, crystal forests&mdash;all
+      was soothing and delightful. They approached nearer and nearer to the
+      gaily painted heights of Ifdawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something enigmatic to him in those bright walls. He was
+      attracted by them, yet felt a sort of awe. They looked real, but at the
+      same time very supernatural. If one could see the portrait of a ghost,
+      painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial colors, the feelings
+      produced by such a sight would be exactly similar to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      impressions as he studied the Ifdawn precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke the long silence. &ldquo;Those mountains have most extraordinary
+      shapes. All the lines are straight and perpendicular&mdash;no slopes or
+      curves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked backward on the water, in order to face him. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      typical of Ifdawn. Nature is all hammer blows with us. Nothing soft and
+      gradual.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear you, but I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All over the Marest you&rsquo;ll find patches of ground plunging
+      down or rushing up. Trees grow fast. Women and men don&rsquo;t think twice
+      before acting. One may call Ifdawn a place of quick decisions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was impressed. &ldquo;A fresh, wild, primitive land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it where you come from?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mine is a decrepit world, where nature takes a hundred years to
+      move a foot of solid land. Men and animals go about in flocks. Originality
+      is a lost habit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there women there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As with you, and not very differently formed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed. &ldquo;So much so that it has changed the dress, speech, and
+      thoughts of the whole sex.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably they are more beautiful than I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another rather long silence, as they travelled unsteadily
+      onward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your business in Ifdawn?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated over his answer. &ldquo;Can you grasp that it&rsquo;s
+      possible to have an aim right in front of one, so big that one can&rsquo;t
+      see it as a whole?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stole a long, inquisitive look at him, &ldquo;What sort of aim?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moral aim.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you proposing to set the world right?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I propose nothing&mdash;I am waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t wait too long, for time doesn&rsquo;t wait&mdash;especially
+      in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something will happen,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe threw a subtle smile. &ldquo;So you have no special destination in
+      the Marest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, and if you&rsquo;ll permit me, I will come home with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; she said, with a short, thrilling laugh.
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I have been offering all the time. Of course you
+      will come home with me. As for Crimtyphon...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mentioned that name before. Who is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! My lover, or, as you would say, my husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t improve matters,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It leaves them exactly where they were. We merely have to remove
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are certainly misunderstanding each other,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      quite startled. &ldquo;Do you by any chance imagine that I am making a
+      compact with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do nothing against your will. But you have promised to
+      come home with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, how do you remove husbands in Ifdawn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either you or I must kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her for a full minute. &ldquo;Now we are passing from folly to
+      insanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe. &ldquo;It is the too-sad truth.
+      And when you have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m aware I am on a strange planet,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      slowly, &ldquo;where all sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where
+      the very laws of morality may be different. Still as far as I am
+      concerned, murder is murder, and I&rsquo;ll have no more to do with a
+      woman who wants to make use of me, to get rid of her husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think me wicked?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you had better leave me, Maskull&mdash;only&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to be consistent, don&rsquo;t you? Leave all other mad and
+      wicked people as well. Then you&rsquo;ll find it easier to reform the
+      rest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe, with a half smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll come with you, and I&rsquo;ll see Crimtyphon&mdash;if
+      only to warn him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe broke into a cascade of rich, feminine laughter, but whether at the
+      image conjured up by Maskull&rsquo;s last words, or from some other cause,
+      he did not know. The conversation dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a distance of a couple of miles from the now towering cliffs, the river
+      made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no longer of use to
+      them on their journey. Maskull stared up doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a stiff climb for a hot morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s rest here a little,&rdquo; said she, indicating a
+      smooth flat island of black rock, standing up just out of the water in the
+      middle of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They accordingly went to it, and Maskull sat down. Oceaxe, however,
+      standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward the cliffs opposite,
+      and uttered a piercing and peculiar call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that for?&rdquo; She did not answer. After waiting a
+      minute, she repeated the call. Maskull now saw a large bird detach itself
+      from the top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down toward them.
+      It was followed by two others. The flight of these birds was exceedingly
+      slow and clumsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She still returned no answer, but smiled rather peculiarly and sat down
+      beside him. Before many minutes he was able to distinguish the shapes and
+      colors of the flying monsters. They were not birds, but creatures with
+      long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating in fins
+      which acted as wings. The bodies were of bright blue, the legs and fins
+      were yellow. They were flying, without haste, but in a somewhat ominous
+      fashion, straight toward them. He could make out a long, thin spike
+      projecting from each of the heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are shrowks,&rdquo; explained Oceaxe at last. &ldquo;If you
+      want to know their intention, I&rsquo;ll tell you. To make a meal of us.
+      First of all their spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are
+      really suckers, will drain us dry of blood&mdash;pretty thoroughly too;
+      there are no half measures with shrowks. They are toothless beasts, so don&rsquo;t
+      eat flesh.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you show such admirable sangfroid,&rdquo; said Maskull dryly,
+      &ldquo;I take it there&rsquo;s no particular danger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he instinctively tried to get on to his feet and failed. A
+      new form of paralysis was chaining him to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you trying to get up?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, but those cursed reptiles seem to be nailing me down to
+      the rock with their wills. May I ask if you had any special object in view
+      in waking them up?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assure you the danger is quite real, Maskull. Instead of talking
+      and asking questions, you had much better see what you can do with <i>your</i>
+      will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seem to have no will, unfortunately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, but it was still rich and
+      beautiful. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious you aren&rsquo;t a very heroic
+      protector, Maskull. It seems I must play the man, and you the woman. I
+      expected better things of your big body. Why, my husband would send those
+      creatures dancing all around the sky, by way of a joke, before disposing
+      of them. Now watch me. Two of the three I&rsquo;ll kill; the third we will
+      ride home on. Which one shall we keep?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowks continued their slow, wobbling flight toward them. Their
+      bodies were of huge size. They produced in Maskull the same sensation of
+      loathing as insects did. He instinctively understood that as they hunted
+      with their wills, there was no necessity for them to possess a swift
+      motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose which you please,&rdquo; he said shortly. &ldquo;They are
+      equally objectionable to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll choose the leader, as it is presumably the most
+      energetic animal. Watch now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire. Maskull felt
+      something snap inside his brain. His limbs were free once more. The two
+      monsters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost toward the earth,
+      one after the other. He watched them crash on the ground, and then lie
+      motionless. The leader still came toward them, but he fancied that its
+      flight was altered in character; it was no longer menacing, but tame and
+      unwilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe guided it with her will to the mainland shore opposite their island
+      rock. Its vast bulk lay there extended, awaiting her pleasure. They
+      immediately crossed the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull viewed the shrowk at close quarters. It was about thirty feet
+      long. Its bright-coloured skin was shining, slippery, and leathery; a mane
+      of black hair covered its long neck. Its face was awesome and unnatural,
+      with its carnivorous eyes, frightful stiletto, and blood-sucking cavity.
+      There were true fins on its back and tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a good seat?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe, patting the creature&rsquo;s
+      flank. &ldquo;As I have to steer, let me jump on first.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled up her gown, then climbed up and sat astride the animal&rsquo;s
+      back, just behind the mane, which she clutched. Between her and the fin
+      there was just room for Maskull. He grasped the two flanks with his outer
+      hands; his third, new arm pressed against Oceaxe&rsquo;s back, and for
+      additional security he was compelled to encircle her waist with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Directly he did so, he realised that he had been tricked, and that this
+      ride had been planned for one purpose only&mdash;to inflame his desires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third arm possessed a function of its own, of which hitherto he had
+      been ignorant. It was a developed magn. But the stream of love which was
+      communicated to it was no longer pure and noble&mdash;it was boiling,
+      passionate, and torturing. He gritted his teeth, and kept quiet, but
+      Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious of his
+      feelings. She looked around, with a golden, triumphant smile. &ldquo;The
+      ride will last some time, so hold on well!&rdquo; Her voice was soft like
+      a flute, but rather malicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grinned, and said nothing. He dared not remove his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowk straddled on to its legs. It jerked itself forward, and rose
+      slowly and uncouthly in the air. They began to paddle upward toward the
+      painted cliffs. The motion was swaying, rocking, and sickening; the
+      contact of the brute&rsquo;s slimy skin was disgusting. All this, however,
+      was merely background to Maskull, as he sat there with closed eyes,
+      holding on to Oceaxe. In the front and centre of his consciousness was the
+      knowledge that he was gripping a fair woman, and that her flesh was
+      responding to his touch like a lovely harp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They climbed up and up. He opened his eyes, and ventured to look around
+      him. By this time they were already level with the top of the outer
+      rampart of precipices. There now came in sight a wild archipelago of
+      islands, with jagged outlines, emerging from a sea of air. The islands
+      were mountain summits; or, more accurately speaking, the country was a
+      high tableland, fissured everywhere by narrow and apparently bottomless
+      cracks. These cracks were in some cases like canals, in others like lakes,
+      in others merely holes in the ground, closed in all round. The
+      perpendicular sides of the islands&mdash;that is, the upper, visible parts
+      of the innumerable cliff faces&mdash;were of bare rock, gaudily coloured;
+      but the level surfaces were a tangle of wild plant life. The taller trees
+      alone were distinguishable from the shrowk&rsquo;s back. They were of
+      different shapes, and did not look ancient; they were slender and swaying
+      but did not appear very graceful; they looked tough, wiry, and savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Maskull continued to explore the landscape, he forgot Oceaxe and his
+      passion. Other strange feelings came to the front. The morning was gay and
+      bright. The sun scorched down, quickly-changing clouds sailed across the
+      sky, the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely. Yet he experienced no
+      aesthetic sensations&mdash;he felt nothing but an intense longing for
+      action and possession. When he looked at anything, he immediately wanted
+      to deal with it. The atmosphere of the land seemed not free, but sticky;
+      attraction and repulsion were its constituents. Apart from this wish to
+      play a personal part in what was going on around and beneath him, the
+      scenery had no significance for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp. Oceaxe
+      turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied with what
+      she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cold again so quickly, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; he asked absently, still looking over the
+      side. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to take a hand?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish to get down.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we have a good way to go yet.... So you really feel different?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Different from what? What are you talking about?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, still lost in abstraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe laughed again. &ldquo;It would be strange if we couldn&rsquo;t make
+      a man of you, for the material is excellent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, she turned her back once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air islands differed from water islands in another way. They were not
+      on a plane surface, but sloped upward, like a succession of broken
+      terraces, as the journey progressed. The shrowk had hitherto been flying
+      well above the ground; but now, when a new line of towering cliffs
+      confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast upward, but caused it to
+      enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the mountains like a channel.
+      They were instantly plunged into deep shade. The canal was not above
+      thirty feet wide; the walls stretched upward on both sides for many
+      hundred feet. It was as cool as an ice chamber. When Maskull attempted to
+      plumb the chasm with his eyes, he saw nothing but black obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is at the bottom?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death for you, if you go to look for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know that. I mean, is there any kind of life down there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I have ever heard of,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, &ldquo;but of
+      course all things are possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think very likely there is life,&rdquo; he returned thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her ironical laugh sounded out of the gloom. &ldquo;Shall we go down and
+      see?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You find that amusing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not that. What I do find amusing is the big stranger with the
+      beard, who is so keenly interested in everything except himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then laughed too. &ldquo;I happen to be the only thing in Tormance
+      which is not a novelty for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I am a novelty for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The channel went zigzagging its way through the belly of the mountain, and
+      all the time they were gradually rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least I have heard nothing like your voice before,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, who, since he had no longer anything to look at, was at last
+      ready for conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter with my voice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all that I can distinguish of you now; that&rsquo;s why
+      I mentioned it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it clear&mdash;don&rsquo;t I speak distinctly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s clear enough, but&mdash;it&rsquo;s inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inappropriate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t explain further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      whether you are speaking or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest
+      and strangest instrument I have ever listened to. And yet I repeat, it is
+      inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that my nature doesn&rsquo;t correspond?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was just considering his reply, when their talk was abruptly broken off
+      by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising up from the gulf
+      directly underneath them. It was a low, grinding, roaring thunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ground is rising under us!&rdquo; cried Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no answer, but urged the shrowk&rsquo;s flight upward, at such a
+      steep gradient that they retained their seats with difficulty. The floor
+      of the canyon, upheaved by some mighty subterranean force, could be heard,
+      and almost felt, coming up after them, like a gigantic landslip in the
+      wrong direction. The cliffs cracked, and fragments began to fall. A
+      hundred awful noises filled the air, growing louder and louder each second&mdash;splitting,
+      hissing, cracking, grinding, booming, exploding, roaring. When they had
+      still fifty feet or so to go, to reach the top, a sort of dark, indefinite
+      sea of broken rocks and soil appeared under their feet, ascending rapidly,
+      with irresistible might, accompanied by the most horrible noises. The
+      canal was filled up for two hundred yards, before and behind them.
+      Millions of tons of solid matter seemed to be raised. The shrowk in its
+      ascent was caught by the uplifted debris. Beast and riders experienced in
+      that moment all the horrors of an earthquake&mdash;they were rolled
+      violently over, and thrown among the rocks and dirt. All was thunder,
+      instability, motion, confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the sunlight.
+      The upheaval still continued. In another minute or two the valley floor
+      had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher than the old.
+      Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as if by magic;
+      not a rock moved. Oceaxe and Maskull picked themselves up and examined
+      themselves for cuts and bruises. The shrowk lay on its side, panting
+      violently, and sweating with fright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a nasty affair,&rdquo; said Maskull, flicking the dirt off
+      his person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have been far worse.... I mean, it&rsquo;s bad enough to
+      come up, but it&rsquo;s death to go down, and that happens just as often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever induces you to live in such a country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Maskull. Habit, I suppose. I have often thought
+      of moving out of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
+      place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
+      another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn by degrees,&rdquo; she answered, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get on again, Maskull!&rdquo; she directed, climbing back to her
+      perch. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t too much time to waste.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed. They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
+      mountains, and in full sunlight. Maskull settled down again to his
+      thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into
+      his brain. His will became so restless and uneasy that merely to sit there
+      in inactivity was a torture. He could scarcely endure not to be doing
+      something.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How secretive you are, Maskull!&rdquo; said Oceaxe quietly, without
+      turning her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What secrets&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I know perfectly well what&rsquo;s passing inside you. Now I
+      think it wouldn&rsquo;t be amiss to ask you&mdash;is friendship still
+      enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t ask me anything,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      far too many problems in my head already. I only wish I could answer some
+      of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared stonily at the landscape. The beast was winging its way toward a
+      distant mountain, of singular shape. It was an enormous natural
+      quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and terminating in a
+      broad, flat top, on which what looked like green snow still lingered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What mountain is that?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disscourn. The highest point in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we going there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should we go there? But if you were going on farther, it might
+      be worth your while to pay a visit to the top. It commands the whole land
+      as far as the Sinking Sea and Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;and beyond.
+      You can also see Alppain from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a sight I mean to see before I have finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, Maskull?&rdquo; She turned around and put her hand on his
+      wrist. &ldquo;Stay with me, and one day we&rsquo;ll go to Disscourn
+      together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He grunted unintelligibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were no signs of human existence in the country under their feet.
+      While Maskull was still grimly regarding it, a large tract of forest not
+      far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful
+      roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf. What was solid land one
+      minute became a clean-cut chasm the next. He jumped violently up with the
+      shock. &ldquo;This is frightful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe remained unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, life here must be absolutely impossible,&rdquo; he went on,
+      when he had somewhat recovered himself. &ldquo;A man would need nerves of
+      steel.... Is there no means at all of foreseeing a catastrophe like this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I suppose we wouldn&rsquo;t be alive if there weren&rsquo;t,&rdquo;
+      replied Oceaxe, with composure. &ldquo;We are more or less clever at it&mdash;but
+      that doesn&rsquo;t prevent our often getting caught.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better teach me the signs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have many things to go over together. And among them, I
+      expect, will be whether we are to stay in the land at all.... But first
+      let us get home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far is it now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right in front of you,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, pointing with her
+      forefinger. &ldquo;You can see it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the direction of the finger and, after a few questions, made
+      out the spot she was indicating. It was a broad peninsula, about two miles
+      distant. Three of its sides rose sheer out of a lake of air, the bottom of
+      which was invisible; its fourth was a bottleneck, joining it to the
+      mainland. It was overgrown with bright vegetation, distinct in the
+      brilliant atmosphere. A single tall tree, shooting up in the middle of the
+      peninsula, dwarfed everything else; it was wide and shady with sea-green
+      leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if Crimtyphon is there,&rdquo; remarked Oceaxe. &ldquo;Can
+      I see two figures, or am I mistaken?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I also see something,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes they were directly above the peninsula, at a height of
+      about fifty feet. The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth on the
+      mainland, exactly at the gateway of the isthmus. They both descended&mdash;Maskull
+      with aching thighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we do with the monster?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe. Without
+      waiting for a suggestion, she patted its hideous face with her hand.
+      &ldquo;Fly away home! I may want you some other time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It gave a stupid grunt, elevated itself on its legs again, and, after half
+      running, half flying for a few yards, rose awkwardly into the air, and
+      paddled away in the same direction from which they had come. They watched
+      it out of sight, and then Oceaxe started to cross the neck of land,
+      followed by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s white rays beat down on them with pitiless force. The
+      sky had by degrees become cloudless, and the wind had dropped entirely.
+      The ground was a rich riot of vividly coloured ferns, shrubs, and grasses.
+      Through these could be seen here and there the golden chalky soil&mdash;and
+      occasionally a glittering, white metallic boulder. Everything looked
+      extraordinary and barbaric. Maskull was at last walking in the weird
+      Ifdawn Marest which had created such strange feelings in him when seen
+      from a distance.... And now he felt no wonder or curiosity at all, but
+      only desired to meet human beings&mdash;so intense had grown his will. He
+      longed to test his powers on his fellow creatures, and nothing else seemed
+      of the least importance to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the peninsula all was coolness and delicate shade. It resembled a large
+      copse, about two acres in extent. In the heart of the tangle of small
+      trees and undergrowth was a partially cleared space&mdash;perhaps the
+      roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed off the smaller
+      fry all around it. By the side of the tree sparkled a little, bubbling
+      fountain, whose water was iron-red. The precipices on all sides, overhung
+      with thorns, flowers, and creepers, invested the enclosure with an air of
+      wild and charming seclusion&mdash;a mythological mountain god might have
+      dwelt here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s restless eye left everything, to fall on the two men who
+      formed the centre of the picture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One was reclining, in the ancient Grecian fashion of banqueters on a tall
+      couch of mosses, sprinkled with flowers; he rested on one arm, and was
+      eating a kind of plum, with calm enjoyment. A pile of these plums lay on
+      the couch beside him. The over-spreading branches of the tree completely
+      sheltered him from the sun. His small, boyish form was clad in a rough
+      skin, leaving his limbs naked. Maskull could not tell from his face
+      whether he were a young boy or a grown man. The features were smooth,
+      soft, and childish, their expression was seraphically tranquil; but his
+      violet upper eye was sinister and adult. His skin was of the colour of
+      yellow ivory. His long, curling hair matched his sorb&mdash;it was violet.
+      The second man was standing erect before the other, a few feet away from
+      him. He was short and muscular, his face was broad, bearded, and rather
+      commonplace, but there was something terrible about his appearance. The
+      features were distorted by a deep-seated look of pain, despair, and
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe, without pausing, strolled lightly and lazily up to the outermost
+      shadows of the tree, some distance from the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have met with an uplift,&rdquo; she remarked carelessly, looking
+      toward the youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is your plant man getting on?&rdquo; Her tone was artificial
+      but extremely beautiful. While waiting for an answer, she sat down on the
+      ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and pulled down the
+      skirt of her robe. Maskull remained standing just behind her, with crossed
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you answer your mistress, Sature?&rdquo; said the
+      boy on the couch, in a calm, treble voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man addressed did not alter his expression, but replied in a strangled
+      tone, &ldquo;I am getting on very well, Oceaxe. There are already buds on
+      my feet. Tomorrow I hope to take root.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising storm inside him. He was perfectly aware that
+      although these words were uttered by Sature, they were being dictated by
+      the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What he says is quite true,&rdquo; remarked the latter. &ldquo;Tomorrow
+      roots will reach the ground, and in a few days they ought to be well
+      established. Then I shall set to work to convert his arms into branches,
+      and his fingers into leaves. It will take longer to transform his head
+      into a crown, but still I hope&mdash;in fact I can almost promise that
+      within a month you and I, Oceaxe, will be plucking and enjoying fruit from
+      this new and remarkable tree.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love these natural experiments,&rdquo; he concluded, putting out
+      his hand for another plum. &ldquo;They thrill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be a joke,&rdquo; said Maskull, taking a step forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth looked at him serenely. He made no reply, but Maskull felt as if
+      he were being thrust backward by an iron hand on his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The morning&rsquo;s work is now concluded, Sature. Come here again
+      after Blodsombre. After tonight you will remain here permanently, I
+      expect, so you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for your
+      roots. Never forget&mdash;however fresh and charming these plants appear
+      to you now, in the future they will be your deadliest rivals and enemies.
+      Now you may go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight. Oceaxe
+      yawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall. &ldquo;Are you
+      joking, or are you a devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Crimtyphon. I never joke. For that epithet of yours, I will
+      devise a new punishment for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duel of wills commenced without ceremony. Oceaxe got up, stretched her
+      beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to witness the struggle
+      between her old lover and her new. Crimtyphon smiled too; he reached out
+      his hand for more fruit, but did not eat it. Maskull&rsquo;s self-control
+      broke down and he dashed at the boy, choking with red fury&mdash;his beard
+      wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with whom he had to
+      deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a
+      terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull staggered. He gathered
+      together all the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight continued
+      his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch, trying to get
+      away.... His opposition suddenly collapsed. Maskull stumbled forward,
+      recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the high pile of mosses, to
+      get at his antagonist. He fell on top of him with all his bulk. Grasping
+      his throat, he pulled his little head completely around, so that the neck
+      was broken. Crimtyphon immediately died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull viewed
+      it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder came into
+      his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon&rsquo;s face had
+      undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal character
+      had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask which
+      expressed nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had seen the
+      brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face of the
+      apparition at the siance, after Krag had dealt with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 10. TYDOMIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the
+      plums.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, you had to kill him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, in a rather
+      quizzical voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came away from the corpse and regarded her&mdash;still red, and still
+      breathing hard. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no joking matter. You especially ought
+      to keep quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he was your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think I ought to show grief&mdash;when I feel none?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pretend, woman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe smiled. &ldquo;From your manner one would think you were accusing
+      me of some crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull literally snorted at her words. &ldquo;What, you live with filth&mdash;you
+      live in the arms of a morbid monstrosity and then&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, now I grasp it,&rdquo; she said, in a tone of perfect
+      detachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull,&rdquo; she proceeded, after a pause, &ldquo;and who
+      gave you the right to rule my conduct? Am I not mistress of my own person?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her with disgust, but said nothing. There was another long
+      interval of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never loved him,&rdquo; said Oceaxe at last, looking at the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes it all the worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean&mdash;what do you want?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing from you&mdash;absolutely nothing&mdash;thank heaven!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a hard laugh. &ldquo;You come here with your foreign
+      preconceptions and expect us all to bow down to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What preconceptions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just because Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sports are strange to you, you
+      murder him&mdash;and you would like to murder me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sports! That diabolical cruelty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re sentimental!&rdquo; said Oceaxe contemptuously.
+      &ldquo;Why do you need to make such a fuss over that man? Life is life,
+      all the world over, and one form is as good as another. He was only to be
+      made a tree, like a million other trees. If they can endure the life, why
+      can&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this is Ifdawn morality!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe began to grow angry. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s you who have peculiar ideas.
+      You rave about the beauty of flowers and trees&mdash;you think them
+      divine. But when it&rsquo;s a question of taking on this divine, fresh,
+      pure, enchanting loveliness yourself, in your own person, it immediately
+      becomes a cruel and wicked degradation. Here we have a strange riddle, in
+      my opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe, you&rsquo;re a beautiful, heartless wild beast&mdash;nothing
+      more. If you weren&rsquo;t a woman&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&rdquo;&mdash;curling her lip&mdash;&ldquo;let us hear what
+      would happen if I weren&rsquo;t a woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can&rsquo;t touch you&mdash;though there&rsquo;s
+      certainly not the difference of a hair between you and your boy-husband.
+      For this you may thank my &lsquo;foreign preconceptions.&rsquo;...
+      Farewell!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to go. Oceaxe&rsquo;s eyes slanted at him through their long
+      lashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you off to, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a matter of no importance, for wherever I go it must
+      be a change for the better. You walking whirlpools of crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a minute. I only want to say this. Blodsombre is just
+      starting, and you had better stay here till the afternoon. We can quickly
+      put that body out of sight, and, as you seem to detest me so much, the
+      place is big enough&mdash;we needn&rsquo;t talk, or even see each other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to breathe the same air.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; She was sitting erect and motionless, like a
+      beautiful statue. &ldquo;And what of your wonderful interview with Surtur,
+      and all the undone things which you set out to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You aren&rsquo;t the one I shall speak to about that. But&rdquo;&mdash;he
+      eyed her meditatively&mdash;&ldquo;while I&rsquo;m still here you can tell
+      me this. What&rsquo;s the meaning of the expression on that corpse&rsquo;s
+      face?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that another crime, Maskull? All dead people look like that.
+      Ought they not to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I once heard it called &lsquo;Crystalman&rsquo;s face.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? We are all daughters and sons of Crystalman. It is
+      doubtless the family resemblance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has also been told me that Surtur and Crystalman are one and the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have wise and truthful acquaintances.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how could it have been Surtur whom I saw?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      more to himself than to her. &ldquo;That apparition was something quite
+      different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her mocking manner and, sliding imperceptibly toward him,
+      gently pulled his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see&mdash;we have to talk. Sit down beside me, and ask me your
+      questions. I&rsquo;m not excessively smart, but I&rsquo;ll try to be of
+      assistance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull permitted himself to be dragged down with soft violence. She bent
+      toward him, as if confidentially, and contrived that her sweet, cool,
+      feminine breath should fan his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull? Then
+      what does it matter who sent you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can you possibly know of good and evil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you only instructing the initiated?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who am I, to instruct anybody? However, you&rsquo;re quite right. I
+      wish to do what I can&mdash;not because I am qualified, but because I am
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe&rsquo;s voice dropped to a whisper. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a giant,
+      both in body and soul. What you want to do, you <i>can</i> do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own
+      ends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see how difficult you are making the
+      conversation? Let&rsquo;s talk about your work, not about ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern sky.
+      It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills. While he was
+      observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a disquieting nature,
+      passed through him. He looked at Oceaxe, and it struck him for the first
+      time that he was being unnecessarily brutal to her. He had forgotten that
+      she was a woman, and defenceless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you stay?&rdquo; she asked all of a sudden, quite
+      openly and frankly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think I&rsquo;ll stay,&rdquo; he replied slowly. &ldquo;And
+      another thing, Oceaxe&mdash;if I&rsquo;ve misjudged your character, pray
+      forgive me. I&rsquo;m a hasty, passionate man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are enough easygoing men. Hard knocks are a good medicine for
+      vicious hearts. And you didn&rsquo;t misjudge my character, as far as you
+      went&mdash;only, every woman has more than one character. Don&rsquo;t you
+      know that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and both
+      looked around, startled. They saw a woman stepping slowly across the neck
+      that separated them from the mainland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tydomin,&rdquo; muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice. She
+      immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful. She was no
+      longer quite young. Her face wore the composure of a woman who knows her
+      way about the world. It was intensely pale, and under its quiescence there
+      just was a glimpse of something strange and dangerous. It was curiously
+      alluring, though not exactly beautiful. Her hair was clustering and
+      boyish, reaching only to the neck. It was of a strange indigo colour. She
+      was quaintly attired in a tunic and breeches, pieced together from the
+      square, blue-green plates of some reptile. Her small, ivory-white breasts
+      were exposed. Her sorb was black and sad&mdash;rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided
+      straight toward Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. When she arrived within a few
+      feet of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s other wife, who lives under Disscourn. She&rsquo;s a
+      most dangerous woman. Be careful what you say. If she asks you to do
+      anything, refuse it outright.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor soul looks harmless enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she does&mdash;but the poor soul is quite capable of
+      swallowing up Krag himself.... Now, play the man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murmur of their voices seemed to attract Tydomin&rsquo;s notice, for
+      she now slowly turned her eyes toward them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who killed him?&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was so soft, low, and refined, that Maskull hardly was able to
+      catch the words. The sounds, however, lingered in his ears, and curiously
+      enough seemed to grow stronger, instead of fainter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe whispered, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say a word, leave it all to me.&rdquo;
+      Then she swung her body around to face Tydomin squarely, and said aloud,
+      &ldquo;I killed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s words by this time were ringing in Maskull&rsquo;s head
+      like an actual physical sound. There was no question of being able to
+      ignore them; he had to make an open confession of his act, whatever the
+      consequences might be. Quietly taking Oceaxe by the shoulder and putting
+      her behind him, he said in a low, but perfectly distinct voice, &ldquo;It
+      was I that killed Crimtyphon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe looked both haughty and frightened. &ldquo;Maskull says that so as
+      to shield me, as he thinks. I require no shield, Maskull. I killed him,
+      Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you, Oceaxe. You did murder him. Not with your own
+      strength, for you brought this man along for the purpose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took a couple of steps toward Tydomin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s of little
+      consequence who killed him, for he&rsquo;s better dead than alive, in my
+      opinion. Still, I did it. Oceaxe had no hand in the affair.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin appeared not to hear him&mdash;she looked beyond him at Oceaxe
+      musingly. &ldquo;When you murdered him, didn&rsquo;t it occur to you that
+      I would come here, to find out?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never once thought of you,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe, with an angry
+      laugh. &ldquo;Do you really imagine that I carry your image with me
+      wherever I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If someone were to murder your lover here, what would you do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lying hypocrite!&rdquo; Oceaxe spat out. &ldquo;You never were in
+      love with Crimtyphon. You always hated me, and now you think it an
+      excellent opportunity to make it good... now that Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      gone.... For we both know he would have made a footstool of you, if I had
+      asked him. He worshiped me, but he laughed at you. He thought you ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin flashed a quick, gentle smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Is it necessary
+      for you to listen to all this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without question, and feeling it the right thing to do, he walked away out
+      of earshot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin approached Oceaxe. &ldquo;Perhaps because my beauty fades and I&rsquo;m
+      no longer young, I needed <i>him</i> all the more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a kind of snarl. &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s dead, and that&rsquo;s
+      the end of it. What are you going to do now, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other woman smiled faintly and rather pathetically. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing left to do, except mourn the dead. You won&rsquo;t grudge me that
+      last office?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to stay here?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Oceaxe dear, I wish to be alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is to become of us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that you and your lover&mdash;what is his name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that perhaps you two would go to Disscourn, and spend
+      Blodsombre at my home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe called out aloud to Maskull, &ldquo;Will you come with me now to
+      Disscourn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish,&rdquo; returned Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go first, Oceaxe. I must question your friend about Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      death. I won&rsquo;t keep him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you question me, rather?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe,
+      looking up sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gave the shadow of a smile. &ldquo;We know each other too well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Play no tricks!&rdquo; said Oceaxe, and she turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely you must be dreaming,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      the way&mdash;unless you want to walk over the cliffside.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path Oceaxe had chosen led across the isthmus. The direction which
+      Tydomin proposed for her was over the edge of the precipice, into empty
+      space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping! I must be mad,&rdquo; cried Oceaxe, with a laugh. And she
+      obediently followed the other&rsquo;s finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked straight on toward the edge of the abyss, twenty paces away.
+      Maskull pulled his beard around, and wondered what she was doing. Tydomin
+      remained standing with outstretched finger, watching her. Without
+      hesitation, without slackening her step once, Oceaxe strolled on&mdash;and
+      when she had reached the extreme end of the land she still took one more
+      step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw her limbs wrench as she stumbled over the edge. Her body
+      disappeared, and as it did so an awful shriek sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disillusionment had come to her an instant too late. He tore himself out
+      of his stupor, rushed to the edge of the cliff, threw himself on the
+      ground recklessly, and looked over.... Oceaxe had vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued staring wildly down for several minutes, and then began to
+      sob. Tydomin came up to him, and he got to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood kept rushing to his face and leaving it again. It was some time
+      before he could speak at all. Then he brought out the words with
+      difficulty. &ldquo;You shall pay for this, Tydomin. But first I want to
+      hear why you did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t I cause?&rdquo; she asked, standing with downcast
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it pure fiendishness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was for Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had nothing to do with that death. I told you so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are loyal to her, and I&rsquo;m loyal to him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loyal? You&rsquo;ve made a terrible blunder. She wasn&rsquo;t my
+      mistress. I killed Crimtyphon for quite another reason. She had absolutely
+      no part in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wasn&rsquo;t she your lover?&rdquo; asked Tydomin slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve made a terrible mistake,&rdquo; repeated Maskull.
+      &ldquo;I killed him because he was a wild beast. She was as innocent of
+      his death as you are.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s face took on a hard look. &ldquo;So you are guilty of two
+      deaths.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dreadful silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t you believe me?&rdquo; asked Maskull, who was
+      pale and sweating painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who gave you the right to kill him?&rdquo; demanded Tydomin
+      sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said nothing, and perhaps did not hear her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed two or three times and began to stir restlessly. &ldquo;Since
+      you murdered him, you must help me bury him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s to be done? This is a most fearful crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a most fearful man. Why did you come here, to do all this?
+      What are we to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately you are right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use standing here,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Nothing
+      can be done. You must come with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come with you? Where to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Disscourn. There&rsquo;s a burning lake on the far side of it.
+      He always wished to be cast there after death. We can do that after
+      Blodsombre&mdash;in the meantime we must take him home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a callous, heartless woman. Why should he be buried
+      when that poor girl must remain unburied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that&rsquo;s out of the question,&rdquo; replied Tydomin
+      quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes roamed about agitatedly, apparently seeing nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must do something,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;I shall go. You
+      can&rsquo;t wish to stay here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I couldn&rsquo;t stay here&mdash;and why should I want to? You
+      want me to carry the corpse?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can&rsquo;t carry himself, and you murdered him. Perhaps it will
+      ease your mind to carry it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ease my mind?&rdquo; said Maskull, rather stupidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one relief for remorse, and that&rsquo;s
+      voluntary pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have you no remorse?&rdquo; he asked, fixing her with a heavy
+      eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These crimes are yours, Maskull,&rdquo; she said in a low but
+      incisive voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked over to Crimtyphon&rsquo;s body, and Maskull hoisted it on to
+      his shoulders. It weighed heavier than he had thought. Tydomin did not
+      offer to assist him to adjust the ghastly burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She crossed the isthmus, followed by Maskull. Their path lay through
+      sunshine and shadow. Branchspell was blazing in a cloudless sky, the heat
+      was insufferable&mdash;streams of sweat coursed down his face, and the
+      corpse seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Tydomin always walked in front
+      of him. His eyes were fastened in an unseeing stare on her white, womanish
+      calves; he looked neither to right nor left. His features grew sullen. At
+      the end of ten minutes he suddenly allowed his burden to slip off his
+      shoulders on to the ground, where it lay sprawled every which way. He
+      called out to Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She quickly looked around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here. It has just occurred to me&rdquo;&mdash;he laughed&mdash;&ldquo;why
+      should I be carrying this corpse&mdash;and why should I be following you
+      at all? What surprises me is, why this has never struck me before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She at once came back to him. &ldquo;I suppose you&rsquo;re tired,
+      Maskull. Let us sit down. Perhaps you have come a long way this morning?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s not tiredness, but a sudden gleam of sense. Do you
+      know of any reason why I should be acting as your porter?&rdquo; He
+      laughed again, but nevertheless sat down on the ground beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin neither looked at him nor answered. Her head was half bent, so as
+      to face the northern sky, where the Alppain light was still glowing.
+      Maskull followed her gaze, and also watched the glow for a moment or two
+      in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you speak?&rdquo; he asked at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that light suggest to you, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not speaking of that light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t it suggest anything at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it doesn&rsquo;t. What does it matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew sullen again. &ldquo;Sacrifice of what? What do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hasn&rsquo;t it entered your head yet,&rdquo; said Tydomin, looking
+      straight in front of her, and speaking in her delicate, hard manner,
+      &ldquo;that this adventure of yours will scarcely come to an end until you
+      have made some sort of sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, and she said nothing more. In a few minutes&rsquo;
+      time Maskull got up of his own accord, and irreverently, and almost
+      angrily, threw Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse over his shoulder again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far do we have to go?&rdquo; he asked in a surly tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An hour&rsquo;s walk.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lead on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, this isn&rsquo;t the sacrifice I mean,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly, as she went on in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost immediately they reached more difficult ground. They had to pass
+      from peak to peak, as from island to island. In some cases they were able
+      to stride or jump across, but in others they had to make use of rude
+      bridges of fallen timber. It appeared to be a frequented path. Underneath
+      were the black, impenetrable abysses&mdash;on the surface were the glaring
+      sunshine, the gay, painted rocks, the chaotic tangle of strange plants.
+      There were countless reptiles and insects. The latter were thicker built
+      than those of Earth&mdash;consequently still more disgusting, and some of
+      them were of enormous size. One monstrous insect, as large as a horse,
+      stood right in the centre of their path without budging. It was
+      armour-plated, had jaws like scimitars, and underneath its body was a
+      forest of legs. Tydomin gave one malignant look at it, and sent it
+      crashing into the gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to offer, except my life?&rdquo; Maskull suddenly broke
+      out. &ldquo;And what good is that? It won&rsquo;t bring that poor girl
+      back into the world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sacrifice is not for utility. It&rsquo;s a penalty which we pay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The point is whether you can go on enjoying life, after what has
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She waited for Maskull to come even with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you imagine I&rsquo;m not man enough&mdash;you imagine that
+      because I allowed poor Oceaxe to die for me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did die for you,&rdquo; said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be a second blunder of yours,&rdquo; returned Maskull,
+      just as firmly. &ldquo;I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I&rsquo;m not in
+      love with life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life is not required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I don&rsquo;t understand what you want, or what you are
+      speaking about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull. That
+      would be compliance on your part, but not sacrifice. You must wait until
+      you feel there&rsquo;s nothing else for you to do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all very mysterious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful
+      crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead. It was
+      accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they stood.
+      They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final disappearance
+      of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in front of them.
+      Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with all its teeming
+      animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic story. The new chasm
+      was cut, as if by a knife. Beyond its farther edge the Alppain glow burned
+      blue just over the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we shall have to make a detour,&rdquo; said Tydomin, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand. &ldquo;Listen to me, while
+      I try to describe what I&rsquo;m feeling. When I saw that landslip,
+      everything I have heard about the last destruction of the world came into
+      my mind. It seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it, and that the
+      world were really falling to pieces. Then, where the land was, we now have
+      this empty, awful gulf&mdash;that&rsquo;s to say, <i>nothing</i>&mdash;and
+      it seems to me as if our life will come to the same condition, where there
+      was something there will be nothing. But that terrible blue glare on the
+      opposite side is exactly like the eye of fate. It accuses us, and demands
+      what we have made of our life, which is no more. At the same time, it is
+      grand and joyful. The joy consists in this&mdash;that it is in our power
+      to give freely what will later on be taken from us by force.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin watched him attentively. &ldquo;Then your feeling is that your
+      life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it goes beyond that. I feel that the only thing worth living
+      for is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.
+      Understand me. It isn&rsquo;t cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but
+      heroism.... It&rsquo;s hard to explain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull. It&rsquo;s
+      a heavy one, but that&rsquo;s what you seem to wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so. In my present mood it can&rsquo;t be too heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me. Now that
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s dead, I&rsquo;m tired of being a woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fail to comprehend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. I wish to start a new existence in your body. I wish
+      to be a male. I see it isn&rsquo;t worth while being a woman. I mean to
+      dedicate my own body to Crimtyphon. I shall tie his body and mine
+      together, and give them a common funeral in the burning lake. That&rsquo;s
+      the sacrifice I offer you. As I said, it&rsquo;s a hard one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you do ask me to die. Though how you can make use of my body is
+      difficult to understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t ask you to die. You will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it possible without a body?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gazed at him earnestly. &ldquo;There are many such beings, even in
+      your world. There you call them spirits, apparitions, phantoms. They are
+      in reality living wills, deprived of material bodies, always longing to
+      act and enjoy, but quite unable to do so. Are you noble-minded enough to
+      accept such a state, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s possible, I accept it,&rdquo; replied Maskull
+      quietly. &ldquo;Not in spite of its heaviness, but because of it. But how
+      is it possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Undoubtedly there are very many things possible in our world of
+      which you have no conception. Now let us wait till we get home. I don&rsquo;t
+      hold you to your word, for unless it&rsquo;s a free sacrifice I will have
+      nothing to do with it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a man who speaks lightly. If you can perform this miracle,
+      you have my consent, once for all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we&rsquo;ll leave it like that for the present,&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They proceeded on their way. Owing to the subsidence, Tydomin seemed
+      rather doubtful at first as to the right road, but by making a long
+      divergence they eventually got around to the other side of the newly
+      formed chasm. A little later on, in a narrow copse crowning a miniature,
+      insulated peak, they fell in with a man. He was resting himself against a
+      tree, and looked tired, overheated, and despondent. He was young. His
+      beardless expression bore an expression of unusual sincerity, and in other
+      respects he seemed a hardy, hardworking youth, of an intellectual type.
+      His hair was thick, short, and flaxen. He possessed neither a sorb nor a
+      third arm&mdash;so presumably he was not a native of Ifdawn. His forehead,
+      however, was disfigured by what looked like a haphazard assortment of
+      eyes, eight in number, of different sizes and shapes. They went in pairs,
+      and whenever two were in use, it was indicated by a peculiar shining&mdash;the
+      rest remained dull, until their turn came. In addition to the upper eyes
+      he had the two lower ones, but they were vacant and lifeless. This
+      extraordinary battery of eyes, alternatively alive and dead, gave the
+      young man an appearance of almost alarming mental activity. He was wearing
+      nothing but a sort of skin kilt. Maskull seemed somehow to recognise the
+      face, though he had certainly never set eyes on it before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin suggested to him to set down the corpse, and both sat down to rest
+      in the shade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Question him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, rather carelessly, jerking
+      her head toward the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed and asked aloud, from his seat on the ground, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s
+      your name, and where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man studied him for a few moments, first with one pair of eyes, then
+      with another, then with a third. He next turned his attention to Tydomin,
+      who occupied him a still longer time. He replied at last, in a dry, manly,
+      nervous voice. &ldquo;I am Digrung. I have arrived here from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+      His colour kept changing, and Maskull suddenly realised of whom he
+      reminded him. It was of Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you&rsquo;re going to Poolingdred, Digrung?&rdquo; he
+      inquired, interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a matter of fact I am&mdash;if I can find my way out of this
+      accursed country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly you are acquainted with Joiwind there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s my sister. I&rsquo;m on my way to see her now. Why, do
+      you know her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I met her yesterday.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall tell her I met you. This will be our first meeting for four
+      years. Is she well, and happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both, as far as I could judge. You know Panawe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her husband&mdash;yes. But where do you come from? I&rsquo;ve seen
+      nothing like you before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From another world. Where is Matterplay?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it like there&mdash;how do you amuse yourselves? The same
+      old murders and sudden deaths?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ill?&rdquo; asked Digrung. &ldquo;Who is this woman, why
+      are you following at her heels like a slave? She looks insane to me. What&rsquo;s
+      that corpse&mdash;why are you dragging it around the country with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already heard it said about Matterplay,
+      that if one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately
+      springs up. But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me, Digrung?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t attack you, woman, but I know you. I see into you,
+      and I see insanity. That wouldn&rsquo;t matter, but I don&rsquo;t like to
+      see a man of intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge
+      character. However, I don&rsquo;t mind. Your opinion&rsquo;s nothing to
+      me, Digrung. You&rsquo;d better answer his questions, Maskull. Not for his
+      own sake&mdash;but your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your
+      having been seen carrying a dead man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s underlip shot out. &ldquo;Tell your sister nothing,
+      Digrung. Don&rsquo;t mention my name at all. I don&rsquo;t want her to
+      know about this meeting of ours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish it&mdash;isn&rsquo;t that enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung looked impassive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts and words,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;which don&rsquo;t
+      correspond with the real events of the world are considered most shameful
+      in Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not asking you to lie, only to keep silent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can&rsquo;t
+      accede to your wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look. &ldquo;The
+      dead man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him. Now you&rsquo;ll
+      understand why he wishes you to hold your tongue.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed there was some foul play,&rdquo; said Digrung. &ldquo;It
+      doesn&rsquo;t matter&mdash;I can&rsquo;t falsify facts. Joiwind must know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You refuse to consider her feelings?&rdquo; said Maskull, turning
+      pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on
+      realities, aren&rsquo;t worth considering. But Joiwind&rsquo;s are not of
+      that kind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without
+      seeing her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting
+      when she hears your news.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are these strange relations between you?&rdquo; demanded
+      Digrung, eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. &ldquo;Good God! You don&rsquo;t
+      doubt your own sister. That pure angel!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know Joiwind,
+      but, whoever she is and whatever she&rsquo;s like, I know this&mdash;she&rsquo;s
+      more fortunate in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really value
+      her happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to. Digrung, I shall stop your journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed. &ldquo;I seem to be leaving
+      a wake of corpses behind me on this journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why a corpse? There&rsquo;s no need to kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for that!&rdquo; said Digrung dryly. &ldquo;All the same,
+      some crime is about to burst. I feel it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do, then?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very
+      interested.... If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate
+      long. Don&rsquo;t you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set
+      their feeble, obstinate wills against yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a worse crime,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows? He will live, but he will tell no tales.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung laughed, but changed colour. &ldquo;I was right then. The monster
+      has sprung into the light of day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder. &ldquo;You have the choice, and we
+      are not joking. Do as I ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fallen low, Maskull. But you are walking in a dream, and I
+      can&rsquo;t talk to you. As for you, woman&mdash;sin must be like a
+      pleasant bath to you....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a
+      passer-by, a foreigner. I care nothing for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are
+      legitimate and right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as you please,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;If you come to grief,
+      your thoughts will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the
+      world, which is what you boast about. It is no affair of mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go on, and not back!&rdquo; exclaimed Digrung, with angry
+      emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Bear witness that I
+      have tried to persuade this young man. Now you must come to a quick
+      decision in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance,
+      Digrung&rsquo;s happiness or Joiwind&rsquo;s. Digrung won&rsquo;t allow
+      you to preserve them both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t take me long to decide, Digrung, I gave you a last
+      chance to change your mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as it&rsquo;s in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister
+      against her criminal friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence. Instructed in
+      his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he pressed the young man
+      tightly to his body with all three arms. A feeling of wild, sweet delight
+      immediately passed through him. Then for the first time he comprehended
+      the triumphant joys of &ldquo;absorbing.&rdquo; It satisfied the hunger of
+      the will, exactly as food satisfies the hunger of the body. Digrung proved
+      feeble&mdash;he made little opposition. His personality passed slowly and
+      evenly into Maskull&rsquo;s. The latter became strong and gorged. The
+      victim gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in
+      his arms. He dropped the body, and stood trembling. He had committed his
+      second crime. He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine. He half expected
+      her to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a sign to him to
+      pick up Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. As he obeyed, he wondered why Digrung&rsquo;s
+      dead face did not wear the frightful Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why hasn&rsquo;t he altered?&rdquo; he muttered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin heard him. She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot.
+      &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t dead&mdash;that&rsquo;s why. The expression you mean
+      is waiting for your death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then is that my real character?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed softly. &ldquo;You came here to carve a strange world, and now
+      it appears you are carved yourself. Oh, there&rsquo;s no doubt about it,
+      Maskull. You needn&rsquo;t stand there gaping. You belong to Shaping, like
+      the rest of us. You are not a king, or a god.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since when have I belonged to him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that matter? Perhaps since you first breathed the air of
+      Tormance, or perhaps since five minutes ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his response, she set off through the copse, and
+      strode on to the next island. Maskull followed, physically distressed and
+      looking very grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey continued for half an hour longer, without incident. The
+      character of the scenery slowly changed. The mountaintops became loftier
+      and more widely separated from one another. The gaps were filled with
+      rolling, white clouds, which bathed the shores of the peaks like a
+      mysterious sea. To pass from island to island was hard work, the
+      intervening spaces were so wide&mdash;Tydomin, however, knew the way. The
+      intense light, the violet-blue sky, the patches of vivid landscape,
+      emerging from the white vapour-ocean, made a profound impression on
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind. The glow of Alppain was hidden by the huge mass of
+      Disscourn, which loomed up straight in front of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The green snow on the top of the gigantic pyramid had by now completely
+      melted away. The black, gold, and crimson of its mighty cliffs stood out
+      with terrific brilliance. They were directly beneath the bulk of the
+      mountain, which was not a mile away. It did not appear dangerous to climb,
+      but he was unaware on which side of it their destination lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was split from top to bottom by numerous straight fissures. A few
+      pale-green waterfalls descended here and there, like narrow, motionless
+      threads. The face of the mountain was rugged and bare. It was strewn with
+      detached boulders, and great, jagged rocks projected everywhere like iron
+      teeth. Tydomin pointed to a small black hole near the base, which might be
+      a cave. &ldquo;That is where I live.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an odd choice for a woman&mdash;and you are not
+      unbeautiful, either.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman&rsquo;s life is over at twenty-five,&rdquo; she replied,
+      sighing. &ldquo;And I am far older than that. Ten years ago it would have
+      been I who lived yonder, and not Oceaxe. Then all this wouldn&rsquo;t have
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later they stood within the mouth of the cave. It was
+      ten feet high, and its interior was impenetrably black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put down the body in the entrance, out of the sun,&rdquo; directed
+      Tydomin. He did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She cast a keenly scrutinising glance at him. &ldquo;Does your resolution
+      still hold, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t it hold? My brains are not feathers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Follow me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both stepped into the cave. At that very moment a sickening crash,
+      like heavy thunder just over their heads, set Maskull&rsquo;s weakened
+      heart thumping violently. An avalanche of boulders, stones, and dust,
+      swept past the cave entrance from above. If their going in had been
+      delayed by a single minute, they would have been killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin did not even look up. She took his hand in hers, and started
+      walking with him into the darkness. The temperature became as cold as ice.
+      At the first bend the light from the outer world disappeared, leaving them
+      in absolute blackness. Maskull kept stumbling over the uneven ground, but
+      she kept tight hold of him, and hurried him along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tunnel seemed of interminable length. Presently, however, the
+      atmosphere changed&mdash;or such was his impression. He was somehow led to
+      imagine that they had come to a larger chamber. Here Tydomin stopped, and
+      then forced him down with quiet pressure. His groping hand encountered
+      stone and, by feeling it all over, he discovered that it was a sort of
+      stone slab, or couch, raised a foot or eighteen inches from the ground.
+      She told him to lie down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the time come?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay there waiting in the darkness, ignorant of what was going to
+      happen. He felt her hand clasping his. Without perceiving any gradation,
+      he lost all consciousness of his body; he was no longer able to feel his
+      limbs or internal organs. His mind remained active and alert. Nothing
+      particular appeared to be taking place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chamber began to grow light, like very early morning. He could
+      see nothing, but the retina of his eyes was affected. He fancied that he
+      heard music, but while he was listening for it, it stopped. The light grew
+      stronger, the air grew warmer; he heard the confused sound of distant
+      voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly Tydomin gave his hand a powerful squeeze. He heard someone scream
+      faintly, and then the light leaped up, and he saw everything clearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room, lighted by
+      electricity. His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin, but by a man
+      dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face he was certainly
+      familiar, but under what circumstances he could not recall. Other people
+      stood in the background&mdash;they too were vaguely known to him. He sat
+      up and began to smile, without any especial reason; and then stood
+      upright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion&mdash;he
+      wondered why. Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances. Two in
+      particular he knew&mdash;the man at the farther end of the room, who paced
+      restlessly backward and forward, his face transfigured by stern, holy
+      grandeur; and that other big, bearded man&mdash;who was <i>himself</i>.
+      Yes&mdash;he was looking at his own double. But it was just as if a
+      crime-riddled man of middle age were suddenly confronted with his own
+      photograph as an earnest, idealistic youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His other self spoke to him. He heard the sounds, but did not comprehend
+      the sense. Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a short,
+      brutish-looking individual leaped in. He began to behave in an
+      extraordinary manner to everyone around him; and after that came straight
+      up to him&mdash;Maskull. He spoke some words, but they were
+      incomprehensible. A terrible expression came over the newcomer&rsquo;s
+      face, and he grasped his neck with a pair of hairy hands. Maskull felt his
+      bones bending and breaking, excruciating pains passed through all the
+      nerves of his body, and he experienced a sense of impending death. He
+      cried out, and sank helplessly on the floor, in a heap. The chamber and
+      the company vanished&mdash;the light went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more he found himself in the blackness of the cave. He was this time
+      lying on the ground, but Tydomin was still with him, holding his hand. He
+      was in horrible bodily agony, but this was only a setting for the
+      despairing anguish that filled his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin addressed him in tones of gentle reproach. &ldquo;Why are you back
+      so soon? I&rsquo;ve not had time yet. You must return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He caught hold of her, and pulled himself up to his feet. She gave a low
+      scream, as though in pain. &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what are you
+      doing, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull, but the effort to produce his
+      words choked him, so that he was obliged to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;what of Krag? Tell me quickly what has happened. Free my
+      arm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gripped her arm tighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I&rsquo;ve seen Krag. I&rsquo;m awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! You are awake, awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you must die,&rdquo; said Maskull, in an awful voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why? What has happened?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must die, and I must kill you. Because I am awake, and for no
+      other reason. You blood-stained dancing mistress!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin breathed hard for a little time. Then she seemed suddenly to
+      regain her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t offer me violence, surely, in this black cave?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the sun shall look on, for it is not a murder. But rest assured
+      that you must die&mdash;you must expiate your fearful crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have already said so, and I see you have the power. You have
+      escaped me. It is very curious. Well, then, Maskull, let us come outside.
+      I am not afraid. But kill me courteously, for I have also been courteous
+      to you. I make no other supplication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BY THE TIME that they regained the mouth of the cavern, Blodsombre was at
+      its height. In front of them the scenery sloped downward&mdash;a long
+      succession of mountain islands in a sea of clouds. Behind them the bright,
+      stupendous crags of Disscourn loomed up for a thousand feet or more.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes were red, and his face looked stupid; he was still
+      holding the woman by the arm. She made no attempt to speak, or to get
+      away. She seemed perfectly gentle and composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After gazing at the country for a long time in silence, he turned toward
+      her. &ldquo;Whereabouts is the fiery lake you spoke of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies on the other side of the mountain. But why do you ask?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just as well if we have some way to walk. I shall grow
+      calmer, and that&rsquo;s what I want. I wish you to understand that what
+      is going to happen is not a murder, but an execution.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will taste the same,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I have gone out of this country, I don&rsquo;t wish to feel
+      that I have left a demon behind me, wandering at large. That would not be
+      fair to others. So we will go to the lake, which promises an easy death
+      for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;We must wait till Blodsombre is over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a time for luxurious feelings? However hot it is now, we
+      will both be cool by evening. We must start at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without doubt, you are the master, Maskull.... May I not carry
+      Crimtyphon?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grudge no man his funeral.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She painfully hoisted the body on her narrow shoulders, and they stepped
+      out into the sunlight. The heat struck them like a blow on the head.
+      Maskull moved aside, to allow her to precede him, but no compassion
+      entered his heart. He brooded over the wrongs the woman had done him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way went along the south side of the great pyramid, near its base. It
+      was a rough road, clogged with boulders and crossed by cracks and water
+      gullies; they could see the water, but could not get at it. There was no
+      shade. Blisters formed on their skin, while all the water in their blood
+      seemed to dry up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil&rsquo;s delight at Tydomin&rsquo;s.
+      &ldquo;Sing me a song!&rdquo; he called out presently. &ldquo;A
+      characteristic one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned her head and gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without any
+      sort of expostulation, started singing. Her voice was low and weird. The
+      song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to ascertain whether
+      he was awake or dreaming. The slow surprises of the grotesque melody began
+      to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the words were pure nonsense&mdash;or
+      else their significance was too deep for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where, in the name of all unholy things, did you acquire that
+      stuff, woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sickly smile, while the corpse swayed about with ghastly
+      jerks over her left shoulder. She held it in position with her two left
+      arms. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity we could not have met as friends, Maskull.
+      I could have shown you a side of Tormance which now perhaps you will never
+      see. The wild, mad side. But now it&rsquo;s too late, and it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned the angle of the mountain, and started to traverse the western
+      base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the quickest way out of this miserable land?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is easiest to go to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will we see it from anywhere?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, though it is a long way off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a woman, and interdicted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. I have heard something of the sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t ask me any more questions,&rdquo; said Tydomin, who
+      was becoming faint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped at a little spring. He himself drank, and then made a cup
+      of his hand for the woman, so that she might not have to lay down her
+      burden. The gnawl water acted like magic&mdash;it seemed to replenish all
+      the cells of his body as though they had been thirsty sponge pores,
+      sucking up liquid. Tydomin recovered her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About three-quarters of an hour later they worked around the second
+      corner, and entered into full view of the north aspect of Disscourn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hundred yards lower down the slope on which they were walking, the
+      mountain ended abruptly in a chasm. The air above it was filled with a
+      sort of green haze, which trembled violently like the atmosphere
+      immediately over a furnace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lake is underneath,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked curiously about him. Beyond the crater the country sloped
+      away in a continuous descent to the skyline. Behind them, a narrow path
+      channelled its way up through the rocks toward the towering summit of the
+      pyramid. Miles away, in the north-east quarter, a long, flat-topped
+      plateau raised its head far above all the surrounding country. It was Sant&mdash;and
+      there and then he made up his mind that that should be his destination
+      that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin meanwhile had walked straight to the gulf, and set down Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      body on the edge. In a minute or two, Maskull joined her; arrived at the
+      brink, he immediately flung himself at full length on his chest, to see
+      what could be seen of the lake of fire. A gust of hot, asphyxiating air
+      smote his face and set him coughing, but he did not get up until he had
+      stared his fill at the huge sea of green, molten lava, tossing and
+      swirling at no great distance below, like a living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint sound of drumming came up. He listened intently, and as he did so
+      his heart quickened and the black cares rolled away from his soul. All the
+      world and its accidents seemed at that moment false, and without
+      meaning....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed abstractedly to his feet. Tydomin was talking to her dead
+      husband. She was peering into the hideous face of ivory, and fondling his
+      violet hair. When she perceived Maskull, she hastily kissed the withered
+      lips, and got up from her knees. Lifting the corpse with all three arms,
+      she staggered with it to the extreme edge of the gulf and, after an
+      instant&rsquo;s hesitation, allowed it to drop into the lava. It
+      disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic splash came up. That was
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s funeral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I am ready, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing, erect
+      and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face was wan, and
+      there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew that it was a
+      phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said oddly, &ldquo;and tell me what
+      you see behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see anything,&rdquo; she answered, looking around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I see Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as he was speaking, the apparition vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I present you with your life, Tydomin. <i>She</i> wishes it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I little expected I should ever be beholden for my life to one of
+      my own sex&mdash;but so be it. What really happened to you in my cavern?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really saw Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, some miracle must have taken place.&rdquo; She suddenly
+      shivered. &ldquo;Come, let us leave this horrible spot. I shall never come
+      here again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;it stinks of death and dying. But
+      where are we to go&mdash;what are we to do? Take me to Sant. I must get
+      away from this hellish land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin remained standing, dull and hollow-eyed. Then she gave an abrupt,
+      bitter little laugh. &ldquo;We make our journey together in singular
+      stages. Rather than be alone, I&rsquo;ll come with you&mdash;but you know
+      that if I set foot in Sant they will kill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least set me on the way. I wish to get there before night. Is it
+      possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are willing to take risks with nature. And why should you
+      not take risks today? Your luck holds. But someday or other it won&rsquo;t
+      hold&mdash;your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us start,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;The luck I&rsquo;ve had
+      so far is nothing to brag about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blodsombre was over when they set off; it was early afternoon, but the
+      heat seemed more stifling than ever. They made no more pretence at
+      conversation; both were buried in their own painful thoughts. The land
+      fell away from Disscourn in all other directions, but toward Sant there
+      was a gentle, persistent rise. Its dark, distant plateau continued to
+      dominate the landscape, and after walking for an hour they seemed none the
+      nearer to it. The air was stale and stagnant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by, an upright object, apparently the work of man, attracted
+      Maskull&rsquo;s notice. It was a slender tree stem, with the bark still
+      on, imbedded in the stony ground. From the upper end three branches sprang
+      out, pointing aloft at a sharp angle. They were stripped to twigs and
+      leaves and, getting closer, he saw that they had been artificially
+      fastened on, at equal distances from each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stared at the object, a strange, sudden flush of confident vanity
+      and self-sufficiency seemed to pass through him, but it was so momentary
+      that he could be sure of nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may that be, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Hator&rsquo;s Trifork.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is its purpose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a guide to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who or what is Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator was the founder of Sant&mdash;many thousands of years ago. He
+      laid down the principles they all live by, and that trifork is his symbol.
+      When I was a little child my father told me the legends, but I&rsquo;ve
+      forgotten most of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull regarded it attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it affect you in any way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should it do that?&rdquo; she said, dropping her lip
+      scornfully. &ldquo;I am only a woman, and these are masculine mysteries.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sort of gladness came over me,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      perhaps I am mistaken.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed on. The scenery gradually changed in character. The solid
+      parts of the land grew more continuous, the fissures became narrower and
+      more infrequent. There were now no more subsidences or upheavals. The
+      peculiar nature of the Ifdawn Marest appeared to be giving place to a
+      different order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later on, they encountered a flock of pale blue jellies floating in the
+      air. They were miniature animals. Tydomin caught one in her hand and began
+      to eat it, just as one eats a luscious pear plucked from a tree. Maskull,
+      who had fasted since early morning, was not slow in following her example.
+      A sort of electric vigour at once entered his limbs and body, his muscles
+      regained their elasticity, his heart began to beat with hard, slow, strong
+      throbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food and body seem to agree well in this world,&rdquo; he remarked
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced toward him. &ldquo;Perhaps the explanation is not in the food,
+      but in your body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brought my body with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You brought your soul with you, but that&rsquo;s altering fast,
+      too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a copse they came across a short, wide tree, without leaves, but
+      possessing a multitude of thin, flexible branches, like the tentacles of a
+      cuttlefish. Some of these branches were moving rapidly. A furry animal,
+      somewhat resembling a wildcat, leaped about among them in the most
+      extraordinary way. But the next minute Maskull was shocked to realise that
+      the beast was not leaping at all, but was being thrown from branch to
+      branch by the volition of the tree, exactly as an imprisoned mouse is
+      thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a gruesome reversal of rtles, Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can see you&rsquo;re disgusted,&rdquo; she replied, stifling a
+      yawn. &ldquo;But that is because you are a slave to words. If you called
+      that plant an animal, you would find its occupation perfectly natural and
+      pleasing. And why should you not call it an animal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
+      shall go on listening to this sort of language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They trudged along for an hour or more without talking. The day became
+      overcast. A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the sun changed
+      into an immense ruddy disk which could be stared at without flinching. A
+      chill, damp wind blew against them. Presently it grew still darker, the
+      sun disappeared and, glancing first at his companion and then at himself,
+      Maskull noticed that their skin and clothing were coated by a kind of
+      green hoarfrost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The land was now completely solid. About half a mile, in front of them,
+      against a background of dark fog, a moving forest of tall waterspouts
+      gyrated slowly and gracefully hither and thither. They were green and
+      self-luminous, and looked terrifying. Tydomin explained that they were not
+      waterspouts at all, but mobile columns of lightning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they are dangerous?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we think,&rdquo; she answered, watching them closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone is wandering there who appears to have a different opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the spouts, and entirely encompassed by them, a man was walking with
+      a slow, calm, composed gait, his back turned toward Maskull and Tydomin.
+      There was something unusual in his appearance&mdash;his form looked
+      extraordinarily distinct, solid, and real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s danger, he ought to be warned,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who is always anxious to teach will learn nothing,&rdquo;
+      returned the woman coolly. She restrained Maskull by a pressure of the
+      arm, and continued to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The base of one of the columns touched the man. He remained unharmed, but
+      turned sharply around, as if for the first time made aware of the
+      proximity of these deadly waltzers. Then he raised himself to his full
+      height, and stretched both arms aloft above his head, like a diver. He
+      seemed to be addressing the columns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they looked on, the electric spouts discharged themselves, with a
+      series of loud explosions. The stranger stood alone, uninjured. He dropped
+      his arms. The next moment he caught sight of the two, and stood still,
+      waiting for them to come up. The pictorial clarity of his person grew more
+      and more noticeable as they approached; his body seemed to be composed of
+      some substance heavier and denser than solid matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a Sant man. I have seen no one quite like him before.
+      This is a day of days for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be an individual of great importance,&rdquo; murmured
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now came up to him. He was tall, strong, and bearded, and was clothed
+      in a shirt and breeches of skin. Since turning his back to the wind, the
+      green deposit on his face and limbs had changed to streaming moisture,
+      through which his natural colour was visible; it was that of pale iron.
+      There was no third arm. His face was harsh and frowning, and a projecting
+      chin pushed the beard forward. On his forehead there were two flat
+      membranes, like rudimentary eyes, but no sorb. These membranes were
+      expressionless, but in some strange way seemed to add vigour to the stern
+      eyes underneath. When his glance rested on Maskull, the latter felt as
+      though his brain were being thoroughly travelled through. The man was
+      middle-aged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His physical distinctness transcended nature. By contrast with him, every
+      object in the neighbourhood looked vague and blurred. Tydomin&rsquo;s
+      person suddenly appeared faint, sketch-like, without significance, and
+      Maskull realised that it was no better with himself. A queer, quickening
+      fire began running through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the woman. &ldquo;If this man is going to Sant, I shall bear
+      him company. We can now part. No doubt you will think it high time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Tydomin come too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were delivered in a rough, foreign tongue, but were as
+      intelligible to Maskull as if spoken in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You who know my name, also know my sex,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly. &ldquo;It is death for me to enter Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the old law. I am the bearer of the new law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so&mdash;and will it be accepted?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old skin is cracking, the new skin has been silently forming
+      underneath, the moment of sloughing has arrived.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm gathered. The green snow drove against them, as they stood
+      talking, and it grew intensely cold. None noticed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked Maskull, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name, Maskull, is Spadevil. You, a voyager across the dark ocean
+      of space, shall be my first witness and follower. You, Tydomin, a daughter
+      of the despised sex, shall be my second.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The new law? But what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Until eye sees, of what use it is for ear to hear?.... Come, both
+      of you, to me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin went to him unhesitatingly. Spadevil pressed his hand on her sorb
+      and kept it there for a few minutes, while he closed his own eyes. When he
+      removed it, Maskull observed that the sorb was transformed into twin
+      membranes like Spadevil&rsquo;s own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked dazed. She glanced quietly about for a little while,
+      apparently testing her new faculty. Then the tears started to her eyes
+      and, snatching up Spadevil&rsquo;s hand, she bent over and kissed it
+      hurriedly many times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My past has been bad,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Numbers have received
+      harm from me, and none good. I have killed&mdash;and worse. But now I can
+      throw all that away, and laugh. Nothing can now injure me. Oh, Maskull,
+      you and I have been fools together!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you repent your crimes?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave the past alone,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;it cannot be
+      reshaped. The future alone is ours. It starts fresh and clean from this
+      very minute. Why do you hesitate, Maskull? Are you afraid?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of those organs, and what is their function?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are <i>probes</i>, and they are the gates opening into a new
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law quietly
+      flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream of clean water
+      which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive will. The law was <i>duty</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 12. SPADEVIL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of their
+      own, but only intensified and altered his other senses. When he used his
+      eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him, but
+      his judgment concerning them was different. Previously all external things
+      had existed for him; now he existed for them. According to whether they
+      served his purpose or were in harmony with his nature, or otherwise, they
+      had been pleasant or painful. Now these words &ldquo;pleasure&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;pain&rdquo; simply had no meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted with his
+      new mental outlook. He smiled at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were quite right, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said, in a bold, cheerful
+      voice. &ldquo;We have been fools. So near the light all the time, and we
+      never guessed it. Always buried in the past or future&mdash;systematically
+      ignoring the present&mdash;and now it turns out that apart from the
+      present we have no life at all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Spadevil for it,&rdquo; she answered, more loudly than usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the man&rsquo;s dark, concrete form. &ldquo;Spadevil,
+      now I mean to follow you to the end. I can do nothing less.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The severe face showed no sign of gratification&mdash;not a muscle
+      relaxed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watch that you don&rsquo;t lose your gift,&rdquo; he said gruffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin spoke. &ldquo;You promised that I should enter Sant with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attach yourself to the truth, not to me. For I may die before you,
+      but the truth will accompany you to <i>your</i> death. However, now let us
+      journey together, all three of us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the fine,
+      driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination. He walked with a
+      long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order to keep up with him.
+      The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the middle. The fog was so dense
+      that it was impossible to see a hundred yards ahead. The ground was
+      covered by the green snow. The wind blew in gusts from the Sant highlands
+      and was piercingly cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He that is not more than a man is nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you now come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From brooding, Maskull. Out of no other mother can truth be born. I
+      have brooded, and rejected; and I have brooded again. Now, after many
+      months&rsquo; absence from Sant, the truth at last shines forth for me in
+      its simple splendour, like an upturned diamond.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see its shining,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But how much does it
+      owe to ancient Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowledge has its seasons. The blossom was to Hator, the fruit is
+      to me. Hator also was a brooder&mdash;but now his followers do not brood.
+      In Sant all is icy selfishness, a living death. They hate pleasure, and
+      this hatred is the greatest pleasure to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in what way have they fallen off from Hator&rsquo;s doctrines?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For him, in his sullen purity of nature, all the world was a snare,
+      a limed twig. Knowing that pleasure was everywhere, a fierce, mocking
+      enemy, crouching and waiting at every corner of the road of life, in order
+      to kill with its sweet sting the naked grandeur of the soul, he shielded
+      himself behind <i>pain</i>. This also his followers do, but they do not do
+      it for the sake of the soul, but for the sake of vanity and pride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the Trifork?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stem, Maskull, is hatred of pleasure. The first fork is
+      disentanglement from the sweetness of the world. The second fork is power
+      over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion. The third fork is the
+      healthy glow of one who steps into ice-cold water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From what land did Hator come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not said. He lived in Ifdawn for a while. There are many
+      legends told of him while there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a long way to go,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Relate some
+      of these legends, Spadevil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snow had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell reappeared like a
+      phantom sun, but bitter blasts of wind still swept over the plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those days,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;there existed in Ifdawn
+      a mountain island separated by wide spaces from the land around it. A
+      handsome girl, who knew sorcery, caused a bridge to be constructed across
+      which men and women might pass to it. Having by a false tale drawn Hator
+      on to this rock, she pushed at the bridge with her foot until it tumbled
+      into the depths below. &lsquo;You and I, Hator, are now together, and
+      there is no means of separating. I wish to see how long the famous frost
+      man can withstand the breath, smiles and perfume of a girl.&rsquo; Hator
+      said no word, either then or all that day. He stood till sunset like a
+      tree trunk, and thought of other things. Then the girl grew passionate,
+      and shook her curls. She rose from where she was sitting she looked at
+      him, and touched his arm; but he did not see her. She looked at him, so
+      that all the soul was in her eyes; and then she fell down dead. Hator
+      awoke from his thoughts, and saw her lying, still warm, at his feet, a
+      corpse. He passed to the mainland; but how, it is not related.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shuddered. &ldquo;You too have met your wicked woman, Spadevil;
+      but your method is a nobler one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pity other women,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;but love
+      the <i>right</i>. Hator also once conversed with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of the World?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of Pleasure. It is told how Shaping defended his
+      world, and tried to force Hator to acknowledge loveliness and joy. But
+      Hator, answering all his marvellous speeches in a few concise, iron words,
+      showed how this joy and beauty was but another name for the bestiality of
+      souls wallowing in luxury and sloth. Shaping smiled, and said, &lsquo;How
+      comes it that your wisdom is greater than that of the Master of wisdom?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;My wisdom does not come from you, nor from your world,
+      but from that other world, which you, Shaping, have vainly tried to
+      imitate.&rsquo; Shaping replied, &lsquo;What, then, do you do in my world?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;I am here falsely, and therefore I am subject to your
+      false pleasures. But I wrap myself in <i>pain</i>&mdash;not because it is
+      good, but because I wish to keep myself as far from you as possible. For
+      pain is not yours, neither does it belong to the other world, but it is
+      the shadow cast by your false pleasures.&rsquo; Shaping then said, &lsquo;What
+      is this faraway other world of which you say &ldquo;This is so&mdash;this
+      is not so?&rdquo; How happens it that you alone of all my creatures have
+      knowledge of it?&rsquo; But Hator spat at his feet, and said, &lsquo;You
+      lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You, with your pretty toys, alone
+      obscure it from our view.&rsquo; Shaping asked, &lsquo;What, then, am I?&rsquo;
+      Hator answered, &lsquo;You are the dreamer of impossible dreams.&rsquo;
+      And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased with what had
+      been said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What other world did Hator refer to?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is
+      mean and corrupt-natured.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guard you your pride!&rdquo; returned Spadevil. &ldquo;Do not make
+      law for the universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this
+      small, false life of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?&rdquo;
+      asked Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last
+      hour. When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he determined
+      to destroy himself. He gathered his friends around him; not from vanity,
+      but that they might see to what lengths the human soul can go in its
+      perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body. Standing erect, without
+      support, he died by withholding his breath.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour. Their minds refused
+      to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their thoughts became
+      frozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued power,
+      Maskull&rsquo;s curiosity rose once more. &ldquo;Your fellow countrymen,
+      then, Spadevil, are sick with self-love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men of other countries,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;are the
+      slaves of pleasure and desire, knowing it. But the men of my country are
+      the slaves of pleasure and desire, not knowing it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has
+      something noble in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who studies himself at all is ignoble. Only by despising soul as
+      well as body can a man enter into true life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On what grounds do they reject women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself.
+      Love for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore injurious to
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;But will they allow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil knows, Maskull,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;that be it
+      today or be it tomorrow, love can&rsquo;t be kept out of a land, even by
+      the disciples of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beware of love&mdash;beware of emotion!&rdquo; exclaimed Spadevil.
+      &ldquo;Love is but pleasure once removed. Think not of pleasing others,
+      but of serving them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Right</i> has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you
+      are a woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where there are no women, there are no children,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;How came there to be all these generations of Hator men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the
+      yearning for relief from suffering. Men throng to Sant from all parts, in
+      order to have the scars of their souls healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what
+      simple formula do you offer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iron obedience to duty,&rdquo; answered Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if they ask &lsquo;How far is this consistent with hatred of
+      pleasure?&rsquo; what will your pronouncement be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the
+      question. Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark fires
+      of self. Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one side, calm and
+      undisturbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the criterion of pleasure? How can we always recognise it,
+      in order to avoid it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fearful doubts are in my mind,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;This
+      expedition to Sant may turn out badly. I have seen a vision of you,
+      Spadevil, and myself lying dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not
+      there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others
+      will raise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me a sign that you are not as other men&mdash;so that I may
+      know that our blood will not be wasted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil regarded her sternly. &ldquo;I am not a magician. I don&rsquo;t
+      persuade the senses, but the soul. Does your duty call you to Sant,
+      Tydomin? Then go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther.
+      Is not this simple? What signs are necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning? No common man
+      could have done that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man
+      can do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their
+      eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my life. Will
+      you not still accompany me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;I will follow you to the end. It
+      is all the more essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my
+      remarks, and that means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we
+      are thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be
+      planning or shaping in our mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why was Maskull not in the picture?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical.
+      There is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life. There is only
+      right and wrong. What arises from right or wrong action does not matter.
+      We are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men and women, doing our
+      immediate duty. We may die in Sant&mdash;so you have seen it; but the
+      truth will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull. &ldquo;These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least
+      likely of any to follow a new light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no
+      tree at all can be found, nothing will grow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Here perhaps we are
+      going to martyrdom, but elsewhere we should resemble men preaching to
+      cattle.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before sunset they arrived at the extremity of the upland plain,
+      above which towered the black cliffs of the Sant Levels. A dizzy,
+      artificially constructed staircase, of more than a thousand steps of
+      varying depth, twisting and forking in order to conform to the angles of
+      the precipices, led to the world overhead. In the place where they stood
+      they were sheltered from the cutting winds. Branchspell, radiantly shining
+      at last, but on the point of sinking, filled the cloudy sky with violent,
+      lurid colors, some of the combinations of which were new to Maskull. The
+      circle of the horizon was so gigantic, that had he been suddenly carried
+      back to Earth, he would by comparison have fancied himself to be moving
+      beneath the dome of some little, closed-in cathedral. He realised that he
+      was on a foreign planet. But he was not stirred or uplifted by the
+      knowledge; he was conscious only of moral ideas. Looking backward, he saw
+      the plain, which for several miles past had been without vegetation,
+      stretching back away to Disscourn. So regular had been the ascent, and so
+      great was the distance, that the huge pyramid looked nothing more than a
+      slight swelling on the face of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence. In the evening
+      sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever before. His
+      features were set hard in grimness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned around to his companions. &ldquo;What is the greatest wonder, in
+      all this wonderful scene?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Acquaint us,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure
+      to pleasure. Nowhere is <i>right</i> to be found. It is Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is another wonder,&rdquo; said Tydomin, and she pointed her
+      finger toward the sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small cloud, so low down that it was perhaps not more than five hundred
+      feet above them, was sailing along in front of the dark wall of cliff. It
+      was in the exact shape of an open human hand, with downward-pointing
+      fingers. It was stained crimson by the sun; and one or two tiny cloudlets
+      beneath the fingers looked like falling drops of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can doubt now that our death is close at hand?&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin. &ldquo;I have been close to death twice today. The first time I
+      was ready, but now I am more ready, for I shall die side by side with the
+      man who has given me my first happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not think of death, but of right persistence,&rdquo; replied
+      Spadevil. &ldquo;I am not here to tremble before Shaping&rsquo;s portents;
+      but to snatch men from him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at once proceeded to lead the way up the staircase. Tydomin gazed
+      upward after him for a moment, with an odd, worshiping light in her eyes.
+      Then she followed him, the second of the party. Maskull climbed last. He
+      was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but his soul was at peace. As
+      they steadily ascended the almost perpendicular stairs, the sun got higher
+      in the sky. Its light dyed their bodies a ruddy gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gained the top. There they found rolling in front of them, as far as
+      the eye could see, a barren desert of white sand, broken here and there by
+      large, jagged masses of black rock. Tracts of the sand were reddened by
+      the sinking sun. The vast expanse of sky was filled by evil-shaped clouds
+      and wild colors. The freezing wind, flurrying across the desert, drove the
+      fine particles of sand painfully against their faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where now do you take us?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who guards the old wisdom of Sant must give up that wisdom to
+      me, that I may change it. What he says, others will say. I go to find
+      Maulger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where will you seek him, in this bare country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil struck off toward the north unhesitatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so far,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is his custom to be in
+      that part where Sant overhangs the Wombflash Forest. Perhaps he will be
+      there, but I cannot say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced toward Tydomin. Her sunken cheeks, and the dark circles
+      beneath her eyes told of her extreme weariness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The woman is tired, Spadevil,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s but another step into the land of death. I
+      can manage it. Give me your arm, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun is now sinking,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Will we get
+      there before dark?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is eating up the evil
+      in your nature. The road you are walking cannot remain unwalked. We shall
+      arrive before dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun then disappeared behind the far-distant ridges that formed the
+      western boundary of the Ifdawn Marest. The sky blazed up into more vivid
+      colors. The wind grew colder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed some pools of colourless gnawl water, round the banks of which
+      were planted fruit trees. Maskull ate some of the fruit. It was hard,
+      bitter, and astringent; he could not get rid of the taste, but he felt
+      braced and invigorated by the downward-flowing juices. No other trees or
+      shrubs were to be seen anywhere. No animals appeared, no birds or insects.
+      It was a desolate land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mile or two passed, when they again approached the edge of the plateau.
+      Far down, beneath their feet, the great Wombflash Forest began. But
+      daylight had vanished there; Maskull&rsquo;s eyes rested only on a vague
+      darkness. He faintly heard what sounded like the distant sighing of
+      innumerable treetops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the rapidly darkening twilight, they came abruptly on a man. He was
+      standing in a pool, on one leg. A pile of boulders had hidden him from
+      their view. The water came as far up as his calf. A trifork, similar to
+      the one Maskull had seen on Disscourn, but smaller, had been stuck in the
+      mud close by his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped by the side of the pond, and waited. Immediately he became
+      aware of their presence, the man set down his other leg, and waded out of
+      the water toward them, picking up his trifork in doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not Maulger, but Catice,&rdquo; said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maulger is dead,&rdquo; said Catice, speaking the same tongue as
+      Spadevil, but with an even harsher accent, so that the tympanum of Maskull&rsquo;s
+      ear was affected painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter saw before him a bowed, powerful individual, advanced in years.
+      He wore nothing but a scanty loincloth. His trunk was long and heavy, but
+      his legs were rather short. His face was beardless, lemon-coloured, and
+      anxious-looking. It was disfigured by a number of longitudinal ruts, a
+      quarter of an inch deep, the cavities of which seemed clogged with ancient
+      dirt. The hair of his head was black and sparse. Instead of the twin
+      membranous organs of Spadevil, he possessed but one; and this was in the
+      centre of his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s dark, solid person stood out from the rest like a reality
+      among dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the trifork passed to you?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Why have you brought this woman to Sant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought another thing to Sant. I have brought the new faith.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice stood motionless, and looked troubled. &ldquo;State it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I speak with many words, or few words?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish to say what is <i>not</i>, many words will not suffice.
+      If you wish to say what is, a few words will be enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hate pleasure brings pride with it. Pride is a pleasure. To kill
+      pleasure, we must attach ourselves to <i>duty</i>. While the mind is
+      planning right action, it has no time to think of pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the whole?&rdquo; asked Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth is simple, even for the simplest man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you destroy Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I destroy nature, and set up law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long silence followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My probe is double,&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Suffer me to
+      double yours, and you will see as I see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come you here, you big man!&rdquo; said Catice to Maskull. Maskull
+      advanced a step closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you follow Spadevil in his new faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as death,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice picked up a flint. &ldquo;With this stone I strike out one of your
+      two probes. When you have but one, you will see with me, and you will
+      recollect with Spadevil. Choose you then the superior faith, and I shall
+      obey your choice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the sake of future men,&rdquo;
+      said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pain is nothing,&rdquo; replied Maskull, &ldquo;but I fear the
+      result.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,&rdquo;
+      said Tydomin, stretching out her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He struck at it violently with the flint, and gashed it from wrist to
+      thumb; the pale carmine blood spouted up. &ldquo;What brings this
+      kiss-lover to Sant?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How does she presume to make
+      the rules of life for the sons of Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bit her lip, and stepped back. &ldquo;Well then, Maskull, accept! I
+      certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you hardly can.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he bids me, I must do it,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      knows what will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil spoke. &ldquo;Of all the descendants of Hator, Catice is the most
+      wholehearted and sincere. He will trample my truth underfoot, thinking me
+      a demon sent by Shaping, to destroy the work of this land. But a seed will
+      escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will wash it. Then men will know
+      that my destroying evil is their greatest good. But none here will live to
+      see that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now went quite close to Catice, and offered his head. Catice
+      raised his hand, and after holding the flint poised for a moment, brought
+      it down with adroitness and force upon the left-hand probe. Maskull cried
+      out with the pain. The blood streamed down, and the function of the organ
+      was destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to staunch the
+      blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now do you feel, Maskull? What do you see?&rdquo; inquired
+      Tydomin anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and stared hard at her. &ldquo;I now see straight,&rdquo; he
+      said slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to wipe the blood from his forehead. He looked troubled.
+      &ldquo;Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall fight with my nature, and
+      refuse to feel pleasure. And I advise you to do the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;Do you renounce my teaching?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay. Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      image-like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face he
+      knew to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is false.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?&rdquo; demanded
+      Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t argue as yet,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;At this
+      moment the world with its sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house. I
+      feel a loathing for everything in it, including myself. I know no more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no duty?&rdquo; asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of
+      other people.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin pulled at Spadevil&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;Maskull has betrayed you,
+      as he has so many others. Let us go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood fast. &ldquo;You have changed quickly, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice. &ldquo;Why do men go on
+      living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pain is the native air of Surtur&rsquo;s children. To what other
+      air do you wish to escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s children? Is not Surtur Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the greatest of lies. It is Shaping&rsquo;s masterpiece.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer, Maskull!&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Do you repudiate
+      right action?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me alone. Go back! I am not thinking of you, and your ideas.
+      I wish you no harm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness came on fast. There was another prolonged silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff. &ldquo;The woman
+      must return home,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was persuaded here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil,
+      must die&mdash;backslider as you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin said quietly, &ldquo;He has no power to enforce this. Are you
+      going to allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from
+      death. Catice, I accept your judgment.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today,
+      so I shall die with him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice said to Maskull, &ldquo;Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his
+      mistress, according to the laws of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t do that. I have travelled in friendship with them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You denied duty; and now you must do your duty,&rdquo; said
+      Spadevil, calmly stroking his beard. &ldquo;Whatever law you accept, you
+      must obey, without turning to right or left. Your law commands that we
+      must be stoned; and it will soon be dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you not even this amount of manhood?&rdquo; exclaimed Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull moved heavily. &ldquo;Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was
+      forced on me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator is looking on, and approving,&rdquo; replied Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side of
+      the pool. He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments of rock,
+      the heaviest that he thought he could carry. With these in his arms, he
+      staggered back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath. When he
+      could speak again, he said, &ldquo;I have a bad heart for the business. Is
+      there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning go
+      back to where you have come from. No one shall harm you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s ironic smile was lost in the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after
+      that come back to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose
+      the heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces. Spadevil
+      confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The huge stone hurtled through the air. Its flight looked like a dark
+      shadow. It struck Spadevil full in the face, crushing his features, and
+      breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be very quick, Maskull, and don&rsquo;t let me keep him waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He panted, and raised the second stone. She placed herself in front of
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell. Maskull went to
+      her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There she
+      breathed out her last sighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands, while
+      he peered into the dead face. The transition from its heroic, spiritual
+      expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman came like a
+      flash; but he saw it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the true likeness of Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Shaping stripped of illusion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How comes this horrible world to exist?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice did not answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am wading through too much blood,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Nothing
+      good can come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull meditated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you
+      really have accepted his faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a great-souled man,&rdquo; replied Catice. &ldquo;I see that
+      the pride of our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure. Tomorrow I
+      too shall leave Sant, to reflect on all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shuddered. &ldquo;Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but
+      a crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His part was played and henceforward the woman would have dragged
+      down his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty. Regret nothing, stranger,
+      but go away at once out of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight? Where shall I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Wombflash, where you will meet the deepest minds. I will put you
+      on the way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He linked his arm in Maskull&rsquo;s, and they walked away into the night.
+      For a mile or more they skirted the edge of the precipice. The wind was
+      searching, and drove grit into their faces. Through the rifts of the
+      clouds, stars, faint and brilliant, appeared. Maskull saw no familiar
+      constellations. He wondered if the sun of earth was visible, and if so
+      which one it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the head of a rough staircase, leading down the cliffside. It
+      resembled the one by which he had come up; but this descended to the
+      Wombflash Forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your path,&rdquo; said Catice, &ldquo;and I shall not come
+      any farther.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull detained him. &ldquo;Say just this, before we part company&mdash;why
+      does pleasure appear so shameful to us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because in feeling pleasure, we forget our <i>home</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that is&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel,&rdquo; answered Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made this reply, he disengaged himself, and, turning his back,
+      disappeared into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stumbled down the staircase as best he could. He was tired, but
+      contemptuous of his pains. His uninjured probe began to discharge matter.
+      He lowered himself from step to step during what seemed an interminable
+      time. The rustling and sighing of the trees grew louder as he approached
+      the bottom; the air became still and warm. Inky blackness was all around
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at last reached level ground. Still attempting to proceed, he began to
+      trip over roots, and to collide with tree trunks. After this had happened
+      a few times, he determined to go no farther that night. He heaped together
+      some dry leaves for a pillow, and immediately flung himself down to sleep.
+      Deep and heavy unconsciousness seized him almost instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      He awoke to his third day on Tormance. His limbs ached. He lay on his
+      side, looking stupidly at his surroundings. The forest was like night, but
+      that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to break and objects
+      begin to be guessed at, rather than seen. Two or three amazing shadowy
+      shapes, as broad as houses, loomed up out of the twilight. He did not
+      realise that they were trees, until he turned over on his back and
+      followed their course upward. Far overhead, so high up that he dared not
+      calculate the height, he saw their tops glittering in the sunlight,
+      against a tiny patch of blue sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clouds of mist, rolling over the floor of the forest, kept interrupting
+      his view. In their silent passage they were like phantoms flitting among
+      the trees. The leaves underneath him were sodden, and heavy drops of
+      moisture splashed onto his head from time to time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued lying there, trying to reconstruct the events of the
+      preceding day. His brain was lethargic and confused. Something terrible
+      had happened, but what it was he could not for a long time recollect. Then
+      suddenly there came before his eyes that ghastly closing scene at dusk on
+      the Sant plateau&mdash;Spadevil&rsquo;s crushed and bloody features and
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s dying sighs.... He shuddered convulsively, and felt sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peculiar moral outlook that had dictated these brutal murders had
+      departed from him during the night, and now he recognised what he had
+      done! During the whole of the previous day he seemed to have been
+      labouring under a series of heavy enchantments. First Oceaxe had enslaved
+      him, then Tydomin, then Spadevil, and lastly Catice. They had forced him
+      to murder and violate; he had guessed nothing, but had imagined that he
+      was travelling as a free and enlightened stranger. What was this nightmare
+      journey for&mdash;and would it continue, in the same way?...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The silence of the forest was so intense that he heard no sound except the
+      pumping of blood through his arteries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Putting his hand to his face, he found that his remaining probe had
+      disappeared and that he was in possession of three eyes. The third eye was
+      on his forehead, where the old sorb had been. He could not guess its use.
+      He still had his third arm, but it was nerveless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he puzzled his head for a long time, trying unsuccessfully to recall
+      that name which had been the last word spoken by Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, with the intention of resuming his journey. He had no toilet to
+      make, and no meal to prepare. The forest was tremendous. The nearest tree
+      appeared to him to have a circumference of at least a hundred feet. Other
+      dim boles looked equally large. But what gave the scene its aspect of
+      immensity was the vast spaces separating tree from tree. It was like some
+      gigantic, supernatural hall in a life after death. The lowest branches
+      were fifty yards or more from the ground. There was no underbrush; the
+      soil was carpeted only by the dead, wet leaves. He looked all around him,
+      to find his direction, but the cliffs of Sant, which he had descended,
+      were invisible&mdash;every way was like every other way, he had no idea
+      which quarter to attack. He grew frightened, and muttered to himself.
+      Craning his neck back, he stared upward and tried to discover the points
+      of the compass from the direction of the sunlight, but it was impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the drum
+      taps. The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off. The unseen
+      drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur!&rdquo; he said, under his breath. The next moment he
+      marvelled at himself for uttering the name. That mysterious being had not
+      been in his thoughts, nor was there any ostensible connection between him
+      and the drumming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He began to reflect&mdash;but in the meantime the sounds were travelling
+      away. Automatically he started walking in the same direction. The drum
+      beats had this peculiarity&mdash;though odd and mystical, there was
+      nothing awe-inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him of
+      some place and some life with which he was perfectly familiar. Once again
+      they caused all his other sense impressions to appear false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sounds were intermittent. They would go on for a minute, or for five
+      minutes, and then cease for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Maskull followed
+      them as well as he could. He walked hard among the huge, indistinct trees,
+      in the attempt to come up with the origin of the noise, but the same
+      distance always seemed to separate them. The forest from now onward
+      descended. The gradient was mostly gentle&mdash;about one foot in ten&mdash;but
+      in some places it was much steeper, and in other parts again it was
+      practically level ground for quite long stretches. There were great swampy
+      marshes, through which Maskull was obliged to splash. It was a matter of
+      indifference to him how wet he became&mdash;if only he could catch sight
+      of that individual with the drum. Mile after mile was covered, and still
+      he was no nearer to doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gloom of the forest settled down upon his spirits. He felt despondent,
+      tired, and savage. He had not heard the drum beats for some while, and was
+      half inclined to discontinue the pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passing around a great, columnar tree trunk, he almost stumbled against a
+      man who was standing on the farther side. He was leaning against the trunk
+      with one hand, in an attitude of repose. His other hand was resting on a
+      staff. Maskull stopped short and stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was nearly naked, and of gigantic build. He over-topped Maskull by a
+      head. His face and body were faintly phosphorescent. His eyes&mdash;three
+      in number&mdash;were pale green and luminous, shining like lamps. His skin
+      was hairless, but the hair of his head was piled up in thick, black coils,
+      and fastened like a woman&rsquo;s. His features were absolutely tranquil,
+      but a terrible, quiet energy seemed to lie just underneath the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Did the drumming come from you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied in a strange, strained, twisted voice. Maskull gathered that
+      the name he gave was &ldquo;Dreamsinter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it advisable for me to follow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he intends me to. He brought me here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face.
+      &ldquo;Not you, but Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first time that Maskull had heard Nightspore&rsquo;s name
+      since his arrival on the planet. He was so astonished that he could frame
+      no more questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat this,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter. &ldquo;Then we will chase the
+      sound together.&rdquo; He picked something up from the ground and handed
+      it to Maskull. He could not see distinctly, but it felt like a hard, round
+      nut, of the size of a fist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t crack it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter took it between his hands, and broke it into pieces. Maskull
+      then ate some of the pulpy interior, which was intensely disagreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I doing in Tormance, then?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came to steal Muspel-fire, to give a deeper life to men&mdash;never
+      doubting if your soul could endure that burning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could hardly decipher the strangled words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel.... That&rsquo;s the name I&rsquo;ve been trying to remember
+      ever since I awoke.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter suddenly turned his head sideways, and appeared to listen for
+      something. He motioned with his hand to Maskull to keep quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it the drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! They come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was looking toward the upper forest. The now familiar drum rhythm was
+      heard&mdash;this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them, three men
+      in single file separated from one another by only a yard or so. They were
+      travelling down hill at a swift pace, and looked neither to left nor
+      right. They were naked. Their figures were shining against the black
+      background of the forest with a pale, supernatural light&mdash;green and
+      ghostly. When they were abreast of him, about twenty feet off, he
+      perceived who they were. The first man was himself&mdash;Maskull. The
+      second was Krag. The third man was Nightspore. Their faces were grim and
+      set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The source of the drumming was out of sight. The sound appeared to come
+      from some point in front of them. Maskull and Dreamsinter put themselves
+      in motion, to keep up with the swiftly moving marchers. At the same time a
+      low, faint music began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats, but, unlike the latter, it did not
+      seem to proceed from any particular quarter of the forest. It resembled
+      the subjective music heard in dreams, which accompanies the dreamer
+      everywhere, as a sort of natural atmosphere, rendering all his experiences
+      emotional. It seemed to issue from an unearthly orchestra, and was
+      strongly troubled, pathetic and tragic. Maskull marched, and listened; and
+      as he listened, it grew louder and stormier. But the pulse of the drum
+      interpenetrated all the other sounds, like the quiet beating of reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His emotion deepened. He could not have said if minutes or hours were
+      passing. The spectral procession marched on, a little way ahead, on a path
+      parallel with his own and Dreamsinter&rsquo;s. The music pulsated
+      violently. Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long, murderous-looking
+      knife. He sprang forward and, raising it over the phantom Maskull&rsquo;s
+      back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the wound the second time.
+      Maskull threw up his arms, and fell down dead. Krag leaped into the forest
+      and vanished from sight. Nightspore marched on alone, stern and unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The music rose to crescendo. The whole dim, gigantic forest was roaring
+      with sound. The tones came from all sides, from above, from the ground
+      under their feet. It was so grandly passionate that Maskull felt his soul
+      loosening from its bodily envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to follow Nightspore. A strange brightness began to glow in
+      front of them. It was not daylight, but a radiance such as he had never
+      seen before, and such as he could not have imagined to be possible.
+      Nightspore moved straight toward it. Maskull felt his chest bursting. The
+      light flashed higher. The awful harmonies of the music followed hard one
+      upon another, like the waves of a wild, magic ocean.... His body was
+      incapable of enduring such shocks, and all of a sudden he tumbled over in
+      a faint that resembled death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 14. POLECRAB
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The morning slowly passed. Maskull made some convulsive movements, and
+      opened his eyes. He sat up, blinking. All was night-like and silent in the
+      forest. The strange light had gone, the music had ceased, Dreamsinter had
+      vanished. He fingered his beard, clotted with Tydomin&rsquo;s blood, and
+      fell into a deep muse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to Panawe and Catice, this forest contains wise men.
+      Perhaps Dreamsinter was one. Perhaps that vision I have just seen was a
+      specimen of his wisdom. It looked almost like an answer to my question....
+      I ought not to have asked about myself, but about Surtur. Then I would
+      have got a different answer. I might have learned something... I might
+      have seen <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained quiet and apathetic for a bit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I couldn&rsquo;t face that awful glare,&rdquo; he proceeded.
+      &ldquo;It was bursting my body. He warned me, too. And so Surtur does
+      really exist, and my journey stands for something. But why am I here, and
+      what can I do? Who <i>is</i> Surtur? Where is he to be found?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something wild came into his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did Dreamsinter mean by his &lsquo;Not you, but Nightspore&rsquo;?
+      Am I a secondary character&mdash;is he regarded as important; and I as
+      unimportant? Where is Nightspore, and what is he doing? Am I to wait for
+      his time and pleasure&mdash;can I originate nothing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued sitting up, with straight-extended legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must make up my mind that this is a strange journey, and that the
+      strangest things will happen in it. It&rsquo;s no use making plans, for I
+      can&rsquo;t see two steps ahead&mdash;everything is unknown. But one thing&rsquo;s
+      evident: nothing but the wildest audacity will carry me through, and I
+      must sacrifice everything else to that. And therefore if Surtur shows
+      himself again, I shall go forward to meet him, even if it means death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the black, quiet aisles of the forest the drum beats came again.
+      The sound was a long way off and very faint. It was like the last
+      mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm. Maskull listened, without
+      getting up. The drumming faded into silence, and did not return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled queerly, and said aloud, &ldquo;Thanks, Surtur! I accept the
+      omen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was about to get up, he found that the shrivelled skin that had
+      been his third arm was flapping disconcertingly with every movement of his
+      body. He made perforations in it all around, as close to his chest as
+      possible, with the fingernails of both hands; then he carefully twisted it
+      off. In that world of rapid growth and ungrowth he judged that the stump
+      would soon disappear. After that, he rose and peered into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest at that point sloped rather steeply and, without thinking twice
+      about it, he took the downhill direction, never doubting it would bring
+      him somewhere. As soon as he started walking, his temper became gloomy and
+      morose&mdash;he was shaken, tired, dirty, and languid with hunger;
+      moreover, he realised that the walk was not going to be a short one. Be
+      that as it may, he determined to sit down no more until the whole dismal
+      forest was at his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One after another the shadowy, houselike trees were observed, avoided, and
+      passed. Far overhead the little patch of glowing sky was still always
+      visible; otherwise he had no clue to the time of day. He continued
+      tramping sullenly down the slope for many damp, slippery miles&mdash;in
+      some places through bogs. When, presently, the twilight seemed to thin, he
+      guessed that the open world was not far away. The forest grew more
+      palpable and grey, and now he saw its majesty better. The tree trunks were
+      like round towers, and so wide were the intervals that they resembled
+      natural amphitheatres. He could not make out the colour of the bark.
+      Everything he saw amazed him, but his admiration was of the growling,
+      grudging kind. The difference in light between the forest behind him and
+      the forest ahead became so marked that he could no longer doubt that he
+      was on the point of coming out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Real light was in front of him; looking back, he found he had a shadow.
+      The trunks acquired a reddish tint. He quickened his pace. As the minutes
+      went by, the bright patch ahead grew luminous and vivid; it had a tinge of
+      blue. He also imagined that he heard the sound of surf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that part of the forest toward which he was moving became rich with
+      colour. The boles of the trees were of a deep, dark red; their leaves,
+      high above his head, were ulfire-hued; the dead leaves on the ground were
+      of a colour he could not name. At the same time he discovered the use of
+      his third eye. By adding a third angle to his sight, every object he
+      looked at stood out in greater relief. The world looked less <i>flat</i>&mdash;more
+      realistic and significant. He had a stronger attraction toward his
+      surroundings; he seemed somehow to lose his egotism, and to become free
+      and thoughtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now through the last trees he saw full daylight. Less than half a mile
+      separated him from the border of the forest, and, eager to discover what
+      lay beyond, he broke into a run. He heard the surf louder. It was a
+      peculiar hissing sound that could proceed only from water, yet was unlike
+      the sea. Almost immediately he came within sight of an enormous horizon of
+      dancing waves, which he knew must be the Sinking Sea. He fell back into a
+      quick walk, continuing to stare hard. The wind that met him was hot, fresh
+      and sweet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the final fringe of forest, which joined the wide sands
+      of the shore without any change of level, he leaned with his back to a
+      great tree and gazed his fill, motionless, at what lay in front of him.
+      The sands continued east and west in a straight line, broken only here and
+      there by a few creeks. They were of a brilliant orange colour, but there
+      were patches of violet. The forest appeared to stand sentinel over the
+      shore for its entire length. Everything else was sea and sky&mdash;he had
+      never seen so much water. The semicircle of the skyline was so vast that
+      he might have imagined himself on a flat world, with a range of vision
+      determined only by the power of his eye. The sea was unlike any sea on
+      Earth. It resembled an immense liquid opal. On a body colour of rich,
+      magnificent emerald-green, flashes of red, yellow, and blue were
+      everywhere shooting up and vanishing. The wave motion was extraordinary.
+      Pinnacles of water were slowly formed until they attained a height of
+      perhaps ten or twenty feet, when they would suddenly sink downward and
+      outward, creating in their descent a series of concentric rings for long
+      distances around them. Quickly moving currents, like rivers in the sea,
+      could be seen, racing away from land; they were of a darker green and bore
+      no pinnacles. Where the sea met the shore, the waves rushed over the sands
+      far in, with almost sinister rapidity&mdash;accompanied by a weird,
+      hissing, spitting sound, which was what Maskull had heard. The green
+      tongues rolled in without foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About twenty miles distant, as he judged, directly opposite him, a long,
+      low island stood up from the sea, black and not distinguished in outline.
+      It was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. Maskull was less interested in that than
+      in the blue sunset that glowed behind its back. Alppain had set, but the
+      whole northern sky was plunged into the minor key by its afterlight.
+      Branchspell in the zenith was white and overpowering, the day was
+      cloudless and terrifically hot; but where the blue sun had sunk, a sombre
+      shadow seemed to overhang the world. Maskull had a feeling of
+      disintegration&mdash;just as if two chemically distinct forces were
+      simultaneously acting upon the cells of his body. Since the afterglow of
+      Alppain affected him like this, he thought it more than likely that he
+      would never be able to face that sun itself, and go on living. Still, some
+      modification might happen to him that would make it possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea tempted him. He made up his mind to bathe, and at once walked
+      toward the shore. The instant he stepped outside the shadow line of the
+      forest trees, the blinding rays of the sun beat down on him so savagely
+      that for a few minutes he felt sick and his head swam. He trod quickly
+      across the sands. The orange-coloured parts were nearly hot enough to
+      roast food, he judged, but the violet parts were like fire itself. He
+      stepped on a patch in ignorance, and immediately jumped high into the air
+      with a startled yell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was voluptuously warm. It would not bear his weight, so he
+      determined to try swimming. First of all he stripped off his skin garment,
+      washed it thoroughly with sand and water, and laid it in the sun to dry.
+      Then he scrubbed himself as well as he could and washed out his beard and
+      hair. After that, he waded in a long way, until the water reached his
+      breast, and took to swimming&mdash;avoiding the spouts as far as possible
+      He found it no pastime. The water was everywhere of unequal density. In
+      some places he could swim, in others he could barely save himself from
+      drowning, in others again he could not force himself beneath the surface
+      at all. There were no outward signs to show what the water ahead held in
+      store for him. The whole business was most dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came out, feeling clean and invigorated. For a time he walked up and
+      down the sands, drying himself in the hot sunshine and looking around him.
+      He was a naked stranger in a huge, foreign, mystical world, and whichever
+      way he turned, unknown and threatening forces were glaring at him. The
+      gigantic, white, withering Branchspell, the awful, body-changing Alppain,
+      the beautiful, deadly, treacherous sea, the dark and eerie Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island, the spirit-crushing forest out of which he had just escaped&mdash;to
+      all these mighty powers, surrounding him on every side, what resources had
+      he, a feeble, ignorant traveller from a tiny planet on the other side of
+      space, to oppose, to avoid being utterly destroyed?... Then he smiled to
+      himself. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already been here two days, and still I
+      survive. I have luck&mdash;and with that one can balance the universe. But
+      what is luck&mdash;a verbal expression, or a thing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he was putting on his skin, which was now dry, the answer came to him,
+      and this time he was grave. &ldquo;Surtur brought me here, and Surtur is
+      watching over me. That is my &lsquo;luck.&rsquo;... But what is Surtur in
+      this world?... How is he able to protect me against the blind and
+      ungovernable forces of nature? Is he stronger than Nature?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hungry as he was for food, he was hungrier still for human society, for he
+      wished to inquire about all these things. He asked himself which way he
+      should turn his steps. There were only two ways; along the shore, either
+      east or west. The nearest creek lay to the east, cutting the sands about a
+      mile away. He walked toward it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest face was forbidding and enormously high. It was so squarely
+      turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been planed by tools.
+      Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but kept his head
+      constantly turned away from them, toward the sea&mdash;there it was more
+      cheerful. The creek, when he reached it, proved to be broad and
+      flat-banked. It was not a river, but an arm of the sea. Its still, dark
+      green water curved around a bend out of sight, into the forest. The trees
+      on both banks overhung the water, so that it was completely in shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach appeared. A
+      man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet in the water. He
+      was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his limbs bare. He was
+      short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a long, powerful arms,
+      terminating in hands of an extraordinary size. He was oldish. His face was
+      plain, slablike, and expressionless; it was full of wrinkles, and
+      walnut-coloured. Both face and head were bald, and his skin was tough and
+      leathery. He seemed to be some sort of peasant, or fisherman; there was no
+      trace in his face of thought for others, or delicacy of feeling. He
+      possessed three eyes, of different colors&mdash;jade-green, blue, and
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
+      elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Are you another of the wise men of the
+      Wombflash Forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did so.
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman. I know nothing about wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name do you go by?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Polecrab. What&rsquo;s yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull. If you&rsquo;re a fisherman, you ought to have fish. I&rsquo;m
+      famishing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s fish enough. My dinner is cooking in the sands now.
+      It&rsquo;s easy enough to get you some more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found this a pleasant speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how long will it take?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
+      screeching noise. He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered onto
+      the bank. In a minute or two a curious little beast came crawling up to
+      his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately, like a dog. It was
+      about two feet long, and somewhat resembled a small seal, but had six
+      legs, ending in strong claws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arg, go fish!&rdquo; said Polecrab hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The animal immediately tumbled off the bank into the water. It swam
+      gracefully to the middle of the creek and made a pivotal dive beneath the
+      surface, where it remained a great while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simple fishing,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the raft for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To go to sea with. The best fish are out at sea. These are eatable.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That arg seems a highly intelligent creature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted again. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve trained close on a hundred of
+      them. The bigheads learn best, but they&rsquo;re slow swimmers. The
+      narrowheads swim like eels, but can&rsquo;t be taught. Now I&rsquo;ve
+      started interbreeding them&mdash;<i>he&rsquo;s</i> one of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ve got a wife and three boys. My wife&rsquo;s sleeping
+      somewhere, but where the lads are, Shaping knows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull began to feel very much at home with this unsophisticated being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The raft&rsquo;s all crazy,&rdquo; he remarked, staring at it.
+      &ldquo;If you go far out in that, you&rsquo;ve got more pluck than I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay on it,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arg reappeared and started swimming to shore, but this time clumsily,
+      as if it were bearing a heavy weight under the surface. When it landed at
+      its master&rsquo;s feet, they saw that each set of claws was clutching a
+      fish&mdash;six in all. Polecrab took them from it. He proceeded to cut off
+      the heads and tails with a sharp-edged stone which he picked up; these he
+      threw to the arg, which devoured them without any fuss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab beckoned to Maskull to follow him and, carrying the fish, walked
+      toward the open shore, by the same way that he had come. When they reached
+      the sands, he sliced the fish, removed the entrails, and digging a shallow
+      hole in a patch of violet sand, placed the remainder of the carcasses in
+      it, and covered them over again. Then he dug up his own dinner. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      nostrils quivered at the savoury smell, but he was not yet to dine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab, turning to go with the cooked fish in his hands, said, &ldquo;These
+      are mine, not yours. When yours are done, you can come back and join me,
+      supposing you want company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How soon will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About twenty minutes,&rdquo; replied the fisherman, over his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sheltered himself in the shadows of the forest, and waited. When
+      the time had approximately elapsed, he disinterred his meal, scorching his
+      fingers in the operation, although it was only the surface of the sand
+      which was so intensely hot. Then he returned to Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the warm, still air and cheerful shade of the inlet, they munched in
+      silence, looking from their food to the sluggish water, and back again.
+      With every mouthful Maskull felt his strength returning. He finished
+      before Polecrab, who ate like a man for whom time has no value. When he
+      had done, he stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and drink,&rdquo; he said, in his husky voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at him inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man led him a little way into the forest, and walked straight up to a
+      certain tree. At a convenient height in its trunk a hole had been tapped
+      and plugged. Polecrab removed the plug and put his mouth to the aperture,
+      sucking for quite a long time, like a child at its mother&rsquo;s breast.
+      Maskull, watching him, imagined that he saw his eyes growing brighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his own turn came to drink, he found the juice of the tree somewhat
+      like coconut milk in flavour, but intoxicating. It was a new sort of
+      intoxication, however, for neither his will not his emotions were excited,
+      but only his intellect&mdash;and that only in a certain way. His thoughts
+      and images were not freed and loosened, but on the contrary kept labouring
+      and swelling painfully, until they reached the full beauty of an <i>apergu</i>,
+      which would then flame up in his consciousness, burst, and vanish. After
+      that, the whole process started over again. But there was never a moment
+      when he was not perfectly cool, and master of his senses. When each had
+      drunk twice, Polecrab replugged the hole, and they returned to their bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it Blodsombre yet?&rdquo; asked Maskull, sprawling on the
+      ground, well content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab resumed his old upright sitting posture, with his feet in the
+      water. &ldquo;Just beginning,&rdquo; was his hoarse response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I must stay here till it&rsquo;s over.... Shall we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can,&rdquo; said the other, without enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced at him through half-closed lids, wondering if he were
+      exactly what he seemed to be. In his eyes he thought he detected a wise
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you travelled much, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not what <i>you</i> would call travelling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell me you&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay&mdash;what kind of
+      country is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I went there to pick up flints.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What countries lie beyond it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Threal comes next, as you go north. They say it&rsquo;s a land of
+      mystics... I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mystics?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m told.... Still farther north there&rsquo;s Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re going far afield.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are mountains there&mdash;and altogether it must be a very
+      dangerous place, especially for a full-blooded man like you. Take care of
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is rather premature, Polecrab. How do you know I&rsquo;m going
+      there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you&rsquo;ve come from the south, I suppose you&rsquo;ll go
+      north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s right enough,&rdquo; said Maskull, staring hard
+      at him. &ldquo;But how do you know I&rsquo;ve come from the south?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, perhaps you haven&rsquo;t&mdash;but there&rsquo;s a
+      look of Ifdawn about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of look?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tragical look,&rdquo; said Polecrab. He never even glanced at
+      Maskull, but was gazing at a fixed spot on the water with unblinking eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What lies beyond Lichstorm?&rdquo; asked Maskull, after a minute or
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barey, where you have two suns instead of one&mdash;but beyond that
+      fact I know nothing about it.... Then comes the ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what&rsquo;s on the other side of the ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you must find out for yourself, for I doubt if anybody has
+      ever crossed it and come back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was silent for a little while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it that your people are so unadventurous? I seem to be the
+      only one travelling from curiosity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by &lsquo;your people&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True&mdash;you don&rsquo;t know that I don&rsquo;t belong to your
+      planet at all. I&rsquo;ve come from another world, Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here with Krag and Nightspore&mdash;to follow Surtur. I must
+      have fainted the moment I arrived. When I sat up, it was night and the
+      others had vanished. Since then I&rsquo;ve been travelling at random.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab scratched his nose. &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t found Surtur yet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard his drum taps frequently. In the forest this
+      morning I came quite close to him. Then two days ago, in the Lusion Plain,
+      I saw a vision&mdash;a being in man&rsquo;s shape, who called himself
+      Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, maybe it was Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s impossible,&rdquo; replied Maskull reflectively.
+      &ldquo;It was Crystalman. And it isn&rsquo;t a question of my suspecting
+      it&mdash;I <i>know</i> it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because this is Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and Surtur&rsquo;s world
+      is something quite different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s queer, then,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since I&rsquo;ve come out of that forest,&rdquo; proceeded Maskull,
+      talking half to himself, &ldquo;a change has come over me, and I see
+      things differently. Everything here looks much more solid and real in my
+      eyes than in other places so much so that I can&rsquo;t entertain the
+      least doubt of its existence. It not only <i>looks</i> real, it <i>is</i>
+      real&mdash;and on that I would stake my life.... But at the same time that
+      it&rsquo;s real, it is <i>false</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a dream?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;not at all like a dream, and that&rsquo;s just what I want
+      to explain. This world of yours&mdash;and perhaps of mine too, for that
+      matter&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t give me the slightest impression of a dream, or
+      an illusion, or anything of that sort. I know it&rsquo;s really here at
+      this moment, and it&rsquo;s exactly as we&rsquo;re seeing it, you and I.
+      Yet it&rsquo;s false. It&rsquo;s false in this sense, Polecrab. Side by
+      side with it another world exists, and that other world is the true one,
+      and this one is all false and deceitful, to the very core. And so it
+      occurs to me that reality and falseness are two words for the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps there is such another world,&rdquo; said Polecrab huskily.
+      &ldquo;But did that vision also seem real and false to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very real, but not false then, for then I didn&rsquo;t understand
+      all this. But just because it was real, it couldn&rsquo;t have been
+      Surtur, who has no connection with reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t those drum taps sound real to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had to hear them with my ears, and so they sounded real to me.
+      Still, they were somehow different, and they certainly came from Surtur.
+      If I didn&rsquo;t hear them correctly, that was my fault and not his.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab growled a little. &ldquo;If Surtur chooses to speak to you in
+      that fashion, it appears he&rsquo;s trying to say something.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What else can I think? But, Polecrab, what&rsquo;s your opinion&mdash;is
+      he calling me to the life after death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man stirred uneasily. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a minute or two. &ldquo;I live by killing, and so does
+      everybody. This life seems to me all wrong. So maybe life of any kind is
+      wrong, and Surtur&rsquo;s world is not life at all, but something else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but will death lead me to it, whatever it is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask the dead,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and not a living man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued. &ldquo;In the forest I heard music and saw a light,
+      which could not have belonged to this world. They were too strong for my
+      senses, and I must have fainted for a long time. There was a vision as
+      well, in which I saw myself killed, while Nightspore walked on toward the
+      light, alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab uttered his grunt. &ldquo;You have enough to think over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short silence ensued, which was broken by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So strong is my sense of the untruth of this present life, that it
+      may come to my putting an end to myself.&rdquo; The fisherman remained
+      quiet and immobile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lay on his stomach, propped his face on his hands, and stared at
+      him. &ldquo;What do you think, Polecrab? Is it possible for any man, while
+      in the body, to gain a closer view of that other world than I have done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an ignorant man, stranger, so I can&rsquo;t say. Perhaps there
+      are many others like you who would gladly know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where? I should like to meet them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you were made of one stuff, and the rest of mankind of
+      another stuff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be so presumptuous. Possibly all men are reaching out
+      toward Muspel, in most cases without being aware of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the wrong direction,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave him a strange look. &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t speak from my own wisdom,&rdquo; said Polecrab,
+      &ldquo;for I have none; but I have just now recalled what Broodviol once
+      told me, when I was a young man, and he was an old one. He said that
+      Crystalman tries to turn all things into one, and that whichever way his
+      shapes march, in order to escape from him, they find themselves again face
+      to face with Crystalman, and are changed into new crystals. But that this
+      marching of shapes (which we call &lsquo;forking&rsquo;) springs from the
+      unconscious desire to find Surtur, but is in the opposite direction to the
+      right one. For Surtur&rsquo;s world does not lie on this side of the <i>one</i>,
+      which was the beginning of life, but on the other side; and to get to it
+      we must repass through the one. But this can only be by renouncing our
+      self-life, and reuniting ourselves to the whole of Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      world. And when this has been done, it is only the first stage of the
+      journey; though many good men imagine it to be the whole journey.... As
+      far as I can remember, that is what Broodviol said, but perhaps, as I was
+      then a young and ignorant man, I may have left out words which would
+      explain his meaning better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, who had listened attentively to all this, remained thoughtful at
+      the end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s plain enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But what did he
+      mean by our reuniting ourselves to Crystalman&rsquo;s world? If it is
+      false, are we to make ourselves false as well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t ask him that question, and you are as well qualified
+      to answer it as I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have meant that, as it is, we are each of us living in a
+      false, private world of our own, a world of dreams and appetites and
+      distorted perceptions. By embracing the great world we certainly lose
+      nothing in truth and reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab withdrew his feet from the water, stood up, yawned, and stretched
+      his limbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you all I know,&rdquo; he said in a surly voice.
+      &ldquo;Now let me go to sleep.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept his eyes fixed on him, but made no reply. The old man let
+      himself down stiffly on to the ground, and prepared to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still arranging his position to his liking, a footfall
+      sounded behind the two men, coming from the direction of the forest.
+      Maskull twisted his neck, and saw a woman approaching them. He at once
+      guessed that it was Polecrab&rsquo;s wife. He sat up, but the fisherman
+      did not stir. The woman came and stood in front of them, looking down from
+      what appeared a great height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her dress was similar to her husband&rsquo;s, but covered her limbs more.
+      She was young, tall, slender, and strikingly erect. Her skin was lightly
+      tanned, and she looked strong, but not at all peasantlike. Refinement was
+      stamped all over her. Her face had too much energy of expression for a
+      woman, and she was not beautiful. Her three great eyes kept flashing and
+      glowing. She had great masses of fine, yellow hair, coiled up and
+      fastened, but so carelessly that some of the strands were flowing down her
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she spoke, it was in a rather weak voice, but full of lights and
+      shades, and somehow intense passionateness never seemed to be far away
+      from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgiveness is asked for listening to your conversation,&rdquo; she
+      said, addressing Maskull. &ldquo;I was resting behind the tree, and heard
+      it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up slowly. &ldquo;Are you Polecrab&rsquo;s wife?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is my wife,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and her name is
+      Gleameil. Sit down again, stranger&mdash;and you too, wife, since you are
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both obeyed. &ldquo;I heard everything,&rdquo; repeated Gleameil.
+      &ldquo;But what I did not hear was where you are going to, Maskull, after
+      you have left us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no more than you do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. There&rsquo;s only one place for you to go to, and
+      that is Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. I will ferry you across myself before
+      sunset.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I find there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may go, wife,&rdquo; put in the old man hoarsely, &ldquo;but I
+      won&rsquo;t allow you to go. I will take him over myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you have always put me off,&rdquo; said Gleameil, with some
+      emotion. &ldquo;This time I mean to go. When Teargeld shines at night, and
+      I sit on the shore here, listening to Earthrid&rsquo;s music travelling
+      faintly across the sea, I am tortured&mdash;I can&rsquo;t endure it.... I
+      have long since made up my mind to go to the island, and see what this
+      music is. If it&rsquo;s bad, if it kills me&mdash;well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to do with the man and his music, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the music will answer all your questions better than
+      Polecrab has done&mdash;and possibly in a way that will surprise you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of music can it be to travel all those miles across the
+      sea?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar kind, so we are told. Not pleasant, but painful. And the
+      man that can play the instrument of Earthrid would be able to conjure up
+      the most astonishing forms, which are not phantasms, but realities.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be so,&rdquo; growled Polecrab. &ldquo;But I have been to
+      the island by daylight, and what did I find there? Human bones, new and
+      ancient. Those are Earthrid&rsquo;s victims. And you, wife, shall not go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But will that music play tonight?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, gazing at him intently. &ldquo;When
+      Teargeld rises, which is our moon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Earthrid plays men to death, it appears to me that his own death
+      is due. In any case I should like to hear those sounds for myself. But as
+      for taking you with me, Gleameil&mdash;women die too easily in Tormance. I
+      have only just now washed myself clean of the death blood of another
+      woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil laughed, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now go to sleep,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;When the time comes,
+      I will take you across myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay down again, and closed his eyes. Maskull followed his example; but
+      Gleameil remained sitting erect, with her legs under her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that other woman, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but pretended to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When he awoke, the day was not so bright, and he guessed it was late
+      afternoon. Polecrab and his wife were both on their feet, and another meal
+      of fish had been cooked and was waiting for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it decided who is to go with me?&rdquo; he asked, before sitting
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I go,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you agree, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fisherman growled a little in his throat and motioned to the others to
+      take their seats. He took a mouthful before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something strong is attracting her, and I can&rsquo;t hold her
+      back. I don&rsquo;t think I shall see you again, wife, but the lads are
+      now nearly old enough to fend for themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t take dejected views,&rdquo; replied Gleameil sternly.
+      She was not eating. &ldquo;I shall come back, and make amends to you. It&rsquo;s
+      only for a night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed from one to the other in perplexity. &ldquo;Let me go alone.
+      I would be sorry if anything happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t regard this as a woman&rsquo;s caprice,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;Even if you hadn&rsquo;t passed this way, I would have heard
+      that music soon. I have a hunger for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you any such feeling, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. A woman is a noble and sensitive creature, and there are
+      attractions in nature too subtle for males. Take her with you, since she
+      is set on it. Maybe she&rsquo;s right. Perhaps Earthrid&rsquo;s music will
+      answer your questions, and hers too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are your questions, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman shed a strange smile. &ldquo;You may be sure that a question
+      which requires music for an answer can&rsquo;t be put into words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are not back by the morning,&rdquo; remarked her husband,
+      &ldquo;I will know you are dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was finished in a constrained silence. Polecrab wiped his mouth,
+      and produced a seashell from a kind of pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you say goodbye to the boys? Shall I call them?&rdquo; She
+      considered a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes, I must see them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put the shell to his mouth, and blew; a loud, mournful noise passed
+      through the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later there was a sound of scurrying footsteps, and the boys
+      were seen emerging from the forest. Maskull looked with curiosity at the
+      first children he had seen on Tormance. The oldest boy was carrying the
+      youngest on his back, while the third trotted some distance behind. The
+      child was let down, and all the three formed a semicircle in front of
+      Maskull, standing staring up at him with wide-open eyes. Polecrab looked
+      on stolidly, but Gleameil glanced away from them, with proudly raised head
+      and a baffling expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put the ages of the boys at about nine, seven, and five years,
+      respectively; but he was calculating according to Earth time. The eldest
+      was tall, slim, but strongly built. He, like his brothers, was naked, and
+      his skin from top to toe was ulfire-colored. His facial muscles indicated
+      a wild and daring nature, and his eyes were like green fires. The second
+      showed promise of being a broad, powerful man. His head was large and
+      heavy, and drooped. His face and skin were reddish. His eyes were almost
+      too sombre and penetrating for a child&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That one,&rdquo; said Polecrab, pinching the boy&rsquo;s ear,
+      &ldquo;may perhaps grow up to be a second Broodviol.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that?&rdquo; demanded the boy, bending his head forward to
+      hear the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A big, old man, of marvellous wisdom. He became wise by making up
+      his mind never to ask questions, but to find things out for himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not asked this question, I should not have known about
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would not have mattered,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child was paler and slighter than his brothers. His face was
+      mostly tranquil and expressionless, but it had this peculiarity about it,
+      that every few minutes, without any apparent cause, it would wrinkle up
+      and look perplexed. At these times his eyes, which were of a tawny gold,
+      seemed to contain secrets difficult to associate with one of his age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He puzzles me,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;He has a soul like sap,
+      and he&rsquo;s interested in nothing. He may turn out to be the most
+      remarkable of the bunch.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the child in one hand, and lifted him as high as his head. He
+      took a good look at him, and set him down again. The boy never changed
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of him?&rdquo; asked the fisherman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s on the tip of my tongue to say, but it just escapes me.
+      Let me drink again, and then I shall have it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and drink, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull strode over to the tree, drank, and returned. &ldquo;In ages to
+      come,&rdquo; he said, speaking deliberately, &ldquo;he will be a grand and
+      awful tradition. A seer possibly, or even a divinity. Watch over him well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy looked scornful. &ldquo;I want to be none of those things.
+      I would like to be like that big fellow.&rdquo; And he pointed his finger
+      at Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed, and showed his white teeth through his beard. &ldquo;Thanks
+      for the compliments old warrior!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great and brawny,&rdquo; continued the boy, &ldquo;and
+      can hold his own with other men. Can you hold me up with one arm, as you
+      did that child?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull complied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is being a man!&rdquo; exclaimed the boy. &ldquo;Enough!&rdquo;
+      said Polecrab impatiently. &ldquo;I called you lads here to say goodbye to
+      your mother. She is going away with this man. I think she may not return,
+      but we don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second boy&rsquo;s face became suddenly inflamed. &ldquo;Is she going
+      of her own choice?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she is bad.&rdquo; He brought the words out with such force
+      and emphasis that they sounded like the crack of a whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man cuffed him twice. &ldquo;Is it your mother you are speaking
+      of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy stood his ground, without change of expression, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child spoke, for the first time. &ldquo;My mother will not
+      come back, but she will die dancing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab and his wife looked at one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going to, Mother?&rdquo; asked the eldest lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil bent down, and kissed him. &ldquo;To the Island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, if you don&rsquo;t come back by tomorrow morning, I will
+      go and look for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind. &ldquo;This seems to me to
+      be a man&rsquo;s journey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it would be
+      better for you not to come, Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not to be dissuaded,&rdquo; she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard in perplexity. &ldquo;Is it time to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait
+      there for you and the raft. You will wish to make your farewells,
+      Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then clasped Polecrab by the hand. &ldquo;Adieu, fisherman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have repaid me well for my answers,&rdquo; said the old man
+      gruffly. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not your fault, and in Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world the worst things happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him. &ldquo;Farewell,
+      big man!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But guard my mother well, as well as you
+      are well able to, or I shall follow you, and kill you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend. The
+      glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes
+      again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He continued as far
+      as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled on
+      to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight. The radiance of Alppain
+      had long since disappeared. He drank in the hot, invigorating wind,
+      listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea with its
+      pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all
+      she loves the most?&rdquo; he meditated. &ldquo;It sounds unholy. Will it
+      tell me what I want to know? Can it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning
+      his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.
+      Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole. He passed
+      by Maskull, without looking at him, or making any salutation, and
+      proceeded out to sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys
+      came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet. The eldest-born was
+      holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind. She was calm
+      and smiling, but seemed abstracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your husband doing with the raft?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s putting it in position and we shall wade out and join
+      it,&rdquo; she answered, in her low-toned voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see that current running away from land? See, he is
+      approaching it. That will take us straight there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how can you get back?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a way; but we need not think of that today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I come too?&rdquo; demanded the eldest boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the raft won&rsquo;t carry three. Maskull is a heavy man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said the boy. &ldquo;I know where
+      there is wood for another raft. As soon as you have gone, I shall set to
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab had by this time manoeuvred his flimsy craft to the position he
+      desired, within a few yards of the current, which at that point made a
+      sharp bend from the east. He shouted out some words to his wife and
+      Maskull. Gleameil kissed her children convulsively, and broke down a
+      little. The eldest boy bit his lip till it bled, and tears glistened in
+      his eyes; but the younger children stared wide-eyed, and displayed no
+      emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil now walked into the sea, followed by Maskull. The water covered
+      first their ankles, then their knees, but when it came as high as their
+      waists, they were close on the raft. Polecrab let himself down into the
+      water, and assisted his wife to climb over the side. When she was up, she
+      bent down and kissed him. No words were exchanged. Maskull scrambled up on
+      to the front part of the raft. The woman sat cross-legged in the stern,
+      and seized the pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab shoved them off toward the current, while she worked her pole
+      until they had got within its power. The raft immediately began to travel
+      swiftly away from land, with a smooth, swaying motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys waved from the shore. Gleameil responded; but Maskull turned his
+      back squarely to land, and gazed ahead. Polecrab was wading back to the
+      shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For upward of an hour Maskull did not change his position by an inch. No
+      sound was heard but the splashing of the strange waves all around them,
+      and the streamlike gurgle of the current, which threaded its way smoothly
+      through the tossing, tumultuous sea. From their pathway of safety, the
+      beautiful dangers surrounding them were an exhilarating experience. The
+      air was fresh and clean, and the heat from Branchspell, now low in the
+      west, was at last endurable. The riot of sea colors had long since
+      banished all sadness and anxiety from his heart. Yet he felt such a grudge
+      against the woman for selfishly forsaking those who should have been dear
+      to her that he could not bring himself to begin a conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when, over the now enlarged shape of the dark island, he caught sight
+      of a long chain of lofty, distant mountains, glowing salmon-pink in the
+      evening sunlight, he felt constrained to break the silence by inquiring
+      what they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Lichstorm,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull asked no questions about it; but in turning to address her, his
+      eyes had rested on the rapidly receding Wombflash Forest, and he continued
+      to stare at that. They had travelled about eight miles, and now he could
+      better estimate the enormous height of the trees. Overtopping them, far
+      away, he saw Sant; and he fancied, but was not quite sure, that he could
+      distinguish Disscourn as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that we are alone in a strange place,&rdquo; said Gleameil,
+      averting her head, and looking down over the side of the raft into the
+      water, &ldquo;tell me what you thought of Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused before answering. &ldquo;He seemed to me like a mountain
+      wrapped in cloud. You see the lower buttresses, and think that is all. But
+      then, high up, far above the clouds, you suddenly catch sight of more
+      mountain&mdash;and even then it is not the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read character well, and have great perception,&rdquo; remarked
+      Gleameil quietly. &ldquo;Now say what I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of a human heart, you have a wild harp, and that&rsquo;s
+      all I know about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that you said to my husband about two worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I heard. And I also am conscious of two worlds. My husband and
+      boys are real to me, and I love them fondly. But there is another world
+      for me, as there is for you, Maskull, and it makes my real world appear
+      all false and vulgar.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps we are seeking the same thing. But can it be right to
+      satisfy our self-nature at the expense of other people?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not right. It is wrong, and base. But in that other
+      world these words have no meaning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s useless to discuss such topics,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;The choice is now out of our hands, and we must go where we are
+      taken. What I would rather speak about is what awaits us on the island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ignorant&mdash;except that we shall find Earthrid there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Earthrid, and why is it called Swaylone&rsquo;s Island?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say Earthrid came from Threal, but I know nothing else about
+      him. As for Swaylone, if you like I will tell you his legend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you please,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a far-back age,&rdquo; began Gleameil, &ldquo;when the seas were
+      hot, and clouds hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with
+      transformations, Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never
+      before set foot, and began to play his music&mdash;the first music in
+      Tormance. Nightly, when the moon shone, people used to gather on this
+      shore behind us, and listen to the faint, sweet strains floating from over
+      the sea. One night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was passing this
+      way in company with Krag. They listened a while to the music, and Shaping
+      said &lsquo;Have you heard more beautiful sounds? This is my world and my
+      music.&rsquo; Krag stamped with his foot, and laughed. &lsquo;You must do
+      better than that, if I am to admire it. Let us pass over, and see this
+      bungler at work.&rsquo; Shaping consented, and they passed over to the
+      island. Swaylone was not able to see their presence. Shaping stood behind
+      him, and breathed thoughts into his soul, so that his music became ten
+      times lovelier, and people listening on that shore went mad with sick
+      delight. &lsquo;Can any strains be nobler?&rsquo; demanded Shaping. Krag
+      grinned and said, &lsquo;You are naturally effeminate. Now let me try.&rsquo;
+      Then he stood behind Swaylone, and shot ugly discords fast into his head.
+      His instrument was so cracked, that never since has it played right. From
+      that time forth Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called
+      to folk more than the other sort. Many men crossed over to the island
+      during his lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could endure
+      them; all died. After Swaylone&rsquo;s death, another musician took up the
+      tale; and so the light has passed down from torch to torch, till now
+      Earthrid bears it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An interesting legend,&rdquo; commented Maskull. &ldquo;But who is
+      Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it&mdash;a
+      spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know
+      how to transform. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he
+      dogs Shaping&rsquo;s footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does,
+      he undoes. To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness;
+      to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag&rsquo;s
+      actions, so the lovers of the world call him &lsquo;devil.&rsquo; They don&rsquo;t
+      understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag and beauty!&rdquo; exclaimed he, with a cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so. That same beauty which you and I are now voyaging to
+      discover. That beauty for whose sake I am renouncing husband, children,
+      and happiness.... Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping. To see
+      beauty in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you say I am going to seek beauty, Gleameil? Such an idea is far
+      from my mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not respond to his remark. After waiting for a few minutes, to
+      hear if she would speak again, he turned his back on her once more. There
+      was no more talk until they reached the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air had grown chill and damp by the time they approached its shores.
+      Branchspell was on the point of touching the sea. The Island appeared to
+      be some three or four miles in length. There were first of all broad
+      sands, then low, dark cliffs, and behind these a wilderness of
+      insignificant, swelling hills, entirely devoid of vegetation. The current
+      bore them to within a hundred yards of the coast, when it made a sharp
+      angle, and proceeded to skirt the length of the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil jumped overboard, and began swimming to shore. Maskull followed
+      her example, and the raft, abandoned, was rapidly borne away by the
+      current. They soon touched ground, and were able to wade the rest of the
+      way. By the time they reached dry land, the sun had set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil made straight for the hills; and Maskull, after casting a single
+      glance at the low, dim outline of the Wombflash Forest, followed her. The
+      cliffs were soon scrambled up. Then the ascent was gentle and easy, while
+      the rich, dry, brown mould was good to walk upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little way off, on their left, something white was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not go to it,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;It can be
+      nothing else than one of those skeletons Polecrab talked about. And look&mdash;there
+      is another one over there!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This brings it home!&rdquo; remarked Maskull, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing comical in having died for beauty,&rdquo; said
+      Gleameil, bending her brows at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when in the course of their walk he saw the innumerable human bones,
+      from gleaming white to dirty yellow, lying scattered about, as if it were
+      a naked graveyard among the hills, he agreed with her, and fell into a
+      sombre mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was still light when they reached the highest point, and could set eyes
+      on the other side. The sea to the north of the island was in no way
+      different from that which they had crossed, but its lively colors were
+      fast becoming invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Matterplay,&rdquo; said the woman, pointing her finger
+      toward some low land on the horizon, which seemed to be even farther off
+      than Wombflash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder how Digrung passed over,&rdquo; meditated Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not far away, in a hollow enclosed by a circle of little hills, they saw a
+      small, circular lake, not more than half a mile in diameter. The sunset
+      colors of the sky were reflected in its waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be Irontick,&rdquo; remarked Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard that it&rsquo;s the instrument Earthrid plays on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are getting close,&rdquo; responded he. &ldquo;Let us go and
+      investigate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they drew nearer, they observed that a man was reclining on the
+      farther side, in an attitude of sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s not the man himself, who can it be?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get across the water, if it will bear us; it
+      will save time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now assumed the lead, and took running strides down the slope which
+      bounded the lake on that side. Gleameil followed him with greater dignity,
+      keeping her eyes fixed on the recumbent man as if fascinated. When Maskull
+      reached the water&rsquo;s edge, he tried it with one foot, to discover if
+      it would carry his weight. Something unusual in its appearance led him to
+      have doubts. It was a tranquil, dark, and beautifully reflecting sheet of
+      water; it resembled a mirror of liquid metal. Finding that it would bear
+      him, and that nothing happened, he placed his second foot on its surface.
+      Instantly he sustained a violent shock throughout his body, as from a
+      powerful electric current; and he was hurled in a tumbled heap back on to
+      the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked himself up, brushed the dirt off his person, and started walking
+      around the lake. Gleameil joined him, and they completed the half circuit
+      together. They came to the man, and Maskull prodded him with his foot. He
+      woke up, and blinked at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was pale, weak, and vacant-looking, and had a disagreeable
+      expression. There were thin sprouts of black hair on his chin and head. On
+      his forehead, in place of a third eye, he possessed a perfectly circular
+      organ, with elaborate convolutions, like an ear. He had an unpleasant
+      smell. He appeared to be of young middle age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wake up, man,&rdquo; said Maskull sharply, &ldquo;and tell us if
+      you are Earthrid.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; counterquestioned the man. &ldquo;Does it
+      want long to moonrise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without appearing to care about an answer, he sat up, and turning away
+      from them, began to scoop up the loose soil with his hand, and to eat it
+      halfheartedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, how can you eat that filth?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, in
+      disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be angry, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gleameil, laying hold of
+      his arm, and flushing a little. &ldquo;It is Earthrid&mdash;the man who is
+      to help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not said so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Earthrid,&rdquo; said the other, in his weak and muffled
+      voice, which, however, suddenly struck Maskull as being autocratic.
+      &ldquo;What do you want here? Or rather, you had better get away as
+      quickly as you can, for it will be too late when Teargeld rises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not explain,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;We know your
+      reputation, and we have come to hear your music. But what&rsquo;s that
+      organ for on your forehead?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid glared, and smiled, and glared again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is for rhythm, which is what changes noise into music. Don&rsquo;t
+      stand and argue, but go away. It is no pleasure to me to people the island
+      with corpses. They corrupt the air, and do nothing else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darkness now crept swiftly on over the landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are rather bigmouthed,&rdquo; said Maskull coolly. &ldquo;But
+      after we have heard you play, perhaps I shall adventure a tune myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You? Are you a musician, then? Do you even know what music is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A flame danced in Gleameil&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull thinks music reposes in the instrument,&rdquo; she said in
+      her intense way. &ldquo;But it is in the soul of the Master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Earthrid, &ldquo;but that is not all. I will tell
+      you what it is. In Threal, where I was born and brought up, we learn the
+      mystery of the Three in nature. This world, which lies extended before us,
+      has three directions. Length is the line which shuts off what is, from
+      what is not. Breadth is the surface which shows us in what manner one
+      thing of what-is, lives with another thing. Depth is the path which leads
+      from what-is, to our own body. In music it is not otherwise. Tone is
+      existence, without which nothing at all can be. Symmetry and Numbers are
+      the manner in which tones exist, one with another. Emotion is the movement
+      of our soul toward the wonderful world that is being created. Now, men
+      when they make music are accustomed to build beautiful tones, because of
+      the delight they cause. Therefore their music world is based on pleasure;
+      its symmetry is regular and charming, its emotion is sweet and lovely....
+      But my music is founded on painful tones; and thus its symmetry is wild,
+      and difficult to discover; its emotion is bitter and terrible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not anticipated its being original, I would not have come
+      here,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Still, explain&mdash;why can&rsquo;t
+      harsh tones have simple symmetry of form? And why must they necessarily
+      cause more profound emotions in us who listen?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pleasures may harmonise. Pains must clash; and in the order of
+      their clashing lies the symmetry. The emotions follow the music, which is
+      rough and earnest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may call it music,&rdquo; remarked Maskull thoughtfully,
+      &ldquo;but to me it bears a closer resemblance to actual life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Shaping&rsquo;s plans had gone straight, life would have been
+      like that other sort of music. He who seeks can find traces of that
+      intention in the world of nature. But as it has turned out, real life
+      resembles my music and mine is the true music.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we see living shapes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what my mood will be,&rdquo; returned Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;But when I have finished, you shall adventure your tune, and
+      produce whatever shapes you please&mdash;unless, indeed, the tune is out
+      of your own big body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The shocks you are preparing may kill us,&rdquo; said Gleameil, in
+      a low, taut voice, &ldquo;but we shall die, seeing <i>beauty</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I
+      put into my music. Still, you must have it your own way. It needed a woman
+      to call it &lsquo;beauty.&rsquo; But if this is beauty, what is ugliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you, Master,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, smiling at
+      him. &ldquo;Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues
+      fresh from the womb of nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid stared at her, without response. &ldquo;Teargeld is rising,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;And now you shall see&mdash;though not for long.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the words left his mouth, the full moon peeped over the hills in the
+      dark eastern sky. They watched it in silence, and soon it was wholly up.
+      It was larger than the moon of Earth, and seemed nearer. Its shadowy parts
+      stood out in just as strong relief, but somehow it did not give Maskull
+      the impression of being a dead world. Branchspell shone on the whole of
+      it, but Alppain only on a part. The broad crescent that reflected
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s rays alone was white and brilliant; but the part that
+      was illuminated by both suns shone with a greenish radiance that had
+      almost solar power, and yet was cold and cheerless. On gazing at that
+      combined light, he felt the same sense of disintegration that the
+      afterglow of Alppain had always caused in him; but now the feeling was not
+      physical, but merely aesthetic. The moon did not appear romantic to him,
+      but disturbing and mystical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid rose, and stood quietly for a minute. In the bright moonlight,
+      his face seemed to have undergone a change. It lost its loose, weak,
+      disagreeable look, and acquired a sort of crafty grandeur. He clapped his
+      hands together meditatively two or three times, and walked up and down.
+      The others stood together, watching him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he sat down by the side of the lake, and, leaning on his side, placed
+      his right hand, open palm downward, on the ground, at the same time
+      stretching out his right leg, so that the foot was in contact with the
+      water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was in the act of staring at him and at the lake, he felt a
+      stabbing sensation right through his heart, as though he had been pierced
+      by a rapier. He barely recovered himself from falling, and as he did so he
+      saw that a spout had formed on the water, and was now subsiding again. The
+      next moment he was knocked down by a violent blow in the mouth, delivered
+      by an invisible hand. He picked himself up; and observed that a second
+      spout had formed. No sooner was he on his legs, than a hideous pain
+      hammered away inside his brain, as if caused by a malignant tumour. In his
+      agony, he stumbled and fell again; this time on the arm Krag had wounded.
+      All his other mishaps were forgotten in this one, which half stunned him.
+      It lasted only a moment, and then sudden relief came, and he found that
+      Earthrid&rsquo;s rough music had lost its power over him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw him still stretched in the same position. Spouts were coming thick
+      and fast on the lake, which was full of lively motion. But Gleameil was
+      not on her legs. She was lying on the ground, in a heap, without moving.
+      Her attitude was ugly, and he guessed she <i>was</i> dead. When he reached
+      her, he discovered that she was dead. In what state of mind she had died,
+      he did not know, for her face wore the vulgar Crystalman grin. The whole
+      tragedy had not lasted five minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went over to Earthrid and dragged him forcibly away from his playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been as good as your word, musician,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Gleameil is dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid tried to collect his scattered senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I warned her,&rdquo; he replied, sitting up. &ldquo;Did I not beg
+      her to go away? But she died very easily. She did not wait for the beauty
+      she spoke about. She heard nothing of the passion, nor even of the rhythm.
+      Neither have you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked down at him in indignation, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should not have interrupted me,&rdquo; went on Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;When I am playing, nothing else is of importance. I might have lost
+      the thread of my ideas. Fortunately, I never forget. I shall start over
+      again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If music is to continue, in the presence of the dead, I play next.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man glanced up quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can&rsquo;t be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be,&rdquo; said Maskull decisively. &ldquo;I prefer playing
+      to listening. Another reason is that you will have every night, but I have
+      only tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid clenched and unclenched his fist, and began to turn pale. &ldquo;With
+      your recklessness, you are likely to kill us both. Irontick belongs to me,
+      and until you have learned how to play, you would only break the
+      instrument.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I will break it; but I am going to try.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The musician jumped to his feet and confronted him. &ldquo;Do you intend
+      to take it from me by violence?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep calm! You will have the same choice that you offered us. I
+      shall give you time to go away somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will that serve me, if you spoil my lake? You don&rsquo;t
+      understand what you are doing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, or stay!&rdquo; responded Maskull. &ldquo;I give you till the
+      water gets smooth again. After that, I begin playing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid kept swallowing. He glanced at the lake and back to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you swear it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long that will take, you know better than I; but till then you
+      are safe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid cast him a look of malice, hesitated for an instant, and then
+      moved away, and started to climb the nearest hill. Halfway up he glanced
+      over his shoulder apprehensively, as if to see what was happening. In
+      another minute or so, he had disappeared over the crest, travelling in the
+      direction of the shore that faced Matterplay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, when the water was once more tranquil, Maskull sat down by its
+      edge, in imitation of Earthrid&rsquo;s attitude. He knew neither how to
+      set about producing his music, nor what would come of it. But audacious
+      projects entered his brain and he willed to create physical shapes&mdash;and,
+      above all, one shape, that of Surtur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before putting his foot to the water, he turned things over a little in
+      his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, &ldquo;What <i>themes</i> are in common music, <i>shapes</i> are
+      in this music. The composer does not find his theme by picking out single
+      notes; but the whole theme flashes into his mind by inspiration. So it
+      must be with shapes. When I start playing, if I am worth anything, the
+      undivided ideas will pass from my unconscious mind to this lake, and then,
+      reflected back in the dimensions of reality, I shall be for the first time
+      made acquainted with them. So it must be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant his foot touched the water, he felt his thoughts flowing from
+      him. He did not know what they were, but the mere act of flowing created a
+      sensation of joyful mastery. With this was curiosity to learn what they
+      would prove to be. Spouts formed on the lake in increasing numbers, but he
+      experienced no pain. His thoughts, which he knew to be music, did not
+      issue from him in a steady, unbroken stream, but in great, rough gushes,
+      succeeding intervals of quiescence. When these gushes came, the whole lake
+      broke out in an eruption of spouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
+      intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will. He
+      could not decide what character they should have, but he was able to force
+      them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first nothing changed around him. Then the moon grew dimmer, and a
+      strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape. It increased so
+      imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised it as the
+      Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest. He could not give
+      it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort of stern and sacred
+      awe. He called up the resources of his powerful will. The spouts thickened
+      like a forest, and many of them were twenty feet high. Teargeld looked
+      faint and pale; the radiance became intense; but it cast no shadows. The
+      wind got up, but where Maskull was sitting, it was calm. Shortly afterward
+      it began to shriek and whistle, like a full gale. He saw no shapes, and
+      redoubled his efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His ideas were now rushing out onto the lake so furiously that his whole
+      soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance. But still he did not know
+      their nature. A huge spout shot up and at the same moment the hills began
+      to crack and break. Great masses of loose soil were erupted from their
+      bowels, and in the next period of quietness, he saw that the landscape had
+      altered. Still the mysterious light intensified. The moon disappeared
+      entirely. The noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying, but Maskull
+      played heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would take shape. The
+      hillsides were cleft with chasms. The water escaping from the tops of the
+      spouts, swamped the land; but where he was, it was dry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The radiance grew terrible. It was everywhere, but Maskull fancied that it
+      was far brighter in one particular quarter. He thought that it was
+      becoming localised, preparatory to contracting into a solid form. He
+      strained and strained....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided. Its waters fell
+      through, and his instrument was broken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Muspel-light vanished. The moon shone out again, but Maskull could not
+      see it. After that unearthly shining, he seemed to himself to be in total
+      blackness. The screaming wind ceased; there was a dead silence. His
+      thoughts finished flowing toward the lake, and his foot no longer touched
+      water, but hung in space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was too stunned by the suddenness of the change to either think or
+      feel. While he was still lying dazed, a vast explosion occurred in the
+      newly opened depths beneath the lakebed. The water in its descent had met
+      fire. Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many yards high, and came down
+      heavily. He lost consciousness....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came to his senses again, he saw everything. Teargeld was gleaming
+      brilliantly. He was lying by the side of the old lake, but it was now a
+      crater, to the bottom of which his eyes could not penetrate. The hills
+      encircling it were torn, as if by heavy gunfire. A few thunderclouds were
+      floating in the air at no great height, from which branched lightning
+      descended to the earth incessantly, accompanied by alarming and singular
+      crashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got on his legs, and tested his actions. Finding that he was uninjured,
+      he first of all viewed the crater at closer quarters, and then started to
+      walk painfully toward the northern shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had attained the crest above the lake, the landscape sloped gently
+      down for two miles to the sea. Everywhere he passed through traces of his
+      rough work. The country was carved into scarps, grooves, channels, and
+      craters. He arrived at the line of low cliffs overlooking the beach, and
+      found that these also were partly broken down by landslips. He got down
+      onto the sand and stood looking over the moonlit, agitated sea, wondering
+      how he could contrive to escape from this island of failure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he saw Earthrid&rsquo;s body, lying quite close to him. It was on its
+      back. Both legs had been violently torn off and he could not see them
+      anywhere. Earthrid&rsquo;s teeth were buried in the flesh of his right
+      forearm, indicating that the man had died in unreasoning physical agony.
+      The skin gleamed green in the moonlight, but it was stained by darker
+      discolourations, which were wounds. The sand about him was dyed by the
+      pool of blood which had long since filtered through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull left the corpse in dismay, and walked a long way along the
+      sweet-smelling shore. Sitting down on a rock, he waited for daybreak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At midnight, when Teargeld was in the south, throwing his shadow straight
+      toward the sea and making everything nearly as bright as day, he saw a
+      great tree floating in the water, not far out. It was thirty feet out of
+      the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must have been enormously
+      deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast, through the heavy seas.
+      Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few minutes. Then it dawned on him that
+      it might be a good thing to investigate its nature. Without stopping to
+      weigh the danger, he immediately swam out, caught hold of the lowest
+      branch, and swung himself up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
+      terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made his
+      way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were covered
+      with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving at the crown,
+      he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there were membranes
+      like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting some form of low
+      intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the shore,
+      and began to bump heavily. To steady himself, Maskull put his hand out,
+      and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the membranes. The tree
+      sheered off the land, as if by an act of will. When it was steady again,
+      Maskull removed his hand; they at once drifted back to shore. He thought a
+      bit, and then started experimenting with the eyelike membranes. It was as
+      he had guessed&mdash;these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon,
+      and whichever way the light came from, the tree would travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull&rsquo;s face as it struck him that
+      it might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
+      Matterplay. He lost no time in putting the conception into execution.
+      Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up all the membranes
+      except the ones that faced the north. The tree instantly left the island,
+      and definitely put out to sea. It travelled due north. It was not moving
+      at more than a mile an hour, however, while Matterplay was possibly forty
+      miles distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
+      breaking seas hissed through the lower branches&mdash;Maskull rested high
+      and dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow rate of
+      progress. Presently he sighted a current racing along toward the
+      north-west, and that put another idea into his head. He began to juggle
+      with the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in piloting his
+      tree into the fast-running stream. As soon as they were fairly in its
+      rapids, he blinded the crown entirely, and thenceforward the current acted
+      in the double capacity of road and steed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made himself secure among the branches and slept for the remainder
+      of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his eyes opened again, the island was out of sight. Teargeld was
+      setting in the western sea. The sky in the east was bright with the
+      colours of the approaching day. The air was cool and fresh; the light over
+      the sea was beautiful, gleaming, and mysterious. Land&mdash;probably
+      Matterplay&mdash;lay ahead, a long, dark line of low cliffs, perhaps a
+      mile away. The current no longer ran toward the shore, but began to skirt
+      the coast without drawing any closer to it. As soon as Maskull realised
+      the fact, he manoeuvred the tree out of its channel and started drifting
+      it inshore. The eastern sky blazed up suddenly with violent dyes, and the
+      outer rim of Branchspell lifted itself above the sea. The moon had already
+      sunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shore loomed nearer and nearer. In physical character it was like
+      Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;the same wide sands, small cliffs, and
+      rounded, insignificant hills inland, without vegetation. In the
+      early-morning sunlight, however, it looked romantic. Maskull, hollow-eyed
+      and morose, cared nothing for all that, but the moment the tree grounded,
+      clambered swiftly down through the branches and dropped into the sea. By
+      the time he had swam ashore, the white, stupendous sun was high above the
+      horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked along the sands toward the east for a considerable distance,
+      without having any special intention in his mind. He thought he would go
+      on until he came to some creek or valley, and then turn up it. The sun&rsquo;s
+      rays were cheering, and began to relieve him of his oppressive night
+      weight. After strolling along the beach for about a mile, he was stopped
+      by a broad stream that flowed into the sea out of a kind of natural
+      gateway in the line of cliffs. Its water was of a beautiful, limpid green,
+      all filled with bubbles. So ice-cold, aerated, and enticing did it look
+      that he flung himself face downward on the ground and took a prolonged
+      draught. When he got up again his eyes started to play pranks&mdash;they
+      became alternately blurred and clear.... It may have been pure
+      imagination, but he fancied that Digrung was moving inside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the bank of the stream through the gap in the cliffs, and then
+      for the first time saw the real Matterplay. A valley appeared, like a
+      jewel enveloped by naked rock. All the hill country was bare and lifeless,
+      but this valley lying in the heart of it was extremely fertile; he had
+      never seen such fertility. It wound up among the hills, and all that he
+      was looking at was its broad lower end. The floor of the valley was about
+      half a mile wide; the stream that ran down its middle was nearly a hundred
+      feet across, but was exceedingly shallow&mdash;in most places not more
+      than a few inches deep. The sides of the valley were about seventy feet
+      high, but very sloping; they were clothed from top to bottom with little,
+      bright-leaved trees&mdash;not of varied tints of one colour, like Earth
+      trees, but of widely diverse colours, most of which were brilliant and
+      positive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The floor itself was like a magician&rsquo;s garden. Densely interwoven
+      trees, shrubs, and parasitical climbers fought everywhere for possession
+      of it. The forms were strange and grotesque, and each one seemed
+      different; the colours of leaf, flower, sexual organs, and stem were
+      equally peculiar&mdash;all the different combinations of the five primary
+      colours of Tormance seemed to be represented, and the result, for Maskull
+      was a sort of eye chaos. So rank was the vegetation that he could not
+      fight his way through it; he was obliged to take to the riverbed. The
+      contact of the water created an odd tingling sensation throughout his
+      body, like a mild electric shock. There were no birds, but a few
+      extraordinary-looking winged reptiles of small size kept crossing the
+      valley from hill to hill. Swarms of flying insects clustered around him,
+      threatening mischief, but in the end it turned out that his blood was
+      disagreeable to them, for he was not bitten once. Repulsive crawling
+      creatures resembling centipedes, scorpions, snakes, and so forth were in
+      myriads on the banks of the stream, but they also made no attempt to use
+      their weapons on his bare legs and feet, as he passed through them into
+      the water.... Presently however, he was confronted in midstream by a
+      hideous monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape&mdash;if
+      it resembled anything&mdash;a sea crustacean; and then he came to a halt.
+      They stared at one another, the beast with wicked eyes, Maskull with cool
+      and wary ones. While he was staring, a singular thing happened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes blurred again. But when in a minute or two this blurring passed
+      away and he saw clearly once more, his vision had changed in character. He
+      was looking right through the animal&rsquo;s body and could distinguish
+      all its interior parts. The outer crust, however, and all the hard tissues
+      were misty and semi-transparent; through them a luminous network of
+      blood-red veins and arteries stood out in startling distinctness. The hard
+      parts faded away to nothingness, and the blood system alone was left. Not
+      even the fleshy ducts remained. The naked blood alone was visible, flowing
+      this way and that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the shape of the
+      monster. Then this blood began to change too. Instead of a continuous
+      liquid stream, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a million
+      individual points. The red colour had been an illusion caused by the rapid
+      motion of the points; he now saw clearly that they resembled minute suns
+      in their scintillating brightness. They seemed like a double drift of
+      stars, streaming through space. One drift was travelling toward a fixed
+      point in the centre, while the other was moving away from it. He
+      recognised the former as the veins of the beast, the latter as the
+      arteries, and the fixed point as the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network went out
+      suddenly like an extinguished flame. Where the crustacean had stood, there
+      was nothing. Yet through this &ldquo;nothing&rdquo; he could not see the
+      landscape. Something was standing there that intercepted the light, though
+      it possessed neither shape, colour, nor substance. And now the object,
+      which could no longer be perceived by vision, began to be felt by emotion.
+      A delightful, springlike sense of rising sap, of quickening pulses of
+      love, adventure, mystery, beauty, femininity&mdash;took possession of his
+      being, and, strangely enough, he identified it with the monster. Why that
+      invisible brute should cause him to feel young, sexual, and audacious, he
+      did not ask himself, for he was fully occupied with the effect. But it was
+      as if flesh, bones, and blood had been discarded, and he were face to face
+      with naked Life itself, which slowly passed into his own body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sensations died away. There was a brief interval, and then the
+      streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space. It changed to the
+      red-blood system. The hard parts of the body reappeared, with more and
+      more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood grew fainter.
+      Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed by the crust&mdash;the
+      creature stood opposite Maskull in its old formidable ugliness, hard,
+      painted, and concrete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and stumbled
+      awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive movements,
+      toward the other bank of the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s apathy left him after this adventure. He became uneasy and
+      thoughtful. He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
+      Digrung&rsquo;s eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately
+      ahead. The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down with his
+      will, and nothing happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley ascended with many windings toward the hills. It narrowed
+      considerably, and the wooded slopes on either side grew steeper and
+      higher. The stream shrunk to about twenty feet across, but it was deeper&mdash;it
+      was alive with motion, music, and bubbles. The electric sensations caused
+      by its water became more pronounced, almost disagreeably so; but there was
+      nowhere else to walk. With its deafening confusion of sounds from the
+      multitude of living creatures, the little valley resembled a vast
+      conversation hall of Nature. The life was still more prolific than before;
+      every square foot of space was a tangle of struggling wills, both animal
+      and vegetable. For a naturalist it would have been paradise, for no two
+      shapes were alike, and all were fantastic, with individual character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked as if life forms were being coined so fast by Nature that there
+      was not physical room for all. Nevertheless it was not as on Earth, where
+      a hundred seeds are scattered in order that one may be sown. Here the
+      young forms seemed to survive, while, to find accommodation for them, the
+      old ones perished; everywhere he looked they were withering and dying,
+      without any ostensible cause&mdash;they were simply being killed by new
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other creatures sported so wildly, in front of his very eyes, that they
+      became of different &ldquo;kingdoms&rdquo; altogether. For example, a
+      fruit was lying on the ground, of the size and shape of a lemon, but with
+      a tougher skin. He picked it up, intending to eat the contained pulp; but
+      inside it was a fully formed young tree, just on the point of bursting its
+      shell. Maskull threw it away upstream. It floated back toward him; by the
+      time he was even with it, its downward motion had stopped and it was
+      swimming against the current. He fished it out and discovered that it had
+      sprouted six rudimentary legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sang no paeans of praise in honour of the gloriously overcrowded
+      valley. On the contrary, he felt deeply cynical and depressed. He thought
+      that the unseen power&mdash;whether it was called Nature, Life, Will, or
+      God&mdash;that was so frantic to rush forward and occupy this small,
+      vulgar, contemptible world, could not possess very high aims and was not
+      worth much. How this sordid struggle for an hour or two of physical
+      existence could ever be regarded as a deeply earnest and important
+      business was beyond his comprehension The atmosphere choked him, he longed
+      for air and space. Thrusting his way through to the side of the ravine, he
+      began to climb the overhanging cliff, swinging his way up from tree to
+      tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the top, Branchspell beat down on him with such brutal,
+      white intensity that he saw that there was no staying there. He looked
+      around, to ascertain what part of the country he had come to. He had
+      travelled about ten miles from the sea, as the crow flies. The bare,
+      undulating wolds sloped straight down toward it; the water glittered in
+      the distance; and on the horizon he was just able to make out Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island. Looking north, the land continued sloping upward as far as he
+      could see. Over the crest&mdash;that is to say, some miles away&mdash;a
+      line of black, fantastic-shaped rocks of quite another character showed
+      themselves; this was probably Threal. Behind these again, against the sky,
+      perhaps fifty or even a hundred miles off, were the peaks of Lichstorm,
+      most of them covered with greenish snow that glittered in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were stupendously high and of weird contours. Most of them were
+      conical to the top, but from the top, great masses of mountain balanced
+      themselves at what looked like impossible angles&mdash;overhanging without
+      apparent support. A land like that promised something new, he thought:
+      extraordinary inhabitants. The idea took shape in his mind to go there,
+      and to travel as swiftly as possible, it might even be feasible to get
+      there before sunset. It was less the mountains themselves that attracted
+      him than the country which lay beyond&mdash;the prospect of setting eyes
+      on the blue sun, which he judged to be the wonder of wonders in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The direct route was over the hills, but that was out of the question,
+      because of the killing heat and the absence of shade. He guessed, however,
+      that the valley would not take him far out of his way, and decided to keep
+      to that for the time being, much as he hated and feared it. Into the
+      hotbed of life, therefore, he once more swung himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once down, he continued to follow the windings of the valley for several
+      miles through sunlight and shadow. The path became increasingly difficult.
+      The cliffs closed in on either side until they were less than a hundred
+      yards apart, while the bed of the ravine was blocked by boulders, great
+      and small, so that the little stream, which was now diminished to the
+      proportions of a brook, had to come down where and how it could. The forms
+      of life grew stranger. Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by
+      degrees, and their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to
+      partake of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
+      but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the ground
+      by preference, and they fed only on soil and air. Maskull saw no sexual
+      organs and failed to understand how the young came into existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he witnessed an astonishing sight. A large and fully developed
+      plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space. He
+      could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long time in
+      amazement. It went on calmly moving and burrowing before him, as thought
+      it had been there all its life. Giving up the puzzle, Maskull resumed his
+      striding from rock to rock up the gorge, and then, quietly and without
+      warning, the same phenomenon occurred again. No longer could he doubt that
+      he was seeing miracles&mdash;that Nature was precipitating its shapes into
+      the world without making use of the medium of parentage.... No solution of
+      the problem presented itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brook too had altered in character. A trembling radiance came up from
+      its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the air. He had
+      not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test its quality. He
+      felt new life entering his body, from his feet upward; it resembled a
+      slowly moving cordial, rather than mere heat. The sensation was quite new
+      in his experience, yet he knew by instinct what it was. The energy emitted
+      by the brook was ascending his body neither as friend nor foe but simply
+      because it happened to be the direct road to its objective elsewhere. But,
+      although it had no hostile intentions, it was likely to prove a rough
+      traveller&mdash;he was clearly conscious that its passage through his body
+      threatened to bring about some physical transformation, unless he could do
+      something to prevent it. Leaping quickly out of the water, he leaned
+      against a rock, tightened his muscles, and braced himself against the
+      impending change. At that very moment the blurring again attacked his
+      sight, and, while he was guarding against that, his forehead sprouted out
+      into a galaxy of new eyes. He put his hand up and counted six, in addition
+      to his old ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The danger was past and Maskull laughed, congratulating himself on having
+      got off so easily. Then he wondered what the new organs were for&mdash;whether
+      they were a good or a bad thing. He had not taken a dozen steps up the
+      ravine before he found out. Just as he was in the act of jumping down from
+      the top of a boulder, his vision altered and he came to an automatic
+      standstill. He was perceiving two worlds simultaneously. With his own eyes
+      he saw the gorge as before, with its rocks, brook, plant-animals,
+      sunshine, and shadows. But with his acquired eyes he saw differently. All
+      the details of the valley were visible, but the light seemed turned down,
+      and everything appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured. The sun was obscured
+      by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This vapour was in violent
+      and almost living motion. It was thick in extension, but thin in texture;
+      some parts, however, were far denser than others, as the particles were
+      crushed together or swept apart by the motion. The green sparks from the
+      brook, when closely watched, could be distinguished individually, each one
+      wavering up toward the clouds, but the moment they got within them a
+      fearful struggle seemed to begin. The spark endeavoured to escape through
+      to the upper air, while the clouds concentrated around it whichever way it
+      darted, trying to create so dense a prison that further movement would be
+      impossible. As far as Maskull could detect, most of the sparks succeeded
+      eventually in finding their way out after frantic efforts; but one that he
+      was looking at was caught, and what happened was this. A complete ring of
+      cloud surrounded it, and, in spite of its furious leaps and flashes in all
+      directions&mdash;as if it were a live, savage creature caught in a net&mdash;nowhere
+      could it find an opening, but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with
+      it, wherever it went. The vapours continued to thicken around it, until
+      they resembled the black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad
+      thunderstorm. Then the green spark, which was still visible in the
+      interior, ceased its efforts, and remained for a time quite quiescent. The
+      cloud shape went on consolidating itself, and became nearly spherical; as
+      it grew heavier and stiller, it started slowly to descend toward the
+      valley floor. When it was directly opposite Maskull, with its lower end
+      only a few feet off the ground, its motion stopped altogether and there
+      was a complete pause for at least two minutes. Suddenly, like a stab of
+      forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became small, indented,
+      and coloured, and as a plant-animal started walking around on legs and
+      rooting up the ground in search of food. The concluding stage of the
+      phenomenon he witnessed with his normal eyesight. It showed him the
+      creature&rsquo;s appearing miraculously out of nowhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was shaken. His cynicism dropped from him and gave place to
+      curiosity and awe. &ldquo;That was exactly like the birth of a <i>thought</i>,&rdquo;
+      he said to himself, &ldquo;but who was the thinker? Some great Living Mind
+      is at work in this spot. He has intelligence, for all his shapes are
+      different, and he has character, for all belong to the same general
+      type.... If I&rsquo;m not wrong, and if it&rsquo;s the force called
+      Shaping or Crystalman, I&rsquo;ve seen enough to make me want to find out
+      something more about him.... It would be ridiculous to go on to other
+      riddles before I have solved these.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A voice called out to him from behind, and, turning around, he saw a human
+      figure hastening toward him from some distance down the ravine. It looked
+      more like a man than a woman. He was rather tall, but nimble, and was
+      clothed in a dark, frocklike garment that reached from the neck to below
+      the knees. Around his head was rolled a turban. Maskull waited for him,
+      and when he was nearer went a little way to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he experienced another surprise, for this person, although clearly a
+      human being, was neither man nor woman, nor anything between the two, but
+      was unmistakably of a third positive sex, which was remarkable to behold
+      and difficult to understand. In order to translate into words the sexual
+      impression produced in Maskull&rsquo;s mind by the stranger&rsquo;s
+      physical aspect, it is necessary to coin a new pronoun, for none in
+      earthly use would be applicable. Instead of &ldquo;he,&rdquo; &ldquo;she,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;it,&rdquo; therefore &ldquo;ae&rdquo; will be used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found himself incapable of grasping at first why the bodily
+      peculiarities of this being should strike him as springing from sex, and
+      not from race, and yet there was no doubt about the fact itself. Body,
+      face, and eyes were absolutely neither male nor female, but something
+      quite different. Just as one can distinguish a man from a woman at the
+      first glance by some indefinable difference of expression and atmospheres
+      altogether apart from the contour of the figure, so the stranger was
+      separated in appearance from both. As with men and women, the whole person
+      expressed a latent sensuality, which gave body and face alike their
+      peculiar character.... Maskull decided that it was <i>love</i>&mdash;but
+      what love&mdash;love for whom? It was neither the shame-carrying passion
+      of a male, nor the deep-rooted instinct of a female to obey her destiny.
+      It was as real and irresistible as these, but quite different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
+      intuitive feeling that her lover was no other than Shaping himself. It
+      came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance of the
+      race but the immortality on earth of the individual. No children were
+      produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal child. Further, ae
+      sought like a man, but received like a woman. All these things were dimly
+      and confusedly expressed by this extraordinary being, who seemed to have
+      dropped out of another age, when creation was different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance, this
+      one struck him as infinitely the most <i>foreign</i>&mdash;that is, the
+      farthest removed from him in spiritual structure. If they were to live
+      together for a hundred years, they could never be companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing the
+      newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to account for
+      the marvellous things told him by his intuitions. Ae possessed broad
+      shoulders and big bones, and was without female breasts, and so far ae
+      resembled a man. But the bones were so flat and angular that aer flesh
+      presented something of the character of a crystal, having plane surfaces
+      in place of curves. The body looked as if it had not been ground down by
+      the sea of ages into smooth and rounded regularity but had sprung together
+      in angles and facets as the result of a single, sudden <i>idea</i>. The
+      face too was broken and irregular. With his racial prejudices, Maskull
+      found little beauty in it, yet beauty there was, though neither of a
+      masculine nor of a feminine type, for it had the three essentials of
+      beauty: character, intelligence, and repose. The skin was copper-coloured
+      and strangely luminous, as if lighted from within. The face was beardless,
+      but the hair of the head was as long as a woman&rsquo;s, and, dressed in a
+      single plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles. Ae possessed only two
+      eyes. That part of the turban which went across the forehead protruded so
+      far in front that it evidently concealed some organ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared active,
+      vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes were
+      powerful and alert&mdash;ae might well be in early youth. Nevertheless,
+      the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of unbelievable
+      ancientness came upon him&mdash;aer real youth seemed as far away as the
+      view observed through a reversed telescope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
+      conversing with a dream. &ldquo;To what sex do you belong?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but was
+      oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world
+      was peopled by &lsquo;phaens.&rsquo; I think I am the only survivor of all
+      those beings who were then passing through Faceny&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faceny?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman. The superficial names
+      invented by a race of superficial creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s your own name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae. And yours is Maskull. I read in your mind that you have
+      just come through some wonderful adventures. You seem to possess
+      extraordinary luck. If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit?... But never
+      mind that now. It is your _sex_ that interests me. How do you satisfy your
+      desires?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on her brow. &ldquo;With that I
+      gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
+      valleys. The streams spring direct from Faceny. My whole life has been
+      spent trying to find Faceny himself. I&rsquo;ve hunted so long that if I
+      were to state the number of years you would believe I lied.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the phaen slowly. &ldquo;In Ifdawn I met someone else
+      from Matterplay&mdash;a young man called Digrung. I absorbed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be telling me this out of vanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a fearful crime. What will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile. &ldquo;In Matterplay he will
+      stir inside you, for he smells the air. Already you have his eyes.... I
+      knew him.... Take care of yourself, or something more startling may
+      happen. Keep out of the water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t torment yourself about Digrung. The valleys belong by
+      right to the phaens&mdash;the men here are interlopers. It is a good work
+      to remove them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued thoughtful. &ldquo;I say no more, but I see I will have
+      to be cautious. What did you mean about my helping you with my luck?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your luck is fast weakening, but it may still be strong enough to
+      serve me. Together we will <i>search</i> for Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Search for Threal&mdash;why, is it so hard to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you that my whole life has been spent in the quest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said Faceny, Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gazed at him with queer, ancient eyes, and smiled again. &ldquo;This
+      stream, Maskull, like every other life stream in Matterplay, has its
+      source in Faceny. But as all these streams issue out from Threal, it is in
+      Threal that we must look for Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s to prevent your finding Threal? Surely it&rsquo;s
+      a well-known country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies underground. Its communications with the upper world are
+      few, and where they are, no one that I have ever spoken to knows. I have
+      scoured the valleys and the hills. I have been to the very gates of
+      Lichstorm. I am old, so that your aged men would appear newborn infants
+      beside me, but I am as far from Threal as when I was a green youth,
+      dwelling among a throng of fellow phaens.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if my luck is good, yours is very bad.... But when you have
+      found Faceny, what do you gain?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae looked at him in silence. The smile faded from aer face, and
+      its place was taken by such a look of unearthly pain and sorrow that
+      Maskull had no need to press his question. Ae was consumed by the grief
+      and yearning of a lover eternally separated from the loved one, the scents
+      and traces of whose person were always present. This passion stamped her
+      features at that moment with a wild, stern, spiritual beauty, far
+      transcending any beauty of woman or man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the expression vanished suddenly, and then the abrupt contrast showed
+      Maskull the real Leehallfae. Aer sensuality was solitary, but vulgar&mdash;it
+      was like the heroism of a lonely nature, pursuing animal aims with
+      untiring persistence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the phaen askance, and drummed his fingers against his thigh.
+      &ldquo;Well, we will go together. We may find something, and in any case I
+      shan&rsquo;t be sorry to converse with such a singular individual as
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I should warn you, Maskull. You and I are of different
+      creations. A phaen&rsquo;s body contains the whole of life, a man&rsquo;s
+      body contains only the half of life&mdash;the other half is in woman.
+      Faceny may be too strong a draught for your body to endure.... Do you not
+      feel this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dull with my different feelings. I must take what precautions
+      I can, and chance the rest.&rdquo; He bent down, and, taking hold of the
+      phaen&rsquo;s thin and ragged robe, tore off a broad strip, which he
+      proceeded to swathe in folds around his forehead. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not
+      forgetting your advice, Leehallfae. I would not like to start the walk as
+      Maskull and finish it as Digrung.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave a twisted grin, and they began to move upstream. The road
+      was difficult. They had to stride from boulder to boulder, and found it
+      warm work. Occasionally a worse obstacle presented itself, which they
+      could surmount only by climbing. There was no more conversation for a long
+      time. Maskull, as far as possible, adopted his companion&rsquo;s counsel
+      to avoid the water, but here and there he was forced to set foot in it.
+      The second or third time he did so, he felt a sudden agony in his arm,
+      where it had been wounded by Krag. His eyes grew joyful; his fears
+      vanished; and he began deliberately to tread the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae stroked aer chin and watched him with screwed-up eyes, trying
+      to comprehend what had happened. &ldquo;Is your luck speaking to you,
+      Maskull, or what is the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen. You are a being of antique experience, and ought to know,
+      if anyone does. What is Muspel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen&rsquo;s face was blank. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know the name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is another world of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That cannot be. There is only this one world&mdash;Faceny&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull came up to aer, linked arms, and began to talk. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      glad I fell in with you, Leehallfae, for this valley and everything
+      connected with it need a lot of explaining. For example, in this spot
+      there are hardly any organic forms left&mdash;why have they all
+      disappeared? You call this brook a &lsquo;life stream,&rsquo; yet the
+      nearer its source we get, the less life it produces. A mile or two lower
+      down we had those spontaneous plant-animals appearing out of nowhere,
+      while right down by the sea, plants and animals were tumbling over one
+      another. Now, if all this is connected in some mysterious way or other
+      with your Faceny, it seems to me he must have a most paradoxical nature.
+      His essence doesn&rsquo;t start creating shapes until it has become
+      thoroughly weakened and watered.... But perhaps both of us are talking
+      nonsense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae shook aer head. &ldquo;Everything hangs together. The stream is
+      life, and it is throwing off sparks of life all the time. When these
+      sparks are caught and imprisoned by matter, they become living shapes. The
+      nearer the stream is to its source, the more terrible and vigorous is its
+      life. You&rsquo;ll see for yourself when we reach the head of the valley
+      that there are no living shapes there at all. That means that there is no
+      kind of matter tough enough to capture and hold the terrible sparks that
+      are to be found there. Lower down the stream, most of the sparks are
+      vigorous enough to escape to the upper air, but some are held when they
+      are a little way up, and these burst suddenly into shapes. I myself am of
+      this nature. Lower down still, toward the sea, the stream has lost a great
+      part of its vital power and the sparks are lazy and sluggish. They spread
+      out, rather than rise into the air. There is hardly any kind of matter,
+      however delicate, that is incapable of capturing these feeble sparks, and
+      they are captured in multitudes&mdash;that accounts for the innumerable
+      living shapes you see there. But not only that&mdash;the sparks are passed
+      from one body to another by way of generation, and can never hope to cease
+      being so until they are worn out by decay. Lowest of all, you have the
+      Sinking Sea itself. There the degenerate and enfeebled life of the
+      Matterplay streams has for its body the whole sea. So weak is it&rsquo;s
+      power that it can&rsquo;t succeed in creating any shapes at all but you
+      can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to do so, in those spouts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness
+      of the life germ in their case?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly. It can&rsquo;t attain all its desires at once. And now you
+      can see how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring spontaneously
+      from the more electric and vigorous sparks.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When life dies, it becomes matter. Matter itself dies, but its
+      place is constantly taken by new matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left
+      his brain they are nothing&mdash;mere dying embers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a cheerless philosophy,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      is Faceny himself, then, and why does he think at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile. &ldquo;That I&rsquo;ll explain
+      too. Faceny is of this nature. He faces Nothingness in all directions. He
+      has no back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It
+      must necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between him and
+      Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates
+      Nothingness. He draws his inspirations from it; in no other way could he
+      feel himself. For the same reason, phaens and even men love to be in empty
+      places and vast solitudes, for each one is a little Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That rings true,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny&rsquo;s face backward. Since
+      his face is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior. A draught
+      of thought thus continuously flows from Nothingness to the inside of
+      Faceny, which is the world. The thoughts become shapes, and people the
+      world. This outer world, therefore, which is lying all around us, is not
+      outside at all, as it happens, but inside. The visible universe is like a
+      gigantic stomach, and the real outside of the world we shall never see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pondered deeply for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae, I fail to see what you personally have to hope for,
+      since you are nothing more than a discarded, dying thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you never loved a woman?&rdquo; asked the phaen, regarding him
+      fixedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you loved, did you have no high moments?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s asking the same question in other words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those moments you were approaching Faceny. If you could have
+      drawn nearer still, would you not have done so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would, regardless of the consequences.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even if you personally had nothing to hope for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have <i>that</i> to hope for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae walked on in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man is the half of Life,&rdquo; ae broke out suddenly. &ldquo;A
+      woman is the other half of life, but a phaen is the whole of life.
+      Moreover, when life becomes split into halves, something else has dropped
+      out of it&mdash;something that belongs only to the whole. Between your
+      love and mine there is no comparison. If even your sluggish blood is drawn
+      to Faceny, without stopping to ask what will come of it, how do you
+      suppose it is with <i>me</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t question the genuineness of your passion,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s a pity you can&rsquo;t see your way
+      to carry it forward into the next world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a distorted grin, expressing heaven knows what emotion.
+      &ldquo;Men think what they like, but phaens are so made that they can see
+      the world only as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That ended the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was high in the sky, and they appeared to be approaching the head
+      of the ravine. Its walls had still further closed in and, except at those
+      moments when Branchspell was directly behind them, they strode along all
+      the time in deep shade; but still it was disagreeably hot and relaxing.
+      All life had ceased. A beautiful, fantastic spectacle was presented by the
+      cliff faces, the rocky ground, and the boulders that choked the entire
+      width of the gorge. They were of a snow-white crystalline limestone,
+      heavily scored by veins of bright, gleaming blue. The rivulet was no
+      longer green, but a clear, transparent crystal. Its noise was musical, and
+      altogether it looked most romantic and charming, but Leehallfae seemed to
+      find something else in it&mdash;aer features grew more and more set and
+      tortured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About half an hour after all the other life forms had vanished, another
+      plant-animal was precipitated out of space, in front of their eyes. It was
+      as tall as Maskull himself, and had a brilliant and vigorous appearance,
+      as befitted a creature just out of Nature&rsquo;s mint. It started to walk
+      about; but hardly had it done so when it burst silently asunder. Nothing
+      remained of it&mdash;the whole body disappeared instantaneously into the
+      same invisible mist from which it had sprung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bears out what you said,&rdquo; commented Maskull, turning
+      rather pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Leehallfae, &ldquo;we have now come to the
+      region of terrible life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, since you&rsquo;re right in this, I must believe all that you&rsquo;ve
+      been telling me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he uttered the words, they were just turning a bend of the ravine.
+      There now loomed up straight ahead a perpendicular cliff about three
+      hundred feet in height, composed of white, marbled rock. It was the head
+      of the valley, and beyond it they could not proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In return for my wisdom,&rdquo; said the phaen, &ldquo;you will now
+      lend me your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked up to the base of the cliff, and Maskull looked at it
+      reflectively. It was possible to climb it, but the ascent would be
+      difficult. The now tiny brook issued from a hole in the rock only a few
+      feet up. Apart from its musical running, not a sound was to be heard. The
+      floor of the gorge was in shadow, but about halfway up the precipice the
+      sun was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want me to do?&rdquo; demanded Maskull. &ldquo;Everything
+      is now in your hands, and I have no suggestions to make. Now it&rsquo;s
+      your luck that must help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued gazing up a little while longer. &ldquo;We had better
+      wait till the afternoon, Leehallfae. I&rsquo;ll probably have to climb to
+      the top, but it&rsquo;s too hot at present&mdash;and besides, I&rsquo;m
+      tired. I&rsquo;ll snatch a few hours&rsquo; sleep. After that, we&rsquo;ll
+      see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae seemed annoyed, but raised no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 17. CORPANG
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre. Leehallfae was standing
+      by his side, looking down at him. It was doubtful whether ae had slept at
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting
+      up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day is passing,&rdquo; was the vague reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m
+      going to climb <i>that</i>. No need for both of us to risk our necks, so
+      you wait here, and if I find anything on top I&rsquo;ll call you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A phaen glanced at him strangely. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing up there
+      except a bare hillside. I&rsquo;ve been there often. Have you anything
+      special in mind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heights often bring me inspiration. Sit down, and wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of the
+      cliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush. Then it grew
+      precipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection and
+      intelligence. There were few hand- or footholds: he had to reflect before
+      every step. On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was no novice at
+      the sport. Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that it half blinded
+      him with its glittering whiteness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top. He was hot, sweating
+      copiously, and rather dizzy. To reach a ledge he caught hold of two
+      projecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time scrambling upward,
+      his legs between the rocks. The left-hand rock, which was the larger of
+      the two, became dislodged by his weight, and, flying like a huge, dark
+      shadow past his head, crashed down with a terrifying sound to the foot of
+      the precipice, followed by an avalanche of smaller stones. Maskull
+      steadied himself as well as he could, but it was some moments before he
+      dared to look down behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae. Then he caught sight of legs
+      and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom. He perceived
+      that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was scrutinising something,
+      and waited for aer to reappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike voice,
+      &ldquo;The entrance is here!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming down!&rdquo; roared Maskull. &ldquo;Wait for me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He descended swiftly&mdash;without taking too much care, for he thought he
+      recognised his &ldquo;luck&rdquo; in this discovery&mdash;and within
+      twenty minutes was standing beside the phaen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the
+      spring. It tore it out of its bed. See&mdash;now there&rsquo;s room for us
+      to get in!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get excited!&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a
+      remarkable accident, but we have plenty of time. Let me look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big man without
+      stooping. Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark, yet a peculiar
+      glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough. A rock tunnel went
+      straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out of sight. The valley
+      brook did not flow along the floor of this tunnel, as he had expected, but
+      came up as a spring just inside the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh? Still, observe
+      that your stream parts company with us here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion was
+      trembling from head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart. &ldquo;The stream leaves us, but
+      what makes the stream what it is continues with us. Faceny is there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely you don&rsquo;t expect to see him in person? Why are you
+      shaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it will be too much for me after all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? How is it affecting you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm&rsquo;s length,
+      endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. &ldquo;Faceny&rsquo;s
+      thoughts are obscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he
+      grants to you what he denies to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he grant to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it&rsquo;s
+      immaterial. Tomorrow both of us will be dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull impatiently shook himself free. &ldquo;Your sensations may be
+      reliable in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is flaming up inside you,&rdquo; replied Leehallfae, shaking
+      aer head. &ldquo;But after it has reached its climax&mdash;perhaps tonight&mdash;it
+      will sink rapidly and you&rsquo;ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter
+      Threal I shan&rsquo;t come out again. A smell of death is being wafted to
+      me out of this hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not frightened,&rdquo; said Leehallfae quietly&mdash;ae had
+      been gradually recovering aer tranquillity&mdash;&ldquo;but when one has
+      lived as long as I have, it is a serious matter to die. Every year one
+      puts out new roots.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Decide what you&rsquo;re going to do,&rdquo; said Maskull with a
+      touch of contempt, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m going in at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after that
+      walked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching his head,
+      followed close at aer heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
+      altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear and
+      refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. The daylight
+      disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that, Maskull could not
+      say where the light came from. The air itself must have been luminous, for
+      though it was as light as full moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae
+      cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of
+      the tunnel and their own bodies appeared colourless. Everything was black
+      and white, like a lunar landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal
+      feelings created by the atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to widen
+      out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could have walked
+      side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae dragged aerself along
+      slowly and painfully, with sunken head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of aer. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go on like that. Better
+      let me take you back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen smiled, and staggered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m dying.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. It&rsquo;s only a passing
+      indisposition. Let me take you back to the daylight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sick must have their way,&rdquo; said Maskull. Lifting aer
+      bodily in his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or
+      so. They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of
+      which he had never set eyes upon before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Set me down!&rdquo; directed Leehallfae feebly. &ldquo;Here I&rsquo;ll
+      die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground. The
+      phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with
+      fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain, lighted
+      as if by the moon&mdash;but there was of course no moon, and there were no
+      shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Beside them were
+      trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, but the branches
+      also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No other plants could be
+      seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice. Beyond a mile or
+      two in any direction the light merged into obscurity. At their back a
+      great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was not square like a
+      wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indented line of sea
+      cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight. Here and there
+      a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered, towered aloft into
+      the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof. There were no colours&mdash;every
+      detail of the landscape was black, white, or grey. The scene appeared so
+      still, so solemn and religious, that all his feelings quieted down to
+      absolute tranquillity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, and
+      helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like a
+      candle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin of
+      Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen&rsquo;s dead features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone standing
+      beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not at once rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another phaen dead,&rdquo; said the newcomer in a grave, toneless,
+      and intellectual voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was not
+      disfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features were energetic
+      and rather coarse&mdash;yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure, hard
+      life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyes carried a
+      twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem was apparently in the
+      forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; the hair of his head was
+      short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothed in a black, sleeveless
+      robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. There was an air of cleanness and
+      austerity about the whole man that was attractive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so, kept
+      passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. &ldquo;They all
+      find their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they live to
+      an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because of their
+      spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favoured children of
+      Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you
+      doing here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe.
+      As for what I am doing here&mdash;I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen,
+      from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a man doesn&rsquo;t accompany a phaen out of friendship. What
+      do you want in Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then this <i>is</i> Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. &ldquo;Are you
+      ignorant, or merely reticent, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred,
+      and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, as
+      though they were in a cathedral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do you want my society, or not?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is&mdash;not to talk
+      about myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must at least tell me where you want to go to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can guide you through, if that&rsquo;s all you want. Come, let us
+      start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let&rsquo;s do our duty and bury the dead, if possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around,&rdquo; directed Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what has happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for
+      it to be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was the phaen an illusion, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In no sense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be
+      going mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing unintelligible in it, if you&rsquo;ll only
+      listen calmly. The phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible
+      world&mdash;to Faceny. This underworld is not Faceny&rsquo;s world, but
+      Thire&rsquo;s, and Faceny&rsquo;s creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere.
+      As this applies not only to whole bodies, but even to the last particles
+      of bodies, the phaen has dissolved into Nothingness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t you and I belong to the outside world too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We belong to all three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What three worlds&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three worlds,&rdquo; said Corpang composedly. &ldquo;The
+      first is Faceny&rsquo;s, the second is Amfuse&rsquo;s, the third is Thire&rsquo;s.
+      From him Threal gets its name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three
+      worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. &ldquo;All this we can discuss
+      as we go along. It&rsquo;s a torment to me to be standing still.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had lain,
+      quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely
+      tear himself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpang
+      called to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,
+      directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, the
+      absence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out of the
+      jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathly
+      silence, the knowledge that he was underground&mdash;the combination of
+      all these things predisposed Maskull&rsquo;s mind to mysticism, and he
+      prepared himself with some anxiety to hear Corpang&rsquo;s explanation of
+      the land and its wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of
+      the outside world and the reality of this world were two quite different
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what sense are there three worlds?&rdquo; he demanded, repeating
+      his former question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. &ldquo;First of all,
+      Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it&rsquo;s mere intellectual
+      curiosity, tell me, for we mustn&rsquo;t play with awful matters.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it isn&rsquo;t that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      not a student. My journey is no holiday tour.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t there blood on your soul?&rdquo; asked Corpang, eying
+      him intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood rose steadily to Maskull&rsquo;s face, but in that light it
+      caused it to appear black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately there is, and not a little.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other&rsquo;s face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so you see,&rdquo; went on Maskull, with a short laugh, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      in the very best condition for receiving your instruction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang still paused. &ldquo;Underneath your crimes I see a man,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a few minutes. &ldquo;On that account, and because we are
+      commanded to help one another, I won&rsquo;t leave you at present, though
+      I little thought to be walking with a murderer.... Now to your
+      question.... Whatever a man sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three
+      ways&mdash;length, breadth, depth. Length is existence, breadth is
+      relation, depth is feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who
+      came from Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know him. What else did he tell you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went on to apply it to music. Continue, and pardon the
+      interruption.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These three states of perception are the three worlds. Existence is
+      Faceny&rsquo;s world, relation is Amfuse&rsquo;s world, feeling is Thire&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we come down to hard facts?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      frowning. &ldquo;I understand no more than I did before what you mean by
+      three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The first
+      world is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out of
+      nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The second world is Love&mdash;by which I don&rsquo;t mean lust.
+      Without love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable
+      deliberately to act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy&mdash;not
+      even hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect
+      and distorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny&rsquo;s world of
+      Nature, therefore, we have Amfuse&rsquo;s world of Love, or Relation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world
+      is not contained in the first?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover
+      lives for others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so. It&rsquo;s rather mystical. But go on&mdash;who is
+      Thire?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and
+      love without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is the
+      need of men to stretch out toward their creator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean prayer and worship?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in
+      either the first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as
+      depth is the line between object and subject, feeling is the line between
+      Thire and man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is Thire himself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire is the afterworld.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Do you
+      believe in three separate gods, or are these merely three ways of
+      regarding one God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic. Yet they
+      are somehow united.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected a while. &ldquo;How have you arrived at these
+      conclusions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None other are possible in Threal, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why in Threal&mdash;what is there peculiar here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will show you presently.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested what
+      had been said. When they came to the first trees, which grew along the
+      banks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,&rdquo;
+      he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull removed it. He found that the line of his brow was smooth and
+      uninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How has this come about&mdash;and how did you know it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were Faceny&rsquo;s organs. They have vanished, just as the
+      phaen&rsquo;s body vanished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept rubbing his forehead. &ldquo;I feel more human without them.
+      But why isn&rsquo;t the rest of my body affected?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because its living will contains the element of Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are we stopping here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and
+      proffered it to him. &ldquo;Eat this, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For food, or something else?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food for body and soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap was
+      bleeding. It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a change of
+      perception. The landscape, without alteration of light or outline, became
+      several degrees more stern and sacred. When he looked at Corpang he was
+      impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness, but the perplexed expression
+      was still in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Occasionally I go above, but not often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fastens you to this gloomy world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The search for Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it&rsquo;s still a search?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain, the
+      conversation became even more earnest in character than before. &ldquo;Although
+      I was not born here,&rdquo; proceeded Corpang, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lived
+      here for twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing
+      nearer to Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it&mdash;the
+      first stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones.
+      The longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In the
+      beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as a
+      voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, and
+      harsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million miles
+      off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you explain that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is troubling you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My days are spent in torture.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You still persist, though? This day darkness can&rsquo;t be the
+      ultimate state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My questions will be answered.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you propose to show me?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three
+      Figures, which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There,
+      we will pray.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily
+      forget.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two
+      parallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hills
+      on either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as it
+      curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. They came
+      to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed a trickling
+      brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it was flowing <i>up</i>
+      the valley instead of <i>down</i>. Before long it was joined by other
+      miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sized stream.
+      Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature has other laws here, it seems?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet the water is flowing somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t explain it, but there are three wills in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without
+      Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought this over for some minutes. &ldquo;That must be so,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;Without life there can be no love, and without
+      love there can be no religious feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the valley
+      presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. The sides
+      were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrower at every
+      step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural and sepulchral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull said, &ldquo;I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still do not know what you are doing here,&rdquo; answered
+      Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name I&rsquo;ve heard&mdash;but under what circumstances?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously troubled.
+      &ldquo;Who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touching
+      fingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the rock
+      walls on either side. It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-sac, but just
+      when the road seemed least promising, and they were shut in by cliffs on
+      all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought them suddenly into the
+      open. They emerged through a mere crack in the line of precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to the
+      way they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few hundred
+      yards. Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm with
+      perpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred feet, but
+      its bottom could not be seen. On both sides of the chasm, facing one
+      another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they too
+      proceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emerged
+      onto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higher than
+      that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a double line of
+      lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straight
+      forward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as a waterfall,
+      it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge. It then disappeared
+      through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Maskull&rsquo;s mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnatural
+      phenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable here than
+      on the open plain. It made the place look like a hall of phantoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left. When they
+      had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred feet. Three large
+      rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they resembled three upright
+      giants, standing motionless side by side on the extreme edge of the chasm.
+      Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and then Maskull saw that they were
+      statues. Each was about thirty feet high, and the workmanship was of the
+      rudest. They represented naked men, but the limbs and trunks had been
+      barely chipped into shape&mdash;the faces alone had had care bestowed on
+      them, and even these faces were merely generalised. It was obviously the
+      work of primitive artists. The statues stood erect with knees closed and
+      arms hanging straight down their sides. All three were exactly alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a representation of your three Beings?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull, awed by the spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask no questions, but kneel,&rdquo; replied Corpang. He dropped
+      onto his own knees, but Maskull remained standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently. After a few
+      minutes the light sensibly faded. Then Maskull knelt as well, but he
+      continued looking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night. Sight
+      and sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again. But it had
+      ceased to be a statue&mdash;it was a living person. Out of the blackness
+      of space a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by a mystic, rosy
+      glow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun. As the light grew
+      stronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent and that the glow came
+      from within. The limbs of the apparition were wreathed in mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly. It was that of
+      a beardless youth of twenty years. It possessed the beauty of a girl and
+      the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic smile. Maskull felt
+      the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and rapture of one who awakes
+      from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the gleaming, dark, delicate
+      colours of the half-dawn. The vision smiled, kept still, and looked beyond
+      him. He began to shudder, with delight&mdash;and many emotions. As he
+      gazed, his poetic sensibility acquired such a nervous and indefinable
+      character that he could endure it no more; he burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a few
+      moments more he was plunged back into total darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared. It too was transfigured into
+      a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the details of its face and
+      body, because of the brightness of the light that radiated from them. This
+      light, which started as pale gold, ended as flaming golden fire. It
+      illumined the whole underground landscape. The rock ledges, the cliffs,
+      himself and Corpang on their knees, the two unlighted statues&mdash;all
+      appeared as if in sunlight, and the shadows were black and strongly
+      defined. The light carried heat with it, but a singular heat. Maskull was
+      unaware of any rise in temperature, but he felt his heart melting to
+      womanish softness. His male arrogance and egotism faded imperceptibly
+      away; his personality seemed to disappear. What was left behind was not
+      freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionate and nearly savage
+      mental state of pity and distress. He felt a tormenting desire to <i>serve</i>.
+      All this came from the heat of the statue, and was without an object. He
+      glanced anxiously around him, and fastened his eyes on Corpang. He put a
+      hand on his shoulder and aroused him from his praying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know what I am feeling, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to
+      the invisible worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light to die
+      away from the landscape. Maskull&rsquo;s emotion slowly subsided, but it
+      was not until he was once more in complete darkness that he became master
+      of himself again. Then he felt ashamed of his boyish exhibition of
+      enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be something wanting in
+      his character. He got up onto his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The very moment that he arose, a man&rsquo;s voice sounded, not a yard
+      from his ear. It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could
+      distinguish that it was not Corpang&rsquo;s. As he listened he was unable
+      to prevent himself from physically trembling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, you are to die,&rdquo; said the unseen speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have only a few hours of life left. Don&rsquo;t trifle the time
+      away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could bring nothing out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have despised life,&rdquo; went on the low-toned voice. &ldquo;Do
+      you really imagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life is
+      a joke?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice died away. Maskull waited in silence for it to speak again. All
+      remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have taken his
+      departure. Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a sort of
+      catalepsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment he saw one of the statues <i>fading away</i>, from a pale,
+      white glow to darkness. He had not previously seen it shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned. Corpang got
+      up, and shook him out of his trance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around, but saw no third person. &ldquo;Whose statue was
+      the last?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear me speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard your voice, but no one else&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long
+      to live. Leehallfae prophesied the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head. &ldquo;What value do you set on life?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little. But it&rsquo;s a fearful thing all the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your death is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but this warning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped talking. A profound silence reigned. Neither of the two men
+      seemed to know what to do next, or where to go. Then both of them heard
+      the sound of drumming. It was slow, emphatic, and impressive, a long way
+      off and not loud, but against the background of quietness, very marked. It
+      appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of where they
+      were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat
+      quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that sound be?&rdquo; asked Corpang, peering into the
+      obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once again, who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiance
+      was in the air, in the direction of the drumming. It increased in
+      intensity and gradually occupied the whole scene. Things were no longer
+      seen by Their&rsquo;s light, but by this new light. It cast no shadows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly.
+      &ldquo;What fire is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both glanced instinctively at the three statues. In the strange glow
+      they had undergone a change. The face of each figure was clothed in the
+      sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes. &ldquo;What can this
+      mean?&rdquo; he asked a minute later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too,
+      whether he is one person or three.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a shocking
+      sight. &ldquo;Dare we believe this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;You have always served the
+      highest, and you must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that
+      Thire is not the highest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. &ldquo;Life
+      is clearly false&mdash;I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I
+      find&mdash;this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had
+      eternity to practice his cunning in, so it&rsquo;s no wonder if a man can&rsquo;t
+      see straight, even with the best intentions. What have you decided to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drumming seems to be moving away. Will you follow it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where will it take us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps out of Threal altogether.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds to me more real than reality,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+      &ldquo;Tell me, who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of
+      which this world is a distorted copy. Crystalman is life, but Surtur is
+      other than life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has sprung together somehow&mdash;from inspiration, from
+      experience, from conversation with the wise men of your planet. Every hour
+      it grows truer for me and takes a more definite shape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,
+      energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution. &ldquo;I believe
+      you, Maskull. No better proof is required than <i>that</i>. Thire is not
+      the highest; he is even in a certain sense the <i>lowest</i>. Nothing but
+      the thoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits.... I am coming
+      with you&mdash;but don&rsquo;t play the traitor. These signs may be for
+      you, and not for me at all, and if you leave me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I make no promises. I don&rsquo;t ask you to come with me. If you
+      prefer to stay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it,
+      you had better not come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. I shall never forget your service to
+      me... Let us make haste, or we shall lose the sound.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull. They walked fast in the
+      direction of the drumming. For upward of two miles the path went along the
+      ledge without any change of level. The mysterious radiance gradually
+      departed, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal. The rhythmical
+      beats continued, but a very long way ahead&mdash;neither was able to
+      diminish the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of man are you?&rdquo; Corpang suddenly broke out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what respect?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible? How is it
+      that I&rsquo;ve never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my
+      never-ending prayers and mortifications? In what way are you superior to
+      me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hear voices perhaps can&rsquo;t be made a profession,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull. &ldquo;I have a simple and unoccupied mind&mdash;that may
+      be why I sometimes hear things that up to the present you have not been
+      able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to his
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform on
+      the opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to the right,
+      and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a bridge, coming
+      out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line of precipices
+      immediately confronted them. They followed the drumming along the base of
+      these heights, but as they were passing the mouth of a large cave the
+      sound came from its recesses, and they turned their steps inward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This leads to the outer world,&rdquo; remarked Corpang. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      occasionally been there by this passage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that&rsquo;s where it is taking us, no doubt. I confess I shan&rsquo;t
+      be sorry to see sunlight once more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you find time to think of sunlight?&rdquo; asked Corpang with a
+      rough smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love the sun, and perhaps I&rsquo;m rather lacking in the spirit
+      of a zealot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet, for all that, you may get <i>there</i> before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be bitter,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell
+      you another thing. Muspel can&rsquo;t be willed, for the simple reason
+      that Muspel does not concern the will. To will is a property of this
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is your journey for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over
+      the walk, and quite another to run there at top speed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I&rsquo;m not so easily deceived as you think,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang with another smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light persisted in the cave. The path narrowed and became a steep
+      ascent. Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and they had to
+      climb. The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was reminded of the
+      confined dreams of his childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not long afterward, daylight appeared. They hastened to complete the last
+      stage. Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and, all dirty
+      and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on a hillside, bathed
+      in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine. Corpang followed closely at his
+      heels. He was obliged to shield his eyes with his hands for a few minutes,
+      so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell&rsquo;s blinding rays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drum beats have stopped!&rdquo; he exclaimed suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t expect music all the time,&rdquo; answered Maskull
+      dryly. &ldquo;We mustn&rsquo;t be luxurious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But now we have no guide. We&rsquo;re no better off than before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Tormance is a big place. But I have an infallible rule,
+      Corpang. As I come from the south, I always go due north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will take us to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them. &ldquo;I
+      saw these rocks from Matterplay. The mountains look as far off now as they
+      did then, and there&rsquo;s not much of the day left. How far is Lichstorm
+      from here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked away to the distant range. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, but
+      unless a miracle happens we shan&rsquo;t get there tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a feeling,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;that we shall not
+      only get there tonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my
+      life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he sat down passively to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 18. HAUNTE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull sat, Corpang walked restlessly to and fro, swinging his
+      arms. He had lost his staff. His face was inflamed with suppressed
+      impatience, which accentuated its natural coarseness. At last he stopped
+      short in front of Maskull and looked down at him. &ldquo;What do you
+      intend to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced up and idly waved his hand toward the distant mountains.
+      &ldquo;Since we can&rsquo;t walk, we must wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know... How&rsquo;s this, though? Those peaks have
+      changed colour, from red to green.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the lich wind is travelling this way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lich wind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the atmosphere of Lichstorm. It always clings to the
+      mountains, but when the wind blows from the north it comes as far as
+      Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sort of fog, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar sort, for they say it excites the sexual passions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to have lovemaking,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you won&rsquo;t find it so joyous,&rdquo; replied Corpang a
+      little grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me&mdash;these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast fading
+      into obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Passion keeps them from falling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of spirit.
+      &ldquo;What, the love of rock for rock?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is comical, but true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take a closer peep at them presently. Beyond the
+      mountains is Barey, is it not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then the Ocean. But what is the name of that Ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is told only to those who die beside it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the secret so precious, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than two
+      hours of daylight remaining. The air all around them became murky. It was
+      a thin mist, neither damp nor cold. The Lichstorm Range now appeared only
+      as a blur on the sky. The air was electric and tingling, and was exciting
+      in its effect. Maskull felt a sort of emotional inflammation, as though a
+      very slight external cause would serve to overturn his self-control.
+      Corpang stood silent with a mouth like iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That seems to me a good watchtower. Perhaps we shall see something
+      from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his companion&rsquo;s opinion, he began to scramble up
+      the tower, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit. Corpang joined
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to the
+      sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water. Leaving
+      all that, however, Maskull&rsquo;s eyes immediately fastened themselves on
+      a small, boat-shaped object, about two miles away, which was travelling
+      rapidly toward them, suspended only a few feet in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of that?&rdquo; he asked in a tone of
+      astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within two minutes the flying object, whatever it was, had diminished the
+      distance between them by one half. It resembled a boat more and more, but
+      its flight was erratic, rather than smooth; its nose was continually
+      jerking upward and downward, and from side to side. Maskull now made out a
+      man sitting in the stern, and what looked like a large dead animal lying
+      amidships. As the aerial craft drew nearer, he observed a thick, blue haze
+      underneath it, and a similar haze behind, but the front, facing them, was
+      clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here must be what we are waiting for, Corpang. But what on earth
+      carries it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard contemplatively, and then, fearing that they had not
+      been seen, stepped onto the highest rock, bellowed loudly, and made wild
+      motions with his arm. The flying-boat, which was only a few hundred yards
+      distant, slightly altered its course, now heading toward them in a way
+      that left no doubt that the steersman had detected their presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat slackened speed until it was travelling no faster than a walking
+      man, but the irregularity of its movements continued. It was shaped rather
+      queerly. About twenty feet long, its straight sides tapered off from a
+      flat bow, four feet broad, to a sharp-angled stern. The flat bottom was
+      not above ten feet from the ground. It was undecked, and carried only one
+      living occupant; the other object they had distinguished was really the
+      carcass of an animal, of about the size of a large sheep. The blue haze
+      trailing behind the boat appeared to emanate from the glittering point of
+      a short upright pole fastened in the stern. When the craft was within a
+      few feet of them, and they were looking down at it in wonder from above,
+      the man removed this pole and covered the brightly shining tip with a cap.
+      The forward motion then ceased altogether, and the boat began to drift
+      hither and thither, but still it remained suspended in the air, while the
+      haze underneath persisted. Finally the broad side came gently up against
+      the pile of rocks on which they were standing. The steersman jumped ashore
+      and immediately clambered up to meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull offered him a hand, but he refused it disdainfully. He was a young
+      man, of middle height. He wore a close-fitting fur garment. His limbs were
+      quite ordinary, but his trunk was disproportionately long, and he had the
+      biggest and deepest chest that Maskull had ever seen in a man. His
+      hairless face was sharp, pointed, and ugly, with protruding teeth, and a
+      spiteful, grinning expression. His eyes and brows sloped upward. On his
+      forehead was an organ which looked as though it had been mutilated&mdash;it
+      was a mere disagreeable stump of flesh. His hair was short and thin.
+      Maskull could not name the colour of his skin, but it seemed to stand in
+      the same relation to jale as green to red.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once up, the stranger stood for a minute or two, scrutinising the two
+      companions through half-closed lids, all the time smiling insolently.
+      Maskull was all eagerness to exchange words, but did not care to be the
+      first to speak. Corpang stood moodily, a little in the background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What men are you?&rdquo; demanded the aerial navigator at last. His
+      voice was extremely loud, and possessed a most unpleasant timbre. It
+      sounded to Maskull like a large volume of air trying to force its way
+      through a narrow orifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Maskull; my friend is Corpang. He comes from Threal, but where
+      I come from, don&rsquo;t ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Haunte, from Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where may that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half an hour ago I could have shown it to you, but now it has got
+      too murky. It is a mountain in Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning there now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how long will it take to get there in that boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two&mdash;three hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it accommodate us too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, are you for Lichstorm as well? What can you want there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see the sights,&rdquo; responded Maskull with twinkling eyes.
+      &ldquo;But first of all, to dine. I can&rsquo;t remember having eaten all
+      day. You seem to have been hunting to some purpose, so we won&rsquo;t lack
+      for food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte eyed him quizzically. &ldquo;You certainly don&rsquo;t lack
+      impudence. However, I&rsquo;m a man of that sort myself, and it is the
+      sort I prefer. Your friend, now, would probably rather starve than ask a
+      meal of a stranger. He looks to me just like a bewildered toad dragged up
+      out of a dark hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took Corpang&rsquo;s arm, and constrained him to silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been hunting, Haunte?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Matterplay. I had the worst luck&mdash;I speared one wold horse,
+      and there it lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Lichstorm like?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are men there, and there are women there, but there are no
+      men-women, as with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call men-women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Persons of mixed sex, like yourself. In Lichstorm the sexes are
+      pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always regarded myself as a man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely you have; but the test is, do you hate and fear women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, do you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grinned and showed his teeth. &ldquo;Things are different in
+      Lichstorm.... So you want to see the sights?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess I am curious to see your women, for example, after what
+      you say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll introduce you to Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment after making this remark, and then suddenly uttered a
+      great, bass laugh, so that his chest shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us share the joke,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;ll understand it later.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you play pranks with me, I won&rsquo;t stand on ceremony with
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed again. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be the one to play pranks.
+      Sullenbode will be deeply obliged to me. If I don&rsquo;t visit her myself
+      as often as she would like, I&rsquo;m always glad to serve her in other
+      ways.... Well, you shall have your boat ride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull rubbed his nose doubtfully. &ldquo;If the sexes hate one another
+      in your land, is it because passion is weaker, or stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In other parts of the world there is soft passion, but in Lichstorm
+      there is hard passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you call hard passion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where men are called to women by pain, and not pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I intend to understand, before I&rsquo;ve finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Haunte, with a taunting look, &ldquo;it would
+      be a pity to let the chance slip, since you&rsquo;re going to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Corpang&rsquo;s turn to take Maskull by the arm. &ldquo;This
+      journey will end badly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your goal was Muspel a short while ago; now it is women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me alone,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Give luck a slack rein.
+      What brought this boat here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this talk about Muspel?&rdquo; demanded Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang caught his shoulder roughly, and stared straight into his eyes.
+      &ldquo;What do you know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much, but something, perhaps. Ask me at supper. Now it is high
+      time to start. Navigating the mountains by night isn&rsquo;t child&rsquo;s
+      play, let me tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not forget,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed down at the boat. &ldquo;Are we to get in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, my friend. It&rsquo;s only canework and skin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First of all, you might enlighten me as to how you have contrived
+      to dispense with the laws of gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte smiled sarcastically. &ldquo;A secret in your ear, Maskull. All
+      laws are female. A true male is an outlaw&mdash;outside the law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great body of the earth is continually giving out female
+      particles, and the male parts of rocks and living bodies are equally
+      continually trying to reach them. That&rsquo;s gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how do you manage with your boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My two male stones do the work. The one underneath the boat
+      prevents it from falling to the ground; the one in the stern shuts it off
+      from solid objects in the rear. The only part of the boat attracted by any
+      part of the earth is the bow, for that&rsquo;s the only part the light of
+      the male stones does not fall on. So in that direction the boat travels.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what are these wondrous male stones?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They really are male stones. There is nothing female in them; they
+      are showering out male sparks all the time. These sparks devour all the
+      female particles rising from the earth. No female particles are left over
+      to attract the male parts of the boat, and so they are not in the least
+      attracted in that direction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull ruminated for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your hunting, and boatbuilding, and science, you seem a very
+      handy, skilful fellow, Haunte.... But the sun&rsquo;s sinking, and we&rsquo;d
+      better start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get down first, then, and shift that carcass farther forward. Then
+      you and your gloomy friend can sit amidships.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately climbed down, and dropped himself into the boat; but
+      then he received a surprise. The moment he stood on the frail bottom,
+      still clinging to the rock, not only did his weight entirely disappear, as
+      though he were floating in some heavy medium, like salt water, but the
+      rock he held onto drew him, as by a mild current of electricity, and he
+      was able to withdraw his hands only with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the first moment&rsquo;s shock, he quietly accepted the new order of
+      things, and set about shifting the carcass. Since there was no weight in
+      the boat this was effected without any great labour. Corpang then
+      descended. The astonishing physical change had no power to disturb his
+      settled composure, which was founded on moral ideas. Haunte came last;
+      grasping the staff which held the upper male stone, he proceeded to erect
+      it, after removing the cap. Maskull then obtained his first near view of
+      the mysterious light, which, by counteracting the forces of Nature, acted
+      indirectly not only as elevator but as motive force. In the last ruddy
+      gleams of the great sun, its rays were obscured, and it looked little more
+      impressive than an extremely brilliant, scintillating blue-white jewel,
+      but its power could be gauged by the visible, coloured mist that it threw
+      out for many yards around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steering was effected by means of a shutter attached by a cord to the
+      top of the staff, which could be so manipulated that any segment of the
+      male stone&rsquo;s rays, or all the rays, or none at all, could be shut
+      off at will. No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial vessel quietly
+      detached itself from the rock to which it had been drawn, and passed
+      slowly forward in the direction of the mountains. Branchspell sank below
+      the horizon. The gathering mist blotted out everything outside a radius of
+      a few miles. The air grew cool and fresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon the rock masses ceased on the great, rising plain. Haunte withdrew
+      the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,&rdquo;
+      exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;I would have thought it impossible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grunted. &ldquo;You will have to take risks, and think yourself
+      fortunate if you come off with nothing worse than a cracked skull. But one
+      thing I can tell you&mdash;if you go on disturbing me with your chitchat
+      we shan&rsquo;t get as far as the mountains.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereafter Maskull was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The twilight deepened; the murk grew denser. There was little to look at,
+      but much to feel. The motion of the boat, which was due to the
+      never-ending struggle between the male stones and the force of
+      gravitation, resembled in an exaggerated fashion the violent tossing of a
+      small craft on a choppy sea. The two passengers became unhappy. Haunte,
+      from his seat in the stern, gazed at them sardonically with one eye. The
+      darkness now came on rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About ninety minutes after the commencement of the voyage they arrived at
+      the foothills of Lichstorm. They began to mount. There was no daylight
+      left to see by. Beneath them, however, on both sides of them and in the
+      rear, the landscape was lighted up for a considerable distance by the now
+      vivid blue rays of the twin male stones. Ahead, where these rays did not
+      shine, Haunte was guided by the self-luminous nature of the rocks, grass,
+      and trees. These were faintly phosphorescent; the vegetation shone out
+      more strongly than the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was not shining and there were no stars; Maskull therefore
+      inferred that the upper atmosphere was dense with mist. Once or twice,
+      from his sensations of choking, he thought that they were entering a
+      fogbank, but it was a strange kind of fog, for it had the effect of
+      doubling the intensity of every light in front of them. Whenever this
+      happened, nightmare feelings attacked him; he experienced transitory,
+      unreasoning fright and horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they passed high above the valley that separated the foothills from
+      the mountains themselves. The boat began an ascent of many thousands of
+      feet and, as the cliffs were near, Haunte had to manoeuvre carefully with
+      the rear light in order to keep clear of them. Maskull watched the
+      delicacy of his movements, not without admiration. A long time went by. It
+      grew much colder; the air was damp and drafty. The fog began to deposit
+      something like snow on their persons. Maskull kept sweating with terror,
+      not because of the danger they were in, but because of the cloud banks
+      that continued to envelop them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They cleared the first line of precipices. Still mounting, but this time
+      with a forward motion, as could be seen by the vapours illuminated by the
+      male stones through which they passed, they were soon altogether out of
+      sight of solid ground. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly the moon broke
+      through. In the upper atmosphere thick masses of fog were seen crawling
+      hither and thither, broken in many places by thin rifts of sky, through
+      one of which Teargeld was shining. Below them, to their left, a gigantic
+      peak, glittering with green ice, showed itself for a few seconds, and was
+      then swallowed up again. All the rest of the world was hidden by the mist.
+      The moon went in again. Maskull had seen quite enough to make him long for
+      the aerial voyage to end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light from the male stones presently illuminated the face of a new
+      cliff. It was grand, rugged, and perpendicular. Upward, downward, and on
+      both sides, it faded imperceptibly into the night. After coasting it a
+      little way, they observed a shelf of rock jutting out. It was square,
+      measuring about a dozen feet each way. Green snow covered it to a depth of
+      some inches. Immediately behind it was a dark slit in the rock, which
+      promised to be the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte skilfully landed the boat on this platform. Standing up, he raised
+      the staff bearing the keel light and lowered the other; then removed both
+      male stones, which he continued to hold in his hand. His face was thrown
+      into strong relief by the vivid, sparkling blue-white rays. It looked
+      rather surly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we get out?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I live here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for the successful end of a dangerous journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it has been touch-and-go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang jumped onto the platform. He was smiling coarsely. &ldquo;There
+      has been no danger, for our destinies lie elsewhere. You are merely a
+      ferryman, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that so?&rdquo; returned Haunte, with a most unpleasant laugh.
+      &ldquo;I thought I was carrying men, not gods.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are we?&rdquo; asked Maskull. As he spoke, he got out, but
+      Haunte remained standing a minute in the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is Sarclash&mdash;the second highest mountain in the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the highest, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adage. Between Sarclash and Adage there is a long ridge&mdash;very
+      difficult in places. About halfway along the ridge, at the lowest point,
+      lies the top of the Mornstab Pass, which goes through to Barey. Now you
+      know the lay of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the woman Sullenbode live near here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Near enough.&rdquo; Haunte grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He leaped out of the boat and, pushing past the others without ceremony,
+      walked straight into the cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull followed, with Corpang at his heels. A few stone steps led to a
+      doorway, curtained by the skin of some large beast. Their host pushed his
+      way in, never offering to hold the skin aside for them. Maskull made no
+      comment, but grabbed it with his fist and tugged it away from its
+      fastenings to the ground. Haunte looked at the skin, and then stared hard
+      at Maskull with his disagreeable smile, but neither said anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place in which they found themselves was a large oblong cavern, with
+      walls, floor, and ceiling of natural rock. There were two doorways: that
+      by which they had entered, and another of smaller size directly opposite.
+      The cave was cold and cheerless; a damp draft passed from door to door.
+      Many skins of wild animals lay scattered on the ground. A number of lumps
+      of sun-dried flesh were hanging on a string along the wall, and a few
+      bulging liquor skins reposed in a corner. There were tusks, horns, and
+      bones everywhere. Resting against the wall were two short hunting spears,
+      having beautiful crystal heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte set down the two male stones on the ground, near the farther door;
+      thire light illuminated the whole cave. He then walked over to the meat
+      and, snatching a large piece, began to gnaw it ravenously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we invited to the feast?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte pointed to the hanging flesh and to the liquor skins, but did not
+      pause in his chewing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s a cup?&rdquo; inquired Maskull, lifting one of the
+      skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte indicated a clay goblet lying on the floor. Maskull picked it up,
+      undid the neck of the skin, and, resting it under his arm, filled the cup.
+      Tasting the liquor, he discovered it to be raw spirit. He tossed off the
+      draught, and then felt much better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second cupful he proffered to Corpang. The latter took a single sip,
+      swallowed it, and then passed the cup back without a word. He refused to
+      drink again, as long as they were in the cave. Maskull finished the cup,
+      and began to throw off care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Going to the meat line, he took down a large double handful, and sat down
+      on a pile of skins to eat at his ease. The flesh was tough and coarse, but
+      he had never tasted anything sweeter. He could not understand the flavour,
+      which was not surprising in a world of strange animals. The meal proceeded
+      in silence. Corpang ate sparingly, standing up, and afterward lay down on
+      a bundle of furs. His bold eyes watched all the movements of the other
+      two. Haunte had not drunk as yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Maskull concluded his meal. He emptied another cup, sighed
+      pleasantly, and prepared to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now explain further about your women, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fetched another skin of liquor and a second cup. He tore off the
+      string with his teeth, and poured out and drank cup after cup in quick
+      succession. Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and turned to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they are objectionable?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are deadly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deadly? In what way can they possibly be deadly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn. I was watching you in the boat, Maskull. You had
+      some bad feelings, eh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t conceal it. There were times when I felt as if I were
+      struggling with a nightmare. What caused it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The female atmosphere of Lichstorm. Sexual passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had no passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>was</i> passion&mdash;the first stage. Nature tickles your
+      people into marriage, but it tortures us. Wait till you get outside. You&rsquo;ll
+      have a return of those sensations&mdash;only ten times worse. The drink
+      you&rsquo;ve had will see to that.... How do you suppose it will all end?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I knew, I wouldn&rsquo;t be asking you questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed loudly. &ldquo;Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean it will end in my seeking Sullenbode?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what will come of it, Maskull? What will she give you? Sweet,
+      fainting, white-armed, feminine voluptuousness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull coolly drank another cup. &ldquo;And why should she give all that
+      to a passerby?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, as a matter of fact, she hasn&rsquo;t it to give. No, what
+      she will give you, and what you&rsquo;ll accept from her, because you can&rsquo;t
+      help it, is&mdash;anguish, insanity, possibly death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be talking sense, but it sounds like raving to me. Why
+      should I accept insanity and death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because your passion will force you to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about yourself?&rdquo; Maskull asked, biting his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have my male stones. I am immune.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all that prevents you from being like other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but don&rsquo;t attempt any tricks, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went on drinking steadily, and said nothing for a time. &ldquo;So
+      men and women here are hostile to each other, and love is unknown?&rdquo;
+      he proceeded at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That magic word.... Shall I tell you what love is, Maskull? Love
+      between male and female is impossible. When Maskull loves a woman, it is
+      Maskull&rsquo;s female ancestors who are loving her. But here in this land
+      the men are pure males. They have drawn nothing from the female side.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do the male stones come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, they are not freaks. There must be whole beds of the stuff
+      somewhere. It is all that prevents the world from being a pure female
+      world. It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without individual
+      shapes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The life of an absolute male is fierce. An excess of life is
+      dangerous to the body. How can it be anything else than torturing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte. &ldquo;I remind you of
+      your promise to tell about Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile. &ldquo;Ha! The underground
+      man has come to life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, tell us,&rdquo; put in Maskull carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte drank, and laughed a little. &ldquo;Well, the tale&rsquo;s short,
+      and hardly worth telling, but since you&rsquo;re interested.... A stranger
+      came here five years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light. His name was Lodd.
+      He came from the east. He came up to me one bright morning in summer,
+      outside this very cave. If you ask me to describe him&mdash;I can&rsquo;t
+      imagine a second man like him. He looked so proud, noble, superior, that I
+      felt my own blood to be dirty by comparison. You can guess I don&rsquo;t
+      have this feeling for everyone. Now that I am recalling him, he was not so
+      much superior as different. I was so impressed that I rose and talked to
+      him standing. He inquired the direction of the mountain Adage. He went on
+      to say, &lsquo;They say Muspel-light is sometimes seen there. What do you
+      know of such a thing?&rsquo; I told him the truth&mdash;that I knew
+      nothing about it, and then he went on, &lsquo;Well, I am going to Adage.
+      And tell those who come after me on the same errand that they had better
+      do the same thing.&rsquo; That was the whole conversation. He started on
+      his way, and I&rsquo;ve never seen him or heard of him since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you didn&rsquo;t have the curiosity to follow him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in
+      the man somehow seemed to vanish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably because he was useless to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang glanced at Maskull. &ldquo;Our road is marked out for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it would appear,&rdquo; said Maskull indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and grew
+      restless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
+      daylight? It struck me as strange.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolm,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A compound of ulfire and blue,&rdquo; explained Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I know. These colours are puzzling for a stranger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What colours have you in your world?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how
+      it comes about I can&rsquo;t imagine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two sets of three primary colours here,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang, &ldquo;but as one of the colours&mdash;blue&mdash;is identical in
+      both sets, altogether there are five primary colours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why two sets?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Produced by the two suns. Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and
+      red; Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me
+      before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity of
+      nature. Blue is existence. It is darkness seen through light; a
+      contrasting of existence and nothingness. Yellow is relation. In yellow
+      light we see the relation of objects in the clearest way. Red is feeling.
+      When we see red, we are thrown back on our personal feelings.... As
+      regards the Alppain colours, blue stands in the middle and is therefore
+      not existence, but relation. Ulfire is existence; so it must be a
+      different sort of existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte yawned. &ldquo;There are marvellous philosophers in your
+      underground hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up and looked about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does that other door lead to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better explore,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging the
+      curtain aside and disappearing into the night. Haunte rose abruptly and
+      hurried after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang too got to his feet. He went over to the untouched spirit skins,
+      untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to the floor.
+      Next he took the hunting spears, and snapped off the points between his
+      hands. Before he had time to resume his seat, Haunte and Maskull
+      reappeared. The host&rsquo;s quick, shifty eyes at once took in what had
+      happened. He smiled, and turned pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t been idle, friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fixed Haunte with his bold, heavy gaze. &ldquo;I thought it well
+      to draw your teeth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull burst out laughing. &ldquo;The toad&rsquo;s come into the light to
+      some purpose, Haunte. Who would have expected it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte, after staring hard at Corpang for two or three minutes, suddenly
+      uttered a strange cry, like an evil spirit, and flung himself upon him.
+      The two men began to wrestle like wildcats. They were as often on the
+      floor as on their legs, and Maskull could not see who was getting the
+      better of it. He made no attempt to separate them. A thought came into his
+      head and, snatching up the two male stones, he ran with them, laughing,
+      through the upper doorway, into the open night air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door overlooked an abyss on another face of the mountain. A narrow
+      ledge, sprinkled with green snow, wound along the cliff to the right; it
+      was the only available path. He pitched the pebbles over the edge of the
+      chasm. Although hard and heavy in his hand, they sank more like feathers
+      than stones, and left a long trail of vapour behind. While Maskull was
+      still watching them disappear, Haunte came rushing out of the cavern,
+      followed by Corpang. He gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What in Krag&rsquo;s name have you done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Overboard they have gone,&rdquo; replied Maskull, renewing his
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You accursed madman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
+      light were breathing. Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme exertion of
+      his will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know this kills me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you been doing your best this last hour to make me
+      ripe for Sullenbode? Well then, cheer up, and join the pleasure party!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say it as a joke, but it is the miserable truth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s jeering malevolence had completely vanished. He looked a
+      sick man&mdash;yet somehow his face had become nobler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would be very sorry for you, Haunte, if it did not entail my
+      being also very sorry for myself. We are now all three together on the
+      same errand&mdash;which doesn&rsquo;t appear to have struck you yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why this errand at all?&rdquo; asked Corpang quietly. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t
+      you men exercise self-control till you have arrived out of danger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fixed him with wild eyes. &ldquo;No. The phantoms come trooping in
+      on me already.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down moodily, but the next minute was up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I cannot wait.... the game is started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon afterward, by silent consent, they began to walk the ledge, Haunte in
+      front. It was narrow, ascending, and slippery, so that extreme caution was
+      demanded. The way was lighted by the self-luminous snow and rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had covered about half a mile, Maskull, who went second of the
+      party, staggered, caught the cliff, and finally sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drink works. My old sensations are returning, but worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned back. &ldquo;Then you are a doomed man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation, imagined
+      that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless, supernatural being, who
+      was trying to clasp him. He was filled with horror, trembled violently,
+      yet could not move a limb. Sweat tumbled off his face in great drops. The
+      waking nightmare lasted a long time, but during that space it kept coming
+      and going. At one moment the vision seemed on the point of departing; the
+      next it almost took shape&mdash;which he knew would be his death. Suddenly
+      it vanished altogether&mdash;he was free. A fresh spring breeze fanned his
+      face; he heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet bird; and it seemed
+      to him as if a poem had shot together in his soul. Such flashing,
+      heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all his life! Almost
+      immediately that too vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly, like
+      one who has been visited by an angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your colour changed to white,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;What
+      happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I passed through torture to love,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up. Haunte gazed at him sombrely. &ldquo;Will you not describe
+      that passage?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully. &ldquo;When I was in Matterplay,
+      I saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured, living
+      animals. In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now seemed to
+      consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of joy. The joy
+      would not have been possible without the preliminary nightmare. It is not
+      accidental; Nature intends it so. The truth has just flashed through my
+      brain.... You men of Lichstorm don&rsquo;t go far enough. You stop at the
+      pangs, without realising that they are birth pangs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this is true, you are a great pioneer,&rdquo; muttered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does this sensation differ from common love?&rdquo;
+      interrogated Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fingered his chin awhile. &ldquo;The Lichstorm men, however, will
+      never reach this stage, for they are too masculine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned pale. &ldquo;Why should we alone suffer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature is freakish and cruel, and doesn&rsquo;t act according to
+      justice.... Follow us, Haunte, and escape from it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; muttered Haunte. &ldquo;Perhaps I will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have we far to go, to Sullenbode?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, her home&rsquo;s under the hanging cap of Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to happen tonight?&rdquo; Maskull spoke to himself, but
+      Haunte answered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t expect anything pleasant, in spite of what has just
+      occurred. She is not a woman, but a mass of pure sex. Your passion will
+      draw her out into human shape, but only for a moment. If the change were
+      permanent, you would have endowed her with a soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the change might be made permanent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To do that, it is not enough to desire her; she must desire you as
+      well. But why should she desire you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing turns out as one expects,&rdquo; said Maskull, shaking his
+      head. &ldquo;We had better get on again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They resumed the journey. The ledge still rose, but, on turning a corner
+      of the cliff, Haunte quitted it and began to climb a steep gully, which
+      mounted directly to the upper heights. Here they were compelled to use
+      both hands and feet. Maskull thought all the while of nothing but the
+      overwhelming sweetness he had just experienced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flat ground on top was dry and springy. There was no more snow, and
+      bright plants appeared. Haunte turned sharply to the left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be under the cap,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is; and within five minutes you will see Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he spoke his words, Maskull&rsquo;s lips surprised him by their
+      tender sensitiveness. Their action against each other sent thrills
+      throughout his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grass shone dimly. A huge tree, with glowing branches, came into
+      sight. It bore a multitude of red fruit, like hanging lanterns, but no
+      leaves. Underneath this tree Sullenbode was sitting. Her beautiful light&mdash;a
+      mingling of jale and white&mdash;gleamed softly through the darkness. She
+      sat erect, on crossed legs, asleep. She was clothed in a singular skin
+      garment, which started as a cloak thrown over one shoulder, and ended as
+      loose breeches terminating above the knees. Her forearms were lightly
+      folded, and in one hand she held a half-eaten fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood over her and looked down, deeply interested. He thought he
+      had never seen anything half so feminine. Her flesh was almost melting in
+      its softness. So undeveloped were the facial organs that they looked
+      scarcely human; only the lips were full, pouting, and expressive. In their
+      richness, these lips seemed like a splash of vivid will on a background of
+      slumbering protoplasm. Her hair was undressed. Its colour could not be
+      distinguished. It was long and tangled, and had been tucked into her
+      garment behind, for convenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly agitated.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart was hammering away under his chest. Haunte pulled
+      him, and said, &ldquo;My head feels as if it were being torn from my
+      shoulders.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet there&rsquo;s a horrible joy in it,&rdquo; added Haunte, with a
+      sickly smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his hand on the woman&rsquo;s shoulder. She awoke softly, glanced
+      up at them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit. Maskull did not
+      imagine that she had intelligence enough to speak. Haunte suddenly dropped
+      on his knees, and kissed her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not repulse him. During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull
+      noticed with a shock that her face was altering. The features emerged from
+      their indistinctness and became human, and almost powerful. The smile
+      faded, a scowl took its place. She thrust Haunte away, rose to her feet,
+      and stared beneath bent brows at the three men, each one in turn. Maskull
+      came last; his face she studied for quite a long time, but nothing
+      indicated what she thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning. She
+      suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he
+      fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with
+      an electric wire. The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay there
+      motionless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang sprang forward to his assistance. But, when he saw what had
+      happened, he left him where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, come here quickly!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte&rsquo;s skin, as Maskull bent
+      over. The man was dead. His face was unrecognisable. The head had been
+      split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with
+      strange-coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an
+      axe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This couldn&rsquo;t be from the fall,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sullenbode did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman. She had resumed her former
+      attitude on the ground. The momentary intelligence had vanished from her
+      face, and she was again smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 19. SULLENBODE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the
+      clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless,
+      smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang spoke out of the night. &ldquo;She looks like an evil spirit
+      filled with deadliness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was like deliberately kissing lightning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte was insane with passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So am I,&rdquo; said Maskull quietly. &ldquo;My body seems full of
+      rocks, all grinding against one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is what I was afraid of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears I shall have to kiss her too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang pulled his arm. &ldquo;Have you lost all manliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at his
+      beard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this had
+      gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and
+      lifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the rugged tree
+      trunk, he kissed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame. He thought that it was
+      death, and lost consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder with
+      one hand at arm&rsquo;s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes. At
+      first he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but
+      another. Then he gradually realised that her face was identical with that
+      which Haunte&rsquo;s action had called into existence. A great calmness
+      came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul. Her skin was firm, her
+      features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.
+      She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements. Her
+      face was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth
+      crossed the lower half like a gash of fire. The lips were as voluptuous as
+      before. Her brows were heavy. There was nothing vulgar in her&mdash;she
+      looked the <i>kingliest</i> of all women. She appeared not more than
+      twenty-five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little way
+      and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth into a
+      long, bowlike smile. &ldquo;Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull felt himself in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She motioned to him to come a step nearer. &ldquo;Listen, Maskull. Man
+      after man has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me there,
+      for I did not wish it. But now you have drawn me into it for all time, for
+      good or evil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and said
+      quietly, &ldquo;What have you to say about <i>him</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that was Haunte. The news will travel far and wide. He was a
+      famous man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a horrible affair. I can&rsquo;t think that you killed
+      him deliberately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our only
+      protection. We do not want these visits; we loathe them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might have died, too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came together?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were three of us. Corpang still stands over there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see a faintly glimmering form. What do you want of me, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go away, and leave me with Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No need, Corpang. I am coming with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not that pleasure, then?&rdquo; demanded the low, earnest
+      voice, out of the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that pleasure has not returned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode gripped his arm hard. &ldquo;What pleasure are you speaking of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you feel now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Calm and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling
+      sea of elemental passions. &ldquo;I do not know how it will end, Maskull,
+      but we will still keep together a little. Where are you going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Adage,&rdquo; said Corpang, stepping forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to
+      find Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the light of another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The quest is grand. But cannot women see that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one condition,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;They must forget
+      their sex. Womanhood and love belong to life, while Muspel is above life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I give you all other men,&rdquo; said Sullenbode. &ldquo;Maskull is
+      mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to remind him of
+      the existence of nobler things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a good man. But you two alone will never strike the road to
+      Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you acquainted with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the woman gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;What is love&mdash;which
+      Corpang despises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode went on, &ldquo;Love is that
+      which is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the sake
+      of the beloved.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang wrinkled his forehead. &ldquo;A magnanimous female lover is new in
+      my experience.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, &ldquo;Are
+      you contemplating a sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gazed at her feet, and smiled. &ldquo;What does it matter what my
+      thoughts are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest
+      first? It&rsquo;s a rough road to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in your mind?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash
+      and Adage, perhaps I shall turn back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak,
+      but if it is dark it&rsquo;s hardly likely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not what I meant. What will become of you after we
+      have parted company?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall return somewhere&mdash;perhaps here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better. &ldquo;Shall
+      you sink back into&mdash;the old state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, thank heaven.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how will you live?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. There
+      was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. &ldquo;And who said I would go
+      on living?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before he
+      spoke again. &ldquo;You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can&rsquo;t
+      leave you like this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us
+      go.... Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others&mdash;who
+      aren&rsquo;t so single-minded&mdash;can do is to help him to his
+      destination. We mustn&rsquo;t inquire whether the destination of
+      single-minded men is as a rule worth arriving at.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gave a wry smile. &ldquo;During your long sleep you appear to have
+      picked up wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can we not bury that poor fellow?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not
+      include Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I
+      am the real murderer. I stole his protecting light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.&rdquo;
+      They left the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three
+      men had arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the
+      same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,
+      pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies
+      shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but
+      Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.
+      They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
+      fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an
+      alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
+      maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a false
+      step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right. After a
+      while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground, and they
+      seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The ascending slope on
+      the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards more. Then Sullenbode
+      bore sharply to the left, and they found level ground all around them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are on the ridge,&rdquo; announced the woman, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst through
+      the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was
+      quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining down
+      on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide, smoothly
+      descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage, though Adage
+      itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred yards wide. It
+      was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but in other places
+      the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From where they stood
+      they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath. On
+      the right hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct.
+      There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of Barey.
+      But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty pinnacles, near and
+      far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight. All glittered green, and
+      all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps that characterised the
+      Lichstorm range. These caps were of fantastic shapes, and each one was
+      different. The valley directly opposite them was filled with rolling mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two
+      ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or more of
+      empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood. The
+      southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of the mountain
+      where Haunte&rsquo;s cave was situated. The connecting curve was the steep
+      slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a few
+      summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over the
+      south side of the horseshoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw her
+      for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on his lips.
+      The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and the face,
+      pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almost
+      beautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hair was
+      a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that she
+      resembled a spirit, rather than a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What puzzles you?&rdquo; she asked, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you never will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life must be most solitary.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. &ldquo;Why
+      do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means
+      I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode laughed outright. &ldquo;It assuredly does not mean the
+      approach of night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
+      broke in. &ldquo;The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I&rsquo;ll
+      go on alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we&rsquo;ll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little way,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;but not to Adage, to
+      pit my strength against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know
+      how to renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang
+      is as ignorant as myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked him full in the face. &ldquo;Maskull, you are quite well
+      aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of a
+      beautiful woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. &ldquo;What Corpang doesn&rsquo;t tell you,
+      Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than he,
+      and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be saying his
+      prayers in Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, what he says must be true,&rdquo; she replied, looking from
+      one to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so I am not to be allowed to&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not
+      backward, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need not quarrel yet,&rdquo; he remarked, with a forced smile.
+      &ldquo;No doubt things will straighten themselves out.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. &ldquo;I picked up
+      another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell it to me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed their
+      strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but the
+      law-abiders live at their ease&mdash;they have conquered nothing for
+      themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and
+      perfect. You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were
+      abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
+      comparatively smooth. The freezing point seemed higher than on Earth, for
+      the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt almost warm to
+      their naked feet. Maskull&rsquo;s soles were by now like tough hides. The
+      moonlit snow was green and dazzling. Their slanting, abbreviated shadows
+      were sharply defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked on
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s right hand, looked constantly to the left, toward the
+      galaxy of glorious distant peaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot belong to this world,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Men
+      of your stamp are not to be looked for here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have come here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that larger than our world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smaller, I think. Small, and overcrowded with men and women. With
+      all those people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and
+      therefore the laws are of iron. As adventure would be impossible without
+      encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of adventure
+      among the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do men hate women there, and women men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful. So poignant
+      is the sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open eyes.
+      There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion.
+      But now say&mdash;why did you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longer
+      interested me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long have you been in this world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the end of my fourth day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days.
+      You cannot have been inactive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great misfortunes have happened to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from the
+      moment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert. Sullenbode listened,
+      with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time. Only twice did
+      she interrupt him. After his description of Tydomin&rsquo;s death, she
+      said, speaking in a low voice&mdash;&ldquo;None of us women ought by right
+      of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one act of hers,
+      I almost love her, although she brought evil to your door.&rdquo; Again,
+      speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, &ldquo;That grand-souled girl I admire
+      the most of all. She listened to her inner voice, and to nothing else
+      besides. Which of us others is strong enough for that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, &ldquo;Does it not strike
+      you, Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than the
+      men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recognise that. We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for a
+      substantial cause. For you women almost any cause will serve. You love the
+      sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are naturally noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so sweet,
+      that he was struck into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he said, &ldquo;Now
+      you understand the sort of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scant
+      pity for anyone&mdash;Oh, it has been a bloody journey!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laid her hand on his arm. &ldquo;I, for one, would not have it less
+      rugged.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing good can be said of my crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not
+      what.... The grandest that life holds.... You at least have no cause to
+      look up to women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Sullenbode!&rdquo; he responded, with a troubled smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is thrown out of
+      your road. You go on, looking neither to right nor left.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care that you are not thrown as well,&rdquo; said Corpang
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull! And for
+      whatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a heart you have a bag
+      of loose dust. Someone has described love to you. You have had it
+      described to you. You have heard that it is a small, fearful, selfish joy.
+      It is not that&mdash;it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, and
+      bloody.... How should you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selfishness has far too many disguises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only do not deceive yourself. Act decisively, or fate will be too
+      swift for you both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode studied him through her lashes. &ldquo;Do you mean death&mdash;his
+      death as well as mine?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go too far, Corpang,&rdquo; said Maskull, turning a shade
+      darker. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers. &ldquo;I wish you to
+      stay with us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you may know what you are talking about. I don&rsquo;t wish
+      to bring harm to Maskull. Presently I&rsquo;ll leave you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be best,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked angry. &ldquo;I shall decide&mdash;Sullenbode, whether you
+      go on, or back, I stay with you. My mind is made up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her efforts
+      to conceal it. &ldquo;Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered brows.
+      After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly. &ldquo;Wait, Sullenbode!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the woman
+      smiled. Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her lips. Then he
+      relinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hereafter, never dare to come between us. Sullenbode belongs to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I say no more; but you are a fated man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A heavy gleam appeared in the woman&rsquo;s eyes. &ldquo;Now things are
+      changed, Maskull. Where are you taking me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose, you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man I love must complete his journey. I won&rsquo;t have it
+      otherwise. You shall not stand lower than Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you go, I will go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I&mdash;as long as your love endures, I will accompany you&mdash;even
+      to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you doubt its lasting?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I refused to tell you
+      before. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love me no
+      longer, I must die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why?&rdquo; asked Maskull slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s the responsibility you incurred when you kissed
+      me for the first time. I never meant to tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no other life but what you give me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowly
+      placed his arms around her body. During this embrace he turned very pale,
+      but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky and
+      nearer the south. They had descended many hundred feet, and the character
+      of the ridge began to alter for the worse. The thin snow disappeared, and
+      gave way to moist, boggy ground. It was all little grassy hillocks and
+      marshes. They began to slip about and become draggled with mud.
+      Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and the men followed in her
+      tracks. The southern half of the landscape grew grander. The greenish
+      light of the brilliant moon, shining on the multitude of snow-green peaks,
+      caused it to appear like a spectral world. Their nearest neighbour towered
+      high above them on the other side of the valley, due south, some five
+      miles distant. It was a slender, inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock,
+      the angles of which were too steep to retain snow. A great upward-curving
+      horn of rock sprang out from its topmost pinnacle. For a long time it
+      constituted their cheif landmark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture. The surface soil
+      was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed in the damp mists
+      by night, and breathed them out again by day, under Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays. The walking grew first unpleasant, then difficult, and finally
+      dangerous. None of the party could distinguish firm ground from bog.
+      Sullenbode sank up to her waist in a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her,
+      but after this incident took the lead himself. Corpang was the next to
+      meet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he tumbled into
+      liquid mud up to his shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death. After
+      Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded once more;
+      but now the scramble changed from bad to worse. Each step had to be
+      thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so the test
+      frequently failed. All of them went in so often, that in the end they no
+      longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plastered from top to
+      toe with black filth. The hardest work fell to Maskull. He not only had
+      the exhausting task of beating the way, but was continually called upon to
+      help his companions out of their difficulties. Without him they could not
+      have got through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.
+      Corpang&rsquo;s breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless,
+      and depressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at them doubtfully. &ldquo;Does this continue?&rdquo; he
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I think,&rdquo; replied the woman, &ldquo;we can&rsquo;t be far
+      from the Mornstab Pass. After that we shall begin to climb again, and then
+      the road will improve perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you have been here before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are tired out, Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of it?&rdquo; she replied, smiling faintly. &ldquo;When one
+      has a terrible lover, one must pay the price.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter we
+      come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I leave it to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paced up and down, while the others sat. &ldquo;Do you regret anything?&rdquo;
+      he demanded suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, nothing. I regret nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your feelings are unchanged?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love can&rsquo;t go back&mdash;it can only go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eternally on. It is so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t mean that. There is a climax, but when the climax
+      has been reached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a dreadful creed,&rdquo; he said in a low voice,
+      turning pale beneath his coating of mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don&rsquo;t know
+      what I feel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journey
+      recommenced. Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to drain
+      off the moisture of the soil. Sullenbode led them to the northern edge of
+      the ridge, to show them the nature of the country. The pass was nothing
+      but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the ridge, where it was the
+      lowest above the underlying land. A series of huge broken terraces of
+      earth and rock descended toward Barey. They were overgrown with stunted
+      vegetation. It was quite possible to get down to the lowlands that way,
+      but rather difficult. On either side of the landslip, to east and west,
+      the ridge came down in a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs. A low haze
+      concealed Barey from view. Complete stillness was in the air, broken only
+      by the distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country. The
+      moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as an Earth
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight is like life,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;Poor girl, you are unhappy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you&mdash;are you happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought a while, and then replied&mdash;&ldquo;No. No, I&rsquo;m not
+      happy. Love is not happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Restlessness&mdash;unshed tears&mdash;thoughts too grand for our
+      soul to think...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time she asked, &ldquo;Why were we created, just to live for a few
+      years and then disappear?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are told that we shall live again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps in Muspel,&rdquo; he added thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of life will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious a
+      thing to remain uncompleted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. &ldquo;This dream is
+      untrue. Love is completed here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by
+      Fate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is completed by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be enjoyment
+      for us? Can&rsquo;t we suffer&mdash;can&rsquo;t we go on suffering,
+      forever and ever? Maskull, until love crushes our spirit, finally and
+      without remedy, we don&rsquo;t begin to feel ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression. &ldquo;Can the memory of
+      love be worth more than its presence and reality?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t understand. Those pangs are more precious than all
+      the rest beside.&rdquo; She caught at him. &ldquo;Oh, if you could only
+      see inside my mind, Maskull! You would see strange things.... I can&rsquo;t
+      explain. It is all confused, even to myself.... This love is quite
+      different from what I thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sighed again. &ldquo;Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong
+      for human beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in different
+      ways.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them with
+      unseeing eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said Sullenbode at last, with a
+      smile, getting up. &ldquo;Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come,
+      let us be off!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull too got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Corpang?&rdquo; he asked listlessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage. At the point
+      where they stood it was nearly a mile wide. It sloped perceptibly toward
+      the southern edge, giving all the earth the appearance of a heavy list.
+      Toward the west the ground continued level for a thousand yards, but then
+      a high, sloping, grassy hill went right across the ridge from side to
+      side, like a vast billow on the verge of breaking. It shut out all further
+      view beyond. The whole crest of this hill, from one end to the other, was
+      crowned by a long row of enormous stone posts, shining brightly in the
+      moonlight against a background of dark sky. There were about thirty in
+      all, and they were placed at such regular intervals that there was little
+      doubt that they had been set there by human hands. Some were
+      perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extreme
+      antiquity was given to the entire colonnade. Corpang was seen climbing the
+      hill, not far from the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wishes to arrive,&rdquo; said Maskull, watching the energetic
+      ascent with a rather cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heavens won&rsquo;t open for Corpang,&rdquo; returned
+      Sullenbode. &ldquo;He need not be in such a hurry.... What do these
+      pillars seem like to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They might be the entrance to some mighty temple. Who can have
+      planted them there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not answer. They watched Corpang gain the summit of the hill, and
+      disappear through the line of posts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned again to Sullenbode. &ldquo;Now we two are alone in a
+      lonely world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She regarded him steadily. &ldquo;Our last night on this earth must be a
+      grand one. I am ready to go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you are fit to go on. It will be better to go
+      down the pass a little, and find shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She half smiled. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t study our poor bodies tonight. I
+      mean you to go to Adage, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long,
+      terrible climb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand to
+      him. &ldquo;Come, Maskull!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had covered half the distance that separated them from the foot
+      of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps. They came from behind the hill,
+      and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He glanced at Sullenbode, but she
+      appeared to hear nothing. A minute later the whole sky behind and above
+      the long chain of stone posts on the crest of the hill began to be
+      illuminated by a strange radiance. The moonlight in that quarter faded;
+      the posts stood out black on a background of fire. It was the light of
+      Muspel. As the moments passed, it grew more and more vivid, peculiar, and
+      awful. It was of no colour, and resembled nothing&mdash;it was
+      supernatural and indescribable. Maskull&rsquo;s spirit swelled. He stood
+      fast, with expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode touched him lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you see, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood. It burned
+      with a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before. He forgot the
+      existence of Sullenbode. The drum beats grew deafeningly loud. Each beat
+      was like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the sky and making
+      the air tremble. Presently the crashes coalesced, and one continuous roar
+      of thunder rocked the world. But the rhythm persisted&mdash;the four
+      beats, with the third accented, still came pulsing through the atmosphere,
+      only now against a background of thunder, and not of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat wildly. His body was like a prison. He longed
+      to throw it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the sublime
+      universe which was beginning to unveil itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissed him&mdash;passionately,
+      again and again. He made no response; he was unaware of what she was
+      doing. She unclasped him and, with bent head and streaming eyes, went
+      noiselessly away. She started to go back toward the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade. The thunder died down.
+      The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside were again
+      bright. In a short time the supernatural light had entirely vanished, but
+      the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled rhythm, from behind the
+      hill. Maskull started violently, and stared around him like a suddenly
+      awakened sleeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards off.
+      At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, calling out....
+      She did not look around. When he had lessened the distance between them by
+      a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and fall. She did not get up again,
+      but lay motionless where she fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flew toward her, and bent over her body. His worst fears were realised.
+      Life had departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly Crystalman
+      grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had never appeared so beautiful
+      to him as at that moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees. He wept&mdash;but,
+      between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time, and
+      listened to the distant drum beats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour passed&mdash;two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west.
+      Maskull lifted Sullenbode&rsquo;s dead body on to his shoulders, and
+      started to walk toward the Pass. He cared no more for Muspel. He intended
+      to look for water in which to wash the corpse of his beloved, and earth in
+      which to bury her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which they
+      had sat together, he lowered his burden, and, placing the dead girl on the
+      stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over toward Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 20. BAREY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskull awoke
+      from his miserable sleep. He sat up and yawned feebly. The air was cool
+      and sweet. Far away down the landslip a bird was singing; the song
+      consisted of only two notes, but it was so plaintive and heartbreaking
+      that he scarcely knew how to endure it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band of
+      chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The atmosphere was blue-tinted,
+      mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash nor Adage was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had descended
+      that distance overnight. The landslip continued downward, like a huge
+      flying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay perhaps fifteen
+      hundred feet beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and the angle was
+      excessively steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mile across. On
+      each side of it, east and west, the dark walls of the ridge descended
+      sheer. At the point where the pass sprang outward they were two thousand
+      feet from top to bottom, but as the ridge went upward, on the one hand
+      toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attained almost
+      unbelievable heights. Despite the great breadth and solidity of the pass,
+      Maskull felt as though he were suspended in midair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away marked
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s grave. He had interred her by the light of the moon,
+      with a long, flat stone for a spade. A little lower down, the white steam
+      of a hot spring was curling about in the twilight. From where he sat he
+      was unable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately flowed, but it
+      was in that pool that he had last night washed first of all the dead girl&rsquo;s
+      body, and then his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him dully.
+      For a long time he eyed the grave. The half-darkness changed by
+      imperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear. The sky
+      was nearly cloudless. The whole wonderful extent of the mighty ridge
+      behind him began to emerge from the morning mist... there was a part of
+      Sarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic Adage itself, which he could
+      only take in by throwing his head right back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul. All his desires
+      were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do nothing. He thought
+      he would go to Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting
+      beside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought that he was dreaming. The man was clothed in a skin shirt
+      and breeches. His face was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyed Maskull
+      without smiling or getting up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where in the devil&rsquo;s name have you come from, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great point is, I am here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not far away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two leave me
+      in such a damnable fashion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were strong enough to get through alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it turned out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you&rsquo;ve
+      timed it well. It seems I am to die today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag scowled. &ldquo;You will die this morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am to, I shall. But where have you heard it from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are ripe for it. You have run through the gamut. What else is
+      there to live for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said Maskull, uttering a short laugh. &ldquo;I am
+      quite ready. I have failed in everything. I only wondered how you knew....
+      So now you&rsquo;ve come to rejoin me. Where are we going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through Barey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what about Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t wait
+      for him. He&rsquo;ll be there as soon as we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At our destination.... Come! The sun&rsquo;s rising.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell, huge
+      and white, leaped fiercely into the sky. All the delicacy of the dawn
+      vanished, and another vulgar day began. They passed some trees and plants,
+      the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it the sunshine doesn&rsquo;t open them?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long will it be before that sun rises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some time yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I live to see it, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At one time I did, but now I&rsquo;m indifferent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep in that humour, and you&rsquo;ll do well. Once for all, there&rsquo;s
+      nothing worth seeing on Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few minutes Maskull said, &ldquo;Why did we come here, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. But where is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?... There is
+      supernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehow
+      connected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what is
+      Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t disturb yourself about that. You will never know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do <i>you</i> know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; snarled Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil here is called Krag,&rdquo; went on Maskull, peering into
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I
+      to believe of you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued descending the landslip. The sun&rsquo;s rays had grown
+      insufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,
+      Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
+      travelling toward a lake district.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
+      Krag? What happened to the torpedo?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just about on the same mental level as a man who sees
+      a brand-new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What palace have you been building, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have not been idle,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;While you have been
+      murdering and lovemaking, we have had our work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re an open book. Now you&rsquo;ve got a mortal heart
+      wound on account of a woman you knew for six hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned pale. &ldquo;Sneer away, Krag! If you lived with a woman
+      for six hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your leather
+      heart. You haven&rsquo;t even the feelings of an insect.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold the child defending its toys!&rdquo; said Krag, grinning
+      faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped short. &ldquo;What do you want with me, and why did you
+      bring me here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, pulling him into motion again. &ldquo;The distance has got to
+      be covered, however often we pull up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through his
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go on regarding you as a man, Krag. You&rsquo;re
+      something more than a man&mdash;whether good or evil, I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked yellow and formidable. He did not reply to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      remark, but after a pause said, &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ve been trying to find
+      Surtur on your own account, during the intervals between killing and
+      fondling?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that drumming?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t look so important. We know you had your ear to
+      the keyhole. But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing
+      for you, my friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled rather bitterly. &ldquo;At all events, I listen through no
+      more keyholes. I have finished with life. I belong to nobody and nothing
+      any more, from this time forward.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave words, brave words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will
+      make one more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don&rsquo;t you? Well,
+      that may prove to be the last and strongest illusion of all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation ceased. They reached the foot of the landslip an hour
+      later. Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky. It was
+      approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not it would
+      clear its peak. The heat was sweltering. The long, massive, saucer-shaped
+      ridge behind them, with its terrific precipices, was glowing with bright
+      morning colours. Adage, towering up many thousands of feet higher still,
+      guarded the end of it like a lonely Colossus. In front of them, starting
+      from where they stood, was a cool and enchanting wilderness of little
+      lakes and forests. The water of the lakes was dark green; the forests were
+      asleep, waiting for the rising of Alppain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we now in Barey?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;and there is one of the natives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskull did
+      not see it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees, apparently
+      waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, and beardless, and was
+      still in early manhood. He was clothed in a dark blue, loosely flowing
+      robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat. His face, which was not
+      disfigured by any special organs, was pale, earnest, and grave, yet
+      somehow remarkably pleasing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull&rsquo;s hand, but even
+      while he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag. The
+      latter responded with a scowling grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating baritone, but
+      it was at the same time strangely womanish in its modulations and variety
+      of tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Welcome to Barey, Maskull! Let&rsquo;s hope you&rsquo;ll forget
+      your sorrows here, you over-tested man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. &ldquo;What made you
+      expect me, and how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      Gangnet. I know most things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you a greeting for me too&mdash;Gangnet?&rdquo; asked
+      Krag, thrusting his forbidding features almost into the other&rsquo;s
+      face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I know you, Gangnet&mdash;you man-woman.... Well, we are here
+      together, and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the
+      Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smile faded from Gangnet&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t drive you
+      away, Krag&mdash;but I can make you the unwelcome third.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. &ldquo;That
+      bargain suits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have
+      the shadow, and much good may it do you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that it&rsquo;s all arranged so satisfactorily,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, with a hard smile, &ldquo;permit me to say that I don&rsquo;t
+      desire any society at all at present.... You take too much for granted,
+      Krag. You have played the false friend once already.... I presume I&rsquo;m
+      a free agent?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be a free man, one must have a universe of one&rsquo;s own,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, with a jeering look. &ldquo;What do you say, Gangnet&mdash;is
+      this a free world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man&rsquo;s
+      privilege,&rdquo; returned Gangnet tranquilly. &ldquo;Maskull is quite
+      within his rights, and if you&rsquo;ll engage to leave him I&rsquo;ll do
+      the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won&rsquo;t
+      get rid of me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; muttered Maskull. &ldquo;Let
+      everyone join in the procession. In a few hours I shall finally be free,
+      anyhow, if what they say is true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll lead the way,&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t
+      know this country, of course, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some
+      miles farther down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we
+      must walk, I fear.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you fear&mdash;you fear!&rdquo; broke out Krag, in a
+      highpitched, scraping voice. &ldquo;You eternal loller!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed to
+      be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate
+      previous acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a
+      mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed
+      beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were
+      all folded. There was no underbrush&mdash;they walked on clean, brown
+      earth, A distant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air was
+      pleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lake
+      outside looked cool and poetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet pressed Maskull&rsquo;s arm affectionately. &ldquo;If the bringing
+      of you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have
+      brought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escaped
+      the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference
+      whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the
+      shadows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly
+      prefer to know it as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      thoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty and
+      Pleasantness. Even Krag won&rsquo;t have the effrontery to deny that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very nice here,&rdquo; said Krag, looking around him
+      malignantly. &ldquo;One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to
+      complete it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. &ldquo;Last night, when I was
+      struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight&mdash;then I thought
+      the world beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Sullenbode!&rdquo; said Gangnet, sighing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! You knew her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know her through you. By mourning for a noble woman, you show
+      your own nobility. I think all women are noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be millions of noble women, but there&rsquo;s only one
+      Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Sullenbode can exist,&rdquo; said Gangnet, &ldquo;the world
+      cannot be a bad place.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Change the subject.... The world&rsquo;s hard and cruel, and I am
+      thankful to be leaving it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one point, though, you both agree,&rdquo; said Krag, smiling
+      evilly. &ldquo;Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced at him coldly. &ldquo;We know your peculiar theories,
+      Krag. You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could
+      not go on being, without pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Gangnet thinks!&rdquo; jeered Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a
+      little cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh series of
+      lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain slope,
+      built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border they had been
+      travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to the lower level in
+      half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white and throwing off spray.
+      The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men found it easy to negotiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they
+      had nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through the
+      heart of it; they followed its bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has occurred to me,&rdquo; said Maskull, addressing Gangnet,
+      &ldquo;that Alppain may be my death. Is that so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These trees don&rsquo;t fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is
+      a wonderful, life-bringing sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason I ask is&mdash;I&rsquo;ve seen its afterglow, and it
+      produced such violent sensations that a very little more would have proved
+      too much.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain
+      itself, it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of
+      wills inside you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,&rdquo; said Krag,
+      grinning, &ldquo;is Crystalman&rsquo;s trump card.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see. You&rsquo;ll renounce the world so eagerly that
+      you&rsquo;ll want to stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled. &ldquo;Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither
+      enjoy, nor renounce. What <i>are</i> you to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned toward Krag. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, but I don&rsquo;t
+      understand your creed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. &ldquo;What,
+      because they have left off stroking you?&rdquo; he exclaimed, laughing and
+      showing his discoloured teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever you are, and whatever you want,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      &ldquo;you seem very certain of yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      you! That would be an excellent way of destroying lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped and picked
+      up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To eat?&rdquo; asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one
+      mustn&rsquo;t insult Krag by offering him a pleasure&mdash;especially such
+      a low pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the liquid
+      contents. They tasted rather alcoholic. Krag snatched the remaining egg
+      out of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk, where it broke and
+      stuck, a splash of slime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a
+      filthier sight than a smashed pleasure?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had alternately walked through forests and descended cliffs and
+      slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered. A steep
+      mountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of miles,
+      during which space the land must have dropped nearly four thousand feet,
+      at a practically uniform gradient. Maskull had seen nothing like this
+      immense slide of country anywhere. The hill slope carried an enormous
+      forest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those they
+      had hitherto passed through. The leaves of the trees were curled in sleep,
+      but the boughs were so close and numerous that, but for the fact that they
+      were translucent, the rays of the sun would have been completely
+      intercepted. As it was, the whole forest was flooded with light, and this
+      light, being tinged with the colour of the branches, was a soft and lovely
+      rose. So gay, feminine, and dawnlike was the illumination, that Maskull&rsquo;s
+      spirits immediately started to rise, although he did not wish it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!&rdquo;
+      rasped Krag mockingly. &ldquo;Why isn&rsquo;t Sullenbode here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree. Krag
+      recovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a whit
+      discomposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still what I said&mdash;was it true or untrue?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;You seem to regard yourself as a
+      necessary evil. I&rsquo;m under no obligation to go on with you any
+      farther. I think we had better part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do <i>you</i> say&mdash;do we part when Maskull pleases, or
+      when I please?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep your temper, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gangnet, showing Krag his
+      back. &ldquo;I know the man better than you do. Now that he has fastened
+      onto you there&rsquo;s only one way of making him lose his hold, by
+      ignoring him. Despise him&mdash;say nothing to him, don&rsquo;t answer his
+      questions. If you refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m beginning to be tired of it all,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;It seems as if I shall add one more to my murders, before I have
+      finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I smell murder in the air,&rdquo; exclaimed Krag, pretending to
+      sniff. &ldquo;But whose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on
+      fire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this
+      accursed forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s some way yet, but when we&rsquo;re once out we can take
+      to the water, and you will be able to rest, and think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And brood comfortably over your sufferings,&rdquo; added Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into the open
+      day. The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced to run,
+      rather than walk, and this would have prevented any conversation, even if
+      they had otherwise felt inclined toward it. In less than half an hour they
+      were through. A flat, open landscape lay stretched in front of them as far
+      as they could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water. It was a succession
+      of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of tree-covered land.
+      The lake immediately before them had its small end to the forest. It was
+      there about a third of a mile wide. The water at the sides and end was
+      shallow, and choked with dolm-colored rushes; but in the middle, beginning
+      a few yards from the shore, there was a perceptible current away from
+      them. In view of this current, it was difficult to decide whether it was a
+      lake or a river. Some little floating islands were in the shallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it here that we take to the water?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, here,&rdquo; answered Gangnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of those islands will serve. It only needs to move it into the
+      stream.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Where will it carry us to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, get on, get on!&rdquo; said Krag, laughing uncouthly. &ldquo;The
+      morning&rsquo;s wearing away, and you have to die before noon. We are
+      going to the Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gangnet will murder you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You lie!&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;I wish Maskull nothing but
+      good.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events, he will be the cause of your death. But what does it
+      matter? The great point is you are quitting this futile world.... Well,
+      Gangnet, I see you&rsquo;re as slack as ever. I suppose I must do the
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,
+      splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was up
+      to his thighs. The island was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feet from
+      end to end. It was composed of a sort of light brown peat; there was no
+      form of living vegetation on its surface. Krag went behind it, and started
+      shoving it toward the current, apparently without having unduly to exert
+      himself. When it was within the influence of the stream the others waded
+      out to him, and all three climbed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voyage began. The current was not travelling at more than two miles an
+      hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and there was no
+      shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the edge, and
+      periodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunches
+      next to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick steps, like an
+      animal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more, and the width of the
+      stream increased in proportion, until they seemed to themselves to be
+      floating on the bosom of some broad, flowing estuary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet&rsquo;s hat, crushing it
+      together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?&rdquo; he asked with
+      a harsh guffaw&mdash;&ldquo;Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has seen it
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom. His
+      dark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and noble,
+      and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man that was
+      strangely appealing to the feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Maskull judge,&rdquo; he said with proud composure, &ldquo;whether
+      I have anything to be ashamed of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,&rdquo;
+      muttered Maskull, staring hard at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A capital valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happens
+      when poets try to carry through practical enterprises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What enterprises?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two forms of practical activity,&rdquo; replied Gangnet
+      calmly. &ldquo;One may either build up, or destroy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there&rsquo;s a third species. One may steal&mdash;and not even
+      know one is stealing. One may take the purse and leave the money.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull raised his eyebrows. &ldquo;Where have you two met before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull, but once upon a
+      time Gangnet paid me a visit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my home&mdash;whatever that is. Gangnet is a common thief.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are speaking in riddles, and I don&rsquo;t understand you. I
+      don&rsquo;t know either of you, but it&rsquo;s clear that if Gangnet is a
+      poet, you&rsquo;re a buffoon. Must you go on talking? I want to be quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag laughed, but said no more. Presently he lay down at full length, with
+      his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, and snoring
+      disagreeably. Maskull kept glancing over at his yellow, repulsive face
+      with strong disfavour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours passed. The land on either side was more than a mile distant. In
+      front of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the Lichstorm
+      Mountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had gathered together.
+      The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of a strange colour. It
+      was an intense jale-blue. The whole northern atmosphere was stained with
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind grew disturbed. &ldquo;Alppain is rising, Gangnet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled wistfully. &ldquo;It begins to trouble you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so solemn&mdash;tragical, almost&mdash;yet it recalls me to
+      Earth. Life was no longer important&mdash;but this is important.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you
+      will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day.
+      Then you will ask yourself how you could have been blind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in the
+      north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary colours,
+      among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principal character of
+      an ordinary dawn is <i>mystery</i>, the outstanding character of this dawn
+      was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but the heart. Maskull
+      felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate the sunrise, and make
+      it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormented him, like the
+      opening bars of a supernatural symphony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked back to the south, Branchspell&rsquo;s day had lost its
+      glare, and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. He
+      instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness to
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If those were Crystalman&rsquo;s thoughts that you showed me
+      before, Gangnet, these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I
+      am feeling now, he must have felt before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is all <i>feeling</i>, Maskull&mdash;don&rsquo;t you understand
+      that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
+      reply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
+      beginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious that
+      Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had by this
+      time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides they were
+      surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out all sight
+      of land. Krag was still sleeping&mdash;an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its dark
+      green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing remains except my death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think of death, but life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s growing brighter&mdash;at the same time, more sombre.
+      Krag seems to be fading away....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is Alppain!&rdquo; said Gangnet, touching his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea. Maskull was
+      struck to silence. He was hardly so much looking, as feeling. His emotions
+      were unutterable. His soul seemed too strong for his body. The great blue
+      orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an awful eye watching him.... it
+      shot above the sea with a bound, and Alppain&rsquo;s day commenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you feel?&rdquo; Gangnet still held his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have set myself against the Infinite,&rdquo; muttered Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful idea swept
+      through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Gangnet&mdash;I am <i>nothing</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you are nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mist closed in all around them. Nothing was visible except the two
+      suns, and a few feet of sea. The shadows of the three men cast by Alppain
+      were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing can hurt me,&rdquo; said Maskull with a peculiar
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled too. &ldquo;How could it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scraped
+      away, leaving me clean and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you now understand life, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet&rsquo;s face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual
+      beauty; he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more. But this
+      <i>is</i> life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?&rdquo; said a
+      jeering voice above them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both rose. At the same moment the gathering mist began to obscure
+      Alppain&rsquo;s disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want with us, Krag?&rdquo; asked Maskull with simple
+      composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds. The water lapped around
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made no response. Krag rested an arm lightly on his shoulder, and
+      suddenly he felt sick and faint. He sank to the ground, near the edge of
+      the island raft. His heart was thumping heavily and queerly; its beating
+      reminded him of the drum taps. He gazed languidly at the rippling water,
+      and it seemed to him as if he could see right <i>through</i> it... away,
+      away down... to a strange fire....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water disappeared. The two suns were extinguished. The island was
+      transformed into a cloud, and Maskull&mdash;alone on it&mdash;was floating
+      through the atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire&mdash;the fire of
+      Muspel. The light mounted higher and higher, until it filled the whole
+      world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, without
+      top or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was dealing
+      terrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer. The rhythmical,
+      clanging sounds were hideous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drum beats.
+      &ldquo;What are you doing, Krag?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beating on your heart, Maskull,&rdquo; was his grinning response.
+      The cliff and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in the air&mdash;but
+      it was not Gangnet&mdash;it was Crystalman. He seemed to be trying to
+      escape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and licking him,
+      whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire caught him. He
+      shrieked horribly. Maskull caught one glimpse of a vulgar, slobbering face&mdash;and
+      then that too disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He opened his eyes. The floating island was still faintly illuminated by
+      Alppain. Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this Ocean called?&rdquo; asked Maskull, bringing out the
+      words with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time. He rested his face on his
+      arm. &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag bent over him with a grave expression. &ldquo;You are Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull&rsquo;s heart,
+      and he died immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned his head around. &ldquo;The night is really past at last,
+      Nightspore.... The day is here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull&rsquo;s body. &ldquo;Why
+      was all this necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask Crystalman,&rdquo; replied Krag sternly. &ldquo;His world is no
+      joke. He has a strong clutch&mdash;but I have a stronger... Maskull was
+      his, but Nightspore is mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 21. MUSPEL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The fog thickened so that the two suns wholly disappeared, and all grew as
+      black as night. Nightspore could no longer see his companion. The water
+      lapped gently against the side of the island raft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say the night is past,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;But the
+      night is still here. Am I dead, or alive?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still in Crystalman&rsquo;s world, but you belong to it no
+      more. We are approaching Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air&mdash;a rhythmical
+      pulsation, in four-four time. &ldquo;There is the drumming,&rdquo; he
+      exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you understand it, or have you forgotten?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I half understand it, but I&rsquo;m all confused.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s evident Crystalman has dug his claws into you pretty
+      deeply,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;The sound comes from Muspel, but the
+      rhythm is caused by its travelling through Crystalman&rsquo;s atmosphere.
+      His nature is rhythm as he loves to call it&mdash;or dull, deadly
+      repetition, as I name it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; said Nightspore, biting his nails in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The throbbing became audible; it now sounded like a distant drum. A small
+      patch of strange light in the far distance, straight ahead of them, began
+      faintly to illuminate the floating island and the glassy sea around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do all men escape from that ghastly world, or only I, and a few
+      like me?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If all escaped, I shouldn&rsquo;t sweat, my friend... There&rsquo;s
+      hard work, and anguish, and the risk of total death, waiting for us
+      yonder.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart sank. &ldquo;Have I not yet finished, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish it. You have got through. But will you wish it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming grew loud and painful. The light resolved itself into a tiny
+      oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night. Krag&rsquo;s grim
+      and rocklike features were revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t face rebirth,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;The
+      horror of death is nothing to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will choose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do nothing. Crystalman is too powerful. I barely escaped with
+      my own soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,&rdquo;
+      said Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall something. The
+      water around them was so still, colourless, and transparent, that they
+      scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid matter at all. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      corpse had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming was now like the clanging of iron. The oblong patch of light
+      grew much bigger; it burned, fierce and wild. The darkness above, below,
+      and on either side of it, began to shape itself into the semblance of a
+      huge, black wall, without bounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that really a wall we are coming to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will soon find out. What you see is Muspel, and that light is
+      the gate you have to enter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart beat wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I remember?&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you&rsquo;ll remember.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accompany me, Krag, or I shall be lost.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing for me to do in there. I shall wait outside for
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are returning to the struggle?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore,
+      gnawing his fingertips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head like
+      actual blows. The light glared so vividly that he was no longer able to
+      look at it. It had the startling irregularity of continuous lightning, but
+      it possessed this further peculiarity&mdash;that it seemed somehow to give
+      out not actual light, but emotion, seen as light. They continued to
+      approach the wall of darkness, straight toward the door. The glasslike
+      water flowed right against it, its surface reaching up almost to the
+      threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They could not speak any more; the noise was too deafening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were before the gateway. Nightspore turned his back
+      and hid his eyes in his two hands, but even then he was blinded by the
+      light. So passionate were his feelings that his body seemed to enlarge
+      itself. At every frightful beat of sound, he quivered violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance was doorless. Krag jumped onto the rocky platform and pulled
+      Nightspore after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once through the gateway, the light vanished. The rhythmical sound&mdash;blows
+      totally ceased. Nightspore dropped his hands.... All was dark and quiet as
+      an opened tomb. But the air was filled with grim, burning passion, which
+      was to light and sound what light itself is to opaque colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore pressed his hand to his heart. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I
+      can endure it,&rdquo; he said, looking toward Krag. He <i>felt</i> his
+      person far more vividly and distinctly than if he had been able to see
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go in, and lose no time, Nightspore.... Time here is more precious
+      than on earth. We can&rsquo;t squander the minutes. There are terrible and
+      tragic affairs to attend to, which won&rsquo;t wait for us... Go in at
+      once. Stop for nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I go to?&rdquo; muttered Nightspore. &ldquo;I have
+      forgotten everything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enter, enter! There is only one way. You can&rsquo;t mistake it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you bid me go in, if I am to come out again?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To have your wounds healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost before the words had left his mouth, Krag sprang back on to the
+      island raft. Nightspore involuntarily started after him, but at once
+      recovered himself and remained standing where he was. Krag was completely
+      invisible; everything outside was black night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment he had gone, a feeling shot up in Nightspore&rsquo;s heart like
+      a thousand trumpets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Straight in front of him, almost at his feet, was the lower end of a
+      steep, narrow, circular flight of stone steps. There was no other way
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his foot on the bottom stair, at the same time peering aloft. He
+      saw nothing, yet as he proceeded upward every inch of the way was
+      perceptible to his inner feelings. The staircase was cold, dismal, and
+      deserted, but it seemed to him, in his exaltation of soul, like a ladder
+      to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had mounted a dozen steps or so, he paused to take breath. Each
+      step was increasingly difficult to ascend; he felt as though he were
+      carrying a heavy man on his shoulders. It struck a familiar chord in his
+      mind. He went on and, ten stairs higher up, came to a window set in a high
+      embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On to this he clambered, and looked through. The window was of a sort of
+      glass, but he could see nothing. Coming to him, however, from the world
+      outside, a disturbance of the atmosphere struck his senses, causing his
+      blood to run cold. At one moment it resembled a low, mocking, vulgar
+      laugh, travelling from the ends of the earth; at the next it was like a
+      rhythmical vibration of the air&mdash;the silent, continuous throbbing of
+      some mighty engine. The two sensations were identical, yet different. They
+      seemed to be related in the same manner as soul and body. After feeling
+      them for a long time, Nightspore got down from the embrasure, and
+      continued his ascent, having meanwhile grown very serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climbing became still more laborious, and he was forced to stop at
+      every third or fourth step, to rest his muscles and regain breath. When he
+      had mounted another twenty stairs in this way, he came to a second window.
+      Again he saw nothing. The laughing disturbance of the air, too, had
+      ceased; but the atmospheric throb was now twice as distinct as before, and
+      its rhythm had become _double_. There were two separate pulses; one was in
+      the time of a march, the other in the time of a waltz. The first was
+      bitter and petrifying to feel, but the second was gay, enervating, and
+      horrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore spent little time at that window, for he felt that he was on
+      the eve of a great discovery, and that something far more important
+      awaited him higher up. He proceeded aloft. The ascent grew more and more
+      exhausting, so much so that he had frequently to sit down, utterly crushed
+      by his own dead weight. Still, he got to the third window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed into the embrasure. His feelings translated themselves into
+      vision, and he saw a sight that caused him to turn pale. A gigantic,
+      self-luminous sphere was hanging in the sky, occupying nearly the whole of
+      it. This sphere was composed entirely of two kinds of active beings. There
+      were a myriad of tiny green corpuscles, varying in size from the very
+      small to the almost indiscernible. They were not green, but he somehow saw
+      them so. They were all striving in one direction&mdash;toward himself,
+      toward Muspel, but were too feeble and miniature to make any headway.
+      Their action produced the marching rhythm he had previously felt, but this
+      rhythm was not intrinsic in the corpuscles themselves, but was a
+      consequence of the obstruction they met with. And, surrounding these atoms
+      of life and light, were far larger whirls of white light that gyrated
+      hither and thither, carrying the green corpuscles with them wherever they
+      desired. Their whirling motion was accompanied by the waltzing rhythm. It
+      seemed to Nightspore that the green atoms were not only being danced about
+      against their will but were suffering excruciating shame and degradation
+      in consequence. The larger ones were steadier than the extremely small, a
+      few were even almost stationary, and one was advancing in the direction it
+      wished to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his back to the window, buried his face in his hands, and
+      searched in the dim recesses of his memory for an explanation of what he
+      had just seen. Nothing came straight, but horror and wrath began to take
+      possession of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his way upward to the next window, invisible fingers seemed to him to
+      be squeezing his heart and twisting it about here and there; but he never
+      dreamed of turning back. His mood was so grim that he did not once permit
+      himself to pause. Such was his physical distress by the time that he had
+      clambered into the recess, that for several minutes he could see nothing
+      at all&mdash;the world seemed to be spinning round him rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last he looked, he saw the same sphere as before, but now all was
+      changed on it. It was a world of rocks, minerals, water, plants, animals,
+      and men. He saw the whole world at one view, yet everything was so
+      magnified that he could distinguish the smallest details of life. In the
+      interior of every individual, of every aggregate of individuals, of every
+      chemical atom, he clearly perceived the presence of the green corpuscles.
+      But, according to the degree of dignity of the life form, they were
+      fragmentary or comparatively large. In the crystal, for example, the
+      green, imprisoned life was so minute as to be scarcely visible; in some
+      men it was hardly bigger; but in other men and women it was twenty or a
+      hundred times greater. But, great or small, it played an important part in
+      every individual. It appeared as if the whirls of white light, which were
+      the individuals, and plainly showed themselves beneath the enveloping
+      bodies, were delighted with existence and wished only to enjoy it, but the
+      green corpuscles were in a condition of eternal discontent, yet, blind and
+      not knowing which way to turn for liberation, kept changing form, as
+      though breaking a new path, by way of experiment. Whenever the old
+      grotesque became metamorphosed into the new grotesque, it was in every
+      case the direct work of the green atoms, trying to escape toward Muspel,
+      but encountering immediate opposition. These subdivided sparks of living,
+      fiery spirit were hopelessly imprisoned in a ghastly mush of soft
+      pleasure. They were being effeminated and corrupted&mdash;that is to say,
+      <i>absorbed</i> in the foul, sickly enveloping forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a sickening shame in his soul as he looked on at that
+      spectacle. His exaltation had long since vanished. He bit his nails, and
+      understood why Krag was waiting for him below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted slowly to the fifth window. The pressure of air against him was
+      as strong as a full gale, divested of violence and irregularity, so that
+      he was not for an instant suffered to relax his efforts. Nevertheless, not
+      a breath stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight. The sphere was
+      still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which he was standing
+      he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any distinguishable shape, but
+      somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting sweetness. Nightspore knew that
+      it was Crystalman. A flood of fierce light&mdash;but it was not light, but
+      passion&mdash;was streaming all the time from Muspel to the Shadow, and
+      through it. When, however, it emerged on the other side, which was the
+      sphere, the light was altered in character. It became split, as by a
+      prism, into the two forms of life which he had previously seen&mdash;the
+      green corpuscles and the whirls. What had been fiery spirit but a moment
+      ago was now a disgusting mass of crawling, wriggling individuals, each
+      whirl of pleasure-seeking will having, as nucleus, a fragmentary spark of
+      living green fire. Nightspore recollected the back rays of Starkness, and
+      it flashed across him with the certainty of truth that the green sparks
+      were the back rays, and the whirls the forward rays, of Muspel. The former
+      were trying desperately to return to their place of origin, but were
+      overpowered by the brute force of the latter, which wished only to remain
+      where they were. The individual whirls were jostling and fighting with,
+      and even devouring, each other. This created pain, but, whatever pain they
+      felt, it was always pleasure that they sought. Sometimes the green sparks
+      were strong enough for a moment to move a little way in the direction of
+      Muspel; the whirls would then accept the movement, not only without demur,
+      but with pride and pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork&mdash;but
+      they never saw beyond the Shadow, they thought that they were travelling
+      toward <i>it</i>. The instant the direct movement wearied them, as
+      contrary to their whirling nature, they fell again to killing, dancing,
+      and loving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to be the
+      last. Nothing would have kept him from ascending to it, for he guessed
+      that the nature of Crystalman himself would there become manifest. Every
+      step upward was like a bloody life-and-death struggle. The stairs nailed
+      him to the ground; the air pressure caused blood to gush from his nose and
+      ears; his head clanged like an iron bell. When he had fought his way up a
+      dozen steps, he found himself suddenly at the top; the staircase
+      terminated in a small, bare chamber of cold stone, possessing a single
+      window. On the other side of the apartment another short flight of stairs
+      mounted through a trap, apparently to the roof of the building. Before
+      ascending these stairs, Nightspore hastened to the window and stared out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadow form of Crystalman had drawn much closer to him, and filled the
+      whole sky, but it was not a shadow of darkness, but a bright shadow. It
+      had neither shape, nor colour, yet it in some way suggested the delicate
+      tints of early morning. It was so nebulous that the sphere could be
+      clearly distinguished through it; in extension, however, it was thick. The
+      sweet smell emanating from it was strong, loathsome, and terrible; it
+      seemed to spring from a sort of loose, mocking slime inexpressibly vulgar
+      and ignorant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spirit stream from Muspel flashed with complexity and variety. It was
+      not below individuality, but above it. It was not the One, or the Many,
+      but something else far beyond either. It approached Crystalman, and
+      entered his body&mdash;if that bright mist could be called a body. It
+      passed right through him, and the passage caused him the most exquisite
+      pleasure. The Muspel-stream was Crystalman&rsquo;s <i>food</i>. The stream
+      emerged from the other side on to the sphere, in a double condition. Part
+      of it reappeared intrinsically unaltered, but shivered into a million
+      fragments. These were the green corpuscles. In passing through Crystalman
+      they had escaped absorption by reason of their extreme minuteness. The
+      other part of the stream had not escaped. Its fire had been abstracted,
+      its cement was withdrawn, and, after being fouled and softened by the
+      horrible sweetness of the host, it broke into individuals, which <i>were</i>
+      the whirls of living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore shuddered. He comprehended at last how the whole world of will
+      was doomed to eternal anguish in order that one Being might feel joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he set foot on the final flight leading to the roof; for he
+      remembered vaguely that now only that remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Halfway up, he fainted&mdash;but when he recovered consciousness he
+      persisted as though nothing had happened to him. As soon as his head was
+      above the trap, breathing the free air, he had the same physical sensation
+      as a man stepping out of water. He pulled his body up, and stood
+      expectantly on the stone-floored roof, looking round for his first glimpse
+      of Muspel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>There was nothing</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was standing upon the top of a tower, measuring not above fifteen feet
+      each way. Darkness was all around him. He sat down on the stone parapet,
+      with a sinking heart; a heavy foreboding possessed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, he had the distinct
+      impression that the darkness around him, on all four sides, was
+      grinning.... As soon as that happened, he understood that he was wholly
+      surrounded by Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and that Muspel consisted of
+      himself and the stone tower on which he was sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fire flashed in his heart.... Millions upon millions of grotesque, vulgar,
+      ridiculous, sweetened individuals&mdash;once <i>Spirit</i>&mdash;were
+      calling out from their degradation and agony for salvation from Muspel....
+      To answer that cry there was only himself... and Krag waiting below... and
+      Surtur&mdash;But where was Surtur?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth forced itself on him in all its cold, brutal reality. Muspel was
+      no all-powerful Universe, tolerating from pure indifference the existence
+      side by side with it of another false world, which had no right to be.
+      Muspel was fighting for its life&mdash;against all that is most shameful
+      and frightful&mdash;against sin masquerading as eternal beauty, against
+      baseness masquerading as Nature, against the Devil masquerading as God....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he understood everything. The moral combat was no mock one, no
+      Valhalla, where warriors are cut to pieces by day and feast by night; but
+      a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death&mdash;namely,
+      spiritual death&mdash;inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel.... By
+      what means could he hold back from this horrible war!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self&mdash;the corruption
+      of his life on Earth&mdash;were scorched out of Nightspore&rsquo;s soul,
+      perhaps not for the first time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend. Without warning, a
+      strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world. Starting in awful
+      mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery that he could
+      not doubt for a moment whence it originated. It was the voice of
+      Crystalman. Krag was waiting for him on the island raft. He threw a stern
+      glance at Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen everything?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The struggle is hopeless,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not say I am the stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the stronger and the mightier. Crystalman&rsquo;s Empire is
+      but a shadow on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the
+      bloodiest blows.... What do you mean to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him strangely. &ldquo;Are you not Surtur, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise.
+      &ldquo;But what is your name on Earth?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, too, I must have known.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft.
+      Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
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+</html>
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+    <title>
+      A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
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+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Voyage to Arcturus
+
+Author: David Lindsay
+
+Release Date: September 17, 2008 [EBook #1329]
+Last Updated: March 5, 2017
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By David Lindsay
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        <br />
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter 2. IN THE STREET </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter 3. STARKNESS </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter 4. THE VOICE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter 6. JOIWIND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter 7. PANAWE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter 9. OCEAXE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter 10. TYDOMIN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter 12. SPADEVIL </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter 14. POLECRAB </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter 17. CORPANG </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter 18. HAUNTE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter 19. SULLENBODE </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter 20. BAREY </a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="toc">
+        <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter 21. MUSPEL </a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 1. THE SÉANCE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      On a March evening, at eight o&rsquo;clock, Backhouse, the medium&mdash;a
+      fast-rising star in the psychic world&mdash;was ushered into the study at
+      Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull. The room was
+      illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire. The host, eying him with
+      indolent curiosity, got up, and the usual conventional greetings were
+      exchanged. Having indicated an easy chair before the fire to his guest,
+      the South American merchant sank back again into his own. The electric
+      light was switched on. Faull&rsquo;s prominent, clear-cut features,
+      metallic-looking skin, and general air of bored impassiveness, did not
+      seem greatly to impress the medium, who was accustomed to regard men from
+      a special angle. Backhouse, on the contrary, was a novelty to the
+      merchant. As he tranquilly studied him through half closed lids and the
+      smoke of a cigar, he wondered how this little, thickset person with the
+      pointed beard contrived to remain so fresh and sane in appearance, in view
+      of the morbid nature of his occupation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you smoke?&rdquo; drawled Faull, by way of starting the
+      conversation. &ldquo;No? Then will you take a drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at present, I thank you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Everything is satisfactory? The materialisation will take place?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see no reason to doubt it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s good, for I would not like my guests to be
+      disappointed. I have your check written out in my pocket.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Afterward will do quite well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nine o&rsquo;clock was the time specified, I believe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fancy so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation continued to flag. Faull sprawled in his chair, and
+      remained apathetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Would you care to hear what arrangements I have made?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am unaware that any are necessary, beyond chairs for your guests.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean the decoration of the séance room, the music, and so forth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stared at his host. &ldquo;But this is not a theatrical
+      performance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s correct. Perhaps I ought to explain.... There will be
+      ladies present, and ladies, you know, are aesthetically inclined.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that case I have no objection. I only hope they will enjoy the
+      performance to the end.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He spoke rather dryly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s all right, then,&rdquo; said Faull. Flicking his
+      cigar into the fire, he got up and helped himself to whisky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you come and see the room?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, no. I prefer to have nothing to do with it till the time
+      arrives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let&rsquo;s go to see my sister, Mrs. Jameson, who is in the
+      drawing room. She sometimes does me the kindness to act as my hostess, as
+      I am unmarried.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will be delighted,&rdquo; said Backhouse coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They found the lady alone, sitting by the open pianoforte in a pensive
+      attitude. She had been playing Scriabin and was overcome. The medium took
+      in her small, tight, patrician features and porcelain-like hands, and
+      wondered how Faull came by such a sister. She received him bravely, with
+      just a shade of quiet emotion. He was used to such receptions at the hands
+      of the sex, and knew well how to respond to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What amazes me,&rdquo; she half whispered, after ten minutes of
+      graceful, hollow conversation, &ldquo;is, if you must know it, not so much
+      the manifestation itself&mdash;though that will surely be wonderful&mdash;as
+      your assurance that it will take place. Tell me the grounds of your
+      confidence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dream with open eyes,&rdquo; he answered, looking around at the
+      door, &ldquo;and others see my dreams. That is all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s beautiful,&rdquo; responded Mrs. Jameson. She
+      smiled rather absently, for the first guest had just entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was Kent-Smith, the ex-magistrate, celebrated for his shrewd judicial
+      humour, which, however, he had the good sense not to attempt to carry into
+      private life. Although well on the wrong side of seventy, his eyes were
+      still disconcertingly bright. With the selective skill of an old man, he
+      immediately settled himself in the most comfortable of many comfortable
+      chairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to see wonders tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fresh material for your autobiography,&rdquo; remarked Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, you should not have mentioned my unfortunate book. An old
+      public servant is merely amusing himself in his retirement, Mr. Backhouse.
+      You have no cause for alarm&mdash;I have studied in the school of
+      discretion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not alarmed. There can be no possible objection to your
+      publishing whatever you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are most kind,&rdquo; said the old man, with a cunning smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Trent is not coming tonight,&rdquo; remarked Mrs. Jameson, throwing
+      a curious little glance at her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never thought he would. It&rsquo;s not in his line.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mrs. Trent, you must understand,&rdquo; she went on, addressing the
+      ex-magistrate, &ldquo;has placed us all under a debt of gratitude. She has
+      decorated the old lounge hall upstairs most beautifully, and has secured
+      the services of the sweetest little orchestra.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is Roman magnificence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Backhouse thinks the spirits should be treated with more deference,&rdquo;
+      laughed Faull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely, Mr. Backhouse&mdash;a poetic environment...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pardon me. I am a simple man, and always prefer to reduce things to
+      elemental simplicity. I raise no opposition, but I express my opinion.
+      Nature is one thing, and art is another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am not sure that I don&rsquo;t agree with you,&rdquo; said
+      the ex-magistrate. &ldquo;An occasion like this ought to be simple, to
+      guard against the possibility of deception&mdash;if you will forgive my
+      bluntness, Mr. Backhouse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall sit in full light,&rdquo; replied Backhouse, &ldquo;and
+      every opportunity will be given to all to inspect the room. I shall also
+      ask you to submit me to a personal examination.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather embarrassed silence followed. It was broken by the arrival of two
+      more guests, who entered together. These were Prior, the prosperous City
+      coffee importer, and Lang, the stockjobber, well known in his own circle
+      as an amateur prestidigitator. Backhouse was slightly acquainted with the
+      latter. Prior, perfuming the room with the faint odour of wine and tobacco
+      smoke, tried to introduce an atmosphere of joviality into the proceedings.
+      Finding that no one seconded his efforts, however, he shortly subsided and
+      fell to examining the water colours on the walls. Lang, tall, thin, and
+      growing bald, said little, but stared at Backhouse a good deal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Coffee, liqueurs, and cigarettes were now brought in. Everyone partook,
+      except Lang and the medium. At the same moment, Professor Halbart was
+      announced. He was the eminent psychologist, the author and lecturer on
+      crime, insanity, genius, and so forth, considered in their mental aspects.
+      His presence at such a gathering somewhat mystified the other guests, but
+      all felt as if the object of their meeting had immediately acquired
+      additional solemnity. He was small, meagre-looking, and mild in manner,
+      but was probably the most stubborn-brained of all that mixed company.
+      Completely ignoring the medium, he at once sat down beside Kent-Smith,
+      with whom he began to exchange remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a few minutes past the appointed hour Mrs. Trent entered, unannounced.
+      She was a woman of about twenty-eight. She had a white, demure, saintlike
+      face, smooth black hair, and lips so crimson and full that they seemed to
+      be bursting with blood. Her tall, graceful body was most expensively
+      attired. Kisses were exchanged between her and Mrs. Jameson. She bowed to
+      the rest of the assembly, and stole a half glance and a smile at Faull.
+      The latter gave her a queer look, and Backhouse, who lost nothing, saw the
+      concealed barbarian in the complacent gleam of his eye. She refused the
+      refreshment that was offered her, and Faull proposed that, as everyone had
+      now arrived, they should adjourn to the lounge hall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mrs. Trent held up a slender palm. &ldquo;Did you, or did you not, give me
+      carte blanche, Montague?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course I did,&rdquo; said Faull, laughing. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have been rather presumptuous. I don&rsquo;t know. I have
+      invited a couple of friends to join us. No, no one knows them.... The two
+      most extraordinary individuals you ever saw. And mediums, I am sure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds very mysterious. Who are these conspirators?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least tell us their names, you provoking girl,&rdquo; put in
+      Mrs. Jameson.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One rejoices in the name of Maskull, and the other in that of
+      Nightspore. That&rsquo;s nearly all that I know about them, so don&rsquo;t
+      overwhelm me with any more questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where did you pick them up? You must have picked them up
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is a cross-examination. Have I sinned against convention?
+      I swear I will tell you not another word about them. They will be here
+      directly, and then I will deliver them to your tender mercy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know them,&rdquo; said Faull, &ldquo;and nobody else
+      seems to, but, of course, we will all be very pleased to have them....
+      Shall we wait, or what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I said nine, and it&rsquo;s past that now. It&rsquo;s quite
+      possible they may not turn up after all.... Anyway, don&rsquo;t wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would prefer to start at once,&rdquo; said Backhouse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lounge, a lofty room, forty feet long by twenty wide, had been divided
+      for the occasion into two equal parts by a heavy brocade curtain drawn
+      across the middle. The far end was thus concealed. The nearer half had
+      been converted into an auditorium by a crescent of armchairs. There was no
+      other furniture. A large fire was burning halfway along the wall, between
+      the chairbacks and the door. The room was brilliantly lighted by electric
+      bracket lamps. A sumptuous carpet covered the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having settled his guests in their seats, Faull stepped up to the curtain
+      and flung it aside. A replica, or nearly so, of the Drury Lane
+      presentation of the temple scene in <i>The Magic Flute</i> was then
+      exposed to view: the gloomy, massive architecture of the interior, the
+      glowing sky above it in the background, and, silhouetted against the
+      latter, the gigantic seated statue of the Pharaoh. A fantastically carved
+      wooden couch lay before the pedestal of the statue. Near the curtain,
+      obliquely placed to the auditorium, was a plain oak armchair, for the use
+      of the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of those present felt privately that the setting was quite
+      inappropriate to the occasion and savoured rather unpleasantly of
+      ostentation. Backhouse in particular seemed put out. The usual
+      compliments, however, were showered on Mrs. Trent as the deviser of so
+      remarkable a theatre. Faull invited his friends to step forward and
+      examine the apartment as minutely as they might desire. Prior and Lang
+      were the only ones to accept. The former wandered about among the
+      pasteboard scenery, whistling to himself and occasionally tapping a part
+      of it with his knuckles. Lang, who was in his element, ignored the rest of
+      his party and commenced a patient, systematic search, on his own account,
+      for secret apparatus. Faull and Mrs. Trent stood in a corner of the
+      temple, talking together in low tones; while Mrs. Jameson, pretending to
+      hold Backhouse in conversation, watched them as only a deeply interested
+      woman knows how to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang, to his own disgust, having failed to find anything of a suspicious
+      nature, the medium now requested that his own clothing should be searched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All these precautions are quite needless and beside the matter in
+      hand, as you will immediately see for yourselves. My reputation demands,
+      however, that other people who are not present would not be able to say
+      afterward that trickery has been resorted to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Lang again fell the ungrateful task of investigating pockets and
+      sleeves. Within a few minutes he expressed himself satisfied that nothing
+      mechanical was in Backhouse&rsquo;s possession. The guests reseated
+      themselves. Faull ordered two more chairs to be brought for Mrs. Trent&rsquo;s
+      friends, who, however, had not yet arrived. He then pressed an electric
+      bell, and took his own seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The signal was for the hidden orchestra to begin playing. A murmur of
+      surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning, the
+      beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart&rsquo;s &ldquo;temple&rdquo; music
+      pulsated through the air. The expectation of everyone was raised, while,
+      beneath her pallor and composure, it could be seen that Mrs. Trent was
+      deeply moved. It was evident that aesthetically she was by far the most
+      important person present. Faull watched her, with his face sunk on his
+      chest, sprawling as usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse stood up, with one hand on the back of his chair, and began
+      speaking. The music instantly sank to pianissimo, and remained so for as
+      long as he was on his legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a materialisation.
+      That means you will see something appear in space that was not previously
+      there. At first it will appear as a vaporous form, but finally it will be
+      a solid body, which anyone present may feel and handle&mdash;and, for
+      example, shake hands with. For this body will be in the human shape. It
+      will be a real man or woman&mdash;which, I can&rsquo;t say&mdash;but a man
+      or woman without known antecedents. If, however, you demand from me an
+      explanation of the origin of this materialised form&mdash;where it comes
+      from, whence the atoms and molecules composing its tissues are derived&mdash;I
+      am unable to satisfy you. I am about to produce the phenomenon; if anyone
+      can explain it to me afterward, I shall be very grateful.... That is all I
+      have to say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resumed his seat, half turning his back on the assembly, and paused for
+      a moment before beginning his task.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was precisely at this minute that the manservant opened the door and
+      announced in a subdued but distinct voice: &ldquo;Mr. Maskull, Mr.
+      Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everyone turned round. Faull rose to welcome the late arrivals. Backhouse
+      also stood up, and stared hard at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two strangers remained standing by the door, which was closed quietly
+      behind them. They seemed to be waiting for the mild sensation caused by
+      their appearance to subside before advancing into the room. Maskull was a
+      kind of giant, but of broader and more robust physique than most giants.
+      He wore a full beard. His features were thick and heavy, coarsely
+      modelled, like those of a wooden carving; but his eyes, small and black,
+      sparkled with the fires of intelligence and audacity. His hair was short,
+      black, and bristling. Nightspore was of middle height, but so
+      tough-looking that he appeared to be trained out of all human frailties
+      and susceptibilities. His hairless face seemed consumed by an intense
+      spiritual hunger, and his eyes were wild and distant. Both men were
+      dressed in tweeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before any words were spoken, a loud and terrible crash of falling masonry
+      caused the assembled party to start up from their chairs in consternation.
+      It sounded as if the entire upper part of the building had collapsed.
+      Faull sprang to the door, and called to the servant to say what was
+      happening. The man had to be questioned twice before he gathered what was
+      required of him. He said he had heard nothing. In obedience to his master&rsquo;s
+      order, he went upstairs. Nothing, however, was amiss there, neither had
+      the maids heard anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the meantime Backhouse, who almost alone of those assembled had
+      preserved his sangfroid, went straight up to Nightspore, who stood gnawing
+      his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you can explain it, sir?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was supernatural,&rdquo; said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled
+      voice, turning away from his questioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed so. It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard
+      it so loud.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then went among the guests, reassuring them. By degrees they settled
+      down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-humoured
+      interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained watchfulness.
+      Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to them. Mrs. Trent kept
+      stealing uneasy glances at them. Throughout the entire incident, Mozart&rsquo;s
+      hymn continued to be played. The orchestra also had heard nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Backhouse now entered on his task. It was one that began to be familiar to
+      him, and he had no anxiety about the result. It was not possible to effect
+      the materialisation by mere concentration of will, or the exercise of any
+      faculty; otherwise many people could have done what he had engaged himself
+      to do. His nature was phenomenal&mdash;the dividing wall between himself
+      and the spiritual world was broken in many places. Through the gaps in his
+      mind the inhabitants of the invisible, when he summoned them, passed for a
+      moment timidly and awfully into the solid, coloured universe.... He could
+      not say how it was brought about.... The experience was a rough one for
+      the body, and many such struggles would lead to insanity and early death.
+      That is why Backhouse was stern and abrupt in his manner. The coarse,
+      clumsy suspicion of some of the witnesses, the frivolous aestheticism of
+      others, were equally obnoxious to his grim, bursting heart; but he was
+      obliged to live, and, to pay his way, must put up with these
+      impertinences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down facing the wooden couch. His eyes remained open but seemed to
+      look inward. His cheeks paled, and he became noticeably thinner. The
+      spectators almost forgot to breathe. The more sensitive among them began
+      to feel, or imagine, strange presences all around them. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      eyes glittered with anticipation, and his brows went up and down, but
+      Nightspore appeared bored.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a long ten minutes the pedestal of the statue was seen to become
+      slightly blurred, as though an intervening mist were rising from the
+      ground. This slowly developed into a visible cloud, coiling hither and
+      thither, and constantly changing shape. The professor half rose, and held
+      his glasses with one hand further forward on the bridge of his nose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By slow stages the cloud acquired the dimensions and approximate outline
+      of an adult human body, although all was still vague and blurred. It
+      hovered lightly in the air, a foot or so above the couch. Backhouse looked
+      haggard and ghastly. Mrs. Jameson quietly fainted in her chair, but she
+      was unnoticed, and presently revived. The apparition now settled down upon
+      the couch, and at the moment of doing so seemed suddenly to grow dark,
+      solid, and manlike. Many of the guests were as pale as the medium himself,
+      but Faull preserved his stoical apathy, and glanced once or twice at Mrs.
+      Trent. She was staring straight at the couch, and was twisting a little
+      lace handkerchief through the different fingers of her hand. The music
+      went on playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The figure was by this time unmistakably that of a man lying down. The
+      face focused itself into distinctness. The body was draped in a sort of
+      shroud, but the features were those of a young man. One smooth hand fell
+      over, nearly touching the floor, white and motionless. The weaker spirits
+      of the company stared at the vision in sick horror; the rest were grave
+      and perplexed. The seeming man was <i>dead</i>, but somehow it did not
+      appear like a death succeeding life, but like a death preliminary to life.
+      All felt that he might sit up at any minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop that music!&rdquo; muttered Backhouse, tottering from his
+      chair and facing the party. Faull touched the bell. A few more bars
+      sounded, and then total silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Anyone who wants to may approach the couch,&rdquo; said Backhouse
+      with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lang at once advanced, and stared awestruck at the supernatural youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are at liberty to touch,&rdquo; said the medium.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Lang did not venture to, nor did any of the others, who one by one
+      stole up to the couch&mdash;until it came to Faull&rsquo;s turn. He looked
+      straight at Mrs. Trent, who seemed frightened and disgusted at the
+      spectacle before her, and then not only touched the apparition but
+      suddenly grasped the drooping hand in his own and gave it a powerful
+      squeeze. Mrs. Trent gave a low scream. The ghostly visitor opened his
+      eyes, looked at Faull strangely, and sat up on the couch. A cryptic smile
+      started playing over his mouth. Faull looked at his hand; a feeling of
+      intense pleasure passed through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught Mrs. Jameson in his arms; she was attacked by another spell
+      of faintness. Mrs. Trent ran forward, and led her out of the room. Neither
+      of them returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phantom body now stood upright, looking about him, still with his
+      peculiar smile. Prior suddenly felt sick, and went out. The other men more
+      or less hung together, for the sake of human society, but Nightspore paced
+      up and down, like a man weary and impatient, while Maskull attempted to
+      interrogate the youth. The apparition watched him with a baffling
+      expression, but did not answer. Backhouse was sitting apart, his face
+      buried in his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this moment that the door was burst open violently, and a
+      stranger, unannounced, half leaped, half strode a few yards into the room,
+      and then stopped. None of Faull&rsquo;s friends had ever seen him before.
+      He was a thick, shortish man, with surprising muscular development and a
+      head far too large in proportion to his body. His beardless yellow face
+      indicated, as a first impression, a mixture of sagacity, brutality, and
+      humour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aha-i, gentlemen!&rdquo; he called out loudly. His voice was
+      piercing, and oddly disagreeable to the ear. &ldquo;So we have a little
+      visitor here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back, but everyone else stared at the intruder in
+      astonishment. He took another few steps forward, which brought him to the
+      edge of the theatre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask, sir, how I come to have the honour of being your host?&rdquo;
+      asked Faull sullenly. He thought that the evening was not proceeding as
+      smoothly as he had anticipated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer looked at him for a second, and then broke into a great,
+      roaring guffaw. He thumped Faull on the back playfully&mdash;but the play
+      was rather rough, for the victim was sent staggering against the wall
+      before he could recover his balance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good evening, my host!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And good evening to you too, my lad!&rdquo; he went on, addressing
+      the supernatural youth, who was now beginning to wander about the room, in
+      apparent unconsciousness of his surroundings. &ldquo;I have seen someone
+      very like you before, I think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was no response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The intruder thrust his head almost up to the phantom&rsquo;s face.
+      &ldquo;You have no right here, as you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shape looked back at him with a smile full of significance, which,
+      however, no one could understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be careful what you are doing,&rdquo; said Backhouse quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter, spirit usher?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know who you are, but if you use physical violence
+      toward <i>that</i>, as you seem inclined to do, the consequences may prove
+      very unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And without pleasure our evening would be spoiled, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      it, my little mercenary friend?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Humour vanished from his face, like sunlight from a landscape, leaving it
+      hard and rocky. Before anyone realised what he was doing, he encircled the
+      soft, white neck of the materialised shape with his hairy hands and, with
+      a double turn, twisted it completely round. A faint, unearthly shriek
+      sounded, and the body fell in a heap to the floor. Its face was uppermost.
+      The guests were unutterably shocked to observe that its expression had
+      changed from the mysterious but fascinating smile to a vulgar, sordid,
+      bestial grin, which cast a cold shadow of moral nastiness into every
+      heart. The transformation was accompanied by a sickening stench of the
+      graveyard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The features faded rapidly away, the body lost its consistence, passing
+      from the solid to the shadowy condition, and, before two minutes had
+      elapsed, the spirit-form had entirely disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The short stranger turned and confronted the party, with a long, loud
+      laugh, like nothing in nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The professor talked excitedly to Kent-Smith in low tones. Faull beckoned
+      Backhouse behind a wing of scenery, and handed him his check without a
+      word. The medium put it in his pocket, buttoned his coat, and walked out
+      of the room. Lang followed him, in order to get a drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger poked his face up into Maskull&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, giant, what do you think of it all? Wouldn&rsquo;t you like
+      to see the land where this sort of fruit grows wild?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What sort of fruit?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That specimen goblin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull waved him away with his huge hand. &ldquo;Who are you, and how did
+      you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Call up your friend. Perhaps he may recognise me.&rdquo; Nightspore
+      had moved a chair to the fire, and was watching the embers with a set,
+      fanatical expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Krag come to me, if he wants me,&rdquo; he said, in his strange
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, he does know me,&rdquo; uttered Krag, with a humorous
+      look. Walking over to Nightspore, he put a hand on the back of his chair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still the same old gnawing hunger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is doing these days?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore disdainfully,
+      without altering his attitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur has gone, and we are to follow him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you two come to know each other, and of whom are you
+      speaking?&rdquo; asked Maskull, looking from one to the other in
+      perplexity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag has something for us. Let us go outside,&rdquo; replied
+      Nightspore. He got up, and glanced over his shoulder. Maskull, following
+      the direction of his eye, observed that the few remaining men were
+      watching their little group attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 2. IN THE STREET
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The three men gathered in the street outside the house. The night was
+      slightly frosty, but particularly clear, with an east wind blowing. The
+      multitude of blazing stars caused the sky to appear like a vast scroll of
+      hieroglyphic symbols. Maskull felt oddly excited; he had a sense that
+      something extraordinary was about to happen. &ldquo;What brought you to
+      this house tonight, Krag, and what made you do what you did? How are we
+      understand that apparition?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must have been Crystalman&rsquo;s expression on its face,&rdquo;
+      muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have discussed that, haven&rsquo;t we, Maskull? Maskull is
+      anxious to behold that rare fruit in its native wilds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at Krag carefully, trying to analyse his own feelings
+      toward him. He was distinctly repelled by the man&rsquo;s personality, yet
+      side by side with this aversion a savage, living energy seemed to spring
+      up in his heart that in some strange fashion was attributable to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you insist on this simile?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because it is apropos. Nightspore&rsquo;s quite right. That was
+      Crystalman&rsquo;s face, and we are going to Crystalman&rsquo;s country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is this mysterious country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a quaint name. But where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned, showing his yellow teeth in the light of the street lamp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the residential suburb of Arcturus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is he talking about, Nightspore?... Do you mean the star of
+      that name?&rdquo; he went on, to Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which you have in front of you at this very minute,&rdquo; said
+      Krag, pointing a thick finger toward the brightest star in the
+      south-eastern sky. &ldquo;There you see Arcturus, and Tormance is its one
+      inhabited planet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the heavy, gleaming star, and again at Krag. Then he
+      pulled out a pipe, and began to fill it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must have cultivated a new form of humour, Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad if I can amuse you, Maskull, if only for a few days.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I meant to ask you&mdash;how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would be odd if I didn&rsquo;t, seeing that I only came here on
+      your account. As a matter of fact, Nightspore and I are old friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused with his suspended match. &ldquo;You came here on my
+      account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely. On your account and Nightspore&rsquo;s. We three are to be
+      fellow travellers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now lit his pipe and puffed away coolly for a few moments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, Krag, but I must assume you are mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw his head back, and gave a scraping laugh. &ldquo;Am I mad,
+      Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has Surtur gone to Tormance?&rdquo; ejaculated Nightspore in a
+      strangled voice, fixing his eyes on Krag&rsquo;s face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and he requires that we follow him at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart began to beat strangely. It all sounded to him like
+      a dream conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And since how long, Krag, have I been <i>required</i> to do things
+      by a total stranger.... Besides, who is this individual?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&rsquo;s chief,&rdquo; said Nightspore, turning his head away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The riddle is too elaborate for me. I give up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are looking for mysteries,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;so
+      naturally you are finding them. Try and simplify your ideas, my friend.
+      The affair is plain and serious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared hard at him and smoked rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from now?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the old observatory at Starkness.... Have you heard of the
+      famous Starkness Observatory, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Where is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On the north-east coast of Scotland. Curious discoveries are made
+      there from time to time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As, for example, how to make voyages to the stars. So this Surtur
+      turns out to be an astronomer. And you too, presumably?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag grinned again. &ldquo;How long will it take you to wind up your
+      affairs? When can you be ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are too considerate,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing outright.
+      &ldquo;I was beginning to fear that I would be hauled away at once....
+      However, I have neither wife, land, nor profession, so there&rsquo;s
+      nothing to wait for.... What is the itinerary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a fortunate man. A bold, daring heart, and no encumbrances.&rdquo;
+      Krag&rsquo;s features became suddenly grave and rigid. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t
+      be a fool, and refuse a gift of luck. A gift declined is not offered a
+      second time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply, returning his pipe to his
+      pocket. &ldquo;I ask you to put yourself in my place. Even if I were a man
+      sick for adventures, how could I listen seriously to such an insane
+      proposition as this? What do I know about you, or your past record? You
+      may be a practical joker, or you may have come out of a madhouse&mdash;I
+      know nothing about it. If you claim to be an exceptional man, and want my
+      cooperation, you must offer me exceptional proofs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what proofs would you consider adequate, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he spoke he gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. A sharp, chilling pain
+      immediately passed through the latter&rsquo;s body and at the same moment
+      his brain caught fire. A light burst in upon him like the rising of the
+      sun. He asked himself for the first time if this fantastic conversation
+      could by any chance refer to real things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, Krag,&rdquo; he said slowly, while peculiar images and
+      conceptions started to travel in rich disorder through his mind. &ldquo;You
+      talk about a certain journey. Well, if that journey were a possible one,
+      and I were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come
+      back. For twenty-four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give my
+      life. That is my attitude toward that journey.... Now prove to me that you&rsquo;re
+      not talking nonsense. Produce your credentials.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag stared at him all the time he was speaking, his face gradually
+      resuming its jesting expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you will get your twenty-four hours, and perhaps longer, but
+      not much longer. You&rsquo;re an audacious fellow, Maskull, but this trip
+      will prove a little strenuous, even for you.... And so, like the
+      unbelievers of old, you want a sign from heaven?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;But the whole thing is ridiculous. Our brains are
+      overexcited by what took place in <i>there</i>. Let us go home, and sleep
+      it off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag detained him with one hand, while groping in his breast pocket with
+      the other. He presently fished out what resembled a small folding lens.
+      The diameter of the glass did not exceed two inches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First take a peep at Arcturus through this, Maskull. It may serve
+      as a provisional sign. It&rsquo;s the best I can do, unfortunately. I am
+      not a travelling magician.... Be very careful not to drop it. It&rsquo;s
+      somewhat heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the lens in his hand, struggled with it for a minute, and
+      then looked at Krag in amazement. The little object weighed at least
+      twenty pounds, though it was not much bigger than a crown piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What stuff can this be, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look through it, my good friend. That&rsquo;s what I gave it to you
+      for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull held it up with difficulty, directed it toward the gleaming
+      Arcturus, and snatched as long and as steady a glance at the star as the
+      muscles of his arm would permit. What he saw was this. The star, which to
+      the naked eye appeared as a single yellow point of light, now became
+      clearly split into two bright but minute suns, the larger of which was
+      still yellow, while its smaller companion was a beautiful blue. But this
+      was not all. Apparently circulating around the yellow sun was a
+      comparatively small and hardly distinguishable satellite, which seemed to
+      shine, not by its own, but by reflected light.... Maskull lowered and
+      raised his arm repeatedly. The same spectacle revealed itself again and
+      again, but he was able to see nothing else. Then he passed back the lens
+      to Krag, without a word, and stood chewing his underlip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take a glimpse too,&rdquo; scraped Krag, proffering the glass
+      to Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned his back and began to pace up and down. Krag laughed
+      sardonically, and returned the lens to his pocket. &ldquo;Well, Maskull,
+      are you satisfied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arcturus, then, is a double sun. And is that third point the planet
+      Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our future home, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued to ponder. &ldquo;You inquire if I am satisfied. I don&rsquo;t
+      know, Krag. It&rsquo;s miraculous, and that&rsquo;s all I can say about
+      it.... But I&rsquo;m satisfied of one thing. There must be very wonderful
+      astronomers at Starkness and if you invite me to your observatory I will
+      surely come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do invite you. We set off from there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, Nightspore?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The journey has to be made,&rdquo; answered his friend in
+      indistinct tones, &ldquo;though I don&rsquo;t see what will come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag shot a penetrating glance at him. &ldquo;More remarkable adventures
+      than this would need to be arranged before we could excite Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet he is coming.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But not <i>con amore</i>. He is coming merely to bear you company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary might,
+      in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart swelled with
+      grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was unable to account
+      to his own intellect. He felt that his destiny was in some way bound up
+      with this gigantic, far-distant sun. But still he did not dare to admit to
+      himself Krag&rsquo;s seriousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He heard his parting remarks in deep abstraction, and only after the lapse
+      of several minutes, when, alone with Nightspore, did he realise that they
+      referred to such mundane matters as travelling routes and times of trains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does Krag travel north with us, Nightspore? I didn&rsquo;t catch
+      that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. We go on first, and he joins us at Starkness on the evening of
+      the day after tomorrow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained thoughtful. &ldquo;What am I to think of that man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For your information,&rdquo; replied Nightspore wearily, &ldquo;I
+      have never known him to lie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 3. STARKNESS
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A couple of days later, at two o&rsquo;clock in the afternoon, Maskull and
+      Nightspore arrived at Starkness Observatory, having covered the seven
+      miles from Haillar Station on foot. The road, very wild and lonely, ran
+      for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty cliffs,
+      within sight of the North Sea. The sun shone, but a brisk east wind was
+      blowing and the air was salt and cold. The dark green waves were flecked
+      with white. Throughout the walk, they were accompanied by the plaintive,
+      beautiful crying of the gulls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The observatory presented itself to their eyes as a self-contained little
+      community, without neighbours, and perched on the extreme end of the land.
+      There were three buildings: a small, stone-built dwelling house, a low
+      workshop, and, about two hundred yards farther north, a square tower of
+      granite masonry, seventy feet in height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The house and the shop were separated by an open yard, littered with
+      waste. A single stone wall surrounded both, except on the side facing the
+      sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the cliff. No one
+      appeared. The windows were all closed, and Maskull could have sworn that
+      the whole establishment was shut up and deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He passed through the open gate, followed by Nightspore, and knocked
+      vigorously at the front door. The knocker was thick with dust and had
+      obviously not been used for a long time. He put his ear to the door, but
+      could hear no movements inside the house. He then tried the handle; the
+      door was looked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked around the house, looking for another entrance, but there was
+      only the one door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t promising,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      no one here..... Now you try the shed, while I go over to that tower.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore, who had not spoken half a dozen words since leaving the train,
+      complied in silence, and started off across the yard. Maskull passed out
+      of the gate again. When he arrived at the foot of the tower, which stood
+      some way back from the cliff, he found the door heavily padlocked. Gazing
+      up, he saw six windows, one above the other at equal distances, all on the
+      east face&mdash;that is, overlooking the sea. Realising that no
+      satisfaction was to be gained here, he came away again, still more
+      irritated than before. When he rejoined his friend, Nightspore reported
+      that the workshop was also locked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did we, or did we not, receive an invitation?&rdquo; demanded
+      Maskull energetically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The house is empty,&rdquo; replied Nightspore, biting his nails.
+      &ldquo;Better break a window.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t mean to camp out till Krag condescends to
+      come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked up an old iron bolt from the yard and, retreating to a safe
+      distance, hurled it against a sash window on the ground floor. The lower
+      pane was completely shattered. Carefully avoiding the broken glass,
+      Maskull thrust his hand through the aperture and pushed back the frame
+      fastening. A minute later they had climbed through and were standing
+      inside the house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The room, which was a kitchen, was in an indescribably filthy and
+      neglected condition. The furniture scarcely held together, broken utensils
+      and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap, everything was
+      covered with a deep deposit of dust. The atmosphere was so foul that
+      Maskull judged that no fresh air had passed into the room for several
+      months. Insects were crawling on the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They went into the other rooms on the lower floor&mdash;a scullery, a
+      barely furnished dining room, and a storing place for lumber. The same
+      dirt, mustiness, and neglect met their eyes. At least half a year must
+      have elapsed since these rooms were last touched, or even entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does your faith in Krag still hold?&rdquo; asked Maskull. &ldquo;I
+      confess mine is at vanishing point. If this affair isn&rsquo;t one big
+      practical joke, it has every promise of being one. Krag never lived here
+      in his life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come upstairs first,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The upstairs rooms proved to consist of a library and three bedrooms. All
+      the windows were tightly closed, and the air was insufferable. The beds
+      had been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never been made
+      since. The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually preserved the
+      impressions of the sleepers. There was no doubt that these impressions
+      were ancient, for all sorts of floating dirt had accumulated on the sheets
+      and coverlets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who could have slept here, do you think?&rdquo; interrogated
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The observatory staff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More likely travellers like ourselves. They left suddenly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flung the windows wide open in every room he came to, and held his
+      breath until he had done so. Two of the bedrooms faced the sea; the third,
+      the library, the upward-sloping moorland. This library was now the only
+      room left unvisited, and unless they discovered signs of recent occupation
+      here Maskull made up his mind to regard the whole business as a gigantic
+      hoax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the library, like all the other rooms, was foul with stale air and
+      dust-laden. Maskull, having flung the window up and down, fell heavily
+      into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now what is your opinion of Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the window.
+      &ldquo;He may still have left a message for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What message? Why? Do you mean in this room?&mdash;I see no
+      message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
+      upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old bottles on
+      one of the shelves and nothing else. Maskull glanced at him and at the
+      cupboard. Then, without a word, he got up to examine the bottles.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest. The
+      smaller ones were about eight inches long. All were torpedo-shaped, but
+      had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand upright. Two of the
+      smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the others contained a colourless
+      liquid, and possessed queer-looking, nozzle-like stoppers that were
+      connected by a thin metal rod with a catch halfway down the side of the
+      bottle. They were labelled, but the labels were yellow with age and the
+      writing was nearly undecipherable. Maskull carried the filled bottles with
+      him to the table in front of the window, in order to get better light.
+      Nightspore moved away to make room for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now made out on the larger bottle the words &ldquo;Solar Back Rays&rdquo;;
+      and on the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could
+      distinguish something like &ldquo;Arcturian Back Rays.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked up, to stare curiously at his friend. &ldquo;Have you been here
+      before, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed Krag would leave a message.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;it may be a message, but it means
+      nothing to us, or at all events to me. What are &lsquo;back rays&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Light that goes back to its source,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what kind of light would that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore seemed unwilling to answer, but, finding Maskull&rsquo;s eyes
+      still fixed on him, he brought out: &ldquo;Unless light pulled, as well as
+      pushed, how would flowers contrive to twist their heads around after the
+      sun?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. But the point is, what are these bottles for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still talking, with his hand on the smaller bottle, the
+      other, which was lying on its side, accidentally rolled over in such a
+      manner that the metal caught against the table. He made a movement to stop
+      it, his hand was actually descending, when&mdash;the bottle suddenly
+      disappeared before his eyes. It had not rolled off the table, but had
+      really vanished&mdash;it was nowhere at all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at the table. After a minute he raised his brows, and
+      turned to Nightspore with a smile. &ldquo;The message grows more
+      intricate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked bored. &ldquo;The valve became unfastened. The contents
+      have escaped through the open window toward the sun, carrying the bottle
+      with them. But the bottle will be burned up by the earth&rsquo;s
+      atmosphere, and the contents will dissipate, and will not reach the sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened attentively, and his smile faded. &ldquo;Does anything
+      prevent us from experimenting with this other bottle?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Replace it in the cupboard,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;Arcturus
+      is still below the horizon, and you would succeed only in wrecking the
+      house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained standing before the window, pensively gazing out at the
+      sunlit moors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag treats me like a child,&rdquo; he remarked presently. &ldquo;And
+      perhaps I really am a child.... My cynicism must seem most amusing to
+      Krag. But why does he leave me to find out all this by myself&mdash;for I
+      don&rsquo;t include you, Nightspore.... But what time will Krag be here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not before dark, I expect,&rdquo; his friend replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 4. THE VOICE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It was by this time past three o&rsquo;clock. Feeling hungry, for they had
+      eaten nothing since early morning, Maskull went downstairs to forage, but
+      without much hope of finding anything in the shape of food. In a safe in
+      the kitchen he discovered a bag of mouldy oatmeal, which was untouchable,
+      a quantity of quite good tea in an airtight caddy, and an unopened can of
+      ox tongue. Best of all, in the dining-room cupboard he came across an
+      uncorked bottle of first-class Scotch whisky. He at once made preparations
+      for a scratch meal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pump in the yard ran clear after a good deal of hard working at it, and
+      he washed out and filled the antique kettle. For firewood, one of the
+      kitchen chairs was broken up with a chopper. The light, dusty wood made a
+      good blaze in the grate, the kettle was boiled, and cups were procured and
+      washed. Ten minutes later the friends were dining in the library.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore ate and drank little, but Maskull sat down with good appetite.
+      There being no milk, whisky took the place of it; the nearly black tea was
+      mixed with an equal quantity of the spirit. Of this concoction Maskull
+      drank cup after cup, and long after the tongue had disappeared he was
+      still imbibing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him queerly. &ldquo;Do you intend to finish the
+      bottle before Krag comes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag won&rsquo;t want any, and one must do something. I feel
+      restless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us take a look at the country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cup, which was on its way to Maskull&rsquo;s lips, remained poised in
+      the air. &ldquo;Have you anything in view, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk out to the Gap of Sorgie.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A showplace,&rdquo; answered Nightspore, biting his lip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull finished off the cup, and rose to his feet. &ldquo;Walking is
+      better than soaking at any time, and especially on a day like this.... How
+      far is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Three or four miles each way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably mean something,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m
+      beginning to regard you as a second Krag. But if so, so much the better. I
+      am growing nervous, and need incidents.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They left the house by the door, which they left ajar, and immediately
+      found themselves again on the moorland road that had brought them from
+      Haillar. This time they continued along it, past the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, as they went by, regarded the erection with puzzled interest.
+      &ldquo;What <i>is</i> that tower, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sail from the platform on the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight?&rdquo;&mdash;throwing him a quick look.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave. &ldquo;Then we are looking at the
+      gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You no longer think it impossible, I fancy,&rdquo; mumbled
+      Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
+      sharply inland, across the hills. With Nightspore as guide, they left it
+      and took to the grass. A faint sheep path marked the way along the cliff
+      edge for some distance, but at the end of another mile it vanished. The
+      two men then had some rough walking up and down hillsides and across deep
+      gullies. The sun disappeared behind the hills, and twilight imperceptibly
+      came on. They soon reached a spot where further progress appeared
+      impossible. The buttress of a mountain descended at a steep angle to the
+      very edge of the cliff, forming an impassable slope of slippery grass.
+      Maskull halted, stroked his beard, and wondered what the next step was to
+      be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a little scrambling here,&rdquo; said Nightspore.
+      &ldquo;We are both used to climbing, and there is not much in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice a few
+      yards beneath where they were standing. It averaged from fifteen to thirty
+      inches in width. Without waiting for Maskull&rsquo;s consent to the
+      undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and started walking along
+      this ledge at a rapid pace. Maskull, seeing that there was no help for it,
+      followed him. The shelf did not extend for above a quarter of a mile, but
+      its passage was somewhat unnerving; there was a sheer drop to the sea,
+      four hundred feet below. In a few places they had to sidle along without
+      placing one foot before another. The sound of the breakers came up to them
+      in a low, threatening roar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Upon rounding a corner, the ledge broadened out into a fair-sized platform
+      of rock and came to a sudden end. A narrow inlet of the sea separated them
+      from the continuation of the cliffs beyond.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As we can&rsquo;t get any further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;I
+      presume this is your Gap of Sorgie?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered his friend, first dropping on his knees and
+      then lying at full length, face downward. He drew his head and shoulders
+      over the edge and began to stare straight down at the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is there interesting down there, Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Receiving no reply, however, he followed his friend&rsquo;s example, and
+      the next minute was looking for himself. Nothing was to be seen; the gloom
+      had deepened, and the sea was nearly invisible. But, while he was
+      ineffectually gazing, he heard what sounded like the beating of a drum on
+      the narrow strip of shore below. It was very faint, but quite distinct.
+      The beats were in four-four time, with the third beat slightly accented.
+      He now continued to hear the noise all the time he was lying there. The
+      beats were in no way drowned by the far louder sound of the surf, but
+      seemed somehow to belong to a different world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they were on their feet again, he questioned Nightspore. &ldquo;We
+      came here solely to hear that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore cast one of his odd looks at him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s called
+      locally &lsquo;The Drum Taps of Sorgie.&rsquo; You will not hear that name
+      again, but perhaps you will hear the sound again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if I do, what will it imply?&rdquo; demanded Maskull in
+      amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It bears its own message. Only try always to hear it more and more
+      distinctly.... Now it&rsquo;s growing dark, and we must get back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled out his watch automatically, and looked at the time. It was
+      past six.... But he was thinking of Nightspore&rsquo;s words, and not of
+      the time.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      Night had already fallen by the time they regained the tower. The black
+      sky was glorious with liquid stars. Arcturus was a little way above the
+      sea, directly opposite them, in the east. As they were passing the base of
+      the tower, Maskull observed with a sudden shock that the gate was open. He
+      caught hold of Nightspore&rsquo;s arm violently. &ldquo;Look! Krag is
+      back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must make haste to the house.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why not the tower? He&rsquo;s probably in there, since the gate
+      is open. I&rsquo;m going up to look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore grunted, but made no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All was pitch-black inside the gate. Maskull struck a match, and the
+      flickering light disclosed the lower end of a circular flight of stone
+      steps. &ldquo;Are you coming up?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ll wait here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately began the ascent. Hardly had he mounted half a dozen
+      steps, however, before he was compelled to pause, to gain breath. He
+      seemed to be carrying upstairs not one Maskull, but three. As he
+      proceeded, the sensation of crushing weight, so far from diminishing, grew
+      worse and worse. It was nearly physically impossible to go on; his lungs
+      could not take in enough oxygen, while his heart thumped like a ship&rsquo;s
+      engine. Sweat coursed down his face. At the twentieth step he completed
+      the first revolution of the tower and came face to face with the first
+      window, which was set in a high embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Realising that he could go no higher, he struck another match, and climbed
+      into the embrasure, in order that he might at all events see something
+      from the tower. The flame died, and he stared through the window at the
+      stars. Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that it was not a window
+      at all but a lens.... The sky was not a wide expanse of space containing a
+      multitude of stars, but a blurred darkness, focused only in one part,
+      where two very bright stars, like small moons in size, appeared in close
+      conjunction; and near them a more minute planetary object, as brilliant as
+      Venus and with an observable disk. One of the suns shone with a glaring
+      white light; the other was a weird and awful blue. Their light, though
+      almost solar in intensity, did not illuminate the interior of the tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was gazing was
+      what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus.... He had seen the sight
+      before, through Krag&rsquo;s glass, but then the scale had been smaller,
+      the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in their naked reality....
+      These colors seemed to him most marvellous, as if, in seeing them through
+      earth eyes, he was not seeing them correctly.... But it was at Tormance
+      that he stared the longest and the most earnestly. On that mysterious and
+      terrible earth, countless millions of miles distant, it had been promised
+      him that he would set foot, even though he might leave his bones there.
+      The strange creatures that he was to behold and touch were already living,
+      at this very moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard away.
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you understand, Maskull, that you are only an
+      instrument, to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when
+      he wakes you must die. You will go, but he will return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was
+      in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he redescended
+      to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his sensation of weight
+      was instantly removed, but he continued panting and palpitating, like a
+      man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s dark form came forward. &ldquo;Was Krag there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he was, I didn&rsquo;t see him. But I heard someone speak.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was not Krag&mdash;but a voice warned me against you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you will hear these voices too,&rdquo; said Nightspore
+      enigmatically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and the
+      door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not there.
+      Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every room&mdash;at
+      the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the man they were
+      expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the premises. Groping their
+      way into the library, they sat down in the total darkness to wait, for
+      nothing else remained to be done. Maskull lit his pipe, and began to drink
+      the remainder of the whisky. Through the open window sounded in their ears
+      the trainlike grinding of the sea at the foot of the cliffs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag must be in the tower after all,&rdquo; remarked Maskull,
+      breaking the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is getting ready.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope he doesn&rsquo;t expect us to join him there. It was beyond
+      my powers&mdash;but why, heaven knows. The stairs must have a magnetic
+      pull of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Tormantic gravity,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you&mdash;or, rather, I don&rsquo;t&mdash;but it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on smoking in silence, occasionally taking a mouthful of the neat
+      liquor. &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo; he demanded abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We others are gropers and bunglers, but he is a <i>master</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull digested this. &ldquo;I fancy you are right, for though I know
+      nothing about him his mere name has an exciting effect on me.... Are you
+      personally acquainted with him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must be... I forget...&rdquo; replied Nightspore in a choking
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked up, surprised, but could make nothing out in the blackness
+      of the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know so many extraordinary men that you can forget some of
+      them?... Perhaps you can tell me this... will we meet him, where we are
+      going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will meet death, Maskull.... Ask me no more questions&mdash;I
+      can&rsquo;t answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go on waiting for Krag,&rdquo; said Maskull coldly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ten minutes later the front door slammed, and a light, quick footstep was
+      heard running up the stairs. Maskull got up, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag appeared on the threshold of the door, bearing in his hand a feebly
+      glimmering lantern. A hat was on his head, and he looked stern and
+      forbidding. After scrutinising the two friends for a moment or so, he
+      strode into the room and thrust the lantern on the table. Its light hardly
+      served to illuminate the walls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have got here, then, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it seems&mdash;but I shan&rsquo;t thank you for your
+      hospitality, for it has been conspicuous by its absence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag ignored the remark. &ldquo;Are you ready to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By all means&mdash;when you are. It is not so entertaining here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag surveyed him critically. &ldquo;I heard you stumbling about in the
+      tower. You couldn&rsquo;t get up, it seems.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore informs me that the start
+      takes place from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But your other doubts are all removed?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So far, Krag, that I now possess an open mind. I am quite willing
+      to see what you can do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing more is asked.... But this tower business. You know that
+      until you are able to climb to the top you are unfit to stand the
+      gravitation of Tormance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I repeat, it&rsquo;s an awkward obstacle, for I certainly can&rsquo;t
+      get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag hunted about in his pockets, and at length produced a clasp knife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Remove your coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve,&rdquo; he
+      directed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you propose to make an incision with that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, and don&rsquo;t start difficulties, because the effect is
+      certain, but you can&rsquo;t possibly understand it beforehand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, a cut with a pocket-knife&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will answer, Maskull,&rdquo; interrupted Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then bare your arm too, you aristocrat of the universe,&rdquo; said
+      Krag. &ldquo;Let us see what your blood is made of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore obeyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag pulled out the big blade of the knife, and made a careless and almost
+      savage slash at Maskull&rsquo;s upper arm. The wound was deep, and blood
+      flowed freely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do I bind it up?&rdquo; asked Maskull, scowling with pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag spat on the wound. &ldquo;Pull your shirt down, it won&rsquo;t bleed
+      any more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then turned his attention to Nightspore, who endured his operation with
+      grim indifference. Krag threw the knife on the floor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An awful agony, emanating from the wound, started to run through Maskull&rsquo;s
+      body, and he began to doubt whether he would not have to faint, but it
+      subsided almost immediately, and then he felt nothing but a gnawing ache
+      in the injured arm, just strong enough to make life one long discomfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s finished,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;Now you can follow
+      me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door. The others hastened
+      after him, to take advantage of the light, and a moment later their
+      footsteps, clattering down the uncarpeted stairs, resounded through the
+      deserted house. Krag waited till they were out, and then banged the front
+      door after them with such violence that the windows shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were walking swiftly across to the tower, Maskull caught his
+      arm. &ldquo;I heard a voice up those stairs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did it say?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smiled. &ldquo;The journey is getting notorious,&rdquo; he remarked,
+      after a pause. &ldquo;There must be ill-wishers about.... Well, do you
+      want to return?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what I want. But I thought the thing was curious
+      enough to be mentioned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not a bad thing to hear voices,&rdquo; said Krag, &ldquo;but
+      you mustn&rsquo;t for a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you
+      out of the night world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he immediately set
+      foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and ran nimbly up, bearing
+      the lantern. Maskull followed him with some trepidation, in view of his
+      previous painful experience on these stairs, but when, after the first
+      half-dozen steps, he discovered that he was still breathing freely, his
+      dread changed to relief and astonishment, and he could have chattered like
+      a girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stopping, but
+      Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his acquaintance
+      with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group. The lens had lost
+      its magic property. It had become a common sheet of glass, through which
+      the ordinary sky field appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again mounted
+      and stared out, but still the common sights presented themselves. After
+      that, he gave up and looked through no more windows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so that he
+      had to complete the ascent in darkness. When he was near the top, he saw
+      yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened door. His
+      companions were standing just inside a small room, shut off from the
+      staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely furnished and contained
+      nothing of astronomical interest. The lantern was resting on a table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity. &ldquo;Are we at
+      the top?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except for the platform over our heads,&rdquo; replied Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why didn&rsquo;t that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in
+      the evening?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you missed your opportunity,&rdquo; said Krag, grinning.
+      &ldquo;If you had finished your climb then, you would have seen
+      heart-expanding sights. From the fifth window, for example, you would have
+      seen Tormance like a continent in relief; from the sixth you would have
+      seen it like a landscape.... But now there&rsquo;s no need.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not&mdash;and what has need got to do with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours. For the
+      same reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there was no
+      necessity to stop and gape at illusions <i>en route</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; said Maskull, not quite understanding what he
+      meant. &ldquo;But is this Surtur&rsquo;s den?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has spent time here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag. We may
+      not get another chance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur. There&rsquo;s
+      no need to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately
+      going on to the reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then let us go.&rdquo; He pressed his eyeballs wearily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we strip?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naturally,&rdquo; answered Krag, and he began to tear off his
+      clothes with slow, uncouth movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, following, however, the example of
+      the other two men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag thumped his vast chest, which was covered with thick hairs, like an
+      ape&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Who knows what the Tormance fashions are like? We may
+      sprout limbs&mdash;I don&rsquo;t say we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A-ha!&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull, pausing in the middle of his
+      undressing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag smote him on the back. &ldquo;New pleasure organs possible, Maskull.
+      You like that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three men stood as nature made them. Maskull&rsquo;s spirits rose
+      fast, as the moment of departure drew near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A farewell drink to success!&rdquo; cried Krag, seizing a bottle
+      and breaking its head off between his fingers. There were no glasses, but
+      he poured the amber-coloured wine into some cracked cups.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull tossed off his cupful. It was as
+      if he had swallowed a draught of liquid electricity.... Krag dropped onto
+      the floor and rolled around on his back, kicking his legs in the air. He
+      tried to drag Maskull down on top of him, and a little horseplay went on
+      between the two. Nightspore took no part in it, but walked to and fro,
+      like a hungry caged animal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged, piercing wail,
+      such as a banshee might be imagined to utter. It ceased abruptly, and was
+      not repeated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo; called out Maskull, disengaging himself
+      impatiently from Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag rocked with laughter. &ldquo;A Scottish spirit trying to reproduce
+      the bagpipes of its earth life&mdash;in honour of our departure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore turned to Krag. &ldquo;Maskull will sleep throughout the
+      journey?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you too, if you wish, my altruistic friend. I am pilot, and you
+      passengers can amuse yourselves as you please.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we off at last?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you are about to cross your Rubicon, Maskull. But what a
+      Rubicon!... Do you know that it takes light a hundred years or so to
+      arrive here from Arcturus? Yet we shall do it in nineteen hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you assert that Surtur is already there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur is where he is. He is a great traveller.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t I see him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag went up to him and looked him in the eyes. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t forget
+      that you have asked for it, and wanted it. Few people in Tormance will
+      know more about him than you do, but your memory will be your worst
+      friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He led the way up a short iron ladder, mounting through a trap to the flat
+      roof above. When they were up, he switched on a small electric torch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull beheld with awe the torpedo of crystal that was to convey them
+      through the whole breadth of visible space. It was forty feet long, eight
+      wide, and eight high; the tank containing the Arcturian back rays was in
+      front, the car behind. The nose of the torpedo was directed toward the
+      south-eastern sky. The whole machine rested upon a flat platform, raised
+      about four feet above the level of the roof, so as to encounter no
+      obstruction on starting its flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag flashed the light on to the door of the car, to enable them to enter.
+      Before doing so, Maskull gazed sternly once again at the gigantic,
+      far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now onward. He frowned,
+      shivered slightly, and got in beside Nightspore. Krag clambered past them
+      onto his pilot&rsquo;s seat. He threw the flashlight through the open
+      door, which was then carefully closed, fastened, and screwed up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He pulled the starting lever. The torpedo glided gently from its platform,
+      and passed rather slowly away from the tower, seaward. Its speed increased
+      sensibly, though not excessively, until the approximate limits of the
+      earth&rsquo;s atmosphere were reached. Krag then released the speed valve,
+      and the car sped on its way with a velocity more nearly approaching that
+      of thought than of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull had no opportunity of examining through the crystal walls the
+      rapidly changing panorama of the heavens. An extreme drowsiness oppressed
+      him. He opened his eyes violently a dozen times, but on the thirteenth
+      attempt he failed. From that time forward he slept heavily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bored, hungry expression never left Nightspore&rsquo;s face. The
+      alterations in the aspect of the sky seemed to possess not the least
+      interest for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag sat with his hand on the lever, watching with savage intentness his
+      phosphorescent charts and gauges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 6. JOIWIND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      IT WAS DENSE NIGHT when Maskull awoke from his profound sleep. A wind was
+      blowing against him, gentle but wall-like, such as he had never
+      experienced on earth. He remained sprawling on the ground, as he was
+      unable to lift his body because of its intense weight. A numbing pain,
+      which he could not identify with any region of his frame, acted from now
+      onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his other sensations. It gnawed
+      away at him continuously; sometimes it embittered and irritated him, at
+      other times he forgot it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt something hard on his forehead. Putting his hand up, he discovered
+      there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum, having a cavity in
+      the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom. Then he also became
+      aware of a large knob on each side of his neck, an inch below the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded. It was as long as his
+      arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new organs,
+      his heart began to pump. Whatever might, or might not, be their use, they
+      proved one thing&mdash;that he was in a new world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest. Maskull cried out
+      to his companions, but received no response. This frightened him. He went
+      on shouting out, at irregular intervals&mdash;equally alarmed at the
+      silence and at the sound of his own voice. Finally, as no answering hail
+      came, he thought it wiser not to make too much noise, and after that he
+      lay quiet, waiting in cold blood for what might happen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were not
+      his friends.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black night,
+      while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared. On earth, one would have said
+      that day was breaking. The brightness went on imperceptibly increasing for
+      a very long time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand. The colour of the sand
+      was scarlet. The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with black stems
+      and purple leaves. So far, nothing else was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The day surged up. It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before long
+      the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the midday
+      sun on earth. The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull welcomed it&mdash;it
+      relieved his pain and diminished his sense of crushing weight. The wind
+      had dropped with the rising of the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling. He was
+      unable to see far. The mists had no more than partially dissolved, and all
+      that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of red sand dotted with ten
+      or twenty bushes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck. He started forward in
+      nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the sand. Looking up
+      over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see a woman standing beside
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
+      classically draped. According to earth standards she was not beautiful,
+      for, although her face was otherwise human, she was endowed&mdash;or
+      afflicted&mdash;with the additional disfiguring organs that Maskull had
+      discovered in himself. She also possessed the heart tentacle. But when he
+      sat up, and their eyes met and remained in sympathetic contact, he seemed
+      to see right into a soul that was the home of love, warmth, kindness,
+      tenderness, and intimacy. Such was the noble familiarity of that gaze,
+      that he thought he knew her. After that, he recognised all the loveliness
+      of her person. She was tall and slight. All her movements were as graceful
+      as music. Her skin was not of a dead, opaque colour, like that of an earth
+      beauty, but was opalescent; its hue was continually changing, with every
+      thought and emotion, but none of these tints was vivid&mdash;all were
+      delicate, half-toned, and poetic. She had very long, loosely plaited,
+      flaxen hair. The new organs, as soon as Maskull had familiarised himself
+      with them, imparted something to her face that was unique and striking. He
+      could not quite define it to himself, but subtlety and inwardness seemed
+      added. The organs did not contradict the love of her eyes or the angelic
+      purity of her features, but nevertheless sounded a deeper note&mdash;a
+      note that saved her from mere girlishness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely any
+      humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless. She realised his
+      plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had been carrying over
+      her arm. It was similar to the one she was wearing, but of a darker, more
+      masculine colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you can put it on by yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
+      complications of the drapery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor man&mdash;how you are suffering!&rdquo; she said, in the same
+      inaudible language. This time he discovered that the sense of what she
+      said was received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where am I? Is this Tormance?&rdquo; he asked. As he spoke, he
+      staggered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She caught him, and helped him to sit down. &ldquo;Yes. You are with
+      friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in English.
+      Her voice somehow reminded him of an April day, it was so fresh, nervous,
+      and girlish. &ldquo;I can now understand your language. It was strange at
+      first. In the future I&rsquo;ll speak to you with my mouth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is extraordinary! What is this organ?&rdquo; he asked,
+      touching his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is named the &lsquo;breve.&rsquo; By means of it we read one
+      another&rsquo;s thoughts. Still, speech is better, for then the heart can
+      be read too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;They say that speech is given us to deceive others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can deceive with thought, too. But I&rsquo;m thinking of the
+      best, not the worst.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen my friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She scrutinised him quietly, before answering. &ldquo;Did you not come
+      alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came with two other men, in a machine. I must have lost
+      consciousness on arrival, and I haven&rsquo;t seen them since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s very strange! No, I haven&rsquo;t seen them. They can&rsquo;t
+      be here, or we would have known it. My husband and I&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, and your husband&rsquo;s name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mine is Joiwind&mdash;my husband&rsquo;s is Panawe. We live a very
+      long way from here; still, it came to us both last night that you were
+      lying here insensible. We almost quarrelled about which of us should come
+      to you, but in the end I won.&rdquo; Here she laughed. &ldquo;I won,
+      because I am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in
+      perception.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind!&rdquo; said Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin. &ldquo;Oh, why do
+      you say that? What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness? I rejoiced at
+      the opportunity.... But now we must exchange blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this?&rdquo; he demanded, rather puzzled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be so. Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.
+      Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull flushed. &ldquo;I feel like a complete ignoramus here.... Won&rsquo;t
+      it hurt you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If your blood pains you, I suppose it will pain me. But we will
+      share the pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a new kind of hospitality to me,&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t you do the same for me?&rdquo; asked Joiwind, half
+      smiling, half agitated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer for any of my actions in this world. I
+      scarcely know where I am.... Why, yes&mdash;of course I would, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they were talking it had become full day. The mists had rolled away
+      from the ground, and only the upper atmosphere remained fog-charged. The
+      desert of scarlet sand stretched in all directions, except one, where
+      there was a sort of little oasis&mdash;some low hills, clothed sparsely
+      with little purple trees from base to summit. It was about a quarter of a
+      mile distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind had brought with her a small flint knife. Without any trace of
+      nervousness, she made a careful, deep incision on her upper arm. Maskull
+      expostulated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Really, this part of it is nothing,&rdquo; she said, laughing.
+      &ldquo;And if it were&mdash;a sacrifice that is no sacrifice&mdash;what
+      merit is there in that?... Come now&mdash;your arm!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood was streaming down her arm. It was not red blood, but a milky,
+      opalescent fluid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that one!&rdquo; said Maskull, shrinking. &ldquo;I have already
+      been cut there.&rdquo; He submitted the other, and his blood poured forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind delicately and skilfully placed the mouths of the two wounds
+      together, and then kept her arm pressed tightly against Maskull&rsquo;s
+      for a long time. He felt a stream of pleasure entering his body through
+      the incision. His old lightness and vigour began to return to him. After
+      about five minutes a duel of kindness started between them; he wanted to
+      remove his arm, and she to continue. At last he had his way, but it was
+      none too soon&mdash;she stood there pale and dispirited.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him with a more serious expression than before, as if
+      strange depths had opened up before her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you come from, with this awful blood?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From a world called Earth.... The blood is clearly unsuitable for
+      this world, Joiwind, but after all, that was only to be expected. I am
+      sorry I let you have your way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t say that! There was nothing else to be done. We
+      must all help one another. Yet, somehow&mdash;forgive me&mdash;I feel
+      polluted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And well you may, for it&rsquo;s a fearful thing for a girl to
+      accept in her own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet.
+      If I had not been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have insisted. Are we not all brothers and sisters? Why
+      did you come here, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment. &ldquo;Will you
+      think it foolish if I say I hardly know?&mdash;I came with those two men.
+      Perhaps I was attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of
+      adventure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;I wonder... These friends of
+      yours must be terrible men. Why did they come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you. They came to follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her face grew troubled. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand it. One of them at
+      least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur&mdash;or
+      Shaping, as he is called here&mdash;he can&rsquo;t be really bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you know of Surtur?&rdquo; asked Maskull in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face. His brain moved
+      restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside. &ldquo;I see....
+      and yet I don&rsquo;t see,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;It is very
+      difficult.... Your God is a dreadful Being&mdash;bodyless, unfriendly,
+      invisible. Here we don&rsquo;t worship a God like that. Tell me, has any
+      man set eyes on your God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean, Joiwind? Why speak of God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In ancient times, when the earth was young and grand, a few holy
+      men are reputed to have walked and spoken with God, but those days are
+      past.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our world is still young,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;Shaping goes
+      among us and converses with us. He is real and active&mdash;a friend and
+      lover. Shaping made us, and he loves his work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have <i>you</i> met him?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, hardly believing
+      his ears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I have done nothing to deserve it yet. Some day I may have an
+      opportunity to sacrifice myself, and then I may be rewarded by meeting and
+      talking with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have certainly come to another world. But why do you say he is
+      the same as Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he is the same. We women call him Shaping, and so do most men,
+      but a few name him Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nail. &ldquo;Have you ever heard of Crystalman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Shaping once again. You see, he has many names&mdash;which
+      shows how much he occupies our minds. Crystalman is a name of affection.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s odd,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I came here with quite
+      different ideas about Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind shook her hair. &ldquo;In that grove of trees over there stands a
+      desert shrine of his. Let us go and pray there, and then we&rsquo;ll go on
+      our way to Poolingdred. That is my home. It&rsquo;s a long way off, and we
+      must get there before Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, what is Blodsombre?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays are so hot that no one can endure them. We call it Blodsombre.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed. &ldquo;Naturally we don&rsquo;t
+      take our names from you, Maskull. I don&rsquo;t think our names are very
+      poetic, but they follow nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
+      tree-covered hills. As they went along, the sun broke through the upper
+      mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from a furnace,
+      struck Maskull&rsquo;s head. He involuntarily looked up, but lowered his
+      eyes again like lightning. All that he saw in that instant was a glaring
+      ball of electric white, three times the apparent diameter of the sun. For
+      a few minutes he was quite blind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My God!&rdquo; he exclaimed. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s like this in
+      early morning you must be right enough about Blodsombre.&rdquo; When he
+      had somewhat recovered himself he asked, &ldquo;How long are the days
+      here, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he felt his brain being probed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At this time of the year, for every hour&rsquo;s daylight that you
+      have in summer, we have two.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heat is terrific&mdash;and yet somehow I don&rsquo;t feel so
+      distressed by it as I would have expected.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I feel it more than usual. It&rsquo;s not difficult to account for
+      it; you have some of my blood, and I have some of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, every time I realise that, I&mdash;Tell me, Joiwind, will my
+      blood alter, if I stay here long enough?&mdash;I mean, will it lose its
+      redness and thickness, and become pure and thin and light-coloured, like
+      yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? If you live as we live, you will assuredly grow like us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean food and drink?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We eat no food, and drink only water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And on that you manage to sustain life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull, our water is good water,&rdquo; replied Joiwind,
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he could see again he stared around at the landscape. The
+      enormous scarlet desert extended everywhere to the horizon, excepting
+      where it was broken by the oasis. It was roofed by a cloudless, deep blue,
+      almost violet, sky. The circle of the horizon was far larger than on
+      earth. On the skyline, at right angles to the direction in which they were
+      walking, appeared a chain of mountains, apparently about forty miles
+      distant. One, which was higher than the rest, was shaped like a cup.
+      Maskull would have felt inclined to believe he was travelling in
+      dreamland, but for the intensity of the light, which made everything
+      vividly real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to the cup-shaped mountain. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      Poolingdred.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t come from there!&rdquo; he exclaimed, quite
+      startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I did indeed. And that is where we have to go to now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the single object of finding me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The colour mounted to his face. &ldquo;Then you are the bravest and
+      noblest of all girls,&rdquo; he said quietly, after a pause. &ldquo;Without
+      exception. Why, this is a journey for an athlete!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pressed his arm, while a score of unpaintable, delicate hues stained
+      her cheeks in rapid transition. &ldquo;Please don&rsquo;t say any more
+      about it, Maskull. It makes me feel unpleasant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. But can we possibly get there before midday?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes. And you mustn&rsquo;t be frightened at the distance. We
+      think nothing of long distances here&mdash;we have so much to think about
+      and feel. Time goes all too quickly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During their conversation they had drawn near the base of the hills, which
+      sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height. Maskull now began
+      to see strange specimens of vegetable life. What looked like a small patch
+      of purple grass, above five feet square, was moving across the sand in
+      their direction. When it came near enough he perceived that it was not
+      grass; there were no blades, but only purple roots. The roots were
+      revolving, for each small plant in the whole patch, like the spokes of a
+      rimless wheel. They were alternately plunged in the sand, and withdrawn
+      from it, and by this means the plant proceeded forward. Some uncanny,
+      semi-intelligent instinct was keeping all the plants together, moving at
+      one pace, in one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
+      dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air. Joiwind
+      caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm, and showed it
+      to Maskull. It had roots and presumably lived in the air and fed on the
+      chemical constituents of the atmosphere. But what was peculiar about it
+      was its colour. It was an entirely new colour&mdash;not a new shade or
+      combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid as blue, red, or yellow,
+      but quite different. When he inquired, she told him that it was known as
+      &ldquo;ulfire.&rdquo; Presently he met with a second new colour. This she
+      designated &ldquo;jale.&rdquo; The sense impressions caused in Maskull by
+      these two additional primary colors can only be vaguely hinted at by
+      analogy. Just as blue is delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and
+      unsubtle, and red sanguine and passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild
+      and painful, and jale dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
+      shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured, covered
+      the slopes and top. Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and through. Some hard
+      fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a large apple, and shaped
+      like an egg, was lying in profusion underneath the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don&rsquo;t you eat it?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked at him tranquilly. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t eat living things. The
+      thought is horrible to us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to say against that, theoretically. But do you
+      really sustain your bodies on water?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Supposing you could find nothing else to live on, Maskull&mdash;would
+      you eat other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither will we eat plants and animals, which are our fellow
+      creatures. So nothing is left to us but water, and as one can really live
+      on anything, water does very well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull picked up one of the fruits and handled it curiously. As he did so
+      another of his newly acquired sense organs came into action. He found that
+      the fleshy knobs beneath his ears were in some novel fashion acquainting
+      him with the inward properties of the fruit. He could not only see, feel,
+      and smell it, but could detect its intrinsic nature. This nature was hard,
+      persistent and melancholy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind answered the questions he had not asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those organs are called &lsquo;poigns.&rsquo; Their use is to
+      enable us to understand and sympathise with all living creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What advantage do you derive from that, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The advantage of not being cruel and selfish, dear Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw the fruit away and flushed again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked into his swarthy, bearded face without embarrassment and
+      slowly smiled. &ldquo;Have I said too much? Have I been too familiar? Do
+      you know why you think so? It&rsquo;s because you are still impure. By and
+      by you will listen to all language without shame.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he realised what she was about to do, she threw her tentacle round
+      his neck, like another arm. He offered no resistance to its cool pressure.
+      The contact of her soft flesh with his own was so moist and sensitive that
+      it resembled another kind of kiss. He saw who it was that embraced him&mdash;a
+      pale, beautiful girl. Yet, oddly enough, he experienced neither
+      voluptuousness nor sexual pride. The love expressed by the caress was
+      rich, glowing, and personal, but there was not the least trace of sex in
+      it&mdash;and so he received it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and
+      penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I wish to be pure,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Without that
+      what can I ever be but a weak, squirming devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind released him. &ldquo;This we call the &lsquo;magn,&rsquo;&rdquo;
+      she said, indicating her tentacle. &ldquo;By means of it what we love
+      already we love more, and what we don&rsquo;t love at all we begin to
+      love.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A godlike organ!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the one we guard most jealously,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shade of the trees afforded a timely screen from the now almost
+      insufferable rays of Branchspell, which was climbing steadily upward to
+      the zenith. On descending the other side of the little hills, Maskull
+      looked anxiously for traces of Nightspore and Krag, but without result.
+      After staring about him for a few minutes he shrugged his shoulders; but
+      suspicions had already begun to gather in his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small, natural amphitheatre lay at their feet, completely circled by the
+      tree-clad heights. The centre was of red sand. In the very middle shot up
+      a tall, stately tree, with a black trunk and branches, and transparent,
+      crystal leaves. At the foot of this tree was a natural, circular well,
+      containing dark green water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had reached the bottom, Joiwind took him straight over to the
+      well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at it intently. &ldquo;Is this the shrine you talked about?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. It is called Shaping&rsquo;s Well. The man or woman who wishes
+      to invoke Shaping must take up some of the gnawl water, and drink it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray for me,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Your unspotted prayer will
+      carry more weight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you wish for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For purity,&rdquo; answered Maskull, in a troubled voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind made a cup of her hand, and drank a little of the water. She held
+      it up to Maskull&rsquo;s mouth. &ldquo;You must drink too.&rdquo; He
+      obeyed. She then stood erect, closed her eyes, and, in a voice like the
+      soft murmurings of spring, prayed aloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping, my father, I am hoping you can hear me. A strange man has
+      come to us weighed down with heavy blood. He wishes to be pure. Let him
+      know the meaning of love, let him live for others. Don&rsquo;t spare him
+      pain, dear Shaping, but let him seek his own pain. Breathe into him a
+      noble soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened with tears in his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Joiwind finished speaking, a blurred mist came over his eyes, and, half
+      buried in the scarlet sand, appeared a large circle of dazzlingly white
+      pillars. For some minutes they flickered to and fro between distinctness
+      and indistinctness, like an object being focused. Then they faded out of
+      sight again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that a sign from Shaping?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in a low, awed
+      tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it is. It is a time mirage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that be, Joiwind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, dear Maskull, the temple does not yet exist but it will do
+      so, because it must. What you and I are now doing in simplicity, wise men
+      will do hereafter in full knowledge.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right for man to pray,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Good and
+      evil in the world don&rsquo;t originate from nothing. God and Devil must
+      exist. And we should pray to the one, and fight the other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, we must fight Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name did you say?&rdquo; asked Maskull in amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;the author of evil and misery&mdash;whom you call Devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He immediately concealed his thoughts. To prevent Joiwind from learning
+      his relationship to this being, he made his mind a blank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you hide your mind from me?&rdquo; she demanded, looking at
+      him strangely and changing colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In this bright, pure, radiant world, evil seems so remote, one can
+      scarcely grasp its meaning.&rdquo; But he lied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind continued gazing at him, straight out of her clean soul. &ldquo;The
+      world is good and pure, but many men are corrupt. Panawe, my husband, has
+      travelled, and he has told me things I would almost rather have not heard.
+      One person he met believed the universe to be, from top to bottom, a
+      conjurer&rsquo;s cave.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should like to meet your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we are going home now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children, but
+      was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She read the mental question. &ldquo;What need is there? Is not the whole
+      world full of lovely children? Why should I want selfish possessions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
+      distinct notes. It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body, paddled
+      by five webbed feet. It disappeared among the trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by. &ldquo;I love that beast, grotesque
+      as it is&mdash;perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness. But if I had
+      children of my own, would I still love it? Which is best&mdash;to love two
+      or three, or to love all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every woman can&rsquo;t be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to
+      have a few like you. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be as well,&rdquo; he went on,
+      &ldquo;since we&rsquo;ve got to walk through that sun-baked wilderness, to
+      make turbans for our heads out of some of those long leaves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled rather pathetically. &ldquo;You will think me foolish, but
+      every tearing off of a leaf would be a wound in my heart. We have only to
+      throw our robes over our heads.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt that will answer the same purpose, but tell me&mdash;weren&rsquo;t
+      these very robes once part of a living creature?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no&mdash;no, they are the webs of a certain animal, but they
+      have never been in themselves alive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You reduce life to extreme simplicity,&rdquo; remarked Maskull
+      meditatively, &ldquo;but it is very beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began
+      their march across the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked side by side. Joiwind directed their course straight toward
+      Poolingdred. From the position of the sun, Maskull judged their way to lie
+      due north. The sand was soft and powdery, very tiring to his naked feet.
+      The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him semi-blind. He was hot,
+      parched, and tormented with the craving to drink; his undertone of pain
+      emerged into full consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it is queer&mdash;if it is accidental,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      with a peculiar intonation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly!&rdquo; agreed Maskull. &ldquo;If they had met with a
+      mishap, their bodies would still be there. It begins to look like a piece
+      of bad work to me. They must have gone on, and left me.... Well, I am
+      here, and I must make the best of it. I will trouble no more about them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to speak ill of anyone,&rdquo; said Joiwind,
+      &ldquo;but my instinct tells me that you are better away from those men.
+      They did not come here for your sake, but for their own.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for a long time. Maskull was beginning to feel faint. She
+      twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current of
+      confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Joiwind! But am I not weakening <i>you</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance. &ldquo;But
+      not much&mdash;and it gives me great happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-born
+      lamb, waltzing along on three legs. Each leg in turn moved to the front,
+      and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a series of complete
+      rotations. It was vividly coloured, as though it had been dipped into pots
+      of bright blue and yellow paint. It looked up with small, shining eyes, as
+      they passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind nodded and smiled to it. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a personal friend of
+      mine, Maskull. Whenever I come this way, I see it. It&rsquo;s always
+      waltzing, and always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is
+      no need for anyone to get anywhere. What I don&rsquo;t quite understand is
+      how you manage to pass your days without ennui.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a strange word. It means, does it not, craving for
+      excitement?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the kind,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be a disease brought on by rich food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are you never dull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could we be? Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh
+      is clean and unclogged, inside and out.... Before long I hope you will
+      understand what sort of question you have asked.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon. In the heart of the
+      desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air, with a
+      cool and pleasant hissing sound. It differed, however, from a fountain in
+      this respect&mdash;that the water of which it was composed did not return
+      to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at the summit. It was in
+      fact a tall, graceful column of dark green fluid, with a capital of
+      coiling and twisting vapours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they came closer, Maskull perceived that this water column was the
+      continuation and termination of a flowing brook, which came down from the
+      direction of the mountains. The explanation of the phenomenon was
+      evidently that the water at this spot found chemical affinities in the
+      upper air, and consequently forsook the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now let us drink,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She threw herself unaffectedly at full length on the sand, face downward,
+      by the side of the brook, and Maskull was not long in following her
+      example. She refused to quench her thirst until she had seen him drink. He
+      found the water heavy, but bubbling with gas. He drank copiously. It
+      affected his palate in a new way&mdash;with the purity and cleanness of
+      water was combined the exhilaration of a sparkling wine, raising his
+      spirits&mdash;but somehow the intoxication brought out his better nature,
+      and not his lower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We call it &lsquo;gnawl water&rsquo;,&rdquo; said Joiwind. &ldquo;This
+      is not quite pure, as you can see by the colour. At Poolingdred it is
+      crystal clear. But we would be ungrateful if we complained. After this you&rsquo;ll
+      find we&rsquo;ll get along much better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now began to realise his environment, as it were for the first
+      time. All his sense organs started to show him beauties and wonders that
+      he had not hitherto suspected. The uniform glaring scarlet of the sands
+      became separated into a score of clearly distinguished shades of red. The
+      sky was similarly split up into different blues. The radiant heat of
+      Branchspell he found to affect every part of his body with unequal
+      intensities. His ears awakened; the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the
+      sands hummed, even the sun&rsquo;s rays had a sound of their own&mdash;a
+      kind of faint Aeolian harp. Subtle, puzzling perfumes assailed his
+      nostrils. His palate lingered over the memory of the gnawl water. All the
+      pores of his skin were tickled and soothed by hitherto unperceived
+      currents of air. His poigns explored actively the inward nature of
+      everything in his immediate vicinity. His magn touched Joiwind, and drew
+      from her person a stream of love and joy. And lastly by means of his breve
+      he exchanged thoughts with her in silence. This mighty sense symphony
+      stirred him to the depths, and throughout the walk of that endless morning
+      he felt no more fatigue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When it was drawing near to Blodsombre, they approached the sedgy margin
+      of a dark green lake, which lay underneath Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sitting on a dark rock, waiting for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 7. PANAWE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The husband got up to meet his wife and their guest. He was clothed in
+      white. He had a beardless face, with breve and poigns. His skin, on face
+      and body alike, was so white, fresh, and soft, that it scarcely looked
+      skin at all&mdash;it rather resembled a new kind of pure, snowy flesh,
+      extending right down to his bones. It had nothing in common with the
+      artificially whitened skin of an over-civilised woman. Its whiteness and
+      delicacy aroused no voluptuous thoughts; it was obviously the
+      manifestation of a cold and almost cruel chastity of nature. His hair,
+      which fell to the nape of his neck, also was white; but again, from
+      vigour, not decay. His eyes were black, quiet and fathomless. He was still
+      a young man, but so stern were his features that he had the appearance of
+      a lawgiver, and this in spite of their great beauty and harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His magn and Joiwind&rsquo;s intertwined for a single moment and Maskull
+      saw his face soften with love, while she looked exultant. She put him in
+      her husband&rsquo;s arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing and
+      smiling. Maskull felt rather embarrassed at being embraced by a man, but
+      submitted to it; a sense of cool, pleasant languor passed through him in
+      the act.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stranger is red-blooded, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was startled by Panawe&rsquo;s speaking in English, and the voice too
+      was extraordinary. It was absolutely tranquil, but its tranquillity seemed
+      in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a rapidity of
+      thoughts and feelings so great that their motion could not be detected.
+      How this could be, he did not know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to speak in a tongue you have never heard before?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thought is a rich, complex thing. I can&rsquo;t say if I am really
+      speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are translating my
+      thoughts into your tongue as I utter them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Already you see that Panawe is wiser than I am,&rdquo; said Joiwind
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked the husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name must have a meaning&mdash;but again, thought is a strange
+      thing. I connect that name with something&mdash;but with what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Try to discover,&rdquo; said Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has there been a man in your world who stole something from the
+      Maker of the universe, in order to ennoble his fellow creatures?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is such a myth. The hero&rsquo;s name was Prometheus.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, you seem to be identified in my mind with that action&mdash;but
+      what it all means I can&rsquo;t say, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accept it as a good omen, for Panawe never lies, and never speaks
+      thoughtlessly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There must be some confusion. These are heights beyond me,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull calmly, but looking rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From the planet of a distant sun, called Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was tired of vulgarity,&rdquo; returned Maskull laconically. He
+      intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyagers, in order that Krag&rsquo;s
+      name should not come to light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an honourable motive,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;And
+      what&rsquo;s more, it may be true, though you spoke it as a prevarication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as it goes, it&rsquo;s quite true,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      staring at him with annoyance and surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were
+      standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain. Feathery purple reeds
+      showed themselves here and there through the shallows. The water was dark
+      green. Maskull did not see how they were going to cross it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind caught his arm. &ldquo;Perhaps you don&rsquo;t know that the lake
+      will bear us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe walked onto the water; it was so heavy that it carried his weight.
+      Joiwind followed with Maskull. He instantly started to slip about&mdash;nevertheless
+      the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast, by watching and imitating
+      Panawe, that he was soon able to balance himself without assistance. After
+      that he found the sport excellent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the same reason that women excel in dancing, Joiwind&rsquo;s half
+      falls and recoveries were far more graceful and sure than those of either
+      of the men. Her slight, draped form&mdash;dipping, bending, rising,
+      swaying, twisting, upon the surface of the dark water&mdash;this was a
+      picture Maskull could not keep his eyes away from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The lake grew deeper. The gnawl water became green-black. The crags,
+      gullies, and precipices of the shore could now be distinguished in detail.
+      A waterfall was visible, descending several hundred feet. The surface of
+      the lake grew disturbed&mdash;so much so that Maskull had difficulty in
+      keeping his balance. He therefore threw himself down and started swimming
+      on the face of the water. Joiwind turned her head, and laughed so joyously
+      that all her teeth flashed in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They landed in a few more minutes on a promontory of black rock. The water
+      on Maskull&rsquo;s garment and body evaporated very quickly. He gazed
+      upward at the towering mountain, but at that moment some strange movements
+      on the part of Panawe attracted his attention. His face was working
+      convulsively, and he began to stagger about. Then he put his hand to his
+      mouth and took from it what looked like a bright-coloured pebble. He
+      looked at it carefully for some seconds. Joiwind also looked, over his
+      shoulder, with quickly changing colors. After this inspection, Panawe let
+      the object&mdash;whatever it was&mdash;fall to the ground, and took no
+      more interest in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I look?&rdquo; asked Maskull; and, without waiting for
+      permission, he picked it up. It was a delicately beautiful egg-shaped
+      crystal of pale green.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where did this come from?&rdquo; he asked queerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe turned away, but Joiwind answered for him. &ldquo;It came out of my
+      husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I thought, but I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. But
+      what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that it has either name or use. It is merely an
+      overflowing of beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beauty?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind smiled. &ldquo;If you were to regard nature as the husband, and
+      Panawe as the wife, Maskull, perhaps everything would be explained.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On Earth,&rdquo; he said after a minute, &ldquo;men like Panawe are
+      called artists, poets, and musicians. Beauty overflows into them too, and
+      out of them again. The only distinction is that <i>their</i> productions
+      are more human and intelligible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing comes from it but vanity,&rdquo; said Panawe, and, taking
+      the crystal out of Maskull&rsquo;s hand, he threw it into the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The precipice they now had to climb was several hundred feet in height.
+      Maskull was more anxious for Joiwind than for himself. She was evidently
+      tiring, but she refused all help, and was in fact still the nimbler of the
+      two. She made a mocking face at him. Panawe seemed lost in quiet thoughts.
+      The rock was sound, and did not crumble under their weight. The heat of
+      Branchspell, however, was by this time almost killing, the radiance was
+      shocking in its white intensity, and Maskull&rsquo;s pain steadily grew
+      worse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they got to the top, a plateau of dark rock appeared, bare of
+      vegetation, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could see. It
+      was of a nearly uniform width of five hundred yards, from the edge of the
+      cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills inland. The hills varied
+      in height. The cup-shaped Poolingdred was approximately a thousand feet
+      above them. The upper part of it was covered with a kind of glittering
+      vegetation which he could not comprehend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind put her hand on Maskull&rsquo;s shoulder, and pointed upward.
+      &ldquo;Here you have the highest peak in the whole land&mdash;that is,
+      until you come to the Ifdawn Marest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary unaccountable
+      sensation of wild vigour and restlessness&mdash;but it passed away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside. The lower
+      half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb. Halfway up, however, it
+      grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small trees. The growth
+      became thicker as they continued to ascend, and when they neared the
+      summit, tall forest trees appeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the small
+      twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal. They cast no shadows
+      from above, but still the shade was cool. Both leaves and branches were
+      fantastically shaped. What surprised Maskull the most, however, was the
+      fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two plants belonged to the
+      same species.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you help Maskull out of his difficulty?&rdquo; said
+      Joiwind, pulling her husband&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;ll forgive me for again trespassing in his
+      brain. But the difficulty is small. Life on a new planet, Maskull, is
+      necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative. Nature is
+      still fluid&mdash;not yet rigid&mdash;and matter is plastic. The will
+      forks and sports incessantly, and thus no two creatures are alike.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I understand all that,&rdquo; replied Maskull, after
+      listening attentively. &ldquo;But what I don&rsquo;t grasp is this&mdash;if
+      living creatures here sport so energetically, how does it come about that
+      human beings wear much the same shape as in my world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll explain that too,&rdquo; said Panawe. &ldquo;All
+      creatures that resemble Shaping must of necessity resemble one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is most wonderful,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Then the
+      brotherhood of man is not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour. Panawe relapsed into sternness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon. The jale-coloured blossoms
+      of a crystal bush were emitting mental waves, which with his breve he
+      could clearly distinguish. They cried out silently, &ldquo;To me! To me!&rdquo;
+      While he looked, a flying worm guided itself through the air to one of
+      these blossoms and began to suck its nectar. The floral cry immediately
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now gained the crest of the mountain, and looked down beyond. A lake
+      occupied its crater-like cavity. A fringe of trees partly intercepted the
+      view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this mountain lake was nearly
+      circular and perhaps a quarter of a mile across. Its shore stood a hundred
+      feet below them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Observing that his hosts did not propose to descend, he begged them to
+      wait for him, and scrambled down to the surface. When he got there, he
+      found the water perfectly motionless and of a colourless transparency. He
+      walked onto it, lay down at full length, and peered into the depths. It
+      was weirdly clear: he could see down for an indefinite distance, without
+      arriving at any bottom. Some dark, shadowy objects, almost out of reach of
+      his eyes, were moving about. Then a sound, very faint and mysterious,
+      seemed to come up through the gnawl water from an immense depth. It was
+      like the rhythm of a drum. There were four beats of equal length, but the
+      accent was on the third. It went on for a considerable time, and then
+      ceased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that in
+      which he was travelling. The latter was mystical, dreamlike, and
+      unbelievable&mdash;the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality.
+      It resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only
+      occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He rejoined Panawe and Joiwind, but said nothing to them about his
+      experience. They all walked round the rim of the crater, and gazed down on
+      the opposite side. Precipices similar to those that had overlooked the
+      desert here formed the boundary of a vast moorland plain, whose dimensions
+      could not be measured by the eye. It was solid land, yet he could not make
+      out its prevailing colour. It was as if made of transparent glass, but it
+      did not glitter in the sunlight. No objects in it could be distinguished,
+      except a rolling river in the far distance, and, farther off still, on the
+      horizon, a line of dark mountains, of strange shapes. Instead of being
+      rounded, conical, or hogbacked, these heights were carved by nature into
+      the semblance of castle battlements, but with extremely deep indentations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sky immediately above the mountains was of a vivid, intense blue. It
+      contrasted in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of the
+      heavens. It seemed more luminous and radiant, and was in fact like the
+      afterglow of a gorgeous <i>blue</i> sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept on looking. The more he gazed, the more restless and noble
+      became his feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe was sterner than usual, while his wife clung to his arm. &ldquo;It
+      is Alppain&mdash;our second sun,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Those hills are
+      the Ifdawn Marest.... Now let us get to our shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it imagination, or am I really being affected&mdash;tormented by
+      that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not imagination&mdash;it&rsquo;s real. How can it be
+      otherwise when two suns, of different natures, are drawing you at the same
+      time? Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itself. It&rsquo;s invisible
+      here. You would need to go at least as far as Ifdawn, to set eyes on it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you say &lsquo;luckily&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the agony caused by those opposing forces would perhaps be
+      more than you could bear.... But I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the short distance that remained of their walk, Maskull was very
+      thoughtful and uneasy. He understood nothing. Whatever object his eye
+      chanced to rest on changed immediately into a puzzle. The silence and
+      stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding, mysterious, and <i>waiting</i>.
+      Panawe gave him a friendly, anxious look, and without further delay led
+      the way down a little track, which traversed the side of the mountain and
+      terminated in the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This cave was the home of Panawe and Joiwind. It was dark inside. The host
+      took a shell and, filling it with liquid from a well, carelessly sprinkled
+      the sandy floor of the interior. A greenish, phosphorescent light
+      gradually spread to the furthest limits of the cavern, and continued to
+      illuminate it for the whole time they were there. There was no furniture.
+      Some dried, fernlike leaves served for couches.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment she got in, Joiwind fell down in exhaustion. Her husband tended
+      her with calm concern. He bathed her face, put drink to her lips,
+      energised her with his magn, and finally laid her down to sleep. At the
+      sight of the noble woman thus suffering on his account, Maskull was
+      distressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, endeavoured to reassure him. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite true
+      this has been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will
+      lighten all her other journeys for her.... Such is the nature of
+      sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t conceive how I have walked so far in a morning,&rdquo;
+      said Maskull, &ldquo;and she has been twice the distance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love flows in her veins, instead of blood, and that&rsquo;s why she
+      is so strong.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know she gave me some of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Otherwise you couldn&rsquo;t even have started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall never forget that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The languorous heat of the day outside, the bright mouth of the cavern,
+      the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow, invited
+      Maskull to sleep. But curiosity got the better of his lassitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it disturb her if we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how do you feel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I require little sleep. In any case, it&rsquo;s more important that
+      you should hear something about your new life. It&rsquo;s not all as
+      innocent and idyllic as this. If you intend to go through, you ought to be
+      instructed about the dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I guessed as much. But how shall we arrange&mdash;shall I put
+      questions, or will you tell me what you think is most essential?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe motioned to Maskull to sit down on a pile of ferns, and at the same
+      time reclined himself, leaning on one arm, with outstretched legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will tell some incidents of my life. You will begin to learn from
+      them what sort of place you have come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be grateful,&rdquo; said Maskull, preparing himself to
+      listen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe paused for a moment or two, and then started his narrative in
+      tranquil, measured, yet sympathetic tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PANAWE&rsquo;S STORY
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My earliest recollection is of being taken, when three years old
+      (that&rsquo;s equivalent to fifteen of your years, but we develop more
+      slowly here), by my father and mother, to see Broodviol, the wisest man in
+      Tormance. He dwelt in the great Wombflash Forest. We walked through trees
+      for three days, sleeping at night. The trees grew taller as we went along,
+      until the tops were out of sight. The trunks were of a dark red colour and
+      the leaves were of pale ulfire. My father kept stopping to think. If left
+      uninterrupted, he would remain for half a day in deep abstraction. My
+      mother came out of Poolingdred, and was of a different stamp. She was
+      beautiful, generous, and charming&mdash;but also active. She kept urging
+      him on. This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable.
+      On the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered on
+      the Sinking Sea. This sea is full of pouches of water that will not bear a
+      man&rsquo;s weight, and as these light parts don&rsquo;t differ in
+      appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross. My father pointed out
+      a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+      Men sometimes go there, but none ever return. In the evening of the same
+      day we found Broodviol standing in a deep, miry pit in the forest,
+      surrounded on all sides by trees three hundred feet high. He was a big
+      gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy old man. His age at that time was a
+      hundred and twenty of our years, or nearly six hundred of yours. His body
+      was trilateral: he had three legs, three arms, and six eyes, placed at
+      equal distances all around his head. This gave him an aspect of great
+      watchfulness and sagacity. He was standing in a sort of trance. I
+      afterward heard this saying of his: &lsquo;To lie is to sleep, to sit is
+      to dream, to stand is to think.&rsquo; My father caught the infection, and
+      fell into meditation, but my mother roused them both thoroughly. Broodviol
+      scowled at her savagely, and demanded what she required. Then I too
+      learned for the first time the object of our journey. I was a prodigy&mdash;that
+      is to say, I was without sex. My parents were troubled over this, and
+      wished to consult the wisest of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old Broodviol smoothed his face, and said, &lsquo;This perhaps will
+      not be so difficult. I will explain the marvel. Every man and woman among
+      us is a walking murderer. If a male, he has struggled with and killed the
+      female who was born in the same body with him&mdash;if a female, she has
+      killed the male. But in this child the struggle is still continuing.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;How shall we end it?&rsquo; asked my mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Let the child direct its will to the scene of the combat,
+      and it will be of whichever sex it pleases.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;You want, of course, to be a man, don&rsquo;t you?&rsquo;
+      said my mother to me earnestly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Then I shall be slaying your daughter, and that would be a
+      crime.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something in my tone attracted Broodviol&rsquo;s notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That was spoken, not selfishly, but magnanimously. Therefore
+      the male must have spoken it, and you need not trouble further. Before you
+      arrive home, the child will be a boy.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father walked away out of sight. My mother bent very low before
+      Broodviol for about ten minutes, and he remained all that time looking
+      kindly at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard that shortly afterward Alppain came into that land for a
+      few hours daily. Broodviol grew melancholy, and died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His prophecy came true&mdash;before we reached home, I knew the
+      meaning of shame. But I have often pondered over his words since, in later
+      years, when trying to understand my own nature; and I have come to the
+      conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see quite
+      straight on this occasion. Between me and my twin sister, enclosed in one
+      body, there never was any struggle, but instinctive reverence for life
+      withheld both of us from fighting for existence. Hers was the stronger
+      temperament, and she sacrificed herself&mdash;though not consciously&mdash;for
+      me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or
+      destroy anything that contained life&mdash;and I have kept it ever since.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died. My mother&rsquo;s
+      death followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land. I
+      therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother&rsquo;s country, where,
+      as she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One hot morning I came to Shaping&rsquo;s Causeway. It is so called
+      either because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous
+      character. It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which links the
+      mountains bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest. The valley lies
+      below at a depth varying from eight to ten thousand feet&mdash;a terrible
+      precipice on either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not
+      much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley
+      on my right hand was plunged in shadow&mdash;that on my left was sparkling
+      with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for
+      some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland,
+      connecting the two chains of mountains, but overtopping even the most
+      towering pinnacles. This is called the Sant Levels. I was never there, but
+      I have heard two curious facts concerning the inhabitants. The first is
+      that they have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to
+      travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples with
+      whom they reside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presently I turned giddy, and lay at full length for a great while,
+      clutching the two edges of the path with both hands, and staring at the
+      ground I was lying on with wide-open eyes. When that passed I felt like a
+      different man and grew conceited and gay. About halfway across I saw
+      someone approaching me a long way off. This put fear into my heart again,
+      for I did not see how we could very well pass. However, I went slowly on,
+      and presently we drew near enough together for me to recognise the walker.
+      It was Slofork, the so-called sorcerer. I had never met him before, but I
+      knew him by his peculiarities of person. He was of a bright gamboge colour
+      and possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a
+      useful organ, but did not add to his beauty, as I knew beauty. He was
+      dubbed &lsquo;sorcerer&rsquo; from his wondrous skill in budding limbs and
+      organs. The tale is told that one evening he slowly sawed his leg off with
+      a blunt stone and then lay for two days in agony while his new leg was
+      sprouting. He was not reputed to be a consistently wise man, but he had
+      periodical flashes of penetration and audacity that none could equal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We sat down and faced one another, about two yards apart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Which of us walks over the other?&rsquo; asked Slofork. His
+      manner was as calm as the day itself, but, to my young nature, terrible
+      with hidden terrors. I smiled at him, but did not wish for this
+      humiliation. We continued sitting thus, in a friendly way, for many
+      minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pleasure?&rsquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was at an age when one wishes to be thought equal to any
+      emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to the
+      conversation, as if it were for that purpose we had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Pain,&rsquo; I replied, &lsquo;for pain drives out pleasure.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;What is greater than Pain?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reflected. &lsquo;Love. Because we will accept our loved one&rsquo;s
+      share of pain.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;But what is greater than Love?&rsquo; he persisted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Nothing, Slofork.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;And what is Nothing?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That you must tell me.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Tell you I will. This is Shaping&rsquo;s world. He that is a
+      good child here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards. But
+      there&rsquo;s another world&mdash;not Shaping&rsquo;s&mdash;and there all
+      this is unknown, and another order of things reigns. That world we call
+      Nothing&mdash;but it is not Nothing, but Something.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There was a pause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I have heard,&rsquo; said I, &lsquo;that you are good at
+      growing and ungrowing organs?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;That&rsquo;s not enough for me. Every organ tells me the
+      same story. I want to hear different stories.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Is it true, what men say, that your wisdom flows and ebbs in
+      pulses?&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Quite true,&rsquo; replied Slofork. &lsquo;But those you had
+      it from did not add that they have always mistaken the flow for the ebb.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;My experience is,&rsquo; said I sententiously, &lsquo;that
+      wisdom is misery.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;Perhaps it is, young man, but you have never learned that,
+      and never will. For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful
+      face. You will never rise above mysticism.... But be happy in your own
+      way.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Before I realised what he was doing, he jumped tranquilly from the
+      path, down into the empty void. He crashed with ever-increasing momentum
+      toward the valley below. I screeched, flung myself down on the ground, and
+      shut my eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Often have I wondered which of my ill-considered, juvenile remarks
+      it was that caused this sudden resolution on his part to commit suicide.
+      Whichever it might be, since then I have made it a rigid law never to
+      speak for my own pleasure, but only to help others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came eventually to the Marest. I threaded its mazes in terror for
+      four days. I was frightened of death, but still more terrified at the
+      possibility of losing my sacred attitude toward life. When I was nearly
+      through, and was beginning to congratulate myself, I stumbled across the
+      third extraordinary personage of my experience&mdash;the grim Muremaker.
+      It was under horrible circumstances. On an afternoon, cloudy and stormy, I
+      saw, suspended in the air without visible support, a living man. He was
+      hanging in an upright position in front of a cliff&mdash;a yawning gulf, a
+      thousand feet deep, lay beneath his feet. I climbed as near as I could,
+      and looked on. He saw me, and made a wry grimace, like one who wishes to
+      turn his humiliation into humour. The spectacle so astounded me that I
+      could not even grasp what had happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;&lsquo;I am Muremaker,&rsquo; he cried in a scraping voice which
+      shocked my ears. &lsquo;All my life I have sorbed others&mdash;now I am
+      sorbed. Nuclamp and I fell out over a woman. Now Nuclamp holds me up like
+      this. While the strength of his will lasts I shall remain suspended; but
+      when he gets tired&mdash;and it can&rsquo;t be long now&mdash;I drop into
+      those depths.&rsquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had it been another man, I would have tried to save him, but this
+      ogre-like being was too well known to me as one who passed his whole
+      existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbing others, for the sake of
+      his own delight. I hurried away, and did not pause again that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In Poolingdred I met Joiwind. We walked and talked together for a
+      month, and by that time we found that we loved each other too well to
+      part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe stopped speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a fascinating story,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;Now I
+      begin to know my way around better. But one thing puzzles me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How it happens that men here are ignorant of tools and arts, and
+      have no civilisation, and yet contrive to be social in their habits and
+      wise in their thoughts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you imagine, then, that love and wisdom spring from tools? But I
+      see how it arises. In your world you have fewer sense organs, and to make
+      up for the deficiency you have been obliged to call in the assistance of
+      stones and metals. That&rsquo;s by no means a sign of superiority.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I suppose not,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but I see I have a
+      great deal to unlearn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They talked together a little longer, and then gradually fell asleep.
+      Joiwind opened her eyes, smiled, and slumbered again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 8. THE LUSION PLAIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull awoke before the others. He got up, stretched himself, and walked
+      out into the sunlight. Branchspell was already declining. He climbed to
+      the top of the crater edge and looked away toward Ifdawn. The afterglow of
+      Alppain had by now completely disappeared. The mountains stood up wild and
+      grand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which are
+      widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and adventure
+      seemed to call to him from them. It was at that moment that the
+      determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest and explore its
+      dangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes. &ldquo;Is this
+      selfishness, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked, &ldquo;or are you drawn by
+      something stronger than yourself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must be reasonable,&rdquo; he answered, smiling. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t
+      settle down in Poolingdred before I have found out something about this
+      surprising new planet of yours. Remember what a long way I have come....
+      But very likely I shall come back here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you make me a promise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull hesitated. &ldquo;Ask nothing difficult, for I hardly know my
+      powers yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not hard, and I wish it. Promise this&mdash;never to raise
+      your hand against a living creature, either to strike, pluck, or eat,
+      without first recollecting its mother, who suffered for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I won&rsquo;t promise that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly,
+      &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll undertake something more tangible. I will never lift
+      my hand against a living creature without first recollecting you, Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned a little pale. &ldquo;Now if Panawe knew that Panawe existed,
+      he might be jealous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe put his hand on her gently. &ldquo;You would not talk like that in
+      Shaping&rsquo;s presence,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. Forgive me! I&rsquo;m not quite myself. Perhaps it is Maskull&rsquo;s
+      blood in my veins.... Now let us bid him adieu. Let us pray that he will
+      do only honourable deeds, wherever he may be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll set Maskull on his way,&rdquo; said Panawe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no need,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;The way is
+      plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But talking shortens the road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joiwind pulled him around toward her softly. &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t think
+      badly of other women on my account?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a blessed spirit,&rdquo; answered he.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She trod quietly to the inner extremity of the cave and stood there
+      thinking. Panawe and Maskull emerged into the open air. Halfway down the
+      cliff face a little spring was encountered. Its water was colourless,
+      transparent, but gaseous. As soon as Maskull had satisfied his thirst he
+      felt himself different. His surroundings were so real to him in their
+      vividness and colour, so unreal in their phantom-like mystery, that he
+      scrambled downhill like one in a winter&rsquo;s dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they reached the plain he saw in front of them an interminable forest
+      of tall trees, the shapes of which were extraordinarily foreign looking.
+      The leaves were crystalline and, looking upward, it was as if he were
+      gazing through a roof of glass. The moment they got underneath the trees
+      the light rays of the sun continued to come through&mdash;white, savage,
+      and blazing&mdash;but they were gelded of heat. Then it was not hard to
+      imagine that they were wandering through cool, bright elfin glades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest, beginning at their very feet an avenue, perfectly
+      straight and not very wide, went forward as far as the eye could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull wanted to talk to his travelling companion, but was somehow unable
+      to find words. Panawe glanced at him with an inscrutable smile&mdash;stern,
+      yet enchanting and half feminine. He then broke the silence, but,
+      strangely enough, Maskull could not make out whether he was singing or
+      speaking. From his lips issued a slow musical recitative, exactly like a
+      bewitching adagio from a low toned stringed instrument&mdash;but there was
+      a difference. Instead of the repetition and variation of one or two short
+      themes, as in music, Panawe&rsquo;s theme was prolonged&mdash;it never
+      came to an end, but rather resembled a conversation in rhythm and melody.
+      And, at the same time, it was no recitative, for it was not declamatory.
+      It was a long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull listened entranced, yet agitated. The song, if it might be termed
+      song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear and
+      intelligible&mdash;not with the intelligibility of words, but in the way
+      one sympathises with another&rsquo;s moods and feelings; and Maskull felt
+      that something important was about to be uttered, which would explain all
+      that had gone before. But it was invariably postponed, he never understood&mdash;and
+      yet somehow he did understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Late in the afternoon they came to a clearing, and there Panawe ceased his
+      recitative. He slowed his pace and stopped, in the fashion of a man who
+      wishes to convey that he intends to go no farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of this country?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the Lusion Plain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was that music in the nature of a temptation&mdash;do you wish me
+      not to go on?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your work lies before you, and not behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was it, then? What work do you allude to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must have seemed like something to you, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seemed like Shaping music to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant he had absently uttered these words, Maskull wondered why he
+      had done so, as they now appeared meaningless to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Panawe, however, showed no surprise. &ldquo;Shaping you will find
+      everywhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I dreaming, or awake?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull fell into deep thought. &ldquo;So be it,&rdquo; he said, rousing
+      himself. &ldquo;Now I will go on. But where must I sleep tonight?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will reach a broad river. On that you can travel to the foot of
+      the Marest tomorrow; but tonight you had better sleep where the forest and
+      river meet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adieu, then, Panawe! But do you wish to say anything more to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only this, Maskull&mdash;wherever you go, help to make the world
+      beautiful, and not ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s more than any of us can undertake. I am a simple man,
+      and have no ambitions in the way of beautifying life&mdash;But tell
+      Joiwind I will try to keep myself pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They parted rather coldly. Maskull stood erect where they had stopped, and
+      watched Panawe out of sight. He sighed more than once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He became aware that something was about to happen. The air was
+      breathless. The late-afternoon sunshine, unobstructed, wrapped his frame
+      in voluptuous heat. A solitary cloud, immensely high, raced through the
+      sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance from somewhere behind
+      him. It gave him an impression of being several miles away at first; but
+      then it slowly swelled, and came nearer and nearer at the same time that
+      it increased in volume. Still the same note sounded, but now it was as if
+      blown by a giant trumpeter immediately over his head. Then it gradually
+      diminished in force, and travelled away in front of him. It ended very
+      faintly and distantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He felt himself alone with Nature. A sacred stillness came over his heart.
+      Past and future were forgotten. The forest, the sun, the day did not exist
+      for him. He was unconscious of himself&mdash;he had no thoughts and no
+      feelings. Yet never had Life had such an altitude for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path. He was so clothed that
+      his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered. He was young rather
+      than old. Maskull observed that his countenance possessed none of the
+      special organs of Tormance, to which he had not even yet become
+      reconciled. He was smooth-faced. His whole person seemed to radiate an
+      excess of life, like the trembling of air on a hot day. His eyes had such
+      force that Maskull could not meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice. It had a double
+      tone. The primary one sounded far away; the second was an undertone, like
+      a sympathetic tanging string.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising joy, as he continued standing in the presence of
+      this individual. He believed that something good was happening to him. He
+      found it physically difficult to bring any words out. &ldquo;Why do you
+      stop me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, look well at me. Who am I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you are Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again attempted to meet his eyes, but felt as if he were being
+      stabbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that this is my world. Why do you think I have brought you
+      here? I wish you to serve me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could no longer speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Those who joke at my world,&rdquo; continued the vision, &ldquo;those
+      who make a mock of its stern, eternal rhythm, its beauty and sublimity,
+      which are not skin-deep, but proceed from fathomless roots&mdash;they
+      shall not escape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not mock it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask me your questions, and I will answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is necessary for you to serve me, Maskull. Do you not
+      understand? You are my servant and helper.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not fail.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is for my sake, and not for yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last words had no sooner left Surtur&rsquo;s mouth than Maskull saw
+      him spring suddenly upward and outward. Looking up at the vault of the
+      sky, he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur&rsquo;s form&mdash;not
+      as a concrete man, but as a vast, concave cloud image, looking down and
+      frowning at him. Then the spectacle vanished, as a light goes out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood inactive, with a thumping heart. Now he again heard the
+      solitary trumpet note. The sound began this time faintly in the far
+      distance in front of him, travelled slowly toward him with regularly
+      increasing intensity, passed overhead at its loudest, and then grew more
+      and more quiet, wonderful, and solemn, as it fell away in the rear, until
+      the note was merged in the deathlike silence of the forest. It appeared to
+      Maskull like the closing of a marvellous and important chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Simultaneously with the fading away of the sound, the heavens seemed to
+      open up with the rapidity of lightning into a blue vault of immeasurable
+      height. He breathed a great breath, stretched all his limbs, and looked
+      around him with a slow smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a while he resumed his journey. His brain was all dark and confused,
+      but one idea was already beginning to stand out from the rest&mdash;huge,
+      shapeless, and grand, like the growing image in the soul of a creative
+      artist: the staggering thought that he was a man of destiny.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The more he reflected upon all that had occurred since his arrival in this
+      new world&mdash;and even before leaving Earth&mdash;the clearer and more
+      indisputable it became, that he could not be here for his own purposes,
+      but must be here for an end. But what that end was, he could not imagine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the forest he saw Branchspell at last sinking in the west. It
+      looked a stupendous ball of red fire&mdash;now he could realise at his
+      ease what a sun it was! The avenue took an abrupt turn to the left and
+      began to descend steeply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A wide, rolling river of clear and dark water was visible in front of him,
+      no great way off. It flowed from north to south. The forest path led him
+      straight to its banks. Maskull stood there, and regarded the lapping,
+      gurgling waters pensively. On the opposite bank, the forest continued.
+      Miles to the south, Poolingdred could just be distinguished. On the
+      northern skyline the Ifdawn Mountains loomed up&mdash;high, wild,
+      beautiful, and dangerous. They were not a dozen miles away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Like the first mutterings of a thunderstorm, the first faint breaths of
+      cool wind, Maskull felt the stirrings of passion in his heart. In spite of
+      his bodily fatigue, he wished to test his strength against something. This
+      craving he identified with the crags of the Marest. They seemed to have
+      the same magical attraction for his will as the lodestone for iron. He
+      kept biting his nails, as he turned his eyes in that direction&mdash;wondering
+      if it would not be possible to conquer the heights that evening. But when
+      he glanced back again at Poolingdred, he remembered Joiwind and Panawe,
+      and grew more tranquil. He decided to make his bed at this spot, and to
+      set off as soon after daybreak as he should awake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He drank at the river, washed himself, and lay down on the bank to sleep.
+      By this time, so far had his idea progressed, that he cared nothing for
+      the possible dangers of the night&mdash;he confided in his star.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell set, the day faded, night with its terrible weight came on,
+      and through it all Maskull slept. Long before midnight, however, he was
+      awakened by a crimson glow in the sky. He opened his eyes, and wondered
+      where he was. He felt heaviness and pain. The red glow was a terrestrial
+      phenomenon; it came from among the trees. He got up and went toward the
+      source of the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Away from the river, not a hundred feet off, he nearly stumbled across the
+      form of a sleeping woman. The object which emitted the crimson rays was
+      lying on the ground, several yards away from her. It was like a small
+      jewel, throwing off sparks of red light. He barely threw a glance at that,
+      however.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman was clothed in the large skin of an animal. She had big, smooth,
+      shapely limbs, rather muscular than fat. Her magn was not a thin tentacle,
+      but a third arm, terminating in a hand. Her face, which was upturned, was
+      wild, powerful, and exceedingly handsome. But he saw with surprise that in
+      place of a breve on her forehead, she possessed another eye. All three
+      were closed. The colour of her skin in the crimson glow he could not
+      distinguish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He touched her gently with his hand. She awoke calmly and looked up at him
+      without stirring a muscle. All three eyes stared at him; but the two lower
+      ones were dull and vacant&mdash;mere carriers of vision. The middle, upper
+      one alone expressed her inner nature. Its haughty, unflinching glare had
+      yet something seductive and alluring in it. Maskull felt a challenge in
+      that look of lordly, feminine will, and his manner instinctively
+      stiffened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sat up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you speak my language?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t
+      put such a question, but others have been able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you imagine that I can&rsquo;t read your mind? Is it so
+      extremely complex?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She spoke in a rich, lingering, musical voice, which delighted him to
+      listen to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but you have no breve.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but haven&rsquo;t I a sorb, which is better?&rdquo; And she
+      pointed to the eye on her brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These contemptuous replies began to irritate him, and yet the mere sound
+      of her voice was fascinating.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am going there tomorrow,&rdquo; he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed, as if against her will, but made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull,&rdquo; he went on. &ldquo;I am a stranger&mdash;from
+      another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I should judge, from your absurd appearance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it would be as well to say at once,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      bluntly, &ldquo;are we, or are we not, to be friends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She yawned and stretched her arms, without rising. &ldquo;Why should we be
+      friends? If I thought you were a man, I might accept you as a lover.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must look elsewhere for that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be it, Maskull! Now go away, and leave me in peace.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her head again to the ground, but did not at once close her
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are you doing here?&rdquo; he interrogated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we Ifdawn folk occasionally come here to sleep, for <i>there</i>
+      often enough it is a night for us which has no next morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Being such a terrible place, and seeing that I am a total stranger,
+      it would be merely courteous if you were to warn me what I have to expect
+      in the way of dangers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am perfectly and utterly indifferent to what becomes of you,&rdquo;
+      retorted Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning in the morning?&rdquo; persisted Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we will go together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She got up again on her elbow. &ldquo;Instead of making plans for other
+      people, I would do a very necessary thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pray, tell me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, there&rsquo;s no reason why I should, but I will. I would try
+      to convert my women&rsquo;s organs into men&rsquo;s organs. It is a man&rsquo;s
+      country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Speak more plainly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s plain enough. If you attempt to pass through Ifdawn
+      without a sorb, you are simply committing suicide. And that magn too is
+      worse than useless.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You probably know what you are talking about, Oceaxe. But what do
+      you advise me to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She negligently pointed to the light-emitting stone lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the solution. If you hold that drude to your organs for a
+      good while, perhaps it will start the change, and perhaps nature will do
+      the rest during the night. I promise nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe now really turned her back on Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He considered for a few minutes, and then walked over to where the stone
+      was lying, and took it in his hand. It was a pebble the size of a hen&rsquo;s
+      egg, radiant with crimson light, as though red-hot, and throwing out a
+      continuous shower of small, blood-red sparks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally deciding that Oceaxe&rsquo;s advice was good, he applied the drude
+      first to his magn, and then to his breve. He experienced a cauterising
+      sensation&mdash;a feeling of healing pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 9. OCEAXE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s second day on Tormance dawned. Branchspell was already
+      above the horizon when he awoke. He was instantly aware that his organs
+      had changed during the night. His fleshy breve was altered into an eyelike
+      sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third arm, springing from
+      the breast. The arm gave him at once a sense of greater physical security,
+      but with the sorb he was obliged to experiment, before he could grasp its
+      function.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he lay there in the white sunlight, opening and shutting each of his
+      three eyes in turn, he found that the two lower ones served his
+      understanding, the upper one his will. That is to say, with the lower eyes
+      he saw things in clear detail, but without personal interest; with the
+      sorb he saw nothing as self-existent&mdash;everything appeared as an
+      object of importance or non-importance to his own needs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked about
+      him. He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe. He was anxious to learn if she
+      were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he made up his mind
+      to bathe in the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a glorious morning. The hot white sun already began to glare, but
+      its heat was tempered by a strong wind, which whistled through the trees.
+      A host of fantastic clouds filled the sky. They looked like animals, and
+      were always changing shape. The ground, as well as the leaves and branches
+      of the forest trees, still held traces of heavy dew or rain during the
+      night. A poignantly sweet smell of nature entered his nostrils. His pain
+      was quiescent, and his spirits were high.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he bathed, he viewed the mountains of the Ifdawn Marest. In the
+      morning sunlight they stood out pictorially. He guessed that they were
+      from five to six thousand feet high. The lofty, irregular, castellated
+      line seemed like the walls of a magic city. The cliffs fronting him were
+      composed of gaudy rocks&mdash;vermilion, emerald, yellow, ulfire, and
+      black. As he gazed at them, his heart began to beat like a slow, heavy
+      drum, and he thrilled all over&mdash;indescribable hopes, aspirations, and
+      emotions came over him. It was more than the conquest of a new world which
+      he felt&mdash;it was something different....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He bathed and drank, and as he was reclothing himself, Oceaxe strolled
+      indolently up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He could now perceive the colour of her skin&mdash;it was a vivid, yet
+      delicate mixture of carmine, white, and jale. The effect was startlingly
+      unearthly. With these new colors she looked like a genuine representative
+      of a strange planet. Her frame also had something curious about it. The
+      curves were womanly, the bones were characteristically female&mdash;yet
+      all seemed somehow to express a daring, masculine underlying will. The
+      commanding eye on her forehead set the same puzzle in plainer language.
+      Its bold, domineering egotism was shot with undergleams of sex and
+      softness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She came to the river&rsquo;s edge and reviewed him from top to toe.
+      &ldquo;Now you are built more like a man,&rdquo; she said, in her lovely,
+      lingering voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, the experiment was successful,&rdquo; he answered, smiling
+      gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe continued looking him over. &ldquo;Did some woman give you that
+      ridiculous robe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman did give it to me&rdquo;&mdash;dropping his smile&mdash;&ldquo;but
+      I saw nothing ridiculous in the gift at the time, and I don&rsquo;t now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d look better in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As she drawled the words, she began stripping off the skin, which suited
+      her form so well, and motioned to him to exchange garments. He obeyed,
+      rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed exchange was in
+      fact more appropriate to his sex. He found the skin a freer dress. Oceaxe
+      in her drapery appeared more dangerously feminine to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want you to receive gifts at all from other women,&rdquo;
+      she remarked slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? What can I be to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have been thinking about you during the night.&rdquo; Her voice
+      was retarded, scornful, viola-like. She sat down on the trunk of a fallen
+      tree, and looked away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She returned no answer to his question, but began to pull off pieces of
+      the bark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night you were so contemptuous.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Last night is not today. Do you always walk through the world with
+      your head over your shoulder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Maskull&rsquo;s turn to be silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, if you have male instincts, as I suppose you have, you can&rsquo;t
+      go on resisting me forever.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is preposterous,&rdquo; said Maskull, opening his eyes
+      wide. &ldquo;Granted that you are a beautiful woman&mdash;we can&rsquo;t
+      be quite so primeval.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sighed, and rose to her feet. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can
+      wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From that I gather that you intend to make the journey in my
+      society. I have no objection&mdash;in fact I shall be glad&mdash;but only
+      on condition that you drop this language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet you do think me beautiful?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I think so, if it is the fact? I fail to see
+      what that has to do with my feelings. Bring it to an end, Oceaxe. You will
+      find plenty of men to admire&mdash;and love you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that she blazed up. &ldquo;Does love pick and choose, you fool? Do you
+      imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for lovers? Is not
+      Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well. I am sorry to have hurt your feelings. Now carry the
+      temptation no farther&mdash;for it <i>is</i> a temptation, where a lovely
+      woman is concerned. I am not my own master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not proposing anything so very hateful, am I? Why do you
+      humiliate me so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put his hands behind his back. &ldquo;I repeat, I am not my own
+      master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then who is your master?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you speak with him?&rdquo; she asked curiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me what he said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I can&rsquo;t&mdash;I won&rsquo;t. But whatever he said, his
+      beauty was more tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and that&rsquo;s why I can
+      look at you in cold blood.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Is love such a manly sport, then? I should have
+      thought it effeminate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. You won&rsquo;t always be so boyish. But
+      don&rsquo;t try my patience too far.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us talk about something else&mdash;and, above all, let us get
+      on our road.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he
+      grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms. &ldquo;Oh,
+      Maskull, Maskull&mdash;what a fool you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what way am I a fool?&rdquo; he demanded, scowling&mdash;not at
+      her words, but at his own weakness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of
+      lovers? And yet you think yourself above all that. You try to fly away
+      from nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality:
+      persistence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Read me well, and then it is natural law that you&rsquo;ll think
+      twice and three times before throwing me away.... And now, before we go,
+      we had better eat.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you eat? Is food in the same category as love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What food is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fish from the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind. At the same time, he felt
+      hungry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there nothing milder?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled her mouth scornfully. &ldquo;You came through Poolingdred, didn&rsquo;t
+      you? All the people there are the same. They think life is to be looked
+      at, and not lived. Now that you are visiting Ifdawn, you will have to
+      change your notions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go catch your fish,&rdquo; he returned, pulling down his brows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations, from
+      the direction of the mountains. Oceaxe knelt down on the bank, and peered
+      into the depths. Presently her look became tense and concentrated; she
+      dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little monster. It was more
+      like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates and teeth. She threw it
+      on the ground, and it started crawling about. Suddenly she darted all her
+      will into her sorb. The creature leaped into the air, and fell down dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She picked up a sharp-edged slate, and with it removed the scales and
+      entrails. During this operation, her hands and garment became stained with
+      the light scarlet blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Find the drude, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, with a lazy smile.
+      &ldquo;You had it last night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He searched for it. It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown dull and
+      feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it. Oceaxe placed it in the
+      interior of the monster, and left the body lying on the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;While it&rsquo;s cooking, I&rsquo;ll wash some of this blood away,
+      which frightens you so much. Have you never seen blood before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her in perplexity. The old paradox came back&mdash;the
+      contrasting sexual characteristics in her person. Her bold, masterful,
+      masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous with the fascinating
+      and disturbing femininity of her voice. A startling idea flashed into his
+      mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In your country I&rsquo;m told there is an act of will called
+      &lsquo;absorbing.&rsquo; What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She held her red, dripping hands away from her draperies, and uttered a
+      delicious, clashing laugh. &ldquo;You think I am half a man?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer my question.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a woman through and through, Maskull&mdash;to the
+      marrowbone. But that&rsquo;s not to say I have never absorbed males.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that means...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;New strings for my harp, Maskull. A wider range of passions, a
+      stormier heart...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For you, yes&mdash;But for them?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. The victims don&rsquo;t describe their
+      experiences. Probably unhappiness of some sort&mdash;if they still know
+      anything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a fearful business!&rdquo; he exclaimed, regarding her
+      gloomily. &ldquo;One would think Ifdawn a land of devils.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a beautiful sneer as she took a step toward the river. &ldquo;Better
+      men than you&mdash;better in every sense of the word&mdash;are walking
+      about with foreign wills inside them. You may be as moral as you like,
+      Maskull, but the fact remains, animals were made to be eaten, and simple
+      natures were made to be absorbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And human rights count for nothing!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She had bent over the river&rsquo;s edge, to wash her arms and hands, but
+      glanced up over her shoulder to answer his remark. &ldquo;They do count.
+      But we only regard a man as human for just as long as he&rsquo;s able to
+      hold his own with others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flesh was soon cooked, and they breakfasted in silence. Maskull cast
+      heavy, doubtful glances from time to time toward his companion. Whether it
+      was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long abstention, he
+      did not know, but the meal tasted nauseous, and even cannibalistic. He ate
+      little, and the moment he got up he felt defiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me bury this drude, where I can find it some other time,&rdquo;
+      said Oceaxe. &ldquo;On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Maskull
+      with me, to shock.... Now we have to take to the river.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stepped off the land onto the water. It flowed against them with a
+      sluggish current, but the opposition, instead of hindering them, had the
+      contrary effect&mdash;it caused them to exert themselves, and they moved
+      faster. They climbed the river in this way for several miles. The exercise
+      gradually improved the circulation of Maskull&rsquo;s blood, and he began
+      to look at things in a far more cheerful way. The hot sunshine, the
+      diminished wind, the marvellous cloud scenery, the quiet, crystal forests&mdash;all
+      was soothing and delightful. They approached nearer and nearer to the
+      gaily painted heights of Ifdawn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was something enigmatic to him in those bright walls. He was
+      attracted by them, yet felt a sort of awe. They looked real, but at the
+      same time very supernatural. If one could see the portrait of a ghost,
+      painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial colors, the feelings
+      produced by such a sight would be exactly similar to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      impressions as he studied the Ifdawn precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He broke the long silence. &ldquo;Those mountains have most extraordinary
+      shapes. All the lines are straight and perpendicular&mdash;no slopes or
+      curves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked backward on the water, in order to face him. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      typical of Ifdawn. Nature is all hammer blows with us. Nothing soft and
+      gradual.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hear you, but I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All over the Marest you&rsquo;ll find patches of ground plunging
+      down or rushing up. Trees grow fast. Women and men don&rsquo;t think twice
+      before acting. One may call Ifdawn a place of quick decisions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was impressed. &ldquo;A fresh, wild, primitive land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it where you come from?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, mine is a decrepit world, where nature takes a hundred years to
+      move a foot of solid land. Men and animals go about in flocks. Originality
+      is a lost habit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there women there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As with you, and not very differently formed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed. &ldquo;So much so that it has changed the dress, speech, and
+      thoughts of the whole sex.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably they are more beautiful than I?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was another rather long silence, as they travelled unsteadily
+      onward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your business in Ifdawn?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He hesitated over his answer. &ldquo;Can you grasp that it&rsquo;s
+      possible to have an aim right in front of one, so big that one can&rsquo;t
+      see it as a whole?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stole a long, inquisitive look at him, &ldquo;What sort of aim?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A moral aim.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you proposing to set the world right?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I propose nothing&mdash;I am waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t wait too long, for time doesn&rsquo;t wait&mdash;especially
+      in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something will happen,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe threw a subtle smile. &ldquo;So you have no special destination in
+      the Marest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, and if you&rsquo;ll permit me, I will come home with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; she said, with a short, thrilling laugh.
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I have been offering all the time. Of course you
+      will come home with me. As for Crimtyphon...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mentioned that name before. Who is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! My lover, or, as you would say, my husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This doesn&rsquo;t improve matters,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It leaves them exactly where they were. We merely have to remove
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are certainly misunderstanding each other,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      quite startled. &ldquo;Do you by any chance imagine that I am making a
+      compact with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will do nothing against your will. But you have promised to
+      come home with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, how do you remove husbands in Ifdawn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either you or I must kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her for a full minute. &ldquo;Now we are passing from folly to
+      insanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe. &ldquo;It is the too-sad truth.
+      And when you have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m aware I am on a strange planet,&rdquo; said Maskull
+      slowly, &ldquo;where all sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where
+      the very laws of morality may be different. Still as far as I am
+      concerned, murder is murder, and I&rsquo;ll have no more to do with a
+      woman who wants to make use of me, to get rid of her husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think me wicked?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe steadily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you had better leave me, Maskull&mdash;only&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to be consistent, don&rsquo;t you? Leave all other mad and
+      wicked people as well. Then you&rsquo;ll find it easier to reform the
+      rest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe, with a half smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll come with you, and I&rsquo;ll see Crimtyphon&mdash;if
+      only to warn him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe broke into a cascade of rich, feminine laughter, but whether at the
+      image conjured up by Maskull&rsquo;s last words, or from some other cause,
+      he did not know. The conversation dropped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At a distance of a couple of miles from the now towering cliffs, the river
+      made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no longer of use to
+      them on their journey. Maskull stared up doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a stiff climb for a hot morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s rest here a little,&rdquo; said she, indicating a
+      smooth flat island of black rock, standing up just out of the water in the
+      middle of the river.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They accordingly went to it, and Maskull sat down. Oceaxe, however,
+      standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward the cliffs opposite,
+      and uttered a piercing and peculiar call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that for?&rdquo; She did not answer. After waiting a
+      minute, she repeated the call. Maskull now saw a large bird detach itself
+      from the top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down toward them.
+      It was followed by two others. The flight of these birds was exceedingly
+      slow and clumsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are they?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She still returned no answer, but smiled rather peculiarly and sat down
+      beside him. Before many minutes he was able to distinguish the shapes and
+      colors of the flying monsters. They were not birds, but creatures with
+      long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece, terminating in fins
+      which acted as wings. The bodies were of bright blue, the legs and fins
+      were yellow. They were flying, without haste, but in a somewhat ominous
+      fashion, straight toward them. He could make out a long, thin spike
+      projecting from each of the heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are shrowks,&rdquo; explained Oceaxe at last. &ldquo;If you
+      want to know their intention, I&rsquo;ll tell you. To make a meal of us.
+      First of all their spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are
+      really suckers, will drain us dry of blood&mdash;pretty thoroughly too;
+      there are no half measures with shrowks. They are toothless beasts, so don&rsquo;t
+      eat flesh.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you show such admirable sangfroid,&rdquo; said Maskull dryly,
+      &ldquo;I take it there&rsquo;s no particular danger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless he instinctively tried to get on to his feet and failed. A
+      new form of paralysis was chaining him to the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you trying to get up?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe smoothly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, yes, but those cursed reptiles seem to be nailing me down to
+      the rock with their wills. May I ask if you had any special object in view
+      in waking them up?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I assure you the danger is quite real, Maskull. Instead of talking
+      and asking questions, you had much better see what you can do with <i>your</i>
+      will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I seem to have no will, unfortunately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, but it was still rich and
+      beautiful. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s obvious you aren&rsquo;t a very heroic
+      protector, Maskull. It seems I must play the man, and you the woman. I
+      expected better things of your big body. Why, my husband would send those
+      creatures dancing all around the sky, by way of a joke, before disposing
+      of them. Now watch me. Two of the three I&rsquo;ll kill; the third we will
+      ride home on. Which one shall we keep?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowks continued their slow, wobbling flight toward them. Their
+      bodies were of huge size. They produced in Maskull the same sensation of
+      loathing as insects did. He instinctively understood that as they hunted
+      with their wills, there was no necessity for them to possess a swift
+      motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose which you please,&rdquo; he said shortly. &ldquo;They are
+      equally objectionable to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll choose the leader, as it is presumably the most
+      energetic animal. Watch now.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire. Maskull felt
+      something snap inside his brain. His limbs were free once more. The two
+      monsters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost toward the earth,
+      one after the other. He watched them crash on the ground, and then lie
+      motionless. The leader still came toward them, but he fancied that its
+      flight was altered in character; it was no longer menacing, but tame and
+      unwilling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe guided it with her will to the mainland shore opposite their island
+      rock. Its vast bulk lay there extended, awaiting her pleasure. They
+      immediately crossed the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull viewed the shrowk at close quarters. It was about thirty feet
+      long. Its bright-coloured skin was shining, slippery, and leathery; a mane
+      of black hair covered its long neck. Its face was awesome and unnatural,
+      with its carnivorous eyes, frightful stiletto, and blood-sucking cavity.
+      There were true fins on its back and tail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you a good seat?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe, patting the creature&rsquo;s
+      flank. &ldquo;As I have to steer, let me jump on first.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She pulled up her gown, then climbed up and sat astride the animal&rsquo;s
+      back, just behind the mane, which she clutched. Between her and the fin
+      there was just room for Maskull. He grasped the two flanks with his outer
+      hands; his third, new arm pressed against Oceaxe&rsquo;s back, and for
+      additional security he was compelled to encircle her waist with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Directly he did so, he realised that he had been tricked, and that this
+      ride had been planned for one purpose only&mdash;to inflame his desires.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third arm possessed a function of its own, of which hitherto he had
+      been ignorant. It was a developed magn. But the stream of love which was
+      communicated to it was no longer pure and noble&mdash;it was boiling,
+      passionate, and torturing. He gritted his teeth, and kept quiet, but
+      Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious of his
+      feelings. She looked around, with a golden, triumphant smile. &ldquo;The
+      ride will last some time, so hold on well!&rdquo; Her voice was soft like
+      a flute, but rather malicious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grinned, and said nothing. He dared not remove his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shrowk straddled on to its legs. It jerked itself forward, and rose
+      slowly and uncouthly in the air. They began to paddle upward toward the
+      painted cliffs. The motion was swaying, rocking, and sickening; the
+      contact of the brute&rsquo;s slimy skin was disgusting. All this, however,
+      was merely background to Maskull, as he sat there with closed eyes,
+      holding on to Oceaxe. In the front and centre of his consciousness was the
+      knowledge that he was gripping a fair woman, and that her flesh was
+      responding to his touch like a lovely harp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They climbed up and up. He opened his eyes, and ventured to look around
+      him. By this time they were already level with the top of the outer
+      rampart of precipices. There now came in sight a wild archipelago of
+      islands, with jagged outlines, emerging from a sea of air. The islands
+      were mountain summits; or, more accurately speaking, the country was a
+      high tableland, fissured everywhere by narrow and apparently bottomless
+      cracks. These cracks were in some cases like canals, in others like lakes,
+      in others merely holes in the ground, closed in all round. The
+      perpendicular sides of the islands&mdash;that is, the upper, visible parts
+      of the innumerable cliff faces&mdash;were of bare rock, gaudily coloured;
+      but the level surfaces were a tangle of wild plant life. The taller trees
+      alone were distinguishable from the shrowk&rsquo;s back. They were of
+      different shapes, and did not look ancient; they were slender and swaying
+      but did not appear very graceful; they looked tough, wiry, and savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Maskull continued to explore the landscape, he forgot Oceaxe and his
+      passion. Other strange feelings came to the front. The morning was gay and
+      bright. The sun scorched down, quickly-changing clouds sailed across the
+      sky, the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely. Yet he experienced no
+      aesthetic sensations&mdash;he felt nothing but an intense longing for
+      action and possession. When he looked at anything, he immediately wanted
+      to deal with it. The atmosphere of the land seemed not free, but sticky;
+      attraction and repulsion were its constituents. Apart from this wish to
+      play a personal part in what was going on around and beneath him, the
+      scenery had no significance for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp. Oceaxe
+      turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied with what
+      she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cold again so quickly, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want?&rdquo; he asked absently, still looking over the
+      side. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You wish to take a hand?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish to get down.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, we have a good way to go yet.... So you really feel different?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Different from what? What are you talking about?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, still lost in abstraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe laughed again. &ldquo;It would be strange if we couldn&rsquo;t make
+      a man of you, for the material is excellent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, she turned her back once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air islands differed from water islands in another way. They were not
+      on a plane surface, but sloped upward, like a succession of broken
+      terraces, as the journey progressed. The shrowk had hitherto been flying
+      well above the ground; but now, when a new line of towering cliffs
+      confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast upward, but caused it to
+      enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the mountains like a channel.
+      They were instantly plunged into deep shade. The canal was not above
+      thirty feet wide; the walls stretched upward on both sides for many
+      hundred feet. It was as cool as an ice chamber. When Maskull attempted to
+      plumb the chasm with his eyes, he saw nothing but black obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is at the bottom?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Death for you, if you go to look for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We know that. I mean, is there any kind of life down there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that I have ever heard of,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, &ldquo;but of
+      course all things are possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think very likely there is life,&rdquo; he returned thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her ironical laugh sounded out of the gloom. &ldquo;Shall we go down and
+      see?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You find that amusing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, not that. What I do find amusing is the big stranger with the
+      beard, who is so keenly interested in everything except himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then laughed too. &ldquo;I happen to be the only thing in Tormance
+      which is not a novelty for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but I am a novelty for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The channel went zigzagging its way through the belly of the mountain, and
+      all the time they were gradually rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least I have heard nothing like your voice before,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, who, since he had no longer anything to look at, was at last
+      ready for conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the matter with my voice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all that I can distinguish of you now; that&rsquo;s why
+      I mentioned it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it clear&mdash;don&rsquo;t I speak distinctly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s clear enough, but&mdash;it&rsquo;s inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inappropriate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t explain further,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      whether you are speaking or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest
+      and strangest instrument I have ever listened to. And yet I repeat, it is
+      inappropriate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean that my nature doesn&rsquo;t correspond?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was just considering his reply, when their talk was abruptly broken off
+      by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising up from the gulf
+      directly underneath them. It was a low, grinding, roaring thunder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ground is rising under us!&rdquo; cried Oceaxe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She made no answer, but urged the shrowk&rsquo;s flight upward, at such a
+      steep gradient that they retained their seats with difficulty. The floor
+      of the canyon, upheaved by some mighty subterranean force, could be heard,
+      and almost felt, coming up after them, like a gigantic landslip in the
+      wrong direction. The cliffs cracked, and fragments began to fall. A
+      hundred awful noises filled the air, growing louder and louder each second&mdash;splitting,
+      hissing, cracking, grinding, booming, exploding, roaring. When they had
+      still fifty feet or so to go, to reach the top, a sort of dark, indefinite
+      sea of broken rocks and soil appeared under their feet, ascending rapidly,
+      with irresistible might, accompanied by the most horrible noises. The
+      canal was filled up for two hundred yards, before and behind them.
+      Millions of tons of solid matter seemed to be raised. The shrowk in its
+      ascent was caught by the uplifted debris. Beast and riders experienced in
+      that moment all the horrors of an earthquake&mdash;they were rolled
+      violently over, and thrown among the rocks and dirt. All was thunder,
+      instability, motion, confusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the sunlight.
+      The upheaval still continued. In another minute or two the valley floor
+      had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more higher than the old.
+      Then its movement ceased suddenly. Every noise stopped, as if by magic;
+      not a rock moved. Oceaxe and Maskull picked themselves up and examined
+      themselves for cuts and bruises. The shrowk lay on its side, panting
+      violently, and sweating with fright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was a nasty affair,&rdquo; said Maskull, flicking the dirt off
+      his person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It might have been far worse.... I mean, it&rsquo;s bad enough to
+      come up, but it&rsquo;s death to go down, and that happens just as often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whatever induces you to live in such a country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, Maskull. Habit, I suppose. I have often thought
+      of moving out of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
+      place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
+      another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn by degrees,&rdquo; she answered, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get on again, Maskull!&rdquo; she directed, climbing back to her
+      perch. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t too much time to waste.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He obeyed. They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
+      mountains, and in full sunlight. Maskull settled down again to his
+      thoughts. The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak into
+      his brain. His will became so restless and uneasy that merely to sit there
+      in inactivity was a torture. He could scarcely endure not to be doing
+      something.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How secretive you are, Maskull!&rdquo; said Oceaxe quietly, without
+      turning her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What secrets&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I know perfectly well what&rsquo;s passing inside you. Now I
+      think it wouldn&rsquo;t be amiss to ask you&mdash;is friendship still
+      enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, don&rsquo;t ask me anything,&rdquo; growled Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      far too many problems in my head already. I only wish I could answer some
+      of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stared stonily at the landscape. The beast was winging its way toward a
+      distant mountain, of singular shape. It was an enormous natural
+      quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and terminating in a
+      broad, flat top, on which what looked like green snow still lingered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What mountain is that?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disscourn. The highest point in Ifdawn.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we going there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should we go there? But if you were going on farther, it might
+      be worth your while to pay a visit to the top. It commands the whole land
+      as far as the Sinking Sea and Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;and beyond.
+      You can also see Alppain from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a sight I mean to see before I have finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, Maskull?&rdquo; She turned around and put her hand on his
+      wrist. &ldquo;Stay with me, and one day we&rsquo;ll go to Disscourn
+      together.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He grunted unintelligibly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were no signs of human existence in the country under their feet.
+      While Maskull was still grimly regarding it, a large tract of forest not
+      far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided with an awful
+      roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf. What was solid land one
+      minute became a clean-cut chasm the next. He jumped violently up with the
+      shock. &ldquo;This is frightful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe remained unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, life here must be absolutely impossible,&rdquo; he went on,
+      when he had somewhat recovered himself. &ldquo;A man would need nerves of
+      steel.... Is there no means at all of foreseeing a catastrophe like this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I suppose we wouldn&rsquo;t be alive if there weren&rsquo;t,&rdquo;
+      replied Oceaxe, with composure. &ldquo;We are more or less clever at it&mdash;but
+      that doesn&rsquo;t prevent our often getting caught.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better teach me the signs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have many things to go over together. And among them, I
+      expect, will be whether we are to stay in the land at all.... But first
+      let us get home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far is it now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right in front of you,&rdquo; said Oceaxe, pointing with her
+      forefinger. &ldquo;You can see it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the direction of the finger and, after a few questions, made
+      out the spot she was indicating. It was a broad peninsula, about two miles
+      distant. Three of its sides rose sheer out of a lake of air, the bottom of
+      which was invisible; its fourth was a bottleneck, joining it to the
+      mainland. It was overgrown with bright vegetation, distinct in the
+      brilliant atmosphere. A single tall tree, shooting up in the middle of the
+      peninsula, dwarfed everything else; it was wide and shady with sea-green
+      leaves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder if Crimtyphon is there,&rdquo; remarked Oceaxe. &ldquo;Can
+      I see two figures, or am I mistaken?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I also see something,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In twenty minutes they were directly above the peninsula, at a height of
+      about fifty feet. The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth on the
+      mainland, exactly at the gateway of the isthmus. They both descended&mdash;Maskull
+      with aching thighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall we do with the monster?&rdquo; asked Oceaxe. Without
+      waiting for a suggestion, she patted its hideous face with her hand.
+      &ldquo;Fly away home! I may want you some other time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It gave a stupid grunt, elevated itself on its legs again, and, after half
+      running, half flying for a few yards, rose awkwardly into the air, and
+      paddled away in the same direction from which they had come. They watched
+      it out of sight, and then Oceaxe started to cross the neck of land,
+      followed by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s white rays beat down on them with pitiless force. The
+      sky had by degrees become cloudless, and the wind had dropped entirely.
+      The ground was a rich riot of vividly coloured ferns, shrubs, and grasses.
+      Through these could be seen here and there the golden chalky soil&mdash;and
+      occasionally a glittering, white metallic boulder. Everything looked
+      extraordinary and barbaric. Maskull was at last walking in the weird
+      Ifdawn Marest which had created such strange feelings in him when seen
+      from a distance.... And now he felt no wonder or curiosity at all, but
+      only desired to meet human beings&mdash;so intense had grown his will. He
+      longed to test his powers on his fellow creatures, and nothing else seemed
+      of the least importance to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the peninsula all was coolness and delicate shade. It resembled a large
+      copse, about two acres in extent. In the heart of the tangle of small
+      trees and undergrowth was a partially cleared space&mdash;perhaps the
+      roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed off the smaller
+      fry all around it. By the side of the tree sparkled a little, bubbling
+      fountain, whose water was iron-red. The precipices on all sides, overhung
+      with thorns, flowers, and creepers, invested the enclosure with an air of
+      wild and charming seclusion&mdash;a mythological mountain god might have
+      dwelt here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s restless eye left everything, to fall on the two men who
+      formed the centre of the picture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One was reclining, in the ancient Grecian fashion of banqueters on a tall
+      couch of mosses, sprinkled with flowers; he rested on one arm, and was
+      eating a kind of plum, with calm enjoyment. A pile of these plums lay on
+      the couch beside him. The over-spreading branches of the tree completely
+      sheltered him from the sun. His small, boyish form was clad in a rough
+      skin, leaving his limbs naked. Maskull could not tell from his face
+      whether he were a young boy or a grown man. The features were smooth,
+      soft, and childish, their expression was seraphically tranquil; but his
+      violet upper eye was sinister and adult. His skin was of the colour of
+      yellow ivory. His long, curling hair matched his sorb&mdash;it was violet.
+      The second man was standing erect before the other, a few feet away from
+      him. He was short and muscular, his face was broad, bearded, and rather
+      commonplace, but there was something terrible about his appearance. The
+      features were distorted by a deep-seated look of pain, despair, and
+      horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe, without pausing, strolled lightly and lazily up to the outermost
+      shadows of the tree, some distance from the couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have met with an uplift,&rdquo; she remarked carelessly, looking
+      toward the youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He eyed her, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is your plant man getting on?&rdquo; Her tone was artificial
+      but extremely beautiful. While waiting for an answer, she sat down on the
+      ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and pulled down the
+      skirt of her robe. Maskull remained standing just behind her, with crossed
+      arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was silence for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you answer your mistress, Sature?&rdquo; said the
+      boy on the couch, in a calm, treble voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man addressed did not alter his expression, but replied in a strangled
+      tone, &ldquo;I am getting on very well, Oceaxe. There are already buds on
+      my feet. Tomorrow I hope to take root.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull felt a rising storm inside him. He was perfectly aware that
+      although these words were uttered by Sature, they were being dictated by
+      the boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What he says is quite true,&rdquo; remarked the latter. &ldquo;Tomorrow
+      roots will reach the ground, and in a few days they ought to be well
+      established. Then I shall set to work to convert his arms into branches,
+      and his fingers into leaves. It will take longer to transform his head
+      into a crown, but still I hope&mdash;in fact I can almost promise that
+      within a month you and I, Oceaxe, will be plucking and enjoying fruit from
+      this new and remarkable tree.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love these natural experiments,&rdquo; he concluded, putting out
+      his hand for another plum. &ldquo;They thrill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be a joke,&rdquo; said Maskull, taking a step forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youth looked at him serenely. He made no reply, but Maskull felt as if
+      he were being thrust backward by an iron hand on his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The morning&rsquo;s work is now concluded, Sature. Come here again
+      after Blodsombre. After tonight you will remain here permanently, I
+      expect, so you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for your
+      roots. Never forget&mdash;however fresh and charming these plants appear
+      to you now, in the future they will be your deadliest rivals and enemies.
+      Now you may go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight. Oceaxe
+      yawned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall. &ldquo;Are you
+      joking, or are you a devil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Crimtyphon. I never joke. For that epithet of yours, I will
+      devise a new punishment for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duel of wills commenced without ceremony. Oceaxe got up, stretched her
+      beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to witness the struggle
+      between her old lover and her new. Crimtyphon smiled too; he reached out
+      his hand for more fruit, but did not eat it. Maskull&rsquo;s self-control
+      broke down and he dashed at the boy, choking with red fury&mdash;his beard
+      wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with whom he had to
+      deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a
+      terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull staggered. He gathered
+      together all the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight continued
+      his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch, trying to get
+      away.... His opposition suddenly collapsed. Maskull stumbled forward,
+      recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the high pile of mosses, to
+      get at his antagonist. He fell on top of him with all his bulk. Grasping
+      his throat, he pulled his little head completely around, so that the neck
+      was broken. Crimtyphon immediately died.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull viewed
+      it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder came into
+      his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon&rsquo;s face had
+      undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal character
+      had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask which
+      expressed nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had seen the
+      brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face of the
+      apparition at the séance, after Krag had dealt with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 10. TYDOMIN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the
+      plums.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see, you had to kill him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, in a rather
+      quizzical voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came away from the corpse and regarded her&mdash;still red, and still
+      breathing hard. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no joking matter. You especially ought
+      to keep quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because he was your husband.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think I ought to show grief&mdash;when I feel none?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pretend, woman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe smiled. &ldquo;From your manner one would think you were accusing
+      me of some crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull literally snorted at her words. &ldquo;What, you live with filth&mdash;you
+      live in the arms of a morbid monstrosity and then&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, now I grasp it,&rdquo; she said, in a tone of perfect
+      detachment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Maskull,&rdquo; she proceeded, after a pause, &ldquo;and who
+      gave you the right to rule my conduct? Am I not mistress of my own person?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at her with disgust, but said nothing. There was another long
+      interval of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never loved him,&rdquo; said Oceaxe at last, looking at the
+      ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That makes it all the worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does all this mean&mdash;what do you want?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing from you&mdash;absolutely nothing&mdash;thank heaven!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a hard laugh. &ldquo;You come here with your foreign
+      preconceptions and expect us all to bow down to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What preconceptions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just because Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sports are strange to you, you
+      murder him&mdash;and you would like to murder me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sports! That diabolical cruelty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re sentimental!&rdquo; said Oceaxe contemptuously.
+      &ldquo;Why do you need to make such a fuss over that man? Life is life,
+      all the world over, and one form is as good as another. He was only to be
+      made a tree, like a million other trees. If they can endure the life, why
+      can&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And this is Ifdawn morality!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe began to grow angry. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s you who have peculiar ideas.
+      You rave about the beauty of flowers and trees&mdash;you think them
+      divine. But when it&rsquo;s a question of taking on this divine, fresh,
+      pure, enchanting loveliness yourself, in your own person, it immediately
+      becomes a cruel and wicked degradation. Here we have a strange riddle, in
+      my opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oceaxe, you&rsquo;re a beautiful, heartless wild beast&mdash;nothing
+      more. If you weren&rsquo;t a woman&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&rdquo;&mdash;curling her lip&mdash;&ldquo;let us hear what
+      would happen if I weren&rsquo;t a woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter. I can&rsquo;t touch you&mdash;though there&rsquo;s
+      certainly not the difference of a hair between you and your boy-husband.
+      For this you may thank my &lsquo;foreign preconceptions.&rsquo;...
+      Farewell!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to go. Oceaxe&rsquo;s eyes slanted at him through their long
+      lashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you off to, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a matter of no importance, for wherever I go it must
+      be a change for the better. You walking whirlpools of crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wait a minute. I only want to say this. Blodsombre is just
+      starting, and you had better stay here till the afternoon. We can quickly
+      put that body out of sight, and, as you seem to detest me so much, the
+      place is big enough&mdash;we needn&rsquo;t talk, or even see each other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish to breathe the same air.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Singular man!&rdquo; She was sitting erect and motionless, like a
+      beautiful statue. &ldquo;And what of your wonderful interview with Surtur,
+      and all the undone things which you set out to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You aren&rsquo;t the one I shall speak to about that. But&rdquo;&mdash;he
+      eyed her meditatively&mdash;&ldquo;while I&rsquo;m still here you can tell
+      me this. What&rsquo;s the meaning of the expression on that corpse&rsquo;s
+      face?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that another crime, Maskull? All dead people look like that.
+      Ought they not to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I once heard it called &lsquo;Crystalman&rsquo;s face.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? We are all daughters and sons of Crystalman. It is
+      doubtless the family resemblance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has also been told me that Surtur and Crystalman are one and the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have wise and truthful acquaintances.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how could it have been Surtur whom I saw?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      more to himself than to her. &ldquo;That apparition was something quite
+      different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She dropped her mocking manner and, sliding imperceptibly toward him,
+      gently pulled his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You see&mdash;we have to talk. Sit down beside me, and ask me your
+      questions. I&rsquo;m not excessively smart, but I&rsquo;ll try to be of
+      assistance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull permitted himself to be dragged down with soft violence. She bent
+      toward him, as if confidentially, and contrived that her sweet, cool,
+      feminine breath should fan his cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren&rsquo;t you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull? Then
+      what does it matter who sent you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can you possibly know of good and evil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you only instructing the initiated?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who am I, to instruct anybody? However, you&rsquo;re quite right. I
+      wish to do what I can&mdash;not because I am qualified, but because I am
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe&rsquo;s voice dropped to a whisper. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a giant,
+      both in body and soul. What you want to do, you <i>can</i> do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own
+      ends?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see how difficult you are making the
+      conversation? Let&rsquo;s talk about your work, not about ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern sky.
+      It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills. While he was
+      observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a disquieting nature,
+      passed through him. He looked at Oceaxe, and it struck him for the first
+      time that he was being unnecessarily brutal to her. He had forgotten that
+      she was a woman, and defenceless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won&rsquo;t you stay?&rdquo; she asked all of a sudden, quite
+      openly and frankly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I think I&rsquo;ll stay,&rdquo; he replied slowly. &ldquo;And
+      another thing, Oceaxe&mdash;if I&rsquo;ve misjudged your character, pray
+      forgive me. I&rsquo;m a hasty, passionate man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are enough easygoing men. Hard knocks are a good medicine for
+      vicious hearts. And you didn&rsquo;t misjudge my character, as far as you
+      went&mdash;only, every woman has more than one character. Don&rsquo;t you
+      know that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and both
+      looked around, startled. They saw a woman stepping slowly across the neck
+      that separated them from the mainland.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tydomin,&rdquo; muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice. She
+      immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful. She was no
+      longer quite young. Her face wore the composure of a woman who knows her
+      way about the world. It was intensely pale, and under its quiescence there
+      just was a glimpse of something strange and dangerous. It was curiously
+      alluring, though not exactly beautiful. Her hair was clustering and
+      boyish, reaching only to the neck. It was of a strange indigo colour. She
+      was quaintly attired in a tunic and breeches, pieced together from the
+      square, blue-green plates of some reptile. Her small, ivory-white breasts
+      were exposed. Her sorb was black and sad&mdash;rather contemplative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided
+      straight toward Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. When she arrived within a few
+      feet of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s other wife, who lives under Disscourn. She&rsquo;s a
+      most dangerous woman. Be careful what you say. If she asks you to do
+      anything, refuse it outright.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The poor soul looks harmless enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, she does&mdash;but the poor soul is quite capable of
+      swallowing up Krag himself.... Now, play the man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The murmur of their voices seemed to attract Tydomin&rsquo;s notice, for
+      she now slowly turned her eyes toward them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who killed him?&rdquo; she demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was so soft, low, and refined, that Maskull hardly was able to
+      catch the words. The sounds, however, lingered in his ears, and curiously
+      enough seemed to grow stronger, instead of fainter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe whispered, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t say a word, leave it all to me.&rdquo;
+      Then she swung her body around to face Tydomin squarely, and said aloud,
+      &ldquo;I killed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s words by this time were ringing in Maskull&rsquo;s head
+      like an actual physical sound. There was no question of being able to
+      ignore them; he had to make an open confession of his act, whatever the
+      consequences might be. Quietly taking Oceaxe by the shoulder and putting
+      her behind him, he said in a low, but perfectly distinct voice, &ldquo;It
+      was I that killed Crimtyphon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe looked both haughty and frightened. &ldquo;Maskull says that so as
+      to shield me, as he thinks. I require no shield, Maskull. I killed him,
+      Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you, Oceaxe. You did murder him. Not with your own
+      strength, for you brought this man along for the purpose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took a couple of steps toward Tydomin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s of little
+      consequence who killed him, for he&rsquo;s better dead than alive, in my
+      opinion. Still, I did it. Oceaxe had no hand in the affair.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin appeared not to hear him&mdash;she looked beyond him at Oceaxe
+      musingly. &ldquo;When you murdered him, didn&rsquo;t it occur to you that
+      I would come here, to find out?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never once thought of you,&rdquo; replied Oceaxe, with an angry
+      laugh. &ldquo;Do you really imagine that I carry your image with me
+      wherever I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If someone were to murder your lover here, what would you do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lying hypocrite!&rdquo; Oceaxe spat out. &ldquo;You never were in
+      love with Crimtyphon. You always hated me, and now you think it an
+      excellent opportunity to make it good... now that Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      gone.... For we both know he would have made a footstool of you, if I had
+      asked him. He worshiped me, but he laughed at you. He thought you ugly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin flashed a quick, gentle smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Is it necessary
+      for you to listen to all this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without question, and feeling it the right thing to do, he walked away out
+      of earshot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin approached Oceaxe. &ldquo;Perhaps because my beauty fades and I&rsquo;m
+      no longer young, I needed <i>him</i> all the more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe gave a kind of snarl. &ldquo;Well, he&rsquo;s dead, and that&rsquo;s
+      the end of it. What are you going to do now, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other woman smiled faintly and rather pathetically. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s
+      nothing left to do, except mourn the dead. You won&rsquo;t grudge me that
+      last office?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to stay here?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe suspiciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Oceaxe dear, I wish to be alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is to become of us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that you and your lover&mdash;what is his name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought that perhaps you two would go to Disscourn, and spend
+      Blodsombre at my home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oceaxe called out aloud to Maskull, &ldquo;Will you come with me now to
+      Disscourn?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish,&rdquo; returned Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go first, Oceaxe. I must question your friend about Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      death. I won&rsquo;t keep him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you question me, rather?&rdquo; demanded Oceaxe,
+      looking up sharply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gave the shadow of a smile. &ldquo;We know each other too well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Play no tricks!&rdquo; said Oceaxe, and she turned to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely you must be dreaming,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s
+      the way&mdash;unless you want to walk over the cliffside.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The path Oceaxe had chosen led across the isthmus. The direction which
+      Tydomin proposed for her was over the edge of the precipice, into empty
+      space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shaping! I must be mad,&rdquo; cried Oceaxe, with a laugh. And she
+      obediently followed the other&rsquo;s finger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked straight on toward the edge of the abyss, twenty paces away.
+      Maskull pulled his beard around, and wondered what she was doing. Tydomin
+      remained standing with outstretched finger, watching her. Without
+      hesitation, without slackening her step once, Oceaxe strolled on&mdash;and
+      when she had reached the extreme end of the land she still took one more
+      step.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw her limbs wrench as she stumbled over the edge. Her body
+      disappeared, and as it did so an awful shriek sounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disillusionment had come to her an instant too late. He tore himself out
+      of his stupor, rushed to the edge of the cliff, threw himself on the
+      ground recklessly, and looked over.... Oceaxe had vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued staring wildly down for several minutes, and then began to
+      sob. Tydomin came up to him, and he got to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood kept rushing to his face and leaving it again. It was some time
+      before he could speak at all. Then he brought out the words with
+      difficulty. &ldquo;You shall pay for this, Tydomin. But first I want to
+      hear why you did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hadn&rsquo;t I cause?&rdquo; she asked, standing with downcast
+      eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was it pure fiendishness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was for Crimtyphon&rsquo;s sake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She had nothing to do with that death. I told you so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are loyal to her, and I&rsquo;m loyal to him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Loyal? You&rsquo;ve made a terrible blunder. She wasn&rsquo;t my
+      mistress. I killed Crimtyphon for quite another reason. She had absolutely
+      no part in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wasn&rsquo;t she your lover?&rdquo; asked Tydomin slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve made a terrible mistake,&rdquo; repeated Maskull.
+      &ldquo;I killed him because he was a wild beast. She was as innocent of
+      his death as you are.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s face took on a hard look. &ldquo;So you are guilty of two
+      deaths.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a dreadful silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t you believe me?&rdquo; asked Maskull, who was
+      pale and sweating painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who gave you the right to kill him?&rdquo; demanded Tydomin
+      sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said nothing, and perhaps did not hear her question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She sighed two or three times and began to stir restlessly. &ldquo;Since
+      you murdered him, you must help me bury him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s to be done? This is a most fearful crime.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a most fearful man. Why did you come here, to do all this?
+      What are we to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately you are right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use standing here,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Nothing
+      can be done. You must come with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come with you? Where to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Disscourn. There&rsquo;s a burning lake on the far side of it.
+      He always wished to be cast there after death. We can do that after
+      Blodsombre&mdash;in the meantime we must take him home.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a callous, heartless woman. Why should he be buried
+      when that poor girl must remain unburied?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know that&rsquo;s out of the question,&rdquo; replied Tydomin
+      quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes roamed about agitatedly, apparently seeing nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must do something,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;I shall go. You
+      can&rsquo;t wish to stay here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I couldn&rsquo;t stay here&mdash;and why should I want to? You
+      want me to carry the corpse?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can&rsquo;t carry himself, and you murdered him. Perhaps it will
+      ease your mind to carry it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ease my mind?&rdquo; said Maskull, rather stupidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one relief for remorse, and that&rsquo;s
+      voluntary pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have you no remorse?&rdquo; he asked, fixing her with a heavy
+      eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These crimes are yours, Maskull,&rdquo; she said in a low but
+      incisive voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked over to Crimtyphon&rsquo;s body, and Maskull hoisted it on to
+      his shoulders. It weighed heavier than he had thought. Tydomin did not
+      offer to assist him to adjust the ghastly burden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She crossed the isthmus, followed by Maskull. Their path lay through
+      sunshine and shadow. Branchspell was blazing in a cloudless sky, the heat
+      was insufferable&mdash;streams of sweat coursed down his face, and the
+      corpse seemed to grow heavier and heavier. Tydomin always walked in front
+      of him. His eyes were fastened in an unseeing stare on her white, womanish
+      calves; he looked neither to right nor left. His features grew sullen. At
+      the end of ten minutes he suddenly allowed his burden to slip off his
+      shoulders on to the ground, where it lay sprawled every which way. He
+      called out to Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She quickly looked around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come here. It has just occurred to me&rdquo;&mdash;he laughed&mdash;&ldquo;why
+      should I be carrying this corpse&mdash;and why should I be following you
+      at all? What surprises me is, why this has never struck me before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She at once came back to him. &ldquo;I suppose you&rsquo;re tired,
+      Maskull. Let us sit down. Perhaps you have come a long way this morning?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, it&rsquo;s not tiredness, but a sudden gleam of sense. Do you
+      know of any reason why I should be acting as your porter?&rdquo; He
+      laughed again, but nevertheless sat down on the ground beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin neither looked at him nor answered. Her head was half bent, so as
+      to face the northern sky, where the Alppain light was still glowing.
+      Maskull followed her gaze, and also watched the glow for a moment or two
+      in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you speak?&rdquo; he asked at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that light suggest to you, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not speaking of that light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t it suggest anything at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it doesn&rsquo;t. What does it matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew sullen again. &ldquo;Sacrifice of what? What do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hasn&rsquo;t it entered your head yet,&rdquo; said Tydomin, looking
+      straight in front of her, and speaking in her delicate, hard manner,
+      &ldquo;that this adventure of yours will scarcely come to an end until you
+      have made some sort of sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, and she said nothing more. In a few minutes&rsquo;
+      time Maskull got up of his own accord, and irreverently, and almost
+      angrily, threw Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse over his shoulder again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How far do we have to go?&rdquo; he asked in a surly tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An hour&rsquo;s walk.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lead on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, this isn&rsquo;t the sacrifice I mean,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly, as she went on in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost immediately they reached more difficult ground. They had to pass
+      from peak to peak, as from island to island. In some cases they were able
+      to stride or jump across, but in others they had to make use of rude
+      bridges of fallen timber. It appeared to be a frequented path. Underneath
+      were the black, impenetrable abysses&mdash;on the surface were the glaring
+      sunshine, the gay, painted rocks, the chaotic tangle of strange plants.
+      There were countless reptiles and insects. The latter were thicker built
+      than those of Earth&mdash;consequently still more disgusting, and some of
+      them were of enormous size. One monstrous insect, as large as a horse,
+      stood right in the centre of their path without budging. It was
+      armour-plated, had jaws like scimitars, and underneath its body was a
+      forest of legs. Tydomin gave one malignant look at it, and sent it
+      crashing into the gulf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to offer, except my life?&rdquo; Maskull suddenly broke
+      out. &ldquo;And what good is that? It won&rsquo;t bring that poor girl
+      back into the world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sacrifice is not for utility. It&rsquo;s a penalty which we pay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The point is whether you can go on enjoying life, after what has
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She waited for Maskull to come even with her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you imagine I&rsquo;m not man enough&mdash;you imagine that
+      because I allowed poor Oceaxe to die for me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She did die for you,&rdquo; said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic
+      voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would be a second blunder of yours,&rdquo; returned Maskull,
+      just as firmly. &ldquo;I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I&rsquo;m not in
+      love with life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life is not required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I don&rsquo;t understand what you want, or what you are
+      speaking about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull. That
+      would be compliance on your part, but not sacrifice. You must wait until
+      you feel there&rsquo;s nothing else for you to do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all very mysterious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful
+      crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead. It was
+      accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they stood.
+      They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final disappearance
+      of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in front of them.
+      Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with all its teeming
+      animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic story. The new chasm
+      was cut, as if by a knife. Beyond its farther edge the Alppain glow burned
+      blue just over the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we shall have to make a detour,&rdquo; said Tydomin, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand. &ldquo;Listen to me, while
+      I try to describe what I&rsquo;m feeling. When I saw that landslip,
+      everything I have heard about the last destruction of the world came into
+      my mind. It seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it, and that the
+      world were really falling to pieces. Then, where the land was, we now have
+      this empty, awful gulf&mdash;that&rsquo;s to say, <i>nothing</i>&mdash;and
+      it seems to me as if our life will come to the same condition, where there
+      was something there will be nothing. But that terrible blue glare on the
+      opposite side is exactly like the eye of fate. It accuses us, and demands
+      what we have made of our life, which is no more. At the same time, it is
+      grand and joyful. The joy consists in this&mdash;that it is in our power
+      to give freely what will later on be taken from us by force.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin watched him attentively. &ldquo;Then your feeling is that your
+      life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it goes beyond that. I feel that the only thing worth living
+      for is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.
+      Understand me. It isn&rsquo;t cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but
+      heroism.... It&rsquo;s hard to explain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull. It&rsquo;s
+      a heavy one, but that&rsquo;s what you seem to wish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is so. In my present mood it can&rsquo;t be too heavy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me. Now that
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s dead, I&rsquo;m tired of being a woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I fail to comprehend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. I wish to start a new existence in your body. I wish
+      to be a male. I see it isn&rsquo;t worth while being a woman. I mean to
+      dedicate my own body to Crimtyphon. I shall tie his body and mine
+      together, and give them a common funeral in the burning lake. That&rsquo;s
+      the sacrifice I offer you. As I said, it&rsquo;s a hard one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you do ask me to die. Though how you can make use of my body is
+      difficult to understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t ask you to die. You will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it possible without a body?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin gazed at him earnestly. &ldquo;There are many such beings, even in
+      your world. There you call them spirits, apparitions, phantoms. They are
+      in reality living wills, deprived of material bodies, always longing to
+      act and enjoy, but quite unable to do so. Are you noble-minded enough to
+      accept such a state, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s possible, I accept it,&rdquo; replied Maskull
+      quietly. &ldquo;Not in spite of its heaviness, but because of it. But how
+      is it possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Undoubtedly there are very many things possible in our world of
+      which you have no conception. Now let us wait till we get home. I don&rsquo;t
+      hold you to your word, for unless it&rsquo;s a free sacrifice I will have
+      nothing to do with it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not a man who speaks lightly. If you can perform this miracle,
+      you have my consent, once for all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then we&rsquo;ll leave it like that for the present,&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin sadly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They proceeded on their way. Owing to the subsidence, Tydomin seemed
+      rather doubtful at first as to the right road, but by making a long
+      divergence they eventually got around to the other side of the newly
+      formed chasm. A little later on, in a narrow copse crowning a miniature,
+      insulated peak, they fell in with a man. He was resting himself against a
+      tree, and looked tired, overheated, and despondent. He was young. His
+      beardless expression bore an expression of unusual sincerity, and in other
+      respects he seemed a hardy, hardworking youth, of an intellectual type.
+      His hair was thick, short, and flaxen. He possessed neither a sorb nor a
+      third arm&mdash;so presumably he was not a native of Ifdawn. His forehead,
+      however, was disfigured by what looked like a haphazard assortment of
+      eyes, eight in number, of different sizes and shapes. They went in pairs,
+      and whenever two were in use, it was indicated by a peculiar shining&mdash;the
+      rest remained dull, until their turn came. In addition to the upper eyes
+      he had the two lower ones, but they were vacant and lifeless. This
+      extraordinary battery of eyes, alternatively alive and dead, gave the
+      young man an appearance of almost alarming mental activity. He was wearing
+      nothing but a sort of skin kilt. Maskull seemed somehow to recognise the
+      face, though he had certainly never set eyes on it before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin suggested to him to set down the corpse, and both sat down to rest
+      in the shade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Question him, Maskull,&rdquo; she said, rather carelessly, jerking
+      her head toward the stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed and asked aloud, from his seat on the ground, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s
+      your name, and where do you come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man studied him for a few moments, first with one pair of eyes, then
+      with another, then with a third. He next turned his attention to Tydomin,
+      who occupied him a still longer time. He replied at last, in a dry, manly,
+      nervous voice. &ldquo;I am Digrung. I have arrived here from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+      His colour kept changing, and Maskull suddenly realised of whom he
+      reminded him. It was of Joiwind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you&rsquo;re going to Poolingdred, Digrung?&rdquo; he
+      inquired, interested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As a matter of fact I am&mdash;if I can find my way out of this
+      accursed country.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Possibly you are acquainted with Joiwind there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She&rsquo;s my sister. I&rsquo;m on my way to see her now. Why, do
+      you know her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I met her yesterday.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall tell her I met you. This will be our first meeting for four
+      years. Is she well, and happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both, as far as I could judge. You know Panawe?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her husband&mdash;yes. But where do you come from? I&rsquo;ve seen
+      nothing like you before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From another world. Where is Matterplay?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it like there&mdash;how do you amuse yourselves? The same
+      old murders and sudden deaths?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you ill?&rdquo; asked Digrung. &ldquo;Who is this woman, why
+      are you following at her heels like a slave? She looks insane to me. What&rsquo;s
+      that corpse&mdash;why are you dragging it around the country with you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already heard it said about Matterplay,
+      that if one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately
+      springs up. But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me, Digrung?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t attack you, woman, but I know you. I see into you,
+      and I see insanity. That wouldn&rsquo;t matter, but I don&rsquo;t like to
+      see a man of intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge
+      character. However, I don&rsquo;t mind. Your opinion&rsquo;s nothing to
+      me, Digrung. You&rsquo;d better answer his questions, Maskull. Not for his
+      own sake&mdash;but your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your
+      having been seen carrying a dead man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s underlip shot out. &ldquo;Tell your sister nothing,
+      Digrung. Don&rsquo;t mention my name at all. I don&rsquo;t want her to
+      know about this meeting of ours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wish it&mdash;isn&rsquo;t that enough?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung looked impassive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts and words,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;which don&rsquo;t
+      correspond with the real events of the world are considered most shameful
+      in Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not asking you to lie, only to keep silent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hide the truth is a special branch of lying. I can&rsquo;t
+      accede to your wish. I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look. &ldquo;The
+      dead man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him. Now you&rsquo;ll
+      understand why he wishes you to hold your tongue.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I guessed there was some foul play,&rdquo; said Digrung. &ldquo;It
+      doesn&rsquo;t matter&mdash;I can&rsquo;t falsify facts. Joiwind must know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You refuse to consider her feelings?&rdquo; said Maskull, turning
+      pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on
+      realities, aren&rsquo;t worth considering. But Joiwind&rsquo;s are not of
+      that kind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without
+      seeing her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting
+      when she hears your news.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are these strange relations between you?&rdquo; demanded
+      Digrung, eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment. &ldquo;Good God! You don&rsquo;t
+      doubt your own sister. That pure angel!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin caught hold of him delicately. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know Joiwind,
+      but, whoever she is and whatever she&rsquo;s like, I know this&mdash;she&rsquo;s
+      more fortunate in her friend than in her brother. Now, if you really value
+      her happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or other.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean to. Digrung, I shall stop your journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed. &ldquo;I seem to be leaving
+      a wake of corpses behind me on this journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why a corpse? There&rsquo;s no need to kill him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for that!&rdquo; said Digrung dryly. &ldquo;All the same,
+      some crime is about to burst. I feel it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do, then?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very
+      interested.... If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate
+      long. Don&rsquo;t you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set
+      their feeble, obstinate wills against yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a worse crime,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows? He will live, but he will tell no tales.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Digrung laughed, but changed colour. &ldquo;I was right then. The monster
+      has sprung into the light of day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder. &ldquo;You have the choice, and we
+      are not joking. Do as I ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have fallen low, Maskull. But you are walking in a dream, and I
+      can&rsquo;t talk to you. As for you, woman&mdash;sin must be like a
+      pleasant bath to you....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a
+      passer-by, a foreigner. I care nothing for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are
+      legitimate and right.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as you please,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;If you come to grief,
+      your thoughts will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the
+      world, which is what you boast about. It is no affair of mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall go on, and not back!&rdquo; exclaimed Digrung, with angry
+      emphasis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull. &ldquo;Bear witness that I
+      have tried to persuade this young man. Now you must come to a quick
+      decision in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance,
+      Digrung&rsquo;s happiness or Joiwind&rsquo;s. Digrung won&rsquo;t allow
+      you to preserve them both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t take me long to decide, Digrung, I gave you a last
+      chance to change your mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as it&rsquo;s in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister
+      against her criminal friends.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence. Instructed in
+      his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he pressed the young man
+      tightly to his body with all three arms. A feeling of wild, sweet delight
+      immediately passed through him. Then for the first time he comprehended
+      the triumphant joys of &ldquo;absorbing.&rdquo; It satisfied the hunger of
+      the will, exactly as food satisfies the hunger of the body. Digrung proved
+      feeble&mdash;he made little opposition. His personality passed slowly and
+      evenly into Maskull&rsquo;s. The latter became strong and gorged. The
+      victim gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in
+      his arms. He dropped the body, and stood trembling. He had committed his
+      second crime. He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine. He half expected
+      her to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she made a sign to him to
+      pick up Crimtyphon&rsquo;s corpse. As he obeyed, he wondered why Digrung&rsquo;s
+      dead face did not wear the frightful Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why hasn&rsquo;t he altered?&rdquo; he muttered to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin heard him. She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot.
+      &ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t dead&mdash;that&rsquo;s why. The expression you mean
+      is waiting for your death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then is that my real character?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed softly. &ldquo;You came here to carve a strange world, and now
+      it appears you are carved yourself. Oh, there&rsquo;s no doubt about it,
+      Maskull. You needn&rsquo;t stand there gaping. You belong to Shaping, like
+      the rest of us. You are not a king, or a god.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since when have I belonged to him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that matter? Perhaps since you first breathed the air of
+      Tormance, or perhaps since five minutes ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his response, she set off through the copse, and
+      strode on to the next island. Maskull followed, physically distressed and
+      looking very grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey continued for half an hour longer, without incident. The
+      character of the scenery slowly changed. The mountaintops became loftier
+      and more widely separated from one another. The gaps were filled with
+      rolling, white clouds, which bathed the shores of the peaks like a
+      mysterious sea. To pass from island to island was hard work, the
+      intervening spaces were so wide&mdash;Tydomin, however, knew the way. The
+      intense light, the violet-blue sky, the patches of vivid landscape,
+      emerging from the white vapour-ocean, made a profound impression on
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind. The glow of Alppain was hidden by the huge mass of
+      Disscourn, which loomed up straight in front of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The green snow on the top of the gigantic pyramid had by now completely
+      melted away. The black, gold, and crimson of its mighty cliffs stood out
+      with terrific brilliance. They were directly beneath the bulk of the
+      mountain, which was not a mile away. It did not appear dangerous to climb,
+      but he was unaware on which side of it their destination lay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was split from top to bottom by numerous straight fissures. A few
+      pale-green waterfalls descended here and there, like narrow, motionless
+      threads. The face of the mountain was rugged and bare. It was strewn with
+      detached boulders, and great, jagged rocks projected everywhere like iron
+      teeth. Tydomin pointed to a small black hole near the base, which might be
+      a cave. &ldquo;That is where I live.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an odd choice for a woman&mdash;and you are not
+      unbeautiful, either.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A woman&rsquo;s life is over at twenty-five,&rdquo; she replied,
+      sighing. &ldquo;And I am far older than that. Ten years ago it would have
+      been I who lived yonder, and not Oceaxe. Then all this wouldn&rsquo;t have
+      happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      A quarter of an hour later they stood within the mouth of the cave. It was
+      ten feet high, and its interior was impenetrably black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put down the body in the entrance, out of the sun,&rdquo; directed
+      Tydomin. He did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She cast a keenly scrutinising glance at him. &ldquo;Does your resolution
+      still hold, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t it hold? My brains are not feathers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Follow me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both stepped into the cave. At that very moment a sickening crash,
+      like heavy thunder just over their heads, set Maskull&rsquo;s weakened
+      heart thumping violently. An avalanche of boulders, stones, and dust,
+      swept past the cave entrance from above. If their going in had been
+      delayed by a single minute, they would have been killed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin did not even look up. She took his hand in hers, and started
+      walking with him into the darkness. The temperature became as cold as ice.
+      At the first bend the light from the outer world disappeared, leaving them
+      in absolute blackness. Maskull kept stumbling over the uneven ground, but
+      she kept tight hold of him, and hurried him along.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tunnel seemed of interminable length. Presently, however, the
+      atmosphere changed&mdash;or such was his impression. He was somehow led to
+      imagine that they had come to a larger chamber. Here Tydomin stopped, and
+      then forced him down with quiet pressure. His groping hand encountered
+      stone and, by feeling it all over, he discovered that it was a sort of
+      stone slab, or couch, raised a foot or eighteen inches from the ground.
+      She told him to lie down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the time come?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay there waiting in the darkness, ignorant of what was going to
+      happen. He felt her hand clasping his. Without perceiving any gradation,
+      he lost all consciousness of his body; he was no longer able to feel his
+      limbs or internal organs. His mind remained active and alert. Nothing
+      particular appeared to be taking place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then the chamber began to grow light, like very early morning. He could
+      see nothing, but the retina of his eyes was affected. He fancied that he
+      heard music, but while he was listening for it, it stopped. The light grew
+      stronger, the air grew warmer; he heard the confused sound of distant
+      voices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly Tydomin gave his hand a powerful squeeze. He heard someone scream
+      faintly, and then the light leaped up, and he saw everything clearly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room, lighted by
+      electricity. His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin, but by a man
+      dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face he was certainly
+      familiar, but under what circumstances he could not recall. Other people
+      stood in the background&mdash;they too were vaguely known to him. He sat
+      up and began to smile, without any especial reason; and then stood
+      upright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion&mdash;he
+      wondered why. Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances. Two in
+      particular he knew&mdash;the man at the farther end of the room, who paced
+      restlessly backward and forward, his face transfigured by stern, holy
+      grandeur; and that other big, bearded man&mdash;who was <i>himself</i>.
+      Yes&mdash;he was looking at his own double. But it was just as if a
+      crime-riddled man of middle age were suddenly confronted with his own
+      photograph as an earnest, idealistic youth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His other self spoke to him. He heard the sounds, but did not comprehend
+      the sense. Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a short,
+      brutish-looking individual leaped in. He began to behave in an
+      extraordinary manner to everyone around him; and after that came straight
+      up to him&mdash;Maskull. He spoke some words, but they were
+      incomprehensible. A terrible expression came over the newcomer&rsquo;s
+      face, and he grasped his neck with a pair of hairy hands. Maskull felt his
+      bones bending and breaking, excruciating pains passed through all the
+      nerves of his body, and he experienced a sense of impending death. He
+      cried out, and sank helplessly on the floor, in a heap. The chamber and
+      the company vanished&mdash;the light went out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once more he found himself in the blackness of the cave. He was this time
+      lying on the ground, but Tydomin was still with him, holding his hand. He
+      was in horrible bodily agony, but this was only a setting for the
+      despairing anguish that filled his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin addressed him in tones of gentle reproach. &ldquo;Why are you back
+      so soon? I&rsquo;ve not had time yet. You must return.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He caught hold of her, and pulled himself up to his feet. She gave a low
+      scream, as though in pain. &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what are you
+      doing, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;&rdquo; began Maskull, but the effort to produce his
+      words choked him, so that he was obliged to stop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag&mdash;what of Krag? Tell me quickly what has happened. Free my
+      arm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gripped her arm tighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I&rsquo;ve seen Krag. I&rsquo;m awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! You are awake, awake.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you must die,&rdquo; said Maskull, in an awful voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why? What has happened?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must die, and I must kill you. Because I am awake, and for no
+      other reason. You blood-stained dancing mistress!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin breathed hard for a little time. Then she seemed suddenly to
+      regain her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You won&rsquo;t offer me violence, surely, in this black cave?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the sun shall look on, for it is not a murder. But rest assured
+      that you must die&mdash;you must expiate your fearful crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have already said so, and I see you have the power. You have
+      escaped me. It is very curious. Well, then, Maskull, let us come outside.
+      I am not afraid. But kill me courteously, for I have also been courteous
+      to you. I make no other supplication.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 11. ON DISSCOURN
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      BY THE TIME that they regained the mouth of the cavern, Blodsombre was at
+      its height. In front of them the scenery sloped downward&mdash;a long
+      succession of mountain islands in a sea of clouds. Behind them the bright,
+      stupendous crags of Disscourn loomed up for a thousand feet or more.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s eyes were red, and his face looked stupid; he was still
+      holding the woman by the arm. She made no attempt to speak, or to get
+      away. She seemed perfectly gentle and composed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After gazing at the country for a long time in silence, he turned toward
+      her. &ldquo;Whereabouts is the fiery lake you spoke of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies on the other side of the mountain. But why do you ask?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is just as well if we have some way to walk. I shall grow
+      calmer, and that&rsquo;s what I want. I wish you to understand that what
+      is going to happen is not a murder, but an execution.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will taste the same,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When I have gone out of this country, I don&rsquo;t wish to feel
+      that I have left a demon behind me, wandering at large. That would not be
+      fair to others. So we will go to the lake, which promises an easy death
+      for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She shrugged her shoulders. &ldquo;We must wait till Blodsombre is over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a time for luxurious feelings? However hot it is now, we
+      will both be cool by evening. We must start at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Without doubt, you are the master, Maskull.... May I not carry
+      Crimtyphon?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her strangely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I grudge no man his funeral.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She painfully hoisted the body on her narrow shoulders, and they stepped
+      out into the sunlight. The heat struck them like a blow on the head.
+      Maskull moved aside, to allow her to precede him, but no compassion
+      entered his heart. He brooded over the wrongs the woman had done him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The way went along the south side of the great pyramid, near its base. It
+      was a rough road, clogged with boulders and crossed by cracks and water
+      gullies; they could see the water, but could not get at it. There was no
+      shade. Blisters formed on their skin, while all the water in their blood
+      seemed to dry up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil&rsquo;s delight at Tydomin&rsquo;s.
+      &ldquo;Sing me a song!&rdquo; he called out presently. &ldquo;A
+      characteristic one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She turned her head and gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without any
+      sort of expostulation, started singing. Her voice was low and weird. The
+      song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to ascertain whether
+      he was awake or dreaming. The slow surprises of the grotesque melody began
+      to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the words were pure nonsense&mdash;or
+      else their significance was too deep for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where, in the name of all unholy things, did you acquire that
+      stuff, woman?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shed a sickly smile, while the corpse swayed about with ghastly
+      jerks over her left shoulder. She held it in position with her two left
+      arms. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pity we could not have met as friends, Maskull.
+      I could have shown you a side of Tormance which now perhaps you will never
+      see. The wild, mad side. But now it&rsquo;s too late, and it doesn&rsquo;t
+      matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They turned the angle of the mountain, and started to traverse the western
+      base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the quickest way out of this miserable land?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is easiest to go to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will we see it from anywhere?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, though it is a long way off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you been there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am a woman, and interdicted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. I have heard something of the sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t ask me any more questions,&rdquo; said Tydomin, who
+      was becoming faint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped at a little spring. He himself drank, and then made a cup
+      of his hand for the woman, so that she might not have to lay down her
+      burden. The gnawl water acted like magic&mdash;it seemed to replenish all
+      the cells of his body as though they had been thirsty sponge pores,
+      sucking up liquid. Tydomin recovered her self-possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About three-quarters of an hour later they worked around the second
+      corner, and entered into full view of the north aspect of Disscourn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A hundred yards lower down the slope on which they were walking, the
+      mountain ended abruptly in a chasm. The air above it was filled with a
+      sort of green haze, which trembled violently like the atmosphere
+      immediately over a furnace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lake is underneath,&rdquo; said Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked curiously about him. Beyond the crater the country sloped
+      away in a continuous descent to the skyline. Behind them, a narrow path
+      channelled its way up through the rocks toward the towering summit of the
+      pyramid. Miles away, in the north-east quarter, a long, flat-topped
+      plateau raised its head far above all the surrounding country. It was Sant&mdash;and
+      there and then he made up his mind that that should be his destination
+      that day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin meanwhile had walked straight to the gulf, and set down Crimtyphon&rsquo;s
+      body on the edge. In a minute or two, Maskull joined her; arrived at the
+      brink, he immediately flung himself at full length on his chest, to see
+      what could be seen of the lake of fire. A gust of hot, asphyxiating air
+      smote his face and set him coughing, but he did not get up until he had
+      stared his fill at the huge sea of green, molten lava, tossing and
+      swirling at no great distance below, like a living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A faint sound of drumming came up. He listened intently, and as he did so
+      his heart quickened and the black cares rolled away from his soul. All the
+      world and its accidents seemed at that moment false, and without
+      meaning....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed abstractedly to his feet. Tydomin was talking to her dead
+      husband. She was peering into the hideous face of ivory, and fondling his
+      violet hair. When she perceived Maskull, she hastily kissed the withered
+      lips, and got up from her knees. Lifting the corpse with all three arms,
+      she staggered with it to the extreme edge of the gulf and, after an
+      instant&rsquo;s hesitation, allowed it to drop into the lava. It
+      disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic splash came up. That was
+      Crimtyphon&rsquo;s funeral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I am ready, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing, erect
+      and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face was wan, and
+      there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew that it was a
+      phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at Poolingdred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said oddly, &ldquo;and tell me what
+      you see behind you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see anything,&rdquo; she answered, looking around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I see Joiwind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as he was speaking, the apparition vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I present you with your life, Tydomin. <i>She</i> wishes it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I little expected I should ever be beholden for my life to one of
+      my own sex&mdash;but so be it. What really happened to you in my cavern?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I really saw Krag.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, some miracle must have taken place.&rdquo; She suddenly
+      shivered. &ldquo;Come, let us leave this horrible spot. I shall never come
+      here again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;it stinks of death and dying. But
+      where are we to go&mdash;what are we to do? Take me to Sant. I must get
+      away from this hellish land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin remained standing, dull and hollow-eyed. Then she gave an abrupt,
+      bitter little laugh. &ldquo;We make our journey together in singular
+      stages. Rather than be alone, I&rsquo;ll come with you&mdash;but you know
+      that if I set foot in Sant they will kill me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At least set me on the way. I wish to get there before night. Is it
+      possible?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are willing to take risks with nature. And why should you
+      not take risks today? Your luck holds. But someday or other it won&rsquo;t
+      hold&mdash;your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us start,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;The luck I&rsquo;ve had
+      so far is nothing to brag about.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blodsombre was over when they set off; it was early afternoon, but the
+      heat seemed more stifling than ever. They made no more pretence at
+      conversation; both were buried in their own painful thoughts. The land
+      fell away from Disscourn in all other directions, but toward Sant there
+      was a gentle, persistent rise. Its dark, distant plateau continued to
+      dominate the landscape, and after walking for an hour they seemed none the
+      nearer to it. The air was stale and stagnant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By and by, an upright object, apparently the work of man, attracted
+      Maskull&rsquo;s notice. It was a slender tree stem, with the bark still
+      on, imbedded in the stony ground. From the upper end three branches sprang
+      out, pointing aloft at a sharp angle. They were stripped to twigs and
+      leaves and, getting closer, he saw that they had been artificially
+      fastened on, at equal distances from each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stared at the object, a strange, sudden flush of confident vanity
+      and self-sufficiency seemed to pass through him, but it was so momentary
+      that he could be sure of nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What may that be, Tydomin?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Hator&rsquo;s Trifork.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is its purpose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a guide to Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But who or what is Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator was the founder of Sant&mdash;many thousands of years ago. He
+      laid down the principles they all live by, and that trifork is his symbol.
+      When I was a little child my father told me the legends, but I&rsquo;ve
+      forgotten most of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull regarded it attentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does it affect you in any way?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why should it do that?&rdquo; she said, dropping her lip
+      scornfully. &ldquo;I am only a woman, and these are masculine mysteries.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A sort of gladness came over me,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;but
+      perhaps I am mistaken.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed on. The scenery gradually changed in character. The solid
+      parts of the land grew more continuous, the fissures became narrower and
+      more infrequent. There were now no more subsidences or upheavals. The
+      peculiar nature of the Ifdawn Marest appeared to be giving place to a
+      different order of things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later on, they encountered a flock of pale blue jellies floating in the
+      air. They were miniature animals. Tydomin caught one in her hand and began
+      to eat it, just as one eats a luscious pear plucked from a tree. Maskull,
+      who had fasted since early morning, was not slow in following her example.
+      A sort of electric vigour at once entered his limbs and body, his muscles
+      regained their elasticity, his heart began to beat with hard, slow, strong
+      throbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food and body seem to agree well in this world,&rdquo; he remarked
+      smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She glanced toward him. &ldquo;Perhaps the explanation is not in the food,
+      but in your body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brought my body with me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You brought your soul with you, but that&rsquo;s altering fast,
+      too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a copse they came across a short, wide tree, without leaves, but
+      possessing a multitude of thin, flexible branches, like the tentacles of a
+      cuttlefish. Some of these branches were moving rapidly. A furry animal,
+      somewhat resembling a wildcat, leaped about among them in the most
+      extraordinary way. But the next minute Maskull was shocked to realise that
+      the beast was not leaping at all, but was being thrown from branch to
+      branch by the volition of the tree, exactly as an imprisoned mouse is
+      thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a gruesome reversal of rôles, Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One can see you&rsquo;re disgusted,&rdquo; she replied, stifling a
+      yawn. &ldquo;But that is because you are a slave to words. If you called
+      that plant an animal, you would find its occupation perfectly natural and
+      pleasing. And why should you not call it an animal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
+      shall go on listening to this sort of language.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They trudged along for an hour or more without talking. The day became
+      overcast. A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the sun changed
+      into an immense ruddy disk which could be stared at without flinching. A
+      chill, damp wind blew against them. Presently it grew still darker, the
+      sun disappeared and, glancing first at his companion and then at himself,
+      Maskull noticed that their skin and clothing were coated by a kind of
+      green hoarfrost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The land was now completely solid. About half a mile, in front of them,
+      against a background of dark fog, a moving forest of tall waterspouts
+      gyrated slowly and gracefully hither and thither. They were green and
+      self-luminous, and looked terrifying. Tydomin explained that they were not
+      waterspouts at all, but mobile columns of lightning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they are dangerous?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we think,&rdquo; she answered, watching them closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Someone is wandering there who appears to have a different opinion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the spouts, and entirely encompassed by them, a man was walking with
+      a slow, calm, composed gait, his back turned toward Maskull and Tydomin.
+      There was something unusual in his appearance&mdash;his form looked
+      extraordinarily distinct, solid, and real.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s danger, he ought to be warned,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who is always anxious to teach will learn nothing,&rdquo;
+      returned the woman coolly. She restrained Maskull by a pressure of the
+      arm, and continued to watch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The base of one of the columns touched the man. He remained unharmed, but
+      turned sharply around, as if for the first time made aware of the
+      proximity of these deadly waltzers. Then he raised himself to his full
+      height, and stretched both arms aloft above his head, like a diver. He
+      seemed to be addressing the columns.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While they looked on, the electric spouts discharged themselves, with a
+      series of loud explosions. The stranger stood alone, uninjured. He dropped
+      his arms. The next moment he caught sight of the two, and stood still,
+      waiting for them to come up. The pictorial clarity of his person grew more
+      and more noticeable as they approached; his body seemed to be composed of
+      some substance heavier and denser than solid matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked perplexed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a Sant man. I have seen no one quite like him before.
+      This is a day of days for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be an individual of great importance,&rdquo; murmured
+      Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They now came up to him. He was tall, strong, and bearded, and was clothed
+      in a shirt and breeches of skin. Since turning his back to the wind, the
+      green deposit on his face and limbs had changed to streaming moisture,
+      through which his natural colour was visible; it was that of pale iron.
+      There was no third arm. His face was harsh and frowning, and a projecting
+      chin pushed the beard forward. On his forehead there were two flat
+      membranes, like rudimentary eyes, but no sorb. These membranes were
+      expressionless, but in some strange way seemed to add vigour to the stern
+      eyes underneath. When his glance rested on Maskull, the latter felt as
+      though his brain were being thoroughly travelled through. The man was
+      middle-aged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His physical distinctness transcended nature. By contrast with him, every
+      object in the neighbourhood looked vague and blurred. Tydomin&rsquo;s
+      person suddenly appeared faint, sketch-like, without significance, and
+      Maskull realised that it was no better with himself. A queer, quickening
+      fire began running through his veins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to the woman. &ldquo;If this man is going to Sant, I shall bear
+      him company. We can now part. No doubt you will think it high time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Tydomin come too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were delivered in a rough, foreign tongue, but were as
+      intelligible to Maskull as if spoken in English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You who know my name, also know my sex,&rdquo; said Tydomin
+      quietly. &ldquo;It is death for me to enter Sant.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is the old law. I am the bearer of the new law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it so&mdash;and will it be accepted?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old skin is cracking, the new skin has been silently forming
+      underneath, the moment of sloughing has arrived.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The storm gathered. The green snow drove against them, as they stood
+      talking, and it grew intensely cold. None noticed it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; asked Maskull, with a beating heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name, Maskull, is Spadevil. You, a voyager across the dark ocean
+      of space, shall be my first witness and follower. You, Tydomin, a daughter
+      of the despised sex, shall be my second.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The new law? But what is it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Until eye sees, of what use it is for ear to hear?.... Come, both
+      of you, to me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin went to him unhesitatingly. Spadevil pressed his hand on her sorb
+      and kept it there for a few minutes, while he closed his own eyes. When he
+      removed it, Maskull observed that the sorb was transformed into twin
+      membranes like Spadevil&rsquo;s own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked dazed. She glanced quietly about for a little while,
+      apparently testing her new faculty. Then the tears started to her eyes
+      and, snatching up Spadevil&rsquo;s hand, she bent over and kissed it
+      hurriedly many times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My past has been bad,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Numbers have received
+      harm from me, and none good. I have killed&mdash;and worse. But now I can
+      throw all that away, and laugh. Nothing can now injure me. Oh, Maskull,
+      you and I have been fools together!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you repent your crimes?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave the past alone,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;it cannot be
+      reshaped. The future alone is ours. It starts fresh and clean from this
+      very minute. Why do you hesitate, Maskull? Are you afraid?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of those organs, and what is their function?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are <i>probes</i>, and they are the gates opening into a new
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law quietly
+      flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream of clean water
+      which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive will. The law was <i>duty</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 12. SPADEVIL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of their
+      own, but only intensified and altered his other senses. When he used his
+      eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him, but
+      his judgment concerning them was different. Previously all external things
+      had existed for him; now he existed for them. According to whether they
+      served his purpose or were in harmony with his nature, or otherwise, they
+      had been pleasant or painful. Now these words &ldquo;pleasure&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;pain&rdquo; simply had no meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted with his
+      new mental outlook. He smiled at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were quite right, Tydomin,&rdquo; he said, in a bold, cheerful
+      voice. &ldquo;We have been fools. So near the light all the time, and we
+      never guessed it. Always buried in the past or future&mdash;systematically
+      ignoring the present&mdash;and now it turns out that apart from the
+      present we have no life at all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank Spadevil for it,&rdquo; she answered, more loudly than usual.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the man&rsquo;s dark, concrete form. &ldquo;Spadevil,
+      now I mean to follow you to the end. I can do nothing less.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The severe face showed no sign of gratification&mdash;not a muscle
+      relaxed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Watch that you don&rsquo;t lose your gift,&rdquo; he said gruffly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin spoke. &ldquo;You promised that I should enter Sant with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attach yourself to the truth, not to me. For I may die before you,
+      but the truth will accompany you to <i>your</i> death. However, now let us
+      journey together, all three of us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the fine,
+      driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination. He walked with a
+      long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order to keep up with him.
+      The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the middle. The fog was so dense
+      that it was impossible to see a hundred yards ahead. The ground was
+      covered by the green snow. The wind blew in gusts from the Sant highlands
+      and was piercingly cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He that is not more than a man is nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you now come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From brooding, Maskull. Out of no other mother can truth be born. I
+      have brooded, and rejected; and I have brooded again. Now, after many
+      months&rsquo; absence from Sant, the truth at last shines forth for me in
+      its simple splendour, like an upturned diamond.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see its shining,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But how much does it
+      owe to ancient Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Knowledge has its seasons. The blossom was to Hator, the fruit is
+      to me. Hator also was a brooder&mdash;but now his followers do not brood.
+      In Sant all is icy selfishness, a living death. They hate pleasure, and
+      this hatred is the greatest pleasure to them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in what way have they fallen off from Hator&rsquo;s doctrines?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For him, in his sullen purity of nature, all the world was a snare,
+      a limed twig. Knowing that pleasure was everywhere, a fierce, mocking
+      enemy, crouching and waiting at every corner of the road of life, in order
+      to kill with its sweet sting the naked grandeur of the soul, he shielded
+      himself behind <i>pain</i>. This also his followers do, but they do not do
+      it for the sake of the soul, but for the sake of vanity and pride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the Trifork?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The stem, Maskull, is hatred of pleasure. The first fork is
+      disentanglement from the sweetness of the world. The second fork is power
+      over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion. The third fork is the
+      healthy glow of one who steps into ice-cold water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;From what land did Hator come?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not said. He lived in Ifdawn for a while. There are many
+      legends told of him while there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have a long way to go,&rdquo; said Tydomin. &ldquo;Relate some
+      of these legends, Spadevil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snow had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell reappeared like a
+      phantom sun, but bitter blasts of wind still swept over the plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those days,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;there existed in Ifdawn
+      a mountain island separated by wide spaces from the land around it. A
+      handsome girl, who knew sorcery, caused a bridge to be constructed across
+      which men and women might pass to it. Having by a false tale drawn Hator
+      on to this rock, she pushed at the bridge with her foot until it tumbled
+      into the depths below. &lsquo;You and I, Hator, are now together, and
+      there is no means of separating. I wish to see how long the famous frost
+      man can withstand the breath, smiles and perfume of a girl.&rsquo; Hator
+      said no word, either then or all that day. He stood till sunset like a
+      tree trunk, and thought of other things. Then the girl grew passionate,
+      and shook her curls. She rose from where she was sitting she looked at
+      him, and touched his arm; but he did not see her. She looked at him, so
+      that all the soul was in her eyes; and then she fell down dead. Hator
+      awoke from his thoughts, and saw her lying, still warm, at his feet, a
+      corpse. He passed to the mainland; but how, it is not related.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin shuddered. &ldquo;You too have met your wicked woman, Spadevil;
+      but your method is a nobler one.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t pity other women,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;but love
+      the <i>right</i>. Hator also once conversed with Shaping.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of the World?&rdquo; said Maskull thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With the Maker of Pleasure. It is told how Shaping defended his
+      world, and tried to force Hator to acknowledge loveliness and joy. But
+      Hator, answering all his marvellous speeches in a few concise, iron words,
+      showed how this joy and beauty was but another name for the bestiality of
+      souls wallowing in luxury and sloth. Shaping smiled, and said, &lsquo;How
+      comes it that your wisdom is greater than that of the Master of wisdom?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;My wisdom does not come from you, nor from your world,
+      but from that other world, which you, Shaping, have vainly tried to
+      imitate.&rsquo; Shaping replied, &lsquo;What, then, do you do in my world?&rsquo;
+      Hator said, &lsquo;I am here falsely, and therefore I am subject to your
+      false pleasures. But I wrap myself in <i>pain</i>&mdash;not because it is
+      good, but because I wish to keep myself as far from you as possible. For
+      pain is not yours, neither does it belong to the other world, but it is
+      the shadow cast by your false pleasures.&rsquo; Shaping then said, &lsquo;What
+      is this faraway other world of which you say &ldquo;This is so&mdash;this
+      is not so?&rdquo; How happens it that you alone of all my creatures have
+      knowledge of it?&rsquo; But Hator spat at his feet, and said, &lsquo;You
+      lie, Shaping. All have knowledge of it. You, with your pretty toys, alone
+      obscure it from our view.&rsquo; Shaping asked, &lsquo;What, then, am I?&rsquo;
+      Hator answered, &lsquo;You are the dreamer of impossible dreams.&rsquo;
+      And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased with what had
+      been said.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What other world did Hator refer to?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is
+      mean and corrupt-natured.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Guard you your pride!&rdquo; returned Spadevil. &ldquo;Do not make
+      law for the universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this
+      small, false life of yours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?&rdquo;
+      asked Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last
+      hour. When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he determined
+      to destroy himself. He gathered his friends around him; not from vanity,
+      but that they might see to what lengths the human soul can go in its
+      perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body. Standing erect, without
+      support, he died by withholding his breath.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour. Their minds refused
+      to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their thoughts became
+      frozen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued power,
+      Maskull&rsquo;s curiosity rose once more. &ldquo;Your fellow countrymen,
+      then, Spadevil, are sick with self-love?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The men of other countries,&rdquo; said Spadevil, &ldquo;are the
+      slaves of pleasure and desire, knowing it. But the men of my country are
+      the slaves of pleasure and desire, not knowing it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has
+      something noble in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who studies himself at all is ignoble. Only by despising soul as
+      well as body can a man enter into true life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On what grounds do they reject women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself.
+      Love for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore injurious to
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;But will they allow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil knows, Maskull,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;that be it
+      today or be it tomorrow, love can&rsquo;t be kept out of a land, even by
+      the disciples of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beware of love&mdash;beware of emotion!&rdquo; exclaimed Spadevil.
+      &ldquo;Love is but pleasure once removed. Think not of pleasing others,
+      but of serving them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>Right</i> has no sex. So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you
+      are a woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where there are no women, there are no children,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;How came there to be all these generations of Hator men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the
+      yearning for relief from suffering. Men throng to Sant from all parts, in
+      order to have the scars of their souls healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what
+      simple formula do you offer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Iron obedience to duty,&rdquo; answered Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And if they ask &lsquo;How far is this consistent with hatred of
+      pleasure?&rsquo; what will your pronouncement be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the
+      question. Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark fires
+      of self. Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one side, calm and
+      undisturbed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the criterion of pleasure? How can we always recognise it,
+      in order to avoid it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fearful doubts are in my mind,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;This
+      expedition to Sant may turn out badly. I have seen a vision of you,
+      Spadevil, and myself lying dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not
+      there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others
+      will raise it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Show me a sign that you are not as other men&mdash;so that I may
+      know that our blood will not be wasted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil regarded her sternly. &ldquo;I am not a magician. I don&rsquo;t
+      persuade the senses, but the soul. Does your duty call you to Sant,
+      Tydomin? Then go there. Does it not call you to Sant? Then go no farther.
+      Is not this simple? What signs are necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning? No common man
+      could have done that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what any man can do? This man can do one thing, that man
+      can do another. But what all men can do is their duty; and to open their
+      eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my life. Will
+      you not still accompany me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Tydomin, &ldquo;I will follow you to the end. It
+      is all the more essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my
+      remarks, and that means I have not yet learned my lesson properly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we
+      are thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be
+      planning or shaping in our mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why was Maskull not in the picture?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical.
+      There is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life. There is only
+      right and wrong. What arises from right or wrong action does not matter.
+      We are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men and women, doing our
+      immediate duty. We may die in Sant&mdash;so you have seen it; but the
+      truth will go on living.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?&rdquo;
+      asked Maskull. &ldquo;These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least
+      likely of any to follow a new light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish. But where no
+      tree at all can be found, nothing will grow.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Here perhaps we are
+      going to martyrdom, but elsewhere we should resemble men preaching to
+      cattle.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly before sunset they arrived at the extremity of the upland plain,
+      above which towered the black cliffs of the Sant Levels. A dizzy,
+      artificially constructed staircase, of more than a thousand steps of
+      varying depth, twisting and forking in order to conform to the angles of
+      the precipices, led to the world overhead. In the place where they stood
+      they were sheltered from the cutting winds. Branchspell, radiantly shining
+      at last, but on the point of sinking, filled the cloudy sky with violent,
+      lurid colors, some of the combinations of which were new to Maskull. The
+      circle of the horizon was so gigantic, that had he been suddenly carried
+      back to Earth, he would by comparison have fancied himself to be moving
+      beneath the dome of some little, closed-in cathedral. He realised that he
+      was on a foreign planet. But he was not stirred or uplifted by the
+      knowledge; he was conscious only of moral ideas. Looking backward, he saw
+      the plain, which for several miles past had been without vegetation,
+      stretching back away to Disscourn. So regular had been the ascent, and so
+      great was the distance, that the huge pyramid looked nothing more than a
+      slight swelling on the face of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence. In the evening
+      sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever before. His
+      features were set hard in grimness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned around to his companions. &ldquo;What is the greatest wonder, in
+      all this wonderful scene?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Acquaint us,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure
+      to pleasure. Nowhere is <i>right</i> to be found. It is Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is another wonder,&rdquo; said Tydomin, and she pointed her
+      finger toward the sky overhead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A small cloud, so low down that it was perhaps not more than five hundred
+      feet above them, was sailing along in front of the dark wall of cliff. It
+      was in the exact shape of an open human hand, with downward-pointing
+      fingers. It was stained crimson by the sun; and one or two tiny cloudlets
+      beneath the fingers looked like falling drops of blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who can doubt now that our death is close at hand?&rdquo; said
+      Tydomin. &ldquo;I have been close to death twice today. The first time I
+      was ready, but now I am more ready, for I shall die side by side with the
+      man who has given me my first happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not think of death, but of right persistence,&rdquo; replied
+      Spadevil. &ldquo;I am not here to tremble before Shaping&rsquo;s portents;
+      but to snatch men from him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He at once proceeded to lead the way up the staircase. Tydomin gazed
+      upward after him for a moment, with an odd, worshiping light in her eyes.
+      Then she followed him, the second of the party. Maskull climbed last. He
+      was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but his soul was at peace. As
+      they steadily ascended the almost perpendicular stairs, the sun got higher
+      in the sky. Its light dyed their bodies a ruddy gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They gained the top. There they found rolling in front of them, as far as
+      the eye could see, a barren desert of white sand, broken here and there by
+      large, jagged masses of black rock. Tracts of the sand were reddened by
+      the sinking sun. The vast expanse of sky was filled by evil-shaped clouds
+      and wild colors. The freezing wind, flurrying across the desert, drove the
+      fine particles of sand painfully against their faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where now do you take us?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He who guards the old wisdom of Sant must give up that wisdom to
+      me, that I may change it. What he says, others will say. I go to find
+      Maulger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where will you seek him, in this bare country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil struck off toward the north unhesitatingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not so far,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It is his custom to be in
+      that part where Sant overhangs the Wombflash Forest. Perhaps he will be
+      there, but I cannot say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced toward Tydomin. Her sunken cheeks, and the dark circles
+      beneath her eyes told of her extreme weariness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The woman is tired, Spadevil,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She smiled. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s but another step into the land of death. I
+      can manage it. Give me your arm, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sun is now sinking,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Will we get
+      there before dark?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is eating up the evil
+      in your nature. The road you are walking cannot remain unwalked. We shall
+      arrive before dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun then disappeared behind the far-distant ridges that formed the
+      western boundary of the Ifdawn Marest. The sky blazed up into more vivid
+      colors. The wind grew colder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They passed some pools of colourless gnawl water, round the banks of which
+      were planted fruit trees. Maskull ate some of the fruit. It was hard,
+      bitter, and astringent; he could not get rid of the taste, but he felt
+      braced and invigorated by the downward-flowing juices. No other trees or
+      shrubs were to be seen anywhere. No animals appeared, no birds or insects.
+      It was a desolate land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mile or two passed, when they again approached the edge of the plateau.
+      Far down, beneath their feet, the great Wombflash Forest began. But
+      daylight had vanished there; Maskull&rsquo;s eyes rested only on a vague
+      darkness. He faintly heard what sounded like the distant sighing of
+      innumerable treetops.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the rapidly darkening twilight, they came abruptly on a man. He was
+      standing in a pool, on one leg. A pile of boulders had hidden him from
+      their view. The water came as far up as his calf. A trifork, similar to
+      the one Maskull had seen on Disscourn, but smaller, had been stuck in the
+      mud close by his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped by the side of the pond, and waited. Immediately he became
+      aware of their presence, the man set down his other leg, and waded out of
+      the water toward them, picking up his trifork in doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not Maulger, but Catice,&rdquo; said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maulger is dead,&rdquo; said Catice, speaking the same tongue as
+      Spadevil, but with an even harsher accent, so that the tympanum of Maskull&rsquo;s
+      ear was affected painfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latter saw before him a bowed, powerful individual, advanced in years.
+      He wore nothing but a scanty loincloth. His trunk was long and heavy, but
+      his legs were rather short. His face was beardless, lemon-coloured, and
+      anxious-looking. It was disfigured by a number of longitudinal ruts, a
+      quarter of an inch deep, the cavities of which seemed clogged with ancient
+      dirt. The hair of his head was black and sparse. Instead of the twin
+      membranous organs of Spadevil, he possessed but one; and this was in the
+      centre of his brow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s dark, solid person stood out from the rest like a reality
+      among dreams.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has the trifork passed to you?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. Why have you brought this woman to Sant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have brought another thing to Sant. I have brought the new faith.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice stood motionless, and looked troubled. &ldquo;State it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I speak with many words, or few words?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish to say what is <i>not</i>, many words will not suffice.
+      If you wish to say what is, a few words will be enough.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil frowned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hate pleasure brings pride with it. Pride is a pleasure. To kill
+      pleasure, we must attach ourselves to <i>duty</i>. While the mind is
+      planning right action, it has no time to think of pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the whole?&rdquo; asked Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The truth is simple, even for the simplest man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you destroy Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I destroy nature, and set up law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long silence followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My probe is double,&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Suffer me to
+      double yours, and you will see as I see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come you here, you big man!&rdquo; said Catice to Maskull. Maskull
+      advanced a step closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you follow Spadevil in his new faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As far as death,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice picked up a flint. &ldquo;With this stone I strike out one of your
+      two probes. When you have but one, you will see with me, and you will
+      recollect with Spadevil. Choose you then the superior faith, and I shall
+      obey your choice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the sake of future men,&rdquo;
+      said Spadevil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pain is nothing,&rdquo; replied Maskull, &ldquo;but I fear the
+      result.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,&rdquo;
+      said Tydomin, stretching out her hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He struck at it violently with the flint, and gashed it from wrist to
+      thumb; the pale carmine blood spouted up. &ldquo;What brings this
+      kiss-lover to Sant?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;How does she presume to make
+      the rules of life for the sons of Hator?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She bit her lip, and stepped back. &ldquo;Well then, Maskull, accept! I
+      certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you hardly can.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he bids me, I must do it,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      knows what will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil spoke. &ldquo;Of all the descendants of Hator, Catice is the most
+      wholehearted and sincere. He will trample my truth underfoot, thinking me
+      a demon sent by Shaping, to destroy the work of this land. But a seed will
+      escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will wash it. Then men will know
+      that my destroying evil is their greatest good. But none here will live to
+      see that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull now went quite close to Catice, and offered his head. Catice
+      raised his hand, and after holding the flint poised for a moment, brought
+      it down with adroitness and force upon the left-hand probe. Maskull cried
+      out with the pain. The blood streamed down, and the function of the organ
+      was destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to staunch the
+      blood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What now do you feel, Maskull? What do you see?&rdquo; inquired
+      Tydomin anxiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stopped, and stared hard at her. &ldquo;I now see straight,&rdquo; he
+      said slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to wipe the blood from his forehead. He looked troubled.
+      &ldquo;Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall fight with my nature, and
+      refuse to feel pleasure. And I advise you to do the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;Do you renounce my teaching?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay. Spadevil&rsquo;s
+      image-like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face he
+      knew to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is false.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?&rdquo; demanded
+      Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t argue as yet,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;At this
+      moment the world with its sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house. I
+      feel a loathing for everything in it, including myself. I know no more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no duty?&rdquo; asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of
+      other people.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin pulled at Spadevil&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;Maskull has betrayed you,
+      as he has so many others. Let us go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood fast. &ldquo;You have changed quickly, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice. &ldquo;Why do men go on
+      living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pain is the native air of Surtur&rsquo;s children. To what other
+      air do you wish to escape?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s children? Is not Surtur Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the greatest of lies. It is Shaping&rsquo;s masterpiece.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Answer, Maskull!&rdquo; said Spadevil. &ldquo;Do you repudiate
+      right action?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leave me alone. Go back! I am not thinking of you, and your ideas.
+      I wish you no harm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The darkness came on fast. There was another prolonged silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff. &ldquo;The woman
+      must return home,&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She was persuaded here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil,
+      must die&mdash;backslider as you are!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin said quietly, &ldquo;He has no power to enforce this. Are you
+      going to allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from
+      death. Catice, I accept your judgment.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin smiled. &ldquo;For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today,
+      so I shall die with him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice said to Maskull, &ldquo;Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his
+      mistress, according to the laws of Hator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t do that. I have travelled in friendship with them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You denied duty; and now you must do your duty,&rdquo; said
+      Spadevil, calmly stroking his beard. &ldquo;Whatever law you accept, you
+      must obey, without turning to right or left. Your law commands that we
+      must be stoned; and it will soon be dark.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you not even this amount of manhood?&rdquo; exclaimed Tydomin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull moved heavily. &ldquo;Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was
+      forced on me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hator is looking on, and approving,&rdquo; replied Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side of
+      the pool. He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments of rock,
+      the heaviest that he thought he could carry. With these in his arms, he
+      staggered back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath. When he
+      could speak again, he said, &ldquo;I have a bad heart for the business. Is
+      there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning go
+      back to where you have come from. No one shall harm you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s ironic smile was lost in the gloom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after
+      that come back to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose
+      the heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces. Spadevil
+      confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The huge stone hurtled through the air. Its flight looked like a dark
+      shadow. It struck Spadevil full in the face, crushing his features, and
+      breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Be very quick, Maskull, and don&rsquo;t let me keep him waiting.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He panted, and raised the second stone. She placed herself in front of
+      Spadevil&rsquo;s body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell. Maskull went to
+      her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There she
+      breathed out her last sighs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands, while
+      he peered into the dead face. The transition from its heroic, spiritual
+      expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman came like a
+      flash; but he saw it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that the true likeness of Shaping?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Shaping stripped of illusion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How comes this horrible world to exist?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Catice did not answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am wading through too much blood,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Nothing
+      good can come of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull meditated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you
+      really have accepted his faith?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was a great-souled man,&rdquo; replied Catice. &ldquo;I see that
+      the pride of our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure. Tomorrow I
+      too shall leave Sant, to reflect on all this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shuddered. &ldquo;Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but
+      a crime!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His part was played and henceforward the woman would have dragged
+      down his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty. Regret nothing, stranger,
+      but go away at once out of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight? Where shall I go?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Wombflash, where you will meet the deepest minds. I will put you
+      on the way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He linked his arm in Maskull&rsquo;s, and they walked away into the night.
+      For a mile or more they skirted the edge of the precipice. The wind was
+      searching, and drove grit into their faces. Through the rifts of the
+      clouds, stars, faint and brilliant, appeared. Maskull saw no familiar
+      constellations. He wondered if the sun of earth was visible, and if so
+      which one it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the head of a rough staircase, leading down the cliffside. It
+      resembled the one by which he had come up; but this descended to the
+      Wombflash Forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is your path,&rdquo; said Catice, &ldquo;and I shall not come
+      any farther.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull detained him. &ldquo;Say just this, before we part company&mdash;why
+      does pleasure appear so shameful to us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because in feeling pleasure, we forget our <i>home</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that is&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel,&rdquo; answered Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made this reply, he disengaged himself, and, turning his back,
+      disappeared into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stumbled down the staircase as best he could. He was tired, but
+      contemptuous of his pains. His uninjured probe began to discharge matter.
+      He lowered himself from step to step during what seemed an interminable
+      time. The rustling and sighing of the trees grew louder as he approached
+      the bottom; the air became still and warm. Inky blackness was all around
+      him.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He at last reached level ground. Still attempting to proceed, he began to
+      trip over roots, and to collide with tree trunks. After this had happened
+      a few times, he determined to go no farther that night. He heaped together
+      some dry leaves for a pillow, and immediately flung himself down to sleep.
+      Deep and heavy unconsciousness seized him almost instantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 13. THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      He awoke to his third day on Tormance. His limbs ached. He lay on his
+      side, looking stupidly at his surroundings. The forest was like night, but
+      that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to break and objects
+      begin to be guessed at, rather than seen. Two or three amazing shadowy
+      shapes, as broad as houses, loomed up out of the twilight. He did not
+      realise that they were trees, until he turned over on his back and
+      followed their course upward. Far overhead, so high up that he dared not
+      calculate the height, he saw their tops glittering in the sunlight,
+      against a tiny patch of blue sky.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clouds of mist, rolling over the floor of the forest, kept interrupting
+      his view. In their silent passage they were like phantoms flitting among
+      the trees. The leaves underneath him were sodden, and heavy drops of
+      moisture splashed onto his head from time to time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued lying there, trying to reconstruct the events of the
+      preceding day. His brain was lethargic and confused. Something terrible
+      had happened, but what it was he could not for a long time recollect. Then
+      suddenly there came before his eyes that ghastly closing scene at dusk on
+      the Sant plateau&mdash;Spadevil&rsquo;s crushed and bloody features and
+      Tydomin&rsquo;s dying sighs.... He shuddered convulsively, and felt sick.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peculiar moral outlook that had dictated these brutal murders had
+      departed from him during the night, and now he recognised what he had
+      done! During the whole of the previous day he seemed to have been
+      labouring under a series of heavy enchantments. First Oceaxe had enslaved
+      him, then Tydomin, then Spadevil, and lastly Catice. They had forced him
+      to murder and violate; he had guessed nothing, but had imagined that he
+      was travelling as a free and enlightened stranger. What was this nightmare
+      journey for&mdash;and would it continue, in the same way?...
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The silence of the forest was so intense that he heard no sound except the
+      pumping of blood through his arteries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Putting his hand to his face, he found that his remaining probe had
+      disappeared and that he was in possession of three eyes. The third eye was
+      on his forehead, where the old sorb had been. He could not guess its use.
+      He still had his third arm, but it was nerveless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he puzzled his head for a long time, trying unsuccessfully to recall
+      that name which had been the last word spoken by Catice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, with the intention of resuming his journey. He had no toilet to
+      make, and no meal to prepare. The forest was tremendous. The nearest tree
+      appeared to him to have a circumference of at least a hundred feet. Other
+      dim boles looked equally large. But what gave the scene its aspect of
+      immensity was the vast spaces separating tree from tree. It was like some
+      gigantic, supernatural hall in a life after death. The lowest branches
+      were fifty yards or more from the ground. There was no underbrush; the
+      soil was carpeted only by the dead, wet leaves. He looked all around him,
+      to find his direction, but the cliffs of Sant, which he had descended,
+      were invisible&mdash;every way was like every other way, he had no idea
+      which quarter to attack. He grew frightened, and muttered to himself.
+      Craning his neck back, he stared upward and tried to discover the points
+      of the compass from the direction of the sunlight, but it was impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the drum
+      taps. The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off. The unseen
+      drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away from him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur!&rdquo; he said, under his breath. The next moment he
+      marvelled at himself for uttering the name. That mysterious being had not
+      been in his thoughts, nor was there any ostensible connection between him
+      and the drumming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He began to reflect&mdash;but in the meantime the sounds were travelling
+      away. Automatically he started walking in the same direction. The drum
+      beats had this peculiarity&mdash;though odd and mystical, there was
+      nothing awe-inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him of
+      some place and some life with which he was perfectly familiar. Once again
+      they caused all his other sense impressions to appear false.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sounds were intermittent. They would go on for a minute, or for five
+      minutes, and then cease for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Maskull followed
+      them as well as he could. He walked hard among the huge, indistinct trees,
+      in the attempt to come up with the origin of the noise, but the same
+      distance always seemed to separate them. The forest from now onward
+      descended. The gradient was mostly gentle&mdash;about one foot in ten&mdash;but
+      in some places it was much steeper, and in other parts again it was
+      practically level ground for quite long stretches. There were great swampy
+      marshes, through which Maskull was obliged to splash. It was a matter of
+      indifference to him how wet he became&mdash;if only he could catch sight
+      of that individual with the drum. Mile after mile was covered, and still
+      he was no nearer to doing so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gloom of the forest settled down upon his spirits. He felt despondent,
+      tired, and savage. He had not heard the drum beats for some while, and was
+      half inclined to discontinue the pursuit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passing around a great, columnar tree trunk, he almost stumbled against a
+      man who was standing on the farther side. He was leaning against the trunk
+      with one hand, in an attitude of repose. His other hand was resting on a
+      staff. Maskull stopped short and stared at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was nearly naked, and of gigantic build. He over-topped Maskull by a
+      head. His face and body were faintly phosphorescent. His eyes&mdash;three
+      in number&mdash;were pale green and luminous, shining like lamps. His skin
+      was hairless, but the hair of his head was piled up in thick, black coils,
+      and fastened like a woman&rsquo;s. His features were absolutely tranquil,
+      but a terrible, quiet energy seemed to lie just underneath the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Did the drumming come from you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He replied in a strange, strained, twisted voice. Maskull gathered that
+      the name he gave was &ldquo;Dreamsinter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it advisable for me to follow it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he intends me to. He brought me here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face.
+      &ldquo;Not you, but Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the first time that Maskull had heard Nightspore&rsquo;s name
+      since his arrival on the planet. He was so astonished that he could frame
+      no more questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Eat this,&rdquo; said Dreamsinter. &ldquo;Then we will chase the
+      sound together.&rdquo; He picked something up from the ground and handed
+      it to Maskull. He could not see distinctly, but it felt like a hard, round
+      nut, of the size of a fist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t crack it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter took it between his hands, and broke it into pieces. Maskull
+      then ate some of the pulpy interior, which was intensely disagreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What am I doing in Tormance, then?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came to steal Muspel-fire, to give a deeper life to men&mdash;never
+      doubting if your soul could endure that burning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could hardly decipher the strangled words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel.... That&rsquo;s the name I&rsquo;ve been trying to remember
+      ever since I awoke.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dreamsinter suddenly turned his head sideways, and appeared to listen for
+      something. He motioned with his hand to Maskull to keep quiet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it the drumming?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush! They come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was looking toward the upper forest. The now familiar drum rhythm was
+      heard&mdash;this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them, three men
+      in single file separated from one another by only a yard or so. They were
+      travelling down hill at a swift pace, and looked neither to left nor
+      right. They were naked. Their figures were shining against the black
+      background of the forest with a pale, supernatural light&mdash;green and
+      ghostly. When they were abreast of him, about twenty feet off, he
+      perceived who they were. The first man was himself&mdash;Maskull. The
+      second was Krag. The third man was Nightspore. Their faces were grim and
+      set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The source of the drumming was out of sight. The sound appeared to come
+      from some point in front of them. Maskull and Dreamsinter put themselves
+      in motion, to keep up with the swiftly moving marchers. At the same time a
+      low, faint music began.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats, but, unlike the latter, it did not
+      seem to proceed from any particular quarter of the forest. It resembled
+      the subjective music heard in dreams, which accompanies the dreamer
+      everywhere, as a sort of natural atmosphere, rendering all his experiences
+      emotional. It seemed to issue from an unearthly orchestra, and was
+      strongly troubled, pathetic and tragic. Maskull marched, and listened; and
+      as he listened, it grew louder and stormier. But the pulse of the drum
+      interpenetrated all the other sounds, like the quiet beating of reality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His emotion deepened. He could not have said if minutes or hours were
+      passing. The spectral procession marched on, a little way ahead, on a path
+      parallel with his own and Dreamsinter&rsquo;s. The music pulsated
+      violently. Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long, murderous-looking
+      knife. He sprang forward and, raising it over the phantom Maskull&rsquo;s
+      back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the wound the second time.
+      Maskull threw up his arms, and fell down dead. Krag leaped into the forest
+      and vanished from sight. Nightspore marched on alone, stern and unmoved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The music rose to crescendo. The whole dim, gigantic forest was roaring
+      with sound. The tones came from all sides, from above, from the ground
+      under their feet. It was so grandly passionate that Maskull felt his soul
+      loosening from its bodily envelope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued to follow Nightspore. A strange brightness began to glow in
+      front of them. It was not daylight, but a radiance such as he had never
+      seen before, and such as he could not have imagined to be possible.
+      Nightspore moved straight toward it. Maskull felt his chest bursting. The
+      light flashed higher. The awful harmonies of the music followed hard one
+      upon another, like the waves of a wild, magic ocean.... His body was
+      incapable of enduring such shocks, and all of a sudden he tumbled over in
+      a faint that resembled death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 14. POLECRAB
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The morning slowly passed. Maskull made some convulsive movements, and
+      opened his eyes. He sat up, blinking. All was night-like and silent in the
+      forest. The strange light had gone, the music had ceased, Dreamsinter had
+      vanished. He fingered his beard, clotted with Tydomin&rsquo;s blood, and
+      fell into a deep muse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;According to Panawe and Catice, this forest contains wise men.
+      Perhaps Dreamsinter was one. Perhaps that vision I have just seen was a
+      specimen of his wisdom. It looked almost like an answer to my question....
+      I ought not to have asked about myself, but about Surtur. Then I would
+      have got a different answer. I might have learned something... I might
+      have seen <i>him</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He remained quiet and apathetic for a bit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I couldn&rsquo;t face that awful glare,&rdquo; he proceeded.
+      &ldquo;It was bursting my body. He warned me, too. And so Surtur does
+      really exist, and my journey stands for something. But why am I here, and
+      what can I do? Who <i>is</i> Surtur? Where is he to be found?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something wild came into his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What did Dreamsinter mean by his &lsquo;Not you, but Nightspore&rsquo;?
+      Am I a secondary character&mdash;is he regarded as important; and I as
+      unimportant? Where is Nightspore, and what is he doing? Am I to wait for
+      his time and pleasure&mdash;can I originate nothing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He continued sitting up, with straight-extended legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must make up my mind that this is a strange journey, and that the
+      strangest things will happen in it. It&rsquo;s no use making plans, for I
+      can&rsquo;t see two steps ahead&mdash;everything is unknown. But one thing&rsquo;s
+      evident: nothing but the wildest audacity will carry me through, and I
+      must sacrifice everything else to that. And therefore if Surtur shows
+      himself again, I shall go forward to meet him, even if it means death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Through the black, quiet aisles of the forest the drum beats came again.
+      The sound was a long way off and very faint. It was like the last
+      mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm. Maskull listened, without
+      getting up. The drumming faded into silence, and did not return.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He smiled queerly, and said aloud, &ldquo;Thanks, Surtur! I accept the
+      omen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he was about to get up, he found that the shrivelled skin that had
+      been his third arm was flapping disconcertingly with every movement of his
+      body. He made perforations in it all around, as close to his chest as
+      possible, with the fingernails of both hands; then he carefully twisted it
+      off. In that world of rapid growth and ungrowth he judged that the stump
+      would soon disappear. After that, he rose and peered into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest at that point sloped rather steeply and, without thinking twice
+      about it, he took the downhill direction, never doubting it would bring
+      him somewhere. As soon as he started walking, his temper became gloomy and
+      morose&mdash;he was shaken, tired, dirty, and languid with hunger;
+      moreover, he realised that the walk was not going to be a short one. Be
+      that as it may, he determined to sit down no more until the whole dismal
+      forest was at his back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One after another the shadowy, houselike trees were observed, avoided, and
+      passed. Far overhead the little patch of glowing sky was still always
+      visible; otherwise he had no clue to the time of day. He continued
+      tramping sullenly down the slope for many damp, slippery miles&mdash;in
+      some places through bogs. When, presently, the twilight seemed to thin, he
+      guessed that the open world was not far away. The forest grew more
+      palpable and grey, and now he saw its majesty better. The tree trunks were
+      like round towers, and so wide were the intervals that they resembled
+      natural amphitheatres. He could not make out the colour of the bark.
+      Everything he saw amazed him, but his admiration was of the growling,
+      grudging kind. The difference in light between the forest behind him and
+      the forest ahead became so marked that he could no longer doubt that he
+      was on the point of coming out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Real light was in front of him; looking back, he found he had a shadow.
+      The trunks acquired a reddish tint. He quickened his pace. As the minutes
+      went by, the bright patch ahead grew luminous and vivid; it had a tinge of
+      blue. He also imagined that he heard the sound of surf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that part of the forest toward which he was moving became rich with
+      colour. The boles of the trees were of a deep, dark red; their leaves,
+      high above his head, were ulfire-hued; the dead leaves on the ground were
+      of a colour he could not name. At the same time he discovered the use of
+      his third eye. By adding a third angle to his sight, every object he
+      looked at stood out in greater relief. The world looked less <i>flat</i>&mdash;more
+      realistic and significant. He had a stronger attraction toward his
+      surroundings; he seemed somehow to lose his egotism, and to become free
+      and thoughtful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now through the last trees he saw full daylight. Less than half a mile
+      separated him from the border of the forest, and, eager to discover what
+      lay beyond, he broke into a run. He heard the surf louder. It was a
+      peculiar hissing sound that could proceed only from water, yet was unlike
+      the sea. Almost immediately he came within sight of an enormous horizon of
+      dancing waves, which he knew must be the Sinking Sea. He fell back into a
+      quick walk, continuing to stare hard. The wind that met him was hot, fresh
+      and sweet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the final fringe of forest, which joined the wide sands
+      of the shore without any change of level, he leaned with his back to a
+      great tree and gazed his fill, motionless, at what lay in front of him.
+      The sands continued east and west in a straight line, broken only here and
+      there by a few creeks. They were of a brilliant orange colour, but there
+      were patches of violet. The forest appeared to stand sentinel over the
+      shore for its entire length. Everything else was sea and sky&mdash;he had
+      never seen so much water. The semicircle of the skyline was so vast that
+      he might have imagined himself on a flat world, with a range of vision
+      determined only by the power of his eye. The sea was unlike any sea on
+      Earth. It resembled an immense liquid opal. On a body colour of rich,
+      magnificent emerald-green, flashes of red, yellow, and blue were
+      everywhere shooting up and vanishing. The wave motion was extraordinary.
+      Pinnacles of water were slowly formed until they attained a height of
+      perhaps ten or twenty feet, when they would suddenly sink downward and
+      outward, creating in their descent a series of concentric rings for long
+      distances around them. Quickly moving currents, like rivers in the sea,
+      could be seen, racing away from land; they were of a darker green and bore
+      no pinnacles. Where the sea met the shore, the waves rushed over the sands
+      far in, with almost sinister rapidity&mdash;accompanied by a weird,
+      hissing, spitting sound, which was what Maskull had heard. The green
+      tongues rolled in without foam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About twenty miles distant, as he judged, directly opposite him, a long,
+      low island stood up from the sea, black and not distinguished in outline.
+      It was Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. Maskull was less interested in that than
+      in the blue sunset that glowed behind its back. Alppain had set, but the
+      whole northern sky was plunged into the minor key by its afterlight.
+      Branchspell in the zenith was white and overpowering, the day was
+      cloudless and terrifically hot; but where the blue sun had sunk, a sombre
+      shadow seemed to overhang the world. Maskull had a feeling of
+      disintegration&mdash;just as if two chemically distinct forces were
+      simultaneously acting upon the cells of his body. Since the afterglow of
+      Alppain affected him like this, he thought it more than likely that he
+      would never be able to face that sun itself, and go on living. Still, some
+      modification might happen to him that would make it possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea tempted him. He made up his mind to bathe, and at once walked
+      toward the shore. The instant he stepped outside the shadow line of the
+      forest trees, the blinding rays of the sun beat down on him so savagely
+      that for a few minutes he felt sick and his head swam. He trod quickly
+      across the sands. The orange-coloured parts were nearly hot enough to
+      roast food, he judged, but the violet parts were like fire itself. He
+      stepped on a patch in ignorance, and immediately jumped high into the air
+      with a startled yell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sea was voluptuously warm. It would not bear his weight, so he
+      determined to try swimming. First of all he stripped off his skin garment,
+      washed it thoroughly with sand and water, and laid it in the sun to dry.
+      Then he scrubbed himself as well as he could and washed out his beard and
+      hair. After that, he waded in a long way, until the water reached his
+      breast, and took to swimming&mdash;avoiding the spouts as far as possible
+      He found it no pastime. The water was everywhere of unequal density. In
+      some places he could swim, in others he could barely save himself from
+      drowning, in others again he could not force himself beneath the surface
+      at all. There were no outward signs to show what the water ahead held in
+      store for him. The whole business was most dangerous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He came out, feeling clean and invigorated. For a time he walked up and
+      down the sands, drying himself in the hot sunshine and looking around him.
+      He was a naked stranger in a huge, foreign, mystical world, and whichever
+      way he turned, unknown and threatening forces were glaring at him. The
+      gigantic, white, withering Branchspell, the awful, body-changing Alppain,
+      the beautiful, deadly, treacherous sea, the dark and eerie Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island, the spirit-crushing forest out of which he had just escaped&mdash;to
+      all these mighty powers, surrounding him on every side, what resources had
+      he, a feeble, ignorant traveller from a tiny planet on the other side of
+      space, to oppose, to avoid being utterly destroyed?... Then he smiled to
+      himself. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already been here two days, and still I
+      survive. I have luck&mdash;and with that one can balance the universe. But
+      what is luck&mdash;a verbal expression, or a thing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he was putting on his skin, which was now dry, the answer came to him,
+      and this time he was grave. &ldquo;Surtur brought me here, and Surtur is
+      watching over me. That is my &lsquo;luck.&rsquo;... But what is Surtur in
+      this world?... How is he able to protect me against the blind and
+      ungovernable forces of nature? Is he stronger than Nature?...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hungry as he was for food, he was hungrier still for human society, for he
+      wished to inquire about all these things. He asked himself which way he
+      should turn his steps. There were only two ways; along the shore, either
+      east or west. The nearest creek lay to the east, cutting the sands about a
+      mile away. He walked toward it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The forest face was forbidding and enormously high. It was so squarely
+      turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been planed by tools.
+      Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but kept his head
+      constantly turned away from them, toward the sea&mdash;there it was more
+      cheerful. The creek, when he reached it, proved to be broad and
+      flat-banked. It was not a river, but an arm of the sea. Its still, dark
+      green water curved around a bend out of sight, into the forest. The trees
+      on both banks overhung the water, so that it was completely in shadow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach appeared. A
+      man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet in the water. He
+      was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his limbs bare. He was
+      short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a long, powerful arms,
+      terminating in hands of an extraordinary size. He was oldish. His face was
+      plain, slablike, and expressionless; it was full of wrinkles, and
+      walnut-coloured. Both face and head were bald, and his skin was tough and
+      leathery. He seemed to be some sort of peasant, or fisherman; there was no
+      trace in his face of thought for others, or delicacy of feeling. He
+      possessed three eyes, of different colors&mdash;jade-green, blue, and
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
+      elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
+      together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull addressed him. &ldquo;Are you another of the wise men of the
+      Wombflash Forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did so.
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman. I know nothing about wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What name do you go by?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Polecrab. What&rsquo;s yours?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull. If you&rsquo;re a fisherman, you ought to have fish. I&rsquo;m
+      famishing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s fish enough. My dinner is cooking in the sands now.
+      It&rsquo;s easy enough to get you some more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found this a pleasant speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how long will it take?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
+      screeching noise. He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered onto
+      the bank. In a minute or two a curious little beast came crawling up to
+      his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately, like a dog. It was
+      about two feet long, and somewhat resembled a small seal, but had six
+      legs, ending in strong claws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Arg, go fish!&rdquo; said Polecrab hoarsely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The animal immediately tumbled off the bank into the water. It swam
+      gracefully to the middle of the creek and made a pivotal dive beneath the
+      surface, where it remained a great while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Simple fishing,&rdquo; remarked Maskull. &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s
+      the raft for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To go to sea with. The best fish are out at sea. These are eatable.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That arg seems a highly intelligent creature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab grunted again. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve trained close on a hundred of
+      them. The bigheads learn best, but they&rsquo;re slow swimmers. The
+      narrowheads swim like eels, but can&rsquo;t be taught. Now I&rsquo;ve
+      started interbreeding them&mdash;<i>he&rsquo;s</i> one of them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you live here alone?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I&rsquo;ve got a wife and three boys. My wife&rsquo;s sleeping
+      somewhere, but where the lads are, Shaping knows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull began to feel very much at home with this unsophisticated being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The raft&rsquo;s all crazy,&rdquo; he remarked, staring at it.
+      &ldquo;If you go far out in that, you&rsquo;ve got more pluck than I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay on it,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The arg reappeared and started swimming to shore, but this time clumsily,
+      as if it were bearing a heavy weight under the surface. When it landed at
+      its master&rsquo;s feet, they saw that each set of claws was clutching a
+      fish&mdash;six in all. Polecrab took them from it. He proceeded to cut off
+      the heads and tails with a sharp-edged stone which he picked up; these he
+      threw to the arg, which devoured them without any fuss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab beckoned to Maskull to follow him and, carrying the fish, walked
+      toward the open shore, by the same way that he had come. When they reached
+      the sands, he sliced the fish, removed the entrails, and digging a shallow
+      hole in a patch of violet sand, placed the remainder of the carcasses in
+      it, and covered them over again. Then he dug up his own dinner. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      nostrils quivered at the savoury smell, but he was not yet to dine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab, turning to go with the cooked fish in his hands, said, &ldquo;These
+      are mine, not yours. When yours are done, you can come back and join me,
+      supposing you want company.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How soon will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About twenty minutes,&rdquo; replied the fisherman, over his
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sheltered himself in the shadows of the forest, and waited. When
+      the time had approximately elapsed, he disinterred his meal, scorching his
+      fingers in the operation, although it was only the surface of the sand
+      which was so intensely hot. Then he returned to Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the warm, still air and cheerful shade of the inlet, they munched in
+      silence, looking from their food to the sluggish water, and back again.
+      With every mouthful Maskull felt his strength returning. He finished
+      before Polecrab, who ate like a man for whom time has no value. When he
+      had done, he stood up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come and drink,&rdquo; he said, in his husky voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at him inquiringly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man led him a little way into the forest, and walked straight up to a
+      certain tree. At a convenient height in its trunk a hole had been tapped
+      and plugged. Polecrab removed the plug and put his mouth to the aperture,
+      sucking for quite a long time, like a child at its mother&rsquo;s breast.
+      Maskull, watching him, imagined that he saw his eyes growing brighter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his own turn came to drink, he found the juice of the tree somewhat
+      like coconut milk in flavour, but intoxicating. It was a new sort of
+      intoxication, however, for neither his will not his emotions were excited,
+      but only his intellect&mdash;and that only in a certain way. His thoughts
+      and images were not freed and loosened, but on the contrary kept labouring
+      and swelling painfully, until they reached the full beauty of an <i>aperçu</i>,
+      which would then flame up in his consciousness, burst, and vanish. After
+      that, the whole process started over again. But there was never a moment
+      when he was not perfectly cool, and master of his senses. When each had
+      drunk twice, Polecrab replugged the hole, and they returned to their bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it Blodsombre yet?&rdquo; asked Maskull, sprawling on the
+      ground, well content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab resumed his old upright sitting posture, with his feet in the
+      water. &ldquo;Just beginning,&rdquo; was his hoarse response.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I must stay here till it&rsquo;s over.... Shall we talk?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We can,&rdquo; said the other, without enthusiasm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced at him through half-closed lids, wondering if he were
+      exactly what he seemed to be. In his eyes he thought he detected a wise
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you travelled much, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not what <i>you</i> would call travelling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell me you&rsquo;ve been to Matterplay&mdash;what kind of
+      country is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I went there to pick up flints.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What countries lie beyond it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Threal comes next, as you go north. They say it&rsquo;s a land of
+      mystics... I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mystics?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m told.... Still farther north there&rsquo;s Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re going far afield.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are mountains there&mdash;and altogether it must be a very
+      dangerous place, especially for a full-blooded man like you. Take care of
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is rather premature, Polecrab. How do you know I&rsquo;m going
+      there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As you&rsquo;ve come from the south, I suppose you&rsquo;ll go
+      north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s right enough,&rdquo; said Maskull, staring hard
+      at him. &ldquo;But how do you know I&rsquo;ve come from the south?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, perhaps you haven&rsquo;t&mdash;but there&rsquo;s a
+      look of Ifdawn about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of look?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A tragical look,&rdquo; said Polecrab. He never even glanced at
+      Maskull, but was gazing at a fixed spot on the water with unblinking eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What lies beyond Lichstorm?&rdquo; asked Maskull, after a minute or
+      two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Barey, where you have two suns instead of one&mdash;but beyond that
+      fact I know nothing about it.... Then comes the ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what&rsquo;s on the other side of the ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That you must find out for yourself, for I doubt if anybody has
+      ever crossed it and come back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was silent for a little while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it that your people are so unadventurous? I seem to be the
+      only one travelling from curiosity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you mean by &lsquo;your people&rsquo;?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True&mdash;you don&rsquo;t know that I don&rsquo;t belong to your
+      planet at all. I&rsquo;ve come from another world, Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here with Krag and Nightspore&mdash;to follow Surtur. I must
+      have fainted the moment I arrived. When I sat up, it was night and the
+      others had vanished. Since then I&rsquo;ve been travelling at random.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab scratched his nose. &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t found Surtur yet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard his drum taps frequently. In the forest this
+      morning I came quite close to him. Then two days ago, in the Lusion Plain,
+      I saw a vision&mdash;a being in man&rsquo;s shape, who called himself
+      Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, maybe it was Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that&rsquo;s impossible,&rdquo; replied Maskull reflectively.
+      &ldquo;It was Crystalman. And it isn&rsquo;t a question of my suspecting
+      it&mdash;I <i>know</i> it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because this is Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and Surtur&rsquo;s world
+      is something quite different.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s queer, then,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Since I&rsquo;ve come out of that forest,&rdquo; proceeded Maskull,
+      talking half to himself, &ldquo;a change has come over me, and I see
+      things differently. Everything here looks much more solid and real in my
+      eyes than in other places so much so that I can&rsquo;t entertain the
+      least doubt of its existence. It not only <i>looks</i> real, it <i>is</i>
+      real&mdash;and on that I would stake my life.... But at the same time that
+      it&rsquo;s real, it is <i>false</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Like a dream?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;not at all like a dream, and that&rsquo;s just what I want
+      to explain. This world of yours&mdash;and perhaps of mine too, for that
+      matter&mdash;doesn&rsquo;t give me the slightest impression of a dream, or
+      an illusion, or anything of that sort. I know it&rsquo;s really here at
+      this moment, and it&rsquo;s exactly as we&rsquo;re seeing it, you and I.
+      Yet it&rsquo;s false. It&rsquo;s false in this sense, Polecrab. Side by
+      side with it another world exists, and that other world is the true one,
+      and this one is all false and deceitful, to the very core. And so it
+      occurs to me that reality and falseness are two words for the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps there is such another world,&rdquo; said Polecrab huskily.
+      &ldquo;But did that vision also seem real and false to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very real, but not false then, for then I didn&rsquo;t understand
+      all this. But just because it was real, it couldn&rsquo;t have been
+      Surtur, who has no connection with reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn&rsquo;t those drum taps sound real to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had to hear them with my ears, and so they sounded real to me.
+      Still, they were somehow different, and they certainly came from Surtur.
+      If I didn&rsquo;t hear them correctly, that was my fault and not his.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab growled a little. &ldquo;If Surtur chooses to speak to you in
+      that fashion, it appears he&rsquo;s trying to say something.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What else can I think? But, Polecrab, what&rsquo;s your opinion&mdash;is
+      he calling me to the life after death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man stirred uneasily. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a fisherman,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a minute or two. &ldquo;I live by killing, and so does
+      everybody. This life seems to me all wrong. So maybe life of any kind is
+      wrong, and Surtur&rsquo;s world is not life at all, but something else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but will death lead me to it, whatever it is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask the dead,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and not a living man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued. &ldquo;In the forest I heard music and saw a light,
+      which could not have belonged to this world. They were too strong for my
+      senses, and I must have fainted for a long time. There was a vision as
+      well, in which I saw myself killed, while Nightspore walked on toward the
+      light, alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab uttered his grunt. &ldquo;You have enough to think over.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A short silence ensued, which was broken by Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So strong is my sense of the untruth of this present life, that it
+      may come to my putting an end to myself.&rdquo; The fisherman remained
+      quiet and immobile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull lay on his stomach, propped his face on his hands, and stared at
+      him. &ldquo;What do you think, Polecrab? Is it possible for any man, while
+      in the body, to gain a closer view of that other world than I have done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an ignorant man, stranger, so I can&rsquo;t say. Perhaps there
+      are many others like you who would gladly know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where? I should like to meet them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think you were made of one stuff, and the rest of mankind of
+      another stuff?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be so presumptuous. Possibly all men are reaching out
+      toward Muspel, in most cases without being aware of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In the wrong direction,&rdquo; said Polecrab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave him a strange look. &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t speak from my own wisdom,&rdquo; said Polecrab,
+      &ldquo;for I have none; but I have just now recalled what Broodviol once
+      told me, when I was a young man, and he was an old one. He said that
+      Crystalman tries to turn all things into one, and that whichever way his
+      shapes march, in order to escape from him, they find themselves again face
+      to face with Crystalman, and are changed into new crystals. But that this
+      marching of shapes (which we call &lsquo;forking&rsquo;) springs from the
+      unconscious desire to find Surtur, but is in the opposite direction to the
+      right one. For Surtur&rsquo;s world does not lie on this side of the <i>one</i>,
+      which was the beginning of life, but on the other side; and to get to it
+      we must repass through the one. But this can only be by renouncing our
+      self-life, and reuniting ourselves to the whole of Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      world. And when this has been done, it is only the first stage of the
+      journey; though many good men imagine it to be the whole journey.... As
+      far as I can remember, that is what Broodviol said, but perhaps, as I was
+      then a young and ignorant man, I may have left out words which would
+      explain his meaning better.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, who had listened attentively to all this, remained thoughtful at
+      the end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s plain enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But what did he
+      mean by our reuniting ourselves to Crystalman&rsquo;s world? If it is
+      false, are we to make ourselves false as well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t ask him that question, and you are as well qualified
+      to answer it as I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must have meant that, as it is, we are each of us living in a
+      false, private world of our own, a world of dreams and appetites and
+      distorted perceptions. By embracing the great world we certainly lose
+      nothing in truth and reality.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab withdrew his feet from the water, stood up, yawned, and stretched
+      his limbs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you all I know,&rdquo; he said in a surly voice.
+      &ldquo;Now let me go to sleep.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept his eyes fixed on him, but made no reply. The old man let
+      himself down stiffly on to the ground, and prepared to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still arranging his position to his liking, a footfall
+      sounded behind the two men, coming from the direction of the forest.
+      Maskull twisted his neck, and saw a woman approaching them. He at once
+      guessed that it was Polecrab&rsquo;s wife. He sat up, but the fisherman
+      did not stir. The woman came and stood in front of them, looking down from
+      what appeared a great height.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her dress was similar to her husband&rsquo;s, but covered her limbs more.
+      She was young, tall, slender, and strikingly erect. Her skin was lightly
+      tanned, and she looked strong, but not at all peasantlike. Refinement was
+      stamped all over her. Her face had too much energy of expression for a
+      woman, and she was not beautiful. Her three great eyes kept flashing and
+      glowing. She had great masses of fine, yellow hair, coiled up and
+      fastened, but so carelessly that some of the strands were flowing down her
+      back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she spoke, it was in a rather weak voice, but full of lights and
+      shades, and somehow intense passionateness never seemed to be far away
+      from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgiveness is asked for listening to your conversation,&rdquo; she
+      said, addressing Maskull. &ldquo;I was resting behind the tree, and heard
+      it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up slowly. &ldquo;Are you Polecrab&rsquo;s wife?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She is my wife,&rdquo; said Polecrab, &ldquo;and her name is
+      Gleameil. Sit down again, stranger&mdash;and you too, wife, since you are
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both obeyed. &ldquo;I heard everything,&rdquo; repeated Gleameil.
+      &ldquo;But what I did not hear was where you are going to, Maskull, after
+      you have left us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no more than you do.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, then. There&rsquo;s only one place for you to go to, and
+      that is Swaylone&rsquo;s Island. I will ferry you across myself before
+      sunset.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What shall I find there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He may go, wife,&rdquo; put in the old man hoarsely, &ldquo;but I
+      won&rsquo;t allow you to go. I will take him over myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you have always put me off,&rdquo; said Gleameil, with some
+      emotion. &ldquo;This time I mean to go. When Teargeld shines at night, and
+      I sit on the shore here, listening to Earthrid&rsquo;s music travelling
+      faintly across the sea, I am tortured&mdash;I can&rsquo;t endure it.... I
+      have long since made up my mind to go to the island, and see what this
+      music is. If it&rsquo;s bad, if it kills me&mdash;well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have I to do with the man and his music, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+      demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think the music will answer all your questions better than
+      Polecrab has done&mdash;and possibly in a way that will surprise you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of music can it be to travel all those miles across the
+      sea?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar kind, so we are told. Not pleasant, but painful. And the
+      man that can play the instrument of Earthrid would be able to conjure up
+      the most astonishing forms, which are not phantasms, but realities.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be so,&rdquo; growled Polecrab. &ldquo;But I have been to
+      the island by daylight, and what did I find there? Human bones, new and
+      ancient. Those are Earthrid&rsquo;s victims. And you, wife, shall not go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But will that music play tonight?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, gazing at him intently. &ldquo;When
+      Teargeld rises, which is our moon.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Earthrid plays men to death, it appears to me that his own death
+      is due. In any case I should like to hear those sounds for myself. But as
+      for taking you with me, Gleameil&mdash;women die too easily in Tormance. I
+      have only just now washed myself clean of the death blood of another
+      woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil laughed, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now go to sleep,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;When the time comes,
+      I will take you across myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He lay down again, and closed his eyes. Maskull followed his example; but
+      Gleameil remained sitting erect, with her legs under her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that other woman, Maskull?&rdquo; she asked presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He did not answer, but pretended to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 15. SWAYLONE&rsquo;S ISLAND
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      When he awoke, the day was not so bright, and he guessed it was late
+      afternoon. Polecrab and his wife were both on their feet, and another meal
+      of fish had been cooked and was waiting for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it decided who is to go with me?&rdquo; he asked, before sitting
+      down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I go,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you agree, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fisherman growled a little in his throat and motioned to the others to
+      take their seats. He took a mouthful before answering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something strong is attracting her, and I can&rsquo;t hold her
+      back. I don&rsquo;t think I shall see you again, wife, but the lads are
+      now nearly old enough to fend for themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t take dejected views,&rdquo; replied Gleameil sternly.
+      She was not eating. &ldquo;I shall come back, and make amends to you. It&rsquo;s
+      only for a night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed from one to the other in perplexity. &ldquo;Let me go alone.
+      I would be sorry if anything happened.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil shook her head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t regard this as a woman&rsquo;s caprice,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;Even if you hadn&rsquo;t passed this way, I would have heard
+      that music soon. I have a hunger for it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you any such feeling, Polecrab?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. A woman is a noble and sensitive creature, and there are
+      attractions in nature too subtle for males. Take her with you, since she
+      is set on it. Maybe she&rsquo;s right. Perhaps Earthrid&rsquo;s music will
+      answer your questions, and hers too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are your questions, Gleameil?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman shed a strange smile. &ldquo;You may be sure that a question
+      which requires music for an answer can&rsquo;t be put into words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are not back by the morning,&rdquo; remarked her husband,
+      &ldquo;I will know you are dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meal was finished in a constrained silence. Polecrab wiped his mouth,
+      and produced a seashell from a kind of pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you say goodbye to the boys? Shall I call them?&rdquo; She
+      considered a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;yes, I must see them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put the shell to his mouth, and blew; a loud, mournful noise passed
+      through the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later there was a sound of scurrying footsteps, and the boys
+      were seen emerging from the forest. Maskull looked with curiosity at the
+      first children he had seen on Tormance. The oldest boy was carrying the
+      youngest on his back, while the third trotted some distance behind. The
+      child was let down, and all the three formed a semicircle in front of
+      Maskull, standing staring up at him with wide-open eyes. Polecrab looked
+      on stolidly, but Gleameil glanced away from them, with proudly raised head
+      and a baffling expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put the ages of the boys at about nine, seven, and five years,
+      respectively; but he was calculating according to Earth time. The eldest
+      was tall, slim, but strongly built. He, like his brothers, was naked, and
+      his skin from top to toe was ulfire-colored. His facial muscles indicated
+      a wild and daring nature, and his eyes were like green fires. The second
+      showed promise of being a broad, powerful man. His head was large and
+      heavy, and drooped. His face and skin were reddish. His eyes were almost
+      too sombre and penetrating for a child&rsquo;s.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That one,&rdquo; said Polecrab, pinching the boy&rsquo;s ear,
+      &ldquo;may perhaps grow up to be a second Broodviol.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was that?&rdquo; demanded the boy, bending his head forward to
+      hear the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A big, old man, of marvellous wisdom. He became wise by making up
+      his mind never to ask questions, but to find things out for himself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not asked this question, I should not have known about
+      him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That would not have mattered,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child was paler and slighter than his brothers. His face was
+      mostly tranquil and expressionless, but it had this peculiarity about it,
+      that every few minutes, without any apparent cause, it would wrinkle up
+      and look perplexed. At these times his eyes, which were of a tawny gold,
+      seemed to contain secrets difficult to associate with one of his age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He puzzles me,&rdquo; said Polecrab. &ldquo;He has a soul like sap,
+      and he&rsquo;s interested in nothing. He may turn out to be the most
+      remarkable of the bunch.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took the child in one hand, and lifted him as high as his head. He
+      took a good look at him, and set him down again. The boy never changed
+      countenance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of him?&rdquo; asked the fisherman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s on the tip of my tongue to say, but it just escapes me.
+      Let me drink again, and then I shall have it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go and drink, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull strode over to the tree, drank, and returned. &ldquo;In ages to
+      come,&rdquo; he said, speaking deliberately, &ldquo;he will be a grand and
+      awful tradition. A seer possibly, or even a divinity. Watch over him well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy looked scornful. &ldquo;I want to be none of those things.
+      I would like to be like that big fellow.&rdquo; And he pointed his finger
+      at Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed, and showed his white teeth through his beard. &ldquo;Thanks
+      for the compliments old warrior!&rdquo; he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great and brawny,&rdquo; continued the boy, &ldquo;and
+      can hold his own with other men. Can you hold me up with one arm, as you
+      did that child?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull complied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is being a man!&rdquo; exclaimed the boy. &ldquo;Enough!&rdquo;
+      said Polecrab impatiently. &ldquo;I called you lads here to say goodbye to
+      your mother. She is going away with this man. I think she may not return,
+      but we don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second boy&rsquo;s face became suddenly inflamed. &ldquo;Is she going
+      of her own choice?&rdquo; he inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied the father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then she is bad.&rdquo; He brought the words out with such force
+      and emphasis that they sounded like the crack of a whip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old man cuffed him twice. &ldquo;Is it your mother you are speaking
+      of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy stood his ground, without change of expression, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The youngest child spoke, for the first time. &ldquo;My mother will not
+      come back, but she will die dancing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab and his wife looked at one another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are you going to, Mother?&rdquo; asked the eldest lad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil bent down, and kissed him. &ldquo;To the Island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, if you don&rsquo;t come back by tomorrow morning, I will
+      go and look for you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind. &ldquo;This seems to me to
+      be a man&rsquo;s journey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it would be
+      better for you not to come, Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not to be dissuaded,&rdquo; she replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard in perplexity. &ldquo;Is it time to start?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait
+      there for you and the raft. You will wish to make your farewells,
+      Gleameil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He then clasped Polecrab by the hand. &ldquo;Adieu, fisherman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have repaid me well for my answers,&rdquo; said the old man
+      gruffly. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not your fault, and in Shaping&rsquo;s
+      world the worst things happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him. &ldquo;Farewell,
+      big man!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But guard my mother well, as well as you
+      are well able to, or I shall follow you, and kill you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend. The
+      glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his eyes
+      again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind. He continued as far
+      as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of the forest, strolled on
+      to the sands, and sat down in the full sunlight. The radiance of Alppain
+      had long since disappeared. He drank in the hot, invigorating wind,
+      listened to the hissing waves, and stared over the coloured sea with its
+      pinnacles and currents, at Swaylone&rsquo;s Island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all
+      she loves the most?&rdquo; he meditated. &ldquo;It sounds unholy. Will it
+      tell me what I want to know? Can it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and, turning
+      his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward the open sea.
+      Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a rude pole. He passed
+      by Maskull, without looking at him, or making any salutation, and
+      proceeded out to sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the boys
+      came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet. The eldest-born was
+      holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were behind. She was calm
+      and smiling, but seemed abstracted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your husband doing with the raft?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He&rsquo;s putting it in position and we shall wade out and join
+      it,&rdquo; she answered, in her low-toned voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you see that current running away from land? See, he is
+      approaching it. That will take us straight there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how can you get back?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a way; but we need not think of that today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why shouldn&rsquo;t I come too?&rdquo; demanded the eldest boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the raft won&rsquo;t carry three. Maskull is a heavy man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said the boy. &ldquo;I know where
+      there is wood for another raft. As soon as you have gone, I shall set to
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab had by this time manoeuvred his flimsy craft to the position he
+      desired, within a few yards of the current, which at that point made a
+      sharp bend from the east. He shouted out some words to his wife and
+      Maskull. Gleameil kissed her children convulsively, and broke down a
+      little. The eldest boy bit his lip till it bled, and tears glistened in
+      his eyes; but the younger children stared wide-eyed, and displayed no
+      emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil now walked into the sea, followed by Maskull. The water covered
+      first their ankles, then their knees, but when it came as high as their
+      waists, they were close on the raft. Polecrab let himself down into the
+      water, and assisted his wife to climb over the side. When she was up, she
+      bent down and kissed him. No words were exchanged. Maskull scrambled up on
+      to the front part of the raft. The woman sat cross-legged in the stern,
+      and seized the pole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Polecrab shoved them off toward the current, while she worked her pole
+      until they had got within its power. The raft immediately began to travel
+      swiftly away from land, with a smooth, swaying motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boys waved from the shore. Gleameil responded; but Maskull turned his
+      back squarely to land, and gazed ahead. Polecrab was wading back to the
+      shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For upward of an hour Maskull did not change his position by an inch. No
+      sound was heard but the splashing of the strange waves all around them,
+      and the streamlike gurgle of the current, which threaded its way smoothly
+      through the tossing, tumultuous sea. From their pathway of safety, the
+      beautiful dangers surrounding them were an exhilarating experience. The
+      air was fresh and clean, and the heat from Branchspell, now low in the
+      west, was at last endurable. The riot of sea colors had long since
+      banished all sadness and anxiety from his heart. Yet he felt such a grudge
+      against the woman for selfishly forsaking those who should have been dear
+      to her that he could not bring himself to begin a conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when, over the now enlarged shape of the dark island, he caught sight
+      of a long chain of lofty, distant mountains, glowing salmon-pink in the
+      evening sunlight, he felt constrained to break the silence by inquiring
+      what they were.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Lichstorm,&rdquo; said Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull asked no questions about it; but in turning to address her, his
+      eyes had rested on the rapidly receding Wombflash Forest, and he continued
+      to stare at that. They had travelled about eight miles, and now he could
+      better estimate the enormous height of the trees. Overtopping them, far
+      away, he saw Sant; and he fancied, but was not quite sure, that he could
+      distinguish Disscourn as well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that we are alone in a strange place,&rdquo; said Gleameil,
+      averting her head, and looking down over the side of the raft into the
+      water, &ldquo;tell me what you thought of Polecrab.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull paused before answering. &ldquo;He seemed to me like a mountain
+      wrapped in cloud. You see the lower buttresses, and think that is all. But
+      then, high up, far above the clouds, you suddenly catch sight of more
+      mountain&mdash;and even then it is not the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read character well, and have great perception,&rdquo; remarked
+      Gleameil quietly. &ldquo;Now say what I am.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In place of a human heart, you have a wild harp, and that&rsquo;s
+      all I know about you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that you said to my husband about two worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You heard.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I heard. And I also am conscious of two worlds. My husband and
+      boys are real to me, and I love them fondly. But there is another world
+      for me, as there is for you, Maskull, and it makes my real world appear
+      all false and vulgar.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps we are seeking the same thing. But can it be right to
+      satisfy our self-nature at the expense of other people?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s not right. It is wrong, and base. But in that other
+      world these words have no meaning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s useless to discuss such topics,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;The choice is now out of our hands, and we must go where we are
+      taken. What I would rather speak about is what awaits us on the island.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am ignorant&mdash;except that we shall find Earthrid there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is Earthrid, and why is it called Swaylone&rsquo;s Island?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say Earthrid came from Threal, but I know nothing else about
+      him. As for Swaylone, if you like I will tell you his legend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you please,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In a far-back age,&rdquo; began Gleameil, &ldquo;when the seas were
+      hot, and clouds hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with
+      transformations, Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never
+      before set foot, and began to play his music&mdash;the first music in
+      Tormance. Nightly, when the moon shone, people used to gather on this
+      shore behind us, and listen to the faint, sweet strains floating from over
+      the sea. One night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was passing this
+      way in company with Krag. They listened a while to the music, and Shaping
+      said &lsquo;Have you heard more beautiful sounds? This is my world and my
+      music.&rsquo; Krag stamped with his foot, and laughed. &lsquo;You must do
+      better than that, if I am to admire it. Let us pass over, and see this
+      bungler at work.&rsquo; Shaping consented, and they passed over to the
+      island. Swaylone was not able to see their presence. Shaping stood behind
+      him, and breathed thoughts into his soul, so that his music became ten
+      times lovelier, and people listening on that shore went mad with sick
+      delight. &lsquo;Can any strains be nobler?&rsquo; demanded Shaping. Krag
+      grinned and said, &lsquo;You are naturally effeminate. Now let me try.&rsquo;
+      Then he stood behind Swaylone, and shot ugly discords fast into his head.
+      His instrument was so cracked, that never since has it played right. From
+      that time forth Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called
+      to folk more than the other sort. Many men crossed over to the island
+      during his lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could endure
+      them; all died. After Swaylone&rsquo;s death, another musician took up the
+      tale; and so the light has passed down from torch to torch, till now
+      Earthrid bears it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An interesting legend,&rdquo; commented Maskull. &ldquo;But who is
+      Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it&mdash;a
+      spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not know
+      how to transform. Thereafter nothing has gone right with the world, for he
+      dogs Shaping&rsquo;s footsteps everywhere, and whatever the latter does,
+      he undoes. To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to intellect, madness;
+      to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody entrails. These are Krag&rsquo;s
+      actions, so the lovers of the world call him &lsquo;devil.&rsquo; They don&rsquo;t
+      understand, Maskull, that without him the world would lose its beauty.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Krag and beauty!&rdquo; exclaimed he, with a cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so. That same beauty which you and I are now voyaging to
+      discover. That beauty for whose sake I am renouncing husband, children,
+      and happiness.... Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping. To see
+      beauty in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you say I am going to seek beauty, Gleameil? Such an idea is far
+      from my mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not respond to his remark. After waiting for a few minutes, to
+      hear if she would speak again, he turned his back on her once more. There
+      was no more talk until they reached the island.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The air had grown chill and damp by the time they approached its shores.
+      Branchspell was on the point of touching the sea. The Island appeared to
+      be some three or four miles in length. There were first of all broad
+      sands, then low, dark cliffs, and behind these a wilderness of
+      insignificant, swelling hills, entirely devoid of vegetation. The current
+      bore them to within a hundred yards of the coast, when it made a sharp
+      angle, and proceeded to skirt the length of the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil jumped overboard, and began swimming to shore. Maskull followed
+      her example, and the raft, abandoned, was rapidly borne away by the
+      current. They soon touched ground, and were able to wade the rest of the
+      way. By the time they reached dry land, the sun had set.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gleameil made straight for the hills; and Maskull, after casting a single
+      glance at the low, dim outline of the Wombflash Forest, followed her. The
+      cliffs were soon scrambled up. Then the ascent was gentle and easy, while
+      the rich, dry, brown mould was good to walk upon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little way off, on their left, something white was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not go to it,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;It can be
+      nothing else than one of those skeletons Polecrab talked about. And look&mdash;there
+      is another one over there!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This brings it home!&rdquo; remarked Maskull, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing comical in having died for beauty,&rdquo; said
+      Gleameil, bending her brows at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And when in the course of their walk he saw the innumerable human bones,
+      from gleaming white to dirty yellow, lying scattered about, as if it were
+      a naked graveyard among the hills, he agreed with her, and fell into a
+      sombre mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was still light when they reached the highest point, and could set eyes
+      on the other side. The sea to the north of the island was in no way
+      different from that which they had crossed, but its lively colors were
+      fast becoming invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is Matterplay,&rdquo; said the woman, pointing her finger
+      toward some low land on the horizon, which seemed to be even farther off
+      than Wombflash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wonder how Digrung passed over,&rdquo; meditated Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not far away, in a hollow enclosed by a circle of little hills, they saw a
+      small, circular lake, not more than half a mile in diameter. The sunset
+      colors of the sky were reflected in its waters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That must be Irontick,&rdquo; remarked Gleameil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard that it&rsquo;s the instrument Earthrid plays on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are getting close,&rdquo; responded he. &ldquo;Let us go and
+      investigate.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they drew nearer, they observed that a man was reclining on the
+      farther side, in an attitude of sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s not the man himself, who can it be?&rdquo; said
+      Maskull. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get across the water, if it will bear us; it
+      will save time.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He now assumed the lead, and took running strides down the slope which
+      bounded the lake on that side. Gleameil followed him with greater dignity,
+      keeping her eyes fixed on the recumbent man as if fascinated. When Maskull
+      reached the water&rsquo;s edge, he tried it with one foot, to discover if
+      it would carry his weight. Something unusual in its appearance led him to
+      have doubts. It was a tranquil, dark, and beautifully reflecting sheet of
+      water; it resembled a mirror of liquid metal. Finding that it would bear
+      him, and that nothing happened, he placed his second foot on its surface.
+      Instantly he sustained a violent shock throughout his body, as from a
+      powerful electric current; and he was hurled in a tumbled heap back on to
+      the bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He picked himself up, brushed the dirt off his person, and started walking
+      around the lake. Gleameil joined him, and they completed the half circuit
+      together. They came to the man, and Maskull prodded him with his foot. He
+      woke up, and blinked at them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face was pale, weak, and vacant-looking, and had a disagreeable
+      expression. There were thin sprouts of black hair on his chin and head. On
+      his forehead, in place of a third eye, he possessed a perfectly circular
+      organ, with elaborate convolutions, like an ear. He had an unpleasant
+      smell. He appeared to be of young middle age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wake up, man,&rdquo; said Maskull sharply, &ldquo;and tell us if
+      you are Earthrid.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; counterquestioned the man. &ldquo;Does it
+      want long to moonrise?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without appearing to care about an answer, he sat up, and turning away
+      from them, began to scoop up the loose soil with his hand, and to eat it
+      halfheartedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, how can you eat that filth?&rdquo; demanded Maskull, in
+      disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be angry, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gleameil, laying hold of
+      his arm, and flushing a little. &ldquo;It is Earthrid&mdash;the man who is
+      to help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He has not said so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Earthrid,&rdquo; said the other, in his weak and muffled
+      voice, which, however, suddenly struck Maskull as being autocratic.
+      &ldquo;What do you want here? Or rather, you had better get away as
+      quickly as you can, for it will be too late when Teargeld rises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You need not explain,&rdquo; exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;We know your
+      reputation, and we have come to hear your music. But what&rsquo;s that
+      organ for on your forehead?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid glared, and smiled, and glared again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is for rhythm, which is what changes noise into music. Don&rsquo;t
+      stand and argue, but go away. It is no pleasure to me to people the island
+      with corpses. They corrupt the air, and do nothing else.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Darkness now crept swiftly on over the landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are rather bigmouthed,&rdquo; said Maskull coolly. &ldquo;But
+      after we have heard you play, perhaps I shall adventure a tune myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You? Are you a musician, then? Do you even know what music is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A flame danced in Gleameil&rsquo;s eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull thinks music reposes in the instrument,&rdquo; she said in
+      her intense way. &ldquo;But it is in the soul of the Master.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Earthrid, &ldquo;but that is not all. I will tell
+      you what it is. In Threal, where I was born and brought up, we learn the
+      mystery of the Three in nature. This world, which lies extended before us,
+      has three directions. Length is the line which shuts off what is, from
+      what is not. Breadth is the surface which shows us in what manner one
+      thing of what-is, lives with another thing. Depth is the path which leads
+      from what-is, to our own body. In music it is not otherwise. Tone is
+      existence, without which nothing at all can be. Symmetry and Numbers are
+      the manner in which tones exist, one with another. Emotion is the movement
+      of our soul toward the wonderful world that is being created. Now, men
+      when they make music are accustomed to build beautiful tones, because of
+      the delight they cause. Therefore their music world is based on pleasure;
+      its symmetry is regular and charming, its emotion is sweet and lovely....
+      But my music is founded on painful tones; and thus its symmetry is wild,
+      and difficult to discover; its emotion is bitter and terrible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I had not anticipated its being original, I would not have come
+      here,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Still, explain&mdash;why can&rsquo;t
+      harsh tones have simple symmetry of form? And why must they necessarily
+      cause more profound emotions in us who listen?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pleasures may harmonise. Pains must clash; and in the order of
+      their clashing lies the symmetry. The emotions follow the music, which is
+      rough and earnest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may call it music,&rdquo; remarked Maskull thoughtfully,
+      &ldquo;but to me it bears a closer resemblance to actual life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Shaping&rsquo;s plans had gone straight, life would have been
+      like that other sort of music. He who seeks can find traces of that
+      intention in the world of nature. But as it has turned out, real life
+      resembles my music and mine is the true music.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we see living shapes?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what my mood will be,&rdquo; returned Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;But when I have finished, you shall adventure your tune, and
+      produce whatever shapes you please&mdash;unless, indeed, the tune is out
+      of your own big body.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The shocks you are preparing may kill us,&rdquo; said Gleameil, in
+      a low, taut voice, &ldquo;but we shall die, seeing <i>beauty</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I
+      put into my music. Still, you must have it your own way. It needed a woman
+      to call it &lsquo;beauty.&rsquo; But if this is beauty, what is ugliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I can tell you, Master,&rdquo; replied Gleameil, smiling at
+      him. &ldquo;Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues
+      fresh from the womb of nature.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid stared at her, without response. &ldquo;Teargeld is rising,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;And now you shall see&mdash;though not for long.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the words left his mouth, the full moon peeped over the hills in the
+      dark eastern sky. They watched it in silence, and soon it was wholly up.
+      It was larger than the moon of Earth, and seemed nearer. Its shadowy parts
+      stood out in just as strong relief, but somehow it did not give Maskull
+      the impression of being a dead world. Branchspell shone on the whole of
+      it, but Alppain only on a part. The broad crescent that reflected
+      Branchspell&rsquo;s rays alone was white and brilliant; but the part that
+      was illuminated by both suns shone with a greenish radiance that had
+      almost solar power, and yet was cold and cheerless. On gazing at that
+      combined light, he felt the same sense of disintegration that the
+      afterglow of Alppain had always caused in him; but now the feeling was not
+      physical, but merely aesthetic. The moon did not appear romantic to him,
+      but disturbing and mystical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid rose, and stood quietly for a minute. In the bright moonlight,
+      his face seemed to have undergone a change. It lost its loose, weak,
+      disagreeable look, and acquired a sort of crafty grandeur. He clapped his
+      hands together meditatively two or three times, and walked up and down.
+      The others stood together, watching him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he sat down by the side of the lake, and, leaning on his side, placed
+      his right hand, open palm downward, on the ground, at the same time
+      stretching out his right leg, so that the foot was in contact with the
+      water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was in the act of staring at him and at the lake, he felt a
+      stabbing sensation right through his heart, as though he had been pierced
+      by a rapier. He barely recovered himself from falling, and as he did so he
+      saw that a spout had formed on the water, and was now subsiding again. The
+      next moment he was knocked down by a violent blow in the mouth, delivered
+      by an invisible hand. He picked himself up; and observed that a second
+      spout had formed. No sooner was he on his legs, than a hideous pain
+      hammered away inside his brain, as if caused by a malignant tumour. In his
+      agony, he stumbled and fell again; this time on the arm Krag had wounded.
+      All his other mishaps were forgotten in this one, which half stunned him.
+      It lasted only a moment, and then sudden relief came, and he found that
+      Earthrid&rsquo;s rough music had lost its power over him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw him still stretched in the same position. Spouts were coming thick
+      and fast on the lake, which was full of lively motion. But Gleameil was
+      not on her legs. She was lying on the ground, in a heap, without moving.
+      Her attitude was ugly, and he guessed she <i>was</i> dead. When he reached
+      her, he discovered that she was dead. In what state of mind she had died,
+      he did not know, for her face wore the vulgar Crystalman grin. The whole
+      tragedy had not lasted five minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went over to Earthrid and dragged him forcibly away from his playing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have been as good as your word, musician,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Gleameil is dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid tried to collect his scattered senses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I warned her,&rdquo; he replied, sitting up. &ldquo;Did I not beg
+      her to go away? But she died very easily. She did not wait for the beauty
+      she spoke about. She heard nothing of the passion, nor even of the rhythm.
+      Neither have you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked down at him in indignation, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You should not have interrupted me,&rdquo; went on Earthrid.
+      &ldquo;When I am playing, nothing else is of importance. I might have lost
+      the thread of my ideas. Fortunately, I never forget. I shall start over
+      again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If music is to continue, in the presence of the dead, I play next.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man glanced up quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can&rsquo;t be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be,&rdquo; said Maskull decisively. &ldquo;I prefer playing
+      to listening. Another reason is that you will have every night, but I have
+      only tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid clenched and unclenched his fist, and began to turn pale. &ldquo;With
+      your recklessness, you are likely to kill us both. Irontick belongs to me,
+      and until you have learned how to play, you would only break the
+      instrument.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, I will break it; but I am going to try.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The musician jumped to his feet and confronted him. &ldquo;Do you intend
+      to take it from me by violence?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep calm! You will have the same choice that you offered us. I
+      shall give you time to go away somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How will that serve me, if you spoil my lake? You don&rsquo;t
+      understand what you are doing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, or stay!&rdquo; responded Maskull. &ldquo;I give you till the
+      water gets smooth again. After that, I begin playing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid kept swallowing. He glanced at the lake and back to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you swear it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long that will take, you know better than I; but till then you
+      are safe.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Earthrid cast him a look of malice, hesitated for an instant, and then
+      moved away, and started to climb the nearest hill. Halfway up he glanced
+      over his shoulder apprehensively, as if to see what was happening. In
+      another minute or so, he had disappeared over the crest, travelling in the
+      direction of the shore that faced Matterplay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later, when the water was once more tranquil, Maskull sat down by its
+      edge, in imitation of Earthrid&rsquo;s attitude. He knew neither how to
+      set about producing his music, nor what would come of it. But audacious
+      projects entered his brain and he willed to create physical shapes&mdash;and,
+      above all, one shape, that of Surtur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before putting his foot to the water, he turned things over a little in
+      his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He said, &ldquo;What <i>themes</i> are in common music, <i>shapes</i> are
+      in this music. The composer does not find his theme by picking out single
+      notes; but the whole theme flashes into his mind by inspiration. So it
+      must be with shapes. When I start playing, if I am worth anything, the
+      undivided ideas will pass from my unconscious mind to this lake, and then,
+      reflected back in the dimensions of reality, I shall be for the first time
+      made acquainted with them. So it must be.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant his foot touched the water, he felt his thoughts flowing from
+      him. He did not know what they were, but the mere act of flowing created a
+      sensation of joyful mastery. With this was curiosity to learn what they
+      would prove to be. Spouts formed on the lake in increasing numbers, but he
+      experienced no pain. His thoughts, which he knew to be music, did not
+      issue from him in a steady, unbroken stream, but in great, rough gushes,
+      succeeding intervals of quiescence. When these gushes came, the whole lake
+      broke out in an eruption of spouts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
+      intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will. He
+      could not decide what character they should have, but he was able to force
+      them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first nothing changed around him. Then the moon grew dimmer, and a
+      strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape. It increased so
+      imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised it as the
+      Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest. He could not give
+      it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort of stern and sacred
+      awe. He called up the resources of his powerful will. The spouts thickened
+      like a forest, and many of them were twenty feet high. Teargeld looked
+      faint and pale; the radiance became intense; but it cast no shadows. The
+      wind got up, but where Maskull was sitting, it was calm. Shortly afterward
+      it began to shriek and whistle, like a full gale. He saw no shapes, and
+      redoubled his efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His ideas were now rushing out onto the lake so furiously that his whole
+      soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance. But still he did not know
+      their nature. A huge spout shot up and at the same moment the hills began
+      to crack and break. Great masses of loose soil were erupted from their
+      bowels, and in the next period of quietness, he saw that the landscape had
+      altered. Still the mysterious light intensified. The moon disappeared
+      entirely. The noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying, but Maskull
+      played heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would take shape. The
+      hillsides were cleft with chasms. The water escaping from the tops of the
+      spouts, swamped the land; but where he was, it was dry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The radiance grew terrible. It was everywhere, but Maskull fancied that it
+      was far brighter in one particular quarter. He thought that it was
+      becoming localised, preparatory to contracting into a solid form. He
+      strained and strained....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided. Its waters fell
+      through, and his instrument was broken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Muspel-light vanished. The moon shone out again, but Maskull could not
+      see it. After that unearthly shining, he seemed to himself to be in total
+      blackness. The screaming wind ceased; there was a dead silence. His
+      thoughts finished flowing toward the lake, and his foot no longer touched
+      water, but hung in space.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was too stunned by the suddenness of the change to either think or
+      feel. While he was still lying dazed, a vast explosion occurred in the
+      newly opened depths beneath the lakebed. The water in its descent had met
+      fire. Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many yards high, and came down
+      heavily. He lost consciousness....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he came to his senses again, he saw everything. Teargeld was gleaming
+      brilliantly. He was lying by the side of the old lake, but it was now a
+      crater, to the bottom of which his eyes could not penetrate. The hills
+      encircling it were torn, as if by heavy gunfire. A few thunderclouds were
+      floating in the air at no great height, from which branched lightning
+      descended to the earth incessantly, accompanied by alarming and singular
+      crashes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got on his legs, and tested his actions. Finding that he was uninjured,
+      he first of all viewed the crater at closer quarters, and then started to
+      walk painfully toward the northern shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had attained the crest above the lake, the landscape sloped gently
+      down for two miles to the sea. Everywhere he passed through traces of his
+      rough work. The country was carved into scarps, grooves, channels, and
+      craters. He arrived at the line of low cliffs overlooking the beach, and
+      found that these also were partly broken down by landslips. He got down
+      onto the sand and stood looking over the moonlit, agitated sea, wondering
+      how he could contrive to escape from this island of failure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he saw Earthrid&rsquo;s body, lying quite close to him. It was on its
+      back. Both legs had been violently torn off and he could not see them
+      anywhere. Earthrid&rsquo;s teeth were buried in the flesh of his right
+      forearm, indicating that the man had died in unreasoning physical agony.
+      The skin gleamed green in the moonlight, but it was stained by darker
+      discolourations, which were wounds. The sand about him was dyed by the
+      pool of blood which had long since filtered through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull left the corpse in dismay, and walked a long way along the
+      sweet-smelling shore. Sitting down on a rock, he waited for daybreak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 16. LEEHALLFAE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      At midnight, when Teargeld was in the south, throwing his shadow straight
+      toward the sea and making everything nearly as bright as day, he saw a
+      great tree floating in the water, not far out. It was thirty feet out of
+      the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must have been enormously
+      deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast, through the heavy seas.
+      Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few minutes. Then it dawned on him that
+      it might be a good thing to investigate its nature. Without stopping to
+      weigh the danger, he immediately swam out, caught hold of the lowest
+      branch, and swung himself up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
+      terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made his
+      way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were covered
+      with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving at the crown,
+      he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there were membranes
+      like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting some form of low
+      intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the shore,
+      and began to bump heavily. To steady himself, Maskull put his hand out,
+      and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the membranes. The tree
+      sheered off the land, as if by an act of will. When it was steady again,
+      Maskull removed his hand; they at once drifted back to shore. He thought a
+      bit, and then started experimenting with the eyelike membranes. It was as
+      he had guessed&mdash;these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon,
+      and whichever way the light came from, the tree would travel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull&rsquo;s face as it struck him that
+      it might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
+      Matterplay. He lost no time in putting the conception into execution.
+      Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up all the membranes
+      except the ones that faced the north. The tree instantly left the island,
+      and definitely put out to sea. It travelled due north. It was not moving
+      at more than a mile an hour, however, while Matterplay was possibly forty
+      miles distant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
+      breaking seas hissed through the lower branches&mdash;Maskull rested high
+      and dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow rate of
+      progress. Presently he sighted a current racing along toward the
+      north-west, and that put another idea into his head. He began to juggle
+      with the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in piloting his
+      tree into the fast-running stream. As soon as they were fairly in its
+      rapids, he blinded the crown entirely, and thenceforward the current acted
+      in the double capacity of road and steed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made himself secure among the branches and slept for the remainder
+      of the night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his eyes opened again, the island was out of sight. Teargeld was
+      setting in the western sea. The sky in the east was bright with the
+      colours of the approaching day. The air was cool and fresh; the light over
+      the sea was beautiful, gleaming, and mysterious. Land&mdash;probably
+      Matterplay&mdash;lay ahead, a long, dark line of low cliffs, perhaps a
+      mile away. The current no longer ran toward the shore, but began to skirt
+      the coast without drawing any closer to it. As soon as Maskull realised
+      the fact, he manoeuvred the tree out of its channel and started drifting
+      it inshore. The eastern sky blazed up suddenly with violent dyes, and the
+      outer rim of Branchspell lifted itself above the sea. The moon had already
+      sunk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shore loomed nearer and nearer. In physical character it was like
+      Swaylone&rsquo;s Island&mdash;the same wide sands, small cliffs, and
+      rounded, insignificant hills inland, without vegetation. In the
+      early-morning sunlight, however, it looked romantic. Maskull, hollow-eyed
+      and morose, cared nothing for all that, but the moment the tree grounded,
+      clambered swiftly down through the branches and dropped into the sea. By
+      the time he had swam ashore, the white, stupendous sun was high above the
+      horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He walked along the sands toward the east for a considerable distance,
+      without having any special intention in his mind. He thought he would go
+      on until he came to some creek or valley, and then turn up it. The sun&rsquo;s
+      rays were cheering, and began to relieve him of his oppressive night
+      weight. After strolling along the beach for about a mile, he was stopped
+      by a broad stream that flowed into the sea out of a kind of natural
+      gateway in the line of cliffs. Its water was of a beautiful, limpid green,
+      all filled with bubbles. So ice-cold, aerated, and enticing did it look
+      that he flung himself face downward on the ground and took a prolonged
+      draught. When he got up again his eyes started to play pranks&mdash;they
+      became alternately blurred and clear.... It may have been pure
+      imagination, but he fancied that Digrung was moving inside him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He followed the bank of the stream through the gap in the cliffs, and then
+      for the first time saw the real Matterplay. A valley appeared, like a
+      jewel enveloped by naked rock. All the hill country was bare and lifeless,
+      but this valley lying in the heart of it was extremely fertile; he had
+      never seen such fertility. It wound up among the hills, and all that he
+      was looking at was its broad lower end. The floor of the valley was about
+      half a mile wide; the stream that ran down its middle was nearly a hundred
+      feet across, but was exceedingly shallow&mdash;in most places not more
+      than a few inches deep. The sides of the valley were about seventy feet
+      high, but very sloping; they were clothed from top to bottom with little,
+      bright-leaved trees&mdash;not of varied tints of one colour, like Earth
+      trees, but of widely diverse colours, most of which were brilliant and
+      positive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The floor itself was like a magician&rsquo;s garden. Densely interwoven
+      trees, shrubs, and parasitical climbers fought everywhere for possession
+      of it. The forms were strange and grotesque, and each one seemed
+      different; the colours of leaf, flower, sexual organs, and stem were
+      equally peculiar&mdash;all the different combinations of the five primary
+      colours of Tormance seemed to be represented, and the result, for Maskull
+      was a sort of eye chaos. So rank was the vegetation that he could not
+      fight his way through it; he was obliged to take to the riverbed. The
+      contact of the water created an odd tingling sensation throughout his
+      body, like a mild electric shock. There were no birds, but a few
+      extraordinary-looking winged reptiles of small size kept crossing the
+      valley from hill to hill. Swarms of flying insects clustered around him,
+      threatening mischief, but in the end it turned out that his blood was
+      disagreeable to them, for he was not bitten once. Repulsive crawling
+      creatures resembling centipedes, scorpions, snakes, and so forth were in
+      myriads on the banks of the stream, but they also made no attempt to use
+      their weapons on his bare legs and feet, as he passed through them into
+      the water.... Presently however, he was confronted in midstream by a
+      hideous monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape&mdash;if
+      it resembled anything&mdash;a sea crustacean; and then he came to a halt.
+      They stared at one another, the beast with wicked eyes, Maskull with cool
+      and wary ones. While he was staring, a singular thing happened to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His eyes blurred again. But when in a minute or two this blurring passed
+      away and he saw clearly once more, his vision had changed in character. He
+      was looking right through the animal&rsquo;s body and could distinguish
+      all its interior parts. The outer crust, however, and all the hard tissues
+      were misty and semi-transparent; through them a luminous network of
+      blood-red veins and arteries stood out in startling distinctness. The hard
+      parts faded away to nothingness, and the blood system alone was left. Not
+      even the fleshy ducts remained. The naked blood alone was visible, flowing
+      this way and that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the shape of the
+      monster. Then this blood began to change too. Instead of a continuous
+      liquid stream, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a million
+      individual points. The red colour had been an illusion caused by the rapid
+      motion of the points; he now saw clearly that they resembled minute suns
+      in their scintillating brightness. They seemed like a double drift of
+      stars, streaming through space. One drift was travelling toward a fixed
+      point in the centre, while the other was moving away from it. He
+      recognised the former as the veins of the beast, the latter as the
+      arteries, and the fixed point as the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While he was still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network went out
+      suddenly like an extinguished flame. Where the crustacean had stood, there
+      was nothing. Yet through this &ldquo;nothing&rdquo; he could not see the
+      landscape. Something was standing there that intercepted the light, though
+      it possessed neither shape, colour, nor substance. And now the object,
+      which could no longer be perceived by vision, began to be felt by emotion.
+      A delightful, springlike sense of rising sap, of quickening pulses of
+      love, adventure, mystery, beauty, femininity&mdash;took possession of his
+      being, and, strangely enough, he identified it with the monster. Why that
+      invisible brute should cause him to feel young, sexual, and audacious, he
+      did not ask himself, for he was fully occupied with the effect. But it was
+      as if flesh, bones, and blood had been discarded, and he were face to face
+      with naked Life itself, which slowly passed into his own body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sensations died away. There was a brief interval, and then the
+      streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space. It changed to the
+      red-blood system. The hard parts of the body reappeared, with more and
+      more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood grew fainter.
+      Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed by the crust&mdash;the
+      creature stood opposite Maskull in its old formidable ugliness, hard,
+      painted, and concrete.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and stumbled
+      awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive movements,
+      toward the other bank of the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s apathy left him after this adventure. He became uneasy and
+      thoughtful. He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
+      Digrung&rsquo;s eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately
+      ahead. The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down with his
+      will, and nothing happened.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley ascended with many windings toward the hills. It narrowed
+      considerably, and the wooded slopes on either side grew steeper and
+      higher. The stream shrunk to about twenty feet across, but it was deeper&mdash;it
+      was alive with motion, music, and bubbles. The electric sensations caused
+      by its water became more pronounced, almost disagreeably so; but there was
+      nowhere else to walk. With its deafening confusion of sounds from the
+      multitude of living creatures, the little valley resembled a vast
+      conversation hall of Nature. The life was still more prolific than before;
+      every square foot of space was a tangle of struggling wills, both animal
+      and vegetable. For a naturalist it would have been paradise, for no two
+      shapes were alike, and all were fantastic, with individual character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked as if life forms were being coined so fast by Nature that there
+      was not physical room for all. Nevertheless it was not as on Earth, where
+      a hundred seeds are scattered in order that one may be sown. Here the
+      young forms seemed to survive, while, to find accommodation for them, the
+      old ones perished; everywhere he looked they were withering and dying,
+      without any ostensible cause&mdash;they were simply being killed by new
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other creatures sported so wildly, in front of his very eyes, that they
+      became of different &ldquo;kingdoms&rdquo; altogether. For example, a
+      fruit was lying on the ground, of the size and shape of a lemon, but with
+      a tougher skin. He picked it up, intending to eat the contained pulp; but
+      inside it was a fully formed young tree, just on the point of bursting its
+      shell. Maskull threw it away upstream. It floated back toward him; by the
+      time he was even with it, its downward motion had stopped and it was
+      swimming against the current. He fished it out and discovered that it had
+      sprouted six rudimentary legs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sang no paeans of praise in honour of the gloriously overcrowded
+      valley. On the contrary, he felt deeply cynical and depressed. He thought
+      that the unseen power&mdash;whether it was called Nature, Life, Will, or
+      God&mdash;that was so frantic to rush forward and occupy this small,
+      vulgar, contemptible world, could not possess very high aims and was not
+      worth much. How this sordid struggle for an hour or two of physical
+      existence could ever be regarded as a deeply earnest and important
+      business was beyond his comprehension The atmosphere choked him, he longed
+      for air and space. Thrusting his way through to the side of the ravine, he
+      began to climb the overhanging cliff, swinging his way up from tree to
+      tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he arrived at the top, Branchspell beat down on him with such brutal,
+      white intensity that he saw that there was no staying there. He looked
+      around, to ascertain what part of the country he had come to. He had
+      travelled about ten miles from the sea, as the crow flies. The bare,
+      undulating wolds sloped straight down toward it; the water glittered in
+      the distance; and on the horizon he was just able to make out Swaylone&rsquo;s
+      Island. Looking north, the land continued sloping upward as far as he
+      could see. Over the crest&mdash;that is to say, some miles away&mdash;a
+      line of black, fantastic-shaped rocks of quite another character showed
+      themselves; this was probably Threal. Behind these again, against the sky,
+      perhaps fifty or even a hundred miles off, were the peaks of Lichstorm,
+      most of them covered with greenish snow that glittered in the sunlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They were stupendously high and of weird contours. Most of them were
+      conical to the top, but from the top, great masses of mountain balanced
+      themselves at what looked like impossible angles&mdash;overhanging without
+      apparent support. A land like that promised something new, he thought:
+      extraordinary inhabitants. The idea took shape in his mind to go there,
+      and to travel as swiftly as possible, it might even be feasible to get
+      there before sunset. It was less the mountains themselves that attracted
+      him than the country which lay beyond&mdash;the prospect of setting eyes
+      on the blue sun, which he judged to be the wonder of wonders in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The direct route was over the hills, but that was out of the question,
+      because of the killing heat and the absence of shade. He guessed, however,
+      that the valley would not take him far out of his way, and decided to keep
+      to that for the time being, much as he hated and feared it. Into the
+      hotbed of life, therefore, he once more swung himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once down, he continued to follow the windings of the valley for several
+      miles through sunlight and shadow. The path became increasingly difficult.
+      The cliffs closed in on either side until they were less than a hundred
+      yards apart, while the bed of the ravine was blocked by boulders, great
+      and small, so that the little stream, which was now diminished to the
+      proportions of a brook, had to come down where and how it could. The forms
+      of life grew stranger. Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by
+      degrees, and their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to
+      partake of both characters. They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
+      but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the ground
+      by preference, and they fed only on soil and air. Maskull saw no sexual
+      organs and failed to understand how the young came into existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he witnessed an astonishing sight. A large and fully developed
+      plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space. He
+      could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long time in
+      amazement. It went on calmly moving and burrowing before him, as thought
+      it had been there all its life. Giving up the puzzle, Maskull resumed his
+      striding from rock to rock up the gorge, and then, quietly and without
+      warning, the same phenomenon occurred again. No longer could he doubt that
+      he was seeing miracles&mdash;that Nature was precipitating its shapes into
+      the world without making use of the medium of parentage.... No solution of
+      the problem presented itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The brook too had altered in character. A trembling radiance came up from
+      its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the air. He had
+      not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test its quality. He
+      felt new life entering his body, from his feet upward; it resembled a
+      slowly moving cordial, rather than mere heat. The sensation was quite new
+      in his experience, yet he knew by instinct what it was. The energy emitted
+      by the brook was ascending his body neither as friend nor foe but simply
+      because it happened to be the direct road to its objective elsewhere. But,
+      although it had no hostile intentions, it was likely to prove a rough
+      traveller&mdash;he was clearly conscious that its passage through his body
+      threatened to bring about some physical transformation, unless he could do
+      something to prevent it. Leaping quickly out of the water, he leaned
+      against a rock, tightened his muscles, and braced himself against the
+      impending change. At that very moment the blurring again attacked his
+      sight, and, while he was guarding against that, his forehead sprouted out
+      into a galaxy of new eyes. He put his hand up and counted six, in addition
+      to his old ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The danger was past and Maskull laughed, congratulating himself on having
+      got off so easily. Then he wondered what the new organs were for&mdash;whether
+      they were a good or a bad thing. He had not taken a dozen steps up the
+      ravine before he found out. Just as he was in the act of jumping down from
+      the top of a boulder, his vision altered and he came to an automatic
+      standstill. He was perceiving two worlds simultaneously. With his own eyes
+      he saw the gorge as before, with its rocks, brook, plant-animals,
+      sunshine, and shadows. But with his acquired eyes he saw differently. All
+      the details of the valley were visible, but the light seemed turned down,
+      and everything appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured. The sun was obscured
+      by masses of cloud which filled the whole sky. This vapour was in violent
+      and almost living motion. It was thick in extension, but thin in texture;
+      some parts, however, were far denser than others, as the particles were
+      crushed together or swept apart by the motion. The green sparks from the
+      brook, when closely watched, could be distinguished individually, each one
+      wavering up toward the clouds, but the moment they got within them a
+      fearful struggle seemed to begin. The spark endeavoured to escape through
+      to the upper air, while the clouds concentrated around it whichever way it
+      darted, trying to create so dense a prison that further movement would be
+      impossible. As far as Maskull could detect, most of the sparks succeeded
+      eventually in finding their way out after frantic efforts; but one that he
+      was looking at was caught, and what happened was this. A complete ring of
+      cloud surrounded it, and, in spite of its furious leaps and flashes in all
+      directions&mdash;as if it were a live, savage creature caught in a net&mdash;nowhere
+      could it find an opening, but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with
+      it, wherever it went. The vapours continued to thicken around it, until
+      they resembled the black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad
+      thunderstorm. Then the green spark, which was still visible in the
+      interior, ceased its efforts, and remained for a time quite quiescent. The
+      cloud shape went on consolidating itself, and became nearly spherical; as
+      it grew heavier and stiller, it started slowly to descend toward the
+      valley floor. When it was directly opposite Maskull, with its lower end
+      only a few feet off the ground, its motion stopped altogether and there
+      was a complete pause for at least two minutes. Suddenly, like a stab of
+      forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became small, indented,
+      and coloured, and as a plant-animal started walking around on legs and
+      rooting up the ground in search of food. The concluding stage of the
+      phenomenon he witnessed with his normal eyesight. It showed him the
+      creature&rsquo;s appearing miraculously out of nowhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was shaken. His cynicism dropped from him and gave place to
+      curiosity and awe. &ldquo;That was exactly like the birth of a <i>thought</i>,&rdquo;
+      he said to himself, &ldquo;but who was the thinker? Some great Living Mind
+      is at work in this spot. He has intelligence, for all his shapes are
+      different, and he has character, for all belong to the same general
+      type.... If I&rsquo;m not wrong, and if it&rsquo;s the force called
+      Shaping or Crystalman, I&rsquo;ve seen enough to make me want to find out
+      something more about him.... It would be ridiculous to go on to other
+      riddles before I have solved these.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A voice called out to him from behind, and, turning around, he saw a human
+      figure hastening toward him from some distance down the ravine. It looked
+      more like a man than a woman. He was rather tall, but nimble, and was
+      clothed in a dark, frocklike garment that reached from the neck to below
+      the knees. Around his head was rolled a turban. Maskull waited for him,
+      and when he was nearer went a little way to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he experienced another surprise, for this person, although clearly a
+      human being, was neither man nor woman, nor anything between the two, but
+      was unmistakably of a third positive sex, which was remarkable to behold
+      and difficult to understand. In order to translate into words the sexual
+      impression produced in Maskull&rsquo;s mind by the stranger&rsquo;s
+      physical aspect, it is necessary to coin a new pronoun, for none in
+      earthly use would be applicable. Instead of &ldquo;he,&rdquo; &ldquo;she,&rdquo;
+      or &ldquo;it,&rdquo; therefore &ldquo;ae&rdquo; will be used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He found himself incapable of grasping at first why the bodily
+      peculiarities of this being should strike him as springing from sex, and
+      not from race, and yet there was no doubt about the fact itself. Body,
+      face, and eyes were absolutely neither male nor female, but something
+      quite different. Just as one can distinguish a man from a woman at the
+      first glance by some indefinable difference of expression and atmospheres
+      altogether apart from the contour of the figure, so the stranger was
+      separated in appearance from both. As with men and women, the whole person
+      expressed a latent sensuality, which gave body and face alike their
+      peculiar character.... Maskull decided that it was <i>love</i>&mdash;but
+      what love&mdash;love for whom? It was neither the shame-carrying passion
+      of a male, nor the deep-rooted instinct of a female to obey her destiny.
+      It was as real and irresistible as these, but quite different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
+      intuitive feeling that aer lover was no other than Shaping himself. It
+      came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance of the
+      race but the immortality on earth of the individual. No children were
+      produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal child. Further, ae
+      sought like a man, but received like a woman. All these things were dimly
+      and confusedly expressed by this extraordinary being, who seemed to have
+      dropped out of another age, when creation was different.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance, this
+      one struck him as infinitely the most <i>foreign</i>&mdash;that is, the
+      farthest removed from him in spiritual structure. If they were to live
+      together for a hundred years, they could never be companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing the
+      newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to account for
+      the marvellous things told him by his intuitions. Ae possessed broad
+      shoulders and big bones, and was without female breasts, and so far ae
+      resembled a man. But the bones were so flat and angular that aer flesh
+      presented something of the character of a crystal, having plane surfaces
+      in place of curves. The body looked as if it had not been ground down by
+      the sea of ages into smooth and rounded regularity but had sprung together
+      in angles and facets as the result of a single, sudden <i>idea</i>. The
+      face too was broken and irregular. With his racial prejudices, Maskull
+      found little beauty in it, yet beauty there was, though neither of a
+      masculine nor of a feminine type, for it had the three essentials of
+      beauty: character, intelligence, and repose. The skin was copper-coloured
+      and strangely luminous, as if lighted from within. The face was beardless,
+      but the hair of the head was as long as a woman&rsquo;s, and, dressed in a
+      single plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles. Ae possessed only two
+      eyes. That part of the turban which went across the forehead protruded so
+      far in front that it evidently concealed some organ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared active,
+      vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes were
+      powerful and alert&mdash;ae might well be in early youth. Nevertheless,
+      the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of unbelievable
+      ancientness came upon him&mdash;aer real youth seemed as far away as the
+      view observed through a reversed telescope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
+      conversing with a dream. &ldquo;To what sex do you belong?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but was
+      oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world
+      was peopled by &lsquo;phaens.&rsquo; I think I am the only survivor of all
+      those beings who were then passing through Faceny&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Faceny?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman. The superficial names
+      invented by a race of superficial creatures.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s your own name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae. And yours is Maskull. I read in your mind that you have
+      just come through some wonderful adventures. You seem to possess
+      extraordinary luck. If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use of it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit?... But never
+      mind that now. It is your <i>sex</i> that interests me. How do you satisfy your
+      desires?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on her brow. &ldquo;With that I
+      gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
+      valleys. The streams spring direct from Faceny. My whole life has been
+      spent trying to find Faceny himself. I&rsquo;ve hunted so long that if I
+      were to state the number of years you would believe I lied.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at the phaen slowly. &ldquo;In Ifdawn I met someone else
+      from Matterplay&mdash;a young man called Digrung. I absorbed him.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be telling me this out of vanity.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was a fearful crime. What will come of it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile. &ldquo;In Matterplay he will
+      stir inside you, for he smells the air. Already you have his eyes.... I
+      knew him.... Take care of yourself, or something more startling may
+      happen. Keep out of the water.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t torment yourself about Digrung. The valleys belong by
+      right to the phaens&mdash;the men here are interlopers. It is a good work
+      to remove them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued thoughtful. &ldquo;I say no more, but I see I will have
+      to be cautious. What did you mean about my helping you with my luck?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your luck is fast weakening, but it may still be strong enough to
+      serve me. Together we will <i>search</i> for Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Search for Threal&mdash;why, is it so hard to find?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told you that my whole life has been spent in the quest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You said Faceny, Leehallfae.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gazed at him with queer, ancient eyes, and smiled again. &ldquo;This
+      stream, Maskull, like every other life stream in Matterplay, has its
+      source in Faceny. But as all these streams issue out from Threal, it is in
+      Threal that we must look for Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what&rsquo;s to prevent your finding Threal? Surely it&rsquo;s
+      a well-known country?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It lies underground. Its communications with the upper world are
+      few, and where they are, no one that I have ever spoken to knows. I have
+      scoured the valleys and the hills. I have been to the very gates of
+      Lichstorm. I am old, so that your aged men would appear newborn infants
+      beside me, but I am as far from Threal as when I was a green youth,
+      dwelling among a throng of fellow phaens.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, if my luck is good, yours is very bad.... But when you have
+      found Faceny, what do you gain?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae looked at him in silence. The smile faded from aer face, and
+      its place was taken by such a look of unearthly pain and sorrow that
+      Maskull had no need to press his question. Ae was consumed by the grief
+      and yearning of a lover eternally separated from the loved one, the scents
+      and traces of whose person were always present. This passion stamped aer
+      features at that moment with a wild, stern, spiritual beauty, far
+      transcending any beauty of woman or man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the expression vanished suddenly, and then the abrupt contrast showed
+      Maskull the real Leehallfae. Aer sensuality was solitary, but vulgar&mdash;it
+      was like the heroism of a lonely nature, pursuing animal aims with
+      untiring persistence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He looked at the phaen askance, and drummed his fingers against his thigh.
+      &ldquo;Well, we will go together. We may find something, and in any case I
+      shan&rsquo;t be sorry to converse with such a singular individual as
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I should warn you, Maskull. You and I are of different
+      creations. A phaen&rsquo;s body contains the whole of life, a man&rsquo;s
+      body contains only the half of life&mdash;the other half is in woman.
+      Faceny may be too strong a draught for your body to endure.... Do you not
+      feel this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dull with my different feelings. I must take what precautions
+      I can, and chance the rest.&rdquo; He bent down, and, taking hold of the
+      phaen&rsquo;s thin and ragged robe, tore off a broad strip, which he
+      proceeded to swathe in folds around his forehead. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not
+      forgetting your advice, Leehallfae. I would not like to start the walk as
+      Maskull and finish it as Digrung.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave a twisted grin, and they began to move upstream. The road
+      was difficult. They had to stride from boulder to boulder, and found it
+      warm work. Occasionally a worse obstacle presented itself, which they
+      could surmount only by climbing. There was no more conversation for a long
+      time. Maskull, as far as possible, adopted his companion&rsquo;s counsel
+      to avoid the water, but here and there he was forced to set foot in it.
+      The second or third time he did so, he felt a sudden agony in his arm,
+      where it had been wounded by Krag. His eyes grew joyful; his fears
+      vanished; and he began deliberately to tread the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae stroked aer chin and watched him with screwed-up eyes, trying
+      to comprehend what had happened. &ldquo;Is your luck speaking to you,
+      Maskull, or what is the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen. You are a being of antique experience, and ought to know,
+      if anyone does. What is Muspel?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen&rsquo;s face was blank. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know the name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is another world of some sort.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That cannot be. There is only this one world&mdash;Faceny&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull came up to aer, linked arms, and began to talk. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      glad I fell in with you, Leehallfae, for this valley and everything
+      connected with it need a lot of explaining. For example, in this spot
+      there are hardly any organic forms left&mdash;why have they all
+      disappeared? You call this brook a &lsquo;life stream,&rsquo; yet the
+      nearer its source we get, the less life it produces. A mile or two lower
+      down we had those spontaneous plant-animals appearing out of nowhere,
+      while right down by the sea, plants and animals were tumbling over one
+      another. Now, if all this is connected in some mysterious way or other
+      with your Faceny, it seems to me he must have a most paradoxical nature.
+      His essence doesn&rsquo;t start creating shapes until it has become
+      thoroughly weakened and watered.... But perhaps both of us are talking
+      nonsense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae shook aer head. &ldquo;Everything hangs together. The stream is
+      life, and it is throwing off sparks of life all the time. When these
+      sparks are caught and imprisoned by matter, they become living shapes. The
+      nearer the stream is to its source, the more terrible and vigorous is its
+      life. You&rsquo;ll see for yourself when we reach the head of the valley
+      that there are no living shapes there at all. That means that there is no
+      kind of matter tough enough to capture and hold the terrible sparks that
+      are to be found there. Lower down the stream, most of the sparks are
+      vigorous enough to escape to the upper air, but some are held when they
+      are a little way up, and these burst suddenly into shapes. I myself am of
+      this nature. Lower down still, toward the sea, the stream has lost a great
+      part of its vital power and the sparks are lazy and sluggish. They spread
+      out, rather than rise into the air. There is hardly any kind of matter,
+      however delicate, that is incapable of capturing these feeble sparks, and
+      they are captured in multitudes&mdash;that accounts for the innumerable
+      living shapes you see there. But not only that&mdash;the sparks are passed
+      from one body to another by way of generation, and can never hope to cease
+      being so until they are worn out by decay. Lowest of all, you have the
+      Sinking Sea itself. There the degenerate and enfeebled life of the
+      Matterplay streams has for its body the whole sea. So weak is it&rsquo;s
+      power that it can&rsquo;t succeed in creating any shapes at all but you
+      can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to do so, in those spouts.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness
+      of the life germ in their case?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Exactly. It can&rsquo;t attain all its desires at once. And now you
+      can see how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring spontaneously
+      from the more electric and vigorous sparks.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When life dies, it becomes matter. Matter itself dies, but its
+      place is constantly taken by new matter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left
+      his brain they are nothing&mdash;mere dying embers.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a cheerless philosophy,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;But who
+      is Faceny himself, then, and why does he think at all?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile. &ldquo;That I&rsquo;ll explain
+      too. Faceny is of this nature. He faces Nothingness in all directions. He
+      has no back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his shape. It
+      must necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between him and
+      Nothingness. His face is all eyes, for he eternally contemplates
+      Nothingness. He draws his inspirations from it; in no other way could he
+      feel himself. For the same reason, phaens and even men love to be in empty
+      places and vast solitudes, for each one is a little Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That rings true,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny&rsquo;s face backward. Since
+      his face is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior. A draught
+      of thought thus continuously flows from Nothingness to the inside of
+      Faceny, which is the world. The thoughts become shapes, and people the
+      world. This outer world, therefore, which is lying all around us, is not
+      outside at all, as it happens, but inside. The visible universe is like a
+      gigantic stomach, and the real outside of the world we shall never see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pondered deeply for a while.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leehallfae, I fail to see what you personally have to hope for,
+      since you are nothing more than a discarded, dying thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you never loved a woman?&rdquo; asked the phaen, regarding him
+      fixedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I have.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When you loved, did you have no high moments?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s asking the same question in other words.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In those moments you were approaching Faceny. If you could have
+      drawn nearer still, would you not have done so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would, regardless of the consequences.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even if you personally had nothing to hope for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I would have <i>that</i> to hope for.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae walked on in silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A man is the half of Life,&rdquo; ae broke out suddenly. &ldquo;A
+      woman is the other half of life, but a phaen is the whole of life.
+      Moreover, when life becomes split into halves, something else has dropped
+      out of it&mdash;something that belongs only to the whole. Between your
+      love and mine there is no comparison. If even your sluggish blood is drawn
+      to Faceny, without stopping to ask what will come of it, how do you
+      suppose it is with <i>me</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t question the genuineness of your passion,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s a pity you can&rsquo;t see your way
+      to carry it forward into the next world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae gave a distorted grin, expressing heaven knows what emotion.
+      &ldquo;Men think what they like, but phaens are so made that they can see
+      the world only as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That ended the conversation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sun was high in the sky, and they appeared to be approaching the head
+      of the ravine. Its walls had still further closed in and, except at those
+      moments when Branchspell was directly behind them, they strode along all
+      the time in deep shade; but still it was disagreeably hot and relaxing.
+      All life had ceased. A beautiful, fantastic spectacle was presented by the
+      cliff faces, the rocky ground, and the boulders that choked the entire
+      width of the gorge. They were of a snow-white crystalline limestone,
+      heavily scored by veins of bright, gleaming blue. The rivulet was no
+      longer green, but a clear, transparent crystal. Its noise was musical, and
+      altogether it looked most romantic and charming, but Leehallfae seemed to
+      find something else in it&mdash;aer features grew more and more set and
+      tortured.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About half an hour after all the other life forms had vanished, another
+      plant-animal was precipitated out of space, in front of their eyes. It was
+      as tall as Maskull himself, and had a brilliant and vigorous appearance,
+      as befitted a creature just out of Nature&rsquo;s mint. It started to walk
+      about; but hardly had it done so when it burst silently asunder. Nothing
+      remained of it&mdash;the whole body disappeared instantaneously into the
+      same invisible mist from which it had sprung.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bears out what you said,&rdquo; commented Maskull, turning
+      rather pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Leehallfae, &ldquo;we have now come to the
+      region of terrible life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, since you&rsquo;re right in this, I must believe all that you&rsquo;ve
+      been telling me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he uttered the words, they were just turning a bend of the ravine.
+      There now loomed up straight ahead a perpendicular cliff about three
+      hundred feet in height, composed of white, marbled rock. It was the head
+      of the valley, and beyond it they could not proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In return for my wisdom,&rdquo; said the phaen, &ldquo;you will now
+      lend me your luck.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked up to the base of the cliff, and Maskull looked at it
+      reflectively. It was possible to climb it, but the ascent would be
+      difficult. The now tiny brook issued from a hole in the rock only a few
+      feet up. Apart from its musical running, not a sound was to be heard. The
+      floor of the gorge was in shadow, but about halfway up the precipice the
+      sun was shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want me to do?&rdquo; demanded Maskull. &ldquo;Everything
+      is now in your hands, and I have no suggestions to make. Now it&rsquo;s
+      your luck that must help us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull continued gazing up a little while longer. &ldquo;We had better
+      wait till the afternoon, Leehallfae. I&rsquo;ll probably have to climb to
+      the top, but it&rsquo;s too hot at present&mdash;and besides, I&rsquo;m
+      tired. I&rsquo;ll snatch a few hours&rsquo; sleep. After that, we&rsquo;ll
+      see.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae seemed annoyed, but raised no opposition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 17. CORPANG
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre. Leehallfae was standing
+      by his side, looking down at him. It was doubtful whether ae had slept at
+      all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What time is it?&rdquo; Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting
+      up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The day is passing,&rdquo; was the vague reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff. &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;m
+      going to climb <i>that</i>. No need for both of us to risk our necks, so
+      you wait here, and if I find anything on top I&rsquo;ll call you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A phaen glanced at him strangely. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing up there
+      except a bare hillside. I&rsquo;ve been there often. Have you anything
+      special in mind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heights often bring me inspiration. Sit down, and wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of the
+      cliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush. Then it grew
+      precipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection and
+      intelligence. There were few hand- or footholds: he had to reflect before
+      every step. On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was no novice at
+      the sport. Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that it half blinded
+      him with its glittering whiteness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top. He was hot, sweating
+      copiously, and rather dizzy. To reach a ledge he caught hold of two
+      projecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time scrambling upward,
+      his legs between the rocks. The left-hand rock, which was the larger of
+      the two, became dislodged by his weight, and, flying like a huge, dark
+      shadow past his head, crashed down with a terrifying sound to the foot of
+      the precipice, followed by an avalanche of smaller stones. Maskull
+      steadied himself as well as he could, but it was some moments before he
+      dared to look down behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae. Then he caught sight of legs
+      and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom. He perceived
+      that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was scrutinising something,
+      and waited for aer to reappear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike voice,
+      &ldquo;The entrance is here!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming down!&rdquo; roared Maskull. &ldquo;Wait for me!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He descended swiftly&mdash;without taking too much care, for he thought he
+      recognised his &ldquo;luck&rdquo; in this discovery&mdash;and within
+      twenty minutes was standing beside the phaen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the
+      spring. It tore it out of its bed. See&mdash;now there&rsquo;s room for us
+      to get in!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get excited!&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a
+      remarkable accident, but we have plenty of time. Let me look.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big man without
+      stooping. Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark, yet a peculiar
+      glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough. A rock tunnel went
+      straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out of sight. The valley
+      brook did not flow along the floor of this tunnel, as he had expected, but
+      came up as a spring just inside the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh? Still, observe
+      that your stream parts company with us here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion was
+      trembling from head to foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, what&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart. &ldquo;The stream leaves us, but
+      what makes the stream what it is continues with us. Faceny is there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But surely you don&rsquo;t expect to see him in person? Why are you
+      shaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it will be too much for me after all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why? How is it affecting you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm&rsquo;s length,
+      endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. &ldquo;Faceny&rsquo;s
+      thoughts are obscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he
+      grants to you what he denies to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does he grant to me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it&rsquo;s
+      immaterial. Tomorrow both of us will be dead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull impatiently shook himself free. &ldquo;Your sensations may be
+      reliable in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Life is flaming up inside you,&rdquo; replied Leehallfae, shaking
+      aer head. &ldquo;But after it has reached its climax&mdash;perhaps tonight&mdash;it
+      will sink rapidly and you&rsquo;ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter
+      Threal I shan&rsquo;t come out again. A smell of death is being wafted to
+      me out of this hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not frightened,&rdquo; said Leehallfae quietly&mdash;ae had
+      been gradually recovering aer tranquillity&mdash;&ldquo;but when one has
+      lived as long as I have, it is a serious matter to die. Every year one
+      puts out new roots.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Decide what you&rsquo;re going to do,&rdquo; said Maskull with a
+      touch of contempt, &ldquo;for I&rsquo;m going in at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after that
+      walked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching his head,
+      followed close at aer heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
+      altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear and
+      refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. The daylight
+      disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that, Maskull could not
+      say where the light came from. The air itself must have been luminous, for
+      though it was as light as full moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae
+      cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of
+      the tunnel and their own bodies appeared colourless. Everything was black
+      and white, like a lunar landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal
+      feelings created by the atmosphere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to widen
+      out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could have walked
+      side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae dragged aerself along
+      slowly and painfully, with sunken head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull caught hold of aer. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go on like that. Better
+      let me take you back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The phaen smiled, and staggered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m dying.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. It&rsquo;s only a passing
+      indisposition. Let me take you back to the daylight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The sick must have their way,&rdquo; said Maskull. Lifting aer
+      bodily in his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or
+      so. They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of
+      which he had never set eyes upon before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Set me down!&rdquo; directed Leehallfae feebly. &ldquo;Here I&rsquo;ll
+      die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground. The
+      phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with
+      fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain, lighted
+      as if by the moon&mdash;but there was of course no moon, and there were no
+      shadows. He made out running streams in the distance. Beside them were
+      trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the ground, but the branches
+      also were aerial roots, and there were no leaves. No other plants could be
+      seen. The soil was soft, porous rock, resembling pumice. Beyond a mile or
+      two in any direction the light merged into obscurity. At their back a
+      great rocky wall extended on either hand; but it was not square like a
+      wall, but full of bays and promontories like an indented line of sea
+      cliffs. The roof of this huge underworld was out of sight. Here and there
+      a mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered, towered aloft into
+      the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof. There were no colours&mdash;every
+      detail of the landscape was black, white, or grey. The scene appeared so
+      still, so solemn and religious, that all his feelings quieted down to
+      absolute tranquillity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Leehallfae fell back suddenly. Maskull dropped on his knees, and
+      helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like a
+      candle in foul air. Death came.... He closed the eyes. The awful grin of
+      Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen&rsquo;s dead features.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone standing
+      beside him. He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not at once rise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Another phaen dead,&rdquo; said the newcomer in a grave, toneless,
+      and intellectual voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The man was short and thickset but emaciated. His forehead was not
+      disfigured by any organs. He was middle-aged. The features were energetic
+      and rather coarse&mdash;yet it seemed to Maskull as though a pure, hard
+      life had done something toward refining them. His sanguine eyes carried a
+      twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable problem was apparently in the
+      forefront of his brain. His face was hairless; the hair of his head was
+      short and manly; his brow was wide. He was clothed in a black, sleeveless
+      robe, and bore a long staff in his hand. There was an air of cleanness and
+      austerity about the whole man that was attractive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so, kept
+      passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin. &ldquo;They all
+      find their way here to die. They come from Matterplay. There they live to
+      an incredible age. Partly on that account, and partly because of their
+      spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the favoured children of
+      Faceny. But when they come here to find him, they die at once.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think this one is the last of the race. But whom do I speak to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Corpang. Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you
+      doing here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull. My home is on the other side of the universe.
+      As for what I am doing here&mdash;I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen,
+      from Matterplay.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But a man doesn&rsquo;t accompany a phaen out of friendship. What
+      do you want in Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then this <i>is</i> Threal?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes. &ldquo;Are you
+      ignorant, or merely reticent, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stillness of the place was almost oppressive. Not a breeze stirred,
+      and not a sound came through the air. Their voices had been lowered, as
+      though they were in a cathedral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then do you want my society, or not?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is&mdash;not to talk
+      about myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you must at least tell me where you want to go to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can guide you through, if that&rsquo;s all you want. Come, let us
+      start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First let&rsquo;s do our duty and bury the dead, if possible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Turn around,&rdquo; directed Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around quickly. Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does this mean&mdash;what has happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The body has returned to whence it came. There was nowhere here for
+      it to be, so it has vanished. No burial will be required.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Was the phaen an illusion, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In no sense.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place. I seem to be
+      going mad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing unintelligible in it, if you&rsquo;ll only
+      listen calmly. The phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible
+      world&mdash;to Faceny. This underworld is not Faceny&rsquo;s world, but
+      Thire&rsquo;s, and Faceny&rsquo;s creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere.
+      As this applies not only to whole bodies, but even to the last particles
+      of bodies, the phaen has dissolved into Nothingness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don&rsquo;t you and I belong to the outside world too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We belong to all three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What three worlds&mdash;what do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three worlds,&rdquo; said Corpang composedly. &ldquo;The
+      first is Faceny&rsquo;s, the second is Amfuse&rsquo;s, the third is Thire&rsquo;s.
+      From him Threal gets its name.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three
+      worlds?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. &ldquo;All this we can discuss
+      as we go along. It&rsquo;s a torment to me to be standing still.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae&rsquo;s body had lain,
+      quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could scarcely
+      tear himself away from the place, so mysterious was it. Not until Corpang
+      called to him a second time did he make up his mind to follow him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,
+      directing their course toward the nearest trees. The subdued light, the
+      absence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out of the
+      jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the deathly
+      silence, the knowledge that he was underground&mdash;the combination of
+      all these things predisposed Maskull&rsquo;s mind to mysticism, and he
+      prepared himself with some anxiety to hear Corpang&rsquo;s explanation of
+      the land and its wonders. He already began to grasp that the reality of
+      the outside world and the reality of this world were two quite different
+      things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what sense are there three worlds?&rdquo; he demanded, repeating
+      his former question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground. &ldquo;First of all,
+      Maskull, what is your motive for asking? If it&rsquo;s mere intellectual
+      curiosity, tell me, for we mustn&rsquo;t play with awful matters.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, it isn&rsquo;t that,&rdquo; said Maskull slowly. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      not a student. My journey is no holiday tour.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t there blood on your soul?&rdquo; asked Corpang, eying
+      him intently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood rose steadily to Maskull&rsquo;s face, but in that light it
+      caused it to appear black.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Unfortunately there is, and not a little.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other&rsquo;s face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so you see,&rdquo; went on Maskull, with a short laugh, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      in the very best condition for receiving your instruction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang still paused. &ldquo;Underneath your crimes I see a man,&rdquo; he
+      said, after a few minutes. &ldquo;On that account, and because we are
+      commanded to help one another, I won&rsquo;t leave you at present, though
+      I little thought to be walking with a murderer.... Now to your
+      question.... Whatever a man sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three
+      ways&mdash;length, breadth, depth. Length is existence, breadth is
+      relation, depth is feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who
+      came from Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know him. What else did he tell you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He went on to apply it to music. Continue, and pardon the
+      interruption.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These three states of perception are the three worlds. Existence is
+      Faceny&rsquo;s world, relation is Amfuse&rsquo;s world, feeling is Thire&rsquo;s
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t we come down to hard facts?&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      frowning. &ldquo;I understand no more than I did before what you mean by
+      three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you. The first
+      world is visible, tangible Nature. It was created by Faceny out of
+      nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That I understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The second world is Love&mdash;by which I don&rsquo;t mean lust.
+      Without love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable
+      deliberately to act on others. Without love, there would be no sympathy&mdash;not
+      even hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible. These are all imperfect
+      and distorted forms of pure love. Interpenetrating Faceny&rsquo;s world of
+      Nature, therefore, we have Amfuse&rsquo;s world of Love, or Relation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world
+      is not contained in the first?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are contradictory. A natural man lives for himself; a lover
+      lives for others.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be so. It&rsquo;s rather mystical. But go on&mdash;who is
+      Thire?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Length and breadth together without depth give flatness. Life and
+      love without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures. Feeling is the
+      need of men to stretch out toward their creator.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean prayer and worship?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mean intimacy with Thire. This feeling is not to be found in
+      either the first or second world, therefore it is a third world. Just as
+      depth is the line between object and subject, feeling is the line between
+      Thire and man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is Thire himself?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire is the afterworld.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Do you
+      believe in three separate gods, or are these merely three ways of
+      regarding one God?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic. Yet they
+      are somehow united.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull reflected a while. &ldquo;How have you arrived at these
+      conclusions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;None other are possible in Threal, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why in Threal&mdash;what is there peculiar here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will show you presently.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested what
+      had been said. When they came to the first trees, which grew along the
+      banks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,&rdquo;
+      he remarked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull removed it. He found that the line of his brow was smooth and
+      uninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in Tormance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How has this come about&mdash;and how did you know it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They were Faceny&rsquo;s organs. They have vanished, just as the
+      phaen&rsquo;s body vanished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept rubbing his forehead. &ldquo;I feel more human without them.
+      But why isn&rsquo;t the rest of my body affected?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because its living will contains the element of Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why are we stopping here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and
+      proffered it to him. &ldquo;Eat this, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For food, or something else?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Food for body and soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull bit into the root. It was white and hard; its white sap was
+      bleeding. It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a change of
+      perception. The landscape, without alteration of light or outline, became
+      several degrees more stern and sacred. When he looked at Corpang he was
+      impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness, but the perplexed expression
+      was still in his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Occasionally I go above, but not often.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What fastens you to this gloomy world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The search for Thire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it&rsquo;s still a search?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us walk on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain, the
+      conversation became even more earnest in character than before. &ldquo;Although
+      I was not born here,&rdquo; proceeded Corpang, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lived
+      here for twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing
+      nearer to Thire, as I hope. But there is this peculiarity about it&mdash;the
+      first stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the later ones.
+      The longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to absent himself. In the
+      beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as a shape, sometimes as a
+      voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion. Later on all is dry, dark, and
+      harsh in the soul. Then you would think that Thire was a million miles
+      off.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you explain that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this is troubling you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My days are spent in torture.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You still persist, though? This day darkness can&rsquo;t be the
+      ultimate state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My questions will be answered.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence ensued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you propose to show me?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The land is about to grow wilder. I am taking you to the Three
+      Figures, which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men. There,
+      we will pray.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily
+      forget.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two
+      parallel, gently sloping downs. The trough now deepened, while the hills
+      on either side grew steeper. They were in an ascending valley and, as it
+      curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from view. They came
+      to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground. It formed a trickling
+      brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that it was flowing <i>up</i>
+      the valley instead of <i>down</i>. Before long it was joined by other
+      miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a fair-sized stream.
+      Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his forehead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature has other laws here, it seems?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet the water is flowing somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t explain it, but there are three wills in it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without
+      Faceny.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought this over for some minutes. &ldquo;That must be so,&rdquo;
+      he said at last. &ldquo;Without life there can be no love, and without
+      love there can be no religious feeling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the valley
+      presently attained such a height that they could not be seen. The sides
+      were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew narrower at every
+      step. Not a living organism was visible. All was unnatural and sepulchral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull said, &ldquo;I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I still do not know what you are doing here,&rdquo; answered
+      Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I go on making a mystery of it? I came to find Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That name I&rsquo;ve heard&mdash;but under what circumstances?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously troubled.
+      &ldquo;Who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touching
+      fingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the rock
+      walls on either side. It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-sac, but just
+      when the road seemed least promising, and they were shut in by cliffs on
+      all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought them suddenly into the
+      open. They emerged through a mere crack in the line of precipices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to the
+      way they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few hundred
+      yards. Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm with
+      perpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred feet, but
+      its bottom could not be seen. On both sides of the chasm, facing one
+      another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in width; they too
+      proceeded in both directions out of sight. Maskull and Corpang emerged
+      onto one of these platforms. The shelf opposite was a few feet higher than
+      that on which they stood. The platforms were backed by a double line of
+      lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose tops were invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straight
+      forward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as a waterfall,
+      it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge. It then disappeared
+      through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To Maskull&rsquo;s mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnatural
+      phenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable here than
+      on the open plain. It made the place look like a hall of phantoms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left. When they
+      had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred feet. Three large
+      rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they resembled three upright
+      giants, standing motionless side by side on the extreme edge of the chasm.
+      Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and then Maskull saw that they were
+      statues. Each was about thirty feet high, and the workmanship was of the
+      rudest. They represented naked men, but the limbs and trunks had been
+      barely chipped into shape&mdash;the faces alone had had care bestowed on
+      them, and even these faces were merely generalised. It was obviously the
+      work of primitive artists. The statues stood erect with knees closed and
+      arms hanging straight down their sides. All three were exactly alike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this a representation of your three Beings?&rdquo; asked
+      Maskull, awed by the spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask no questions, but kneel,&rdquo; replied Corpang. He dropped
+      onto his own knees, but Maskull remained standing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently. After a few
+      minutes the light sensibly faded. Then Maskull knelt as well, but he
+      continued looking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night. Sight
+      and sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again. But it had
+      ceased to be a statue&mdash;it was a living person. Out of the blackness
+      of space a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by a mystic, rosy
+      glow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun. As the light grew
+      stronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent and that the glow came
+      from within. The limbs of the apparition were wreathed in mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly. It was that of
+      a beardless youth of twenty years. It possessed the beauty of a girl and
+      the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic smile. Maskull felt
+      the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and rapture of one who awakes
+      from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the gleaming, dark, delicate
+      colours of the half-dawn. The vision smiled, kept still, and looked beyond
+      him. He began to shudder, with delight&mdash;and many emotions. As he
+      gazed, his poetic sensibility acquired such a nervous and indefinable
+      character that he could endure it no more; he burst into tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a few
+      moments more he was plunged back into total darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared. It too was transfigured into
+      a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the details of its face and
+      body, because of the brightness of the light that radiated from them. This
+      light, which started as pale gold, ended as flaming golden fire. It
+      illumined the whole underground landscape. The rock ledges, the cliffs,
+      himself and Corpang on their knees, the two unlighted statues&mdash;all
+      appeared as if in sunlight, and the shadows were black and strongly
+      defined. The light carried heat with it, but a singular heat. Maskull was
+      unaware of any rise in temperature, but he felt his heart melting to
+      womanish softness. His male arrogance and egotism faded imperceptibly
+      away; his personality seemed to disappear. What was left behind was not
+      freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionate and nearly savage
+      mental state of pity and distress. He felt a tormenting desire to <i>serve</i>.
+      All this came from the heat of the statue, and was without an object. He
+      glanced anxiously around him, and fastened his eyes on Corpang. He put a
+      hand on his shoulder and aroused him from his praying.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must know what I am feeling, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care nothing for my own affairs any more. How can I help you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to
+      the invisible worlds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light to die
+      away from the landscape. Maskull&rsquo;s emotion slowly subsided, but it
+      was not until he was once more in complete darkness that he became master
+      of himself again. Then he felt ashamed of his boyish exhibition of
+      enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be something wanting in
+      his character. He got up onto his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The very moment that he arose, a man&rsquo;s voice sounded, not a yard
+      from his ear. It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could
+      distinguish that it was not Corpang&rsquo;s. As he listened he was unable
+      to prevent himself from physically trembling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, you are to die,&rdquo; said the unseen speaker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have only a few hours of life left. Don&rsquo;t trifle the time
+      away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull could bring nothing out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have despised life,&rdquo; went on the low-toned voice. &ldquo;Do
+      you really imagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life is
+      a joke?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What must I do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voice died away. Maskull waited in silence for it to speak again. All
+      remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have taken his
+      departure. Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a sort of
+      catalepsy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At that moment he saw one of the statues <i>fading away</i>, from a pale,
+      white glow to darkness. He had not previously seen it shining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned. Corpang got
+      up, and shook him out of his trance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked around, but saw no third person. &ldquo;Whose statue was
+      the last?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+<p>
+“Thire’s.”
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you hear me speaking?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard your voice, but no one else&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long
+      to live. Leehallfae prophesied the same thing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head. &ldquo;What value do you set on life?&rdquo; he
+      asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very little. But it&rsquo;s a fearful thing all the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your death is?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but this warning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They stopped talking. A profound silence reigned. Neither of the two men
+      seemed to know what to do next, or where to go. Then both of them heard
+      the sound of drumming. It was slow, emphatic, and impressive, a long way
+      off and not loud, but against the background of quietness, very marked. It
+      appeared to come from some point out of sight, to the left of where they
+      were standing, but on the same rock shelf. Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat
+      quickly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that sound be?&rdquo; asked Corpang, peering into the
+      obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once again, who <i>is</i> Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence. A strange radiance
+      was in the air, in the direction of the drumming. It increased in
+      intensity and gradually occupied the whole scene. Things were no longer
+      seen by Their&rsquo;s light, but by this new light. It cast no shadows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly.
+      &ldquo;What fire is that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both glanced instinctively at the three statues. In the strange glow
+      they had undergone a change. The face of each figure was clothed in the
+      sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes. &ldquo;What can this
+      mean?&rdquo; he asked a minute later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too,
+      whether he is one person or three.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a shocking
+      sight. &ldquo;Dare we believe this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must,&rdquo; replied Maskull. &ldquo;You have always served the
+      highest, and you must continue to do so. It has simply turned out that
+      Thire is not the highest.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang&rsquo;s face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger. &ldquo;Life
+      is clearly false&mdash;I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I
+      find&mdash;this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have nothing to reproach yourself with. Crystalman has had
+      eternity to practice his cunning in, so it&rsquo;s no wonder if a man can&rsquo;t
+      see straight, even with the best intentions. What have you decided to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drumming seems to be moving away. Will you follow it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where will it take us?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps out of Threal altogether.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It sounds to me more real than reality,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+      &ldquo;Tell me, who is Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of
+      which this world is a distorted copy. Crystalman is life, but Surtur is
+      other than life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you know this?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has sprung together somehow&mdash;from inspiration, from
+      experience, from conversation with the wise men of your planet. Every hour
+      it grows truer for me and takes a more definite shape.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,
+      energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution. &ldquo;I believe
+      you, Maskull. No better proof is required than <i>that</i>. Thire is not
+      the highest; he is even in a certain sense the <i>lowest</i>. Nothing but
+      the thoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits.... I am coming
+      with you&mdash;but don&rsquo;t play the traitor. These signs may be for
+      you, and not for me at all, and if you leave me&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I make no promises. I don&rsquo;t ask you to come with me. If you
+      prefer to stay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it,
+      you had better not come.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t talk like that. I shall never forget your service to
+      me... Let us make haste, or we shall lose the sound.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull. They walked fast in the
+      direction of the drumming. For upward of two miles the path went along the
+      ledge without any change of level. The mysterious radiance gradually
+      departed, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal. The rhythmical
+      beats continued, but a very long way ahead&mdash;neither was able to
+      diminish the distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of man are you?&rdquo; Corpang suddenly broke out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In what respect?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible? How is it
+      that I&rsquo;ve never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my
+      never-ending prayers and mortifications? In what way are you superior to
+      me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To hear voices perhaps can&rsquo;t be made a profession,&rdquo;
+      replied Maskull. &ldquo;I have a simple and unoccupied mind&mdash;that may
+      be why I sometimes hear things that up to the present you have not been
+      able to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to his
+      pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ledge presently began to rise. They were high above the platform on
+      the opposite side of the gulf. The road then curved sharply to the right,
+      and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a bridge, coming
+      out upon the top of the opposite cliffs. A new line of precipices
+      immediately confronted them. They followed the drumming along the base of
+      these heights, but as they were passing the mouth of a large cave the
+      sound came from its recesses, and they turned their steps inward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This leads to the outer world,&rdquo; remarked Corpang. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve
+      occasionally been there by this passage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then that&rsquo;s where it is taking us, no doubt. I confess I shan&rsquo;t
+      be sorry to see sunlight once more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you find time to think of sunlight?&rdquo; asked Corpang with a
+      rough smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I love the sun, and perhaps I&rsquo;m rather lacking in the spirit
+      of a zealot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet, for all that, you may get <i>there</i> before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t be bitter,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell
+      you another thing. Muspel can&rsquo;t be willed, for the simple reason
+      that Muspel does not concern the will. To will is a property of this
+      world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then what is your journey for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over
+      the walk, and quite another to run there at top speed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I&rsquo;m not so easily deceived as you think,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang with another smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light persisted in the cave. The path narrowed and became a steep
+      ascent. Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and they had to
+      climb. The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was reminded of the
+      confined dreams of his childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not long afterward, daylight appeared. They hastened to complete the last
+      stage. Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and, all dirty
+      and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on a hillside, bathed
+      in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine. Corpang followed closely at his
+      heels. He was obliged to shield his eyes with his hands for a few minutes,
+      so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell&rsquo;s blinding rays.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drum beats have stopped!&rdquo; he exclaimed suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t expect music all the time,&rdquo; answered Maskull
+      dryly. &ldquo;We mustn&rsquo;t be luxurious.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But now we have no guide. We&rsquo;re no better off than before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Tormance is a big place. But I have an infallible rule,
+      Corpang. As I come from the south, I always go due north.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will take us to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them. &ldquo;I
+      saw these rocks from Matterplay. The mountains look as far off now as they
+      did then, and there&rsquo;s not much of the day left. How far is Lichstorm
+      from here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked away to the distant range. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, but
+      unless a miracle happens we shan&rsquo;t get there tonight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have a feeling,&rdquo; said Maskull, &ldquo;that we shall not
+      only get there tonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my
+      life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And he sat down passively to rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 18. HAUNTE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      While Maskull sat, Corpang walked restlessly to and fro, swinging his
+      arms. He had lost his staff. His face was inflamed with suppressed
+      impatience, which accentuated its natural coarseness. At last he stopped
+      short in front of Maskull and looked down at him. &ldquo;What do you
+      intend to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull glanced up and idly waved his hand toward the distant mountains.
+      &ldquo;Since we can&rsquo;t walk, we must wait.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For what?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know... How&rsquo;s this, though? Those peaks have
+      changed colour, from red to green.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, the lich wind is travelling this way.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lich wind?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the atmosphere of Lichstorm. It always clings to the
+      mountains, but when the wind blows from the north it comes as far as
+      Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sort of fog, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A peculiar sort, for they say it excites the sexual passions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So we are to have lovemaking,&rdquo; said Maskull, laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you won&rsquo;t find it so joyous,&rdquo; replied Corpang a
+      little grimly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But tell me&mdash;these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast fading
+      into obscurity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Passion keeps them from falling.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of spirit.
+      &ldquo;What, the love of rock for rock?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is comical, but true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take a closer peep at them presently. Beyond the
+      mountains is Barey, is it not?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then the Ocean. But what is the name of that Ocean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is told only to those who die beside it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the secret so precious, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than two
+      hours of daylight remaining. The air all around them became murky. It was
+      a thin mist, neither damp nor cold. The Lichstorm Range now appeared only
+      as a blur on the sky. The air was electric and tingling, and was exciting
+      in its effect. Maskull felt a sort of emotional inflammation, as though a
+      very slight external cause would serve to overturn his self-control.
+      Corpang stood silent with a mouth like iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That seems to me a good watchtower. Perhaps we shall see something
+      from the top.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without waiting for his companion&rsquo;s opinion, he began to scramble up
+      the tor, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit. Corpang joined
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to the
+      sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water. Leaving
+      all that, however, Maskull&rsquo;s eyes immediately fastened themselves on
+      a small, boat-shaped object, about two miles away, which was travelling
+      rapidly toward them, suspended only a few feet in the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you make of that?&rdquo; he asked in a tone of
+      astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang shook his head and said nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Within two minutes the flying object, whatever it was, had diminished the
+      distance between them by one half. It resembled a boat more and more, but
+      its flight was erratic, rather than smooth; its nose was continually
+      jerking upward and downward, and from side to side. Maskull now made out a
+      man sitting in the stern, and what looked like a large dead animal lying
+      amidships. As the aerial craft drew nearer, he observed a thick, blue haze
+      underneath it, and a similar haze behind, but the front, facing them, was
+      clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here must be what we are waiting for, Corpang. But what on earth
+      carries it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stroked his beard contemplatively, and then, fearing that they had not
+      been seen, stepped onto the highest rock, bellowed loudly, and made wild
+      motions with his arm. The flying-boat, which was only a few hundred yards
+      distant, slightly altered its course, now heading toward them in a way
+      that left no doubt that the steersman had detected their presence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat slackened speed until it was travelling no faster than a walking
+      man, but the irregularity of its movements continued. It was shaped rather
+      queerly. About twenty feet long, its straight sides tapered off from a
+      flat bow, four feet broad, to a sharp-angled stern. The flat bottom was
+      not above ten feet from the ground. It was undecked, and carried only one
+      living occupant; the other object they had distinguished was really the
+      carcass of an animal, of about the size of a large sheep. The blue haze
+      trailing behind the boat appeared to emanate from the glittering point of
+      a short upright pole fastened in the stern. When the craft was within a
+      few feet of them, and they were looking down at it in wonder from above,
+      the man removed this pole and covered the brightly shining tip with a cap.
+      The forward motion then ceased altogether, and the boat began to drift
+      hither and thither, but still it remained suspended in the air, while the
+      haze underneath persisted. Finally the broad side came gently up against
+      the pile of rocks on which they were standing. The steersman jumped ashore
+      and immediately clambered up to meet them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull offered him a hand, but he refused it disdainfully. He was a young
+      man, of middle height. He wore a close-fitting fur garment. His limbs were
+      quite ordinary, but his trunk was disproportionately long, and he had the
+      biggest and deepest chest that Maskull had ever seen in a man. His
+      hairless face was sharp, pointed, and ugly, with protruding teeth, and a
+      spiteful, grinning expression. His eyes and brows sloped upward. On his
+      forehead was an organ which looked as though it had been mutilated&mdash;it
+      was a mere disagreeable stump of flesh. His hair was short and thin.
+      Maskull could not name the colour of his skin, but it seemed to stand in
+      the same relation to jale as green to red.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once up, the stranger stood for a minute or two, scrutinising the two
+      companions through half-closed lids, all the time smiling insolently.
+      Maskull was all eagerness to exchange words, but did not care to be the
+      first to speak. Corpang stood moodily, a little in the background.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What men are you?&rdquo; demanded the aerial navigator at last. His
+      voice was extremely loud, and possessed a most unpleasant timbre. It
+      sounded to Maskull like a large volume of air trying to force its way
+      through a narrow orifice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Maskull; my friend is Corpang. He comes from Threal, but where
+      I come from, don&rsquo;t ask.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am Haunte, from Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where may that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Half an hour ago I could have shown it to you, but now it has got
+      too murky. It is a mountain in Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you returning there now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how long will it take to get there in that boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two&mdash;three hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will it accommodate us too?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What, are you for Lichstorm as well? What can you want there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To see the sights,&rdquo; responded Maskull with twinkling eyes.
+      &ldquo;But first of all, to dine. I can&rsquo;t remember having eaten all
+      day. You seem to have been hunting to some purpose, so we won&rsquo;t lack
+      for food.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte eyed him quizzically. &ldquo;You certainly don&rsquo;t lack
+      impudence. However, I&rsquo;m a man of that sort myself, and it is the
+      sort I prefer. Your friend, now, would probably rather starve than ask a
+      meal of a stranger. He looks to me just like a bewildered toad dragged up
+      out of a dark hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took Corpang&rsquo;s arm, and constrained him to silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where have you been hunting, Haunte?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Matterplay. I had the worst luck&mdash;I speared one wold horse,
+      and there it lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is Lichstorm like?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are men there, and there are women there, but there are no
+      men-women, as with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call men-women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Persons of mixed sex, like yourself. In Lichstorm the sexes are
+      pure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always regarded myself as a man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very likely you have; but the test is, do you hate and fear women?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, do you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grinned and showed his teeth. &ldquo;Things are different in
+      Lichstorm.... So you want to see the sights?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I confess I am curious to see your women, for example, after what
+      you say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I&rsquo;ll introduce you to Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused a moment after making this remark, and then suddenly uttered a
+      great, bass laugh, so that his chest shook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let us share the joke,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;ll understand it later.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you play pranks with me, I won&rsquo;t stand on ceremony with
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed again. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be the one to play pranks.
+      Sullenbode will be deeply obliged to me. If I don&rsquo;t visit her myself
+      as often as she would like, I&rsquo;m always glad to serve her in other
+      ways.... Well, you shall have your boat ride.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull rubbed his nose doubtfully. &ldquo;If the sexes hate one another
+      in your land, is it because passion is weaker, or stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In other parts of the world there is soft passion, but in Lichstorm
+      there is hard passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you call hard passion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where men are called to women by pain, and not pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I intend to understand, before I&rsquo;ve finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered Haunte, with a taunting look, &ldquo;it would
+      be a pity to let the chance slip, since you&rsquo;re going to Lichstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now Corpang&rsquo;s turn to take Maskull by the arm. &ldquo;This
+      journey will end badly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your goal was Muspel a short while ago; now it is women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me alone,&rdquo; said Maskull. &ldquo;Give luck a slack rein.
+      What brought this boat here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this talk about Muspel?&rdquo; demanded Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang caught his shoulder roughly, and stared straight into his eyes.
+      &ldquo;What do you know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much, but something, perhaps. Ask me at supper. Now it is high
+      time to start. Navigating the mountains by night isn&rsquo;t child&rsquo;s
+      play, let me tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not forget,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed down at the boat. &ldquo;Are we to get in?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gently, my friend. It&rsquo;s only canework and skin.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First of all, you might enlighten me as to how you have contrived
+      to dispense with the laws of gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte smiled sarcastically. &ldquo;A secret in your ear, Maskull. All
+      laws are female. A true male is an outlaw&mdash;outside the law.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great body of the earth is continually giving out female
+      particles, and the male parts of rocks and living bodies are equally
+      continually trying to reach them. That&rsquo;s gravitation.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how do you manage with your boat?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My two male stones do the work. The one underneath the boat
+      prevents it from falling to the ground; the one in the stern shuts it off
+      from solid objects in the rear. The only part of the boat attracted by any
+      part of the earth is the bow, for that&rsquo;s the only part the light of
+      the male stones does not fall on. So in that direction the boat travels.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what are these wondrous male stones?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They really are male stones. There is nothing female in them; they
+      are showering out male sparks all the time. These sparks devour all the
+      female particles rising from the earth. No female particles are left over
+      to attract the male parts of the boat, and so they are not in the least
+      attracted in that direction.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull ruminated for a minute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With your hunting, and boatbuilding, and science, you seem a very
+      handy, skilful fellow, Haunte.... But the sun&rsquo;s sinking, and we&rsquo;d
+      better start.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get down first, then, and shift that carcass farther forward. Then
+      you and your gloomy friend can sit amidships.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull immediately climbed down, and dropped himself into the boat; but
+      then he received a surprise. The moment he stood on the frail bottom,
+      still clinging to the rock, not only did his weight entirely disappear, as
+      though he were floating in some heavy medium, like salt water, but the
+      rock he held onto drew him, as by a mild current of electricity, and he
+      was able to withdraw his hands only with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After the first moment&rsquo;s shock, he quietly accepted the new order of
+      things, and set about shifting the carcass. Since there was no weight in
+      the boat this was effected without any great labour. Corpang then
+      descended. The astonishing physical change had no power to disturb his
+      settled composure, which was founded on moral ideas. Haunte came last;
+      grasping the staff which held the upper male stone, he proceeded to erect
+      it, after removing the cap. Maskull then obtained his first near view of
+      the mysterious light, which, by counteracting the forces of Nature, acted
+      indirectly not only as elevator but as motive force. In the last ruddy
+      gleams of the great sun, its rays were obscured, and it looked little more
+      impressive than an extremely brilliant, scintillating blue-white jewel,
+      but its power could be gauged by the visible, coloured mist that it threw
+      out for many yards around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The steering was effected by means of a shutter attached by a cord to the
+      top of the staff, which could be so manipulated that any segment of the
+      male stone&rsquo;s rays, or all the rays, or none at all, could be shut
+      off at will. No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial vessel quietly
+      detached itself from the rock to which it had been drawn, and passed
+      slowly forward in the direction of the mountains. Branchspell sank below
+      the horizon. The gathering mist blotted out everything outside a radius of
+      a few miles. The air grew cool and fresh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon the rock masses ceased on the great, rising plain. Haunte withdrew
+      the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,&rdquo;
+      exclaimed Maskull. &ldquo;I would have thought it impossible.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte grunted. &ldquo;You will have to take risks, and think yourself
+      fortunate if you come off with nothing worse than a cracked skull. But one
+      thing I can tell you&mdash;if you go on disturbing me with your chitchat
+      we shan&rsquo;t get as far as the mountains.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thereafter Maskull was silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The twilight deepened; the murk grew denser. There was little to look at,
+      but much to feel. The motion of the boat, which was due to the
+      never-ending struggle between the male stones and the force of
+      gravitation, resembled in an exaggerated fashion the violent tossing of a
+      small craft on a choppy sea. The two passengers became unhappy. Haunte,
+      from his seat in the stern, gazed at them sardonically with one eye. The
+      darkness now came on rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About ninety minutes after the commencement of the voyage they arrived at
+      the foothills of Lichstorm. They began to mount. There was no daylight
+      left to see by. Beneath them, however, on both sides of them and in the
+      rear, the landscape was lighted up for a considerable distance by the now
+      vivid blue rays of the twin male stones. Ahead, where these rays did not
+      shine, Haunte was guided by the self-luminous nature of the rocks, grass,
+      and trees. These were faintly phosphorescent; the vegetation shone out
+      more strongly than the soil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was not shining and there were no stars; Maskull therefore
+      inferred that the upper atmosphere was dense with mist. Once or twice,
+      from his sensations of choking, he thought that they were entering a
+      fogbank, but it was a strange kind of fog, for it had the effect of
+      doubling the intensity of every light in front of them. Whenever this
+      happened, nightmare feelings attacked him; he experienced transitory,
+      unreasoning fright and horror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now they passed high above the valley that separated the foothills from
+      the mountains themselves. The boat began an ascent of many thousands of
+      feet and, as the cliffs were near, Haunte had to manoeuvre carefully with
+      the rear light in order to keep clear of them. Maskull watched the
+      delicacy of his movements, not without admiration. A long time went by. It
+      grew much colder; the air was damp and drafty. The fog began to deposit
+      something like snow on their persons. Maskull kept sweating with terror,
+      not because of the danger they were in, but because of the cloud banks
+      that continued to envelop them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They cleared the first line of precipices. Still mounting, but this time
+      with a forward motion, as could be seen by the vapours illuminated by the
+      male stones through which they passed, they were soon altogether out of
+      sight of solid ground. Suddenly and quite unexpectedly the moon broke
+      through. In the upper atmosphere thick masses of fog were seen crawling
+      hither and thither, broken in many places by thin rifts of sky, through
+      one of which Teargeld was shining. Below them, to their left, a gigantic
+      peak, glittering with green ice, showed itself for a few seconds, and was
+      then swallowed up again. All the rest of the world was hidden by the mist.
+      The moon went in again. Maskull had seen quite enough to make him long for
+      the aerial voyage to end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light from the male stones presently illuminated the face of a new
+      cliff. It was grand, rugged, and perpendicular. Upward, downward, and on
+      both sides, it faded imperceptibly into the night. After coasting it a
+      little way, they observed a shelf of rock jutting out. It was square,
+      measuring about a dozen feet each way. Green snow covered it to a depth of
+      some inches. Immediately behind it was a dark slit in the rock, which
+      promised to be the mouth of a cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte skilfully landed the boat on this platform. Standing up, he raised
+      the staff bearing the keel light and lowered the other; then removed both
+      male stones, which he continued to hold in his hand. His face was thrown
+      into strong relief by the vivid, sparkling blue-white rays. It looked
+      rather surly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do we get out?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes. I live here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks for the successful end of a dangerous journey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it has been touch-and-go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang jumped onto the platform. He was smiling coarsely. &ldquo;There
+      has been no danger, for our destinies lie elsewhere. You are merely a
+      ferryman, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that so?&rdquo; returned Haunte, with a most unpleasant laugh.
+      &ldquo;I thought I was carrying men, not gods.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where are we?&rdquo; asked Maskull. As he spoke, he got out, but
+      Haunte remained standing a minute in the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is Sarclash&mdash;the second highest mountain in the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which is the highest, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Adage. Between Sarclash and Adage there is a long ridge&mdash;very
+      difficult in places. About halfway along the ridge, at the lowest point,
+      lies the top of the Mornstab Pass, which goes through to Barey. Now you
+      know the lay of the land.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the woman Sullenbode live near here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Near enough.&rdquo; Haunte grinned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He leaped out of the boat and, pushing past the others without ceremony,
+      walked straight into the cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull followed, with Corpang at his heels. A few stone steps led to a
+      doorway, curtained by the skin of some large beast. Their host pushed his
+      way in, never offering to hold the skin aside for them. Maskull made no
+      comment, but grabbed it with his fist and tugged it away from its
+      fastenings to the ground. Haunte looked at the skin, and then stared hard
+      at Maskull with his disagreeable smile, but neither said anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The place in which they found themselves was a large oblong cavern, with
+      walls, floor, and ceiling of natural rock. There were two doorways: that
+      by which they had entered, and another of smaller size directly opposite.
+      The cave was cold and cheerless; a damp draft passed from door to door.
+      Many skins of wild animals lay scattered on the ground. A number of lumps
+      of sun-dried flesh were hanging on a string along the wall, and a few
+      bulging liquor skins reposed in a corner. There were tusks, horns, and
+      bones everywhere. Resting against the wall were two short hunting spears,
+      having beautiful crystal heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte set down the two male stones on the ground, near the farther door;
+      thire light illuminated the whole cave. He then walked over to the meat
+      and, snatching a large piece, began to gnaw it ravenously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we invited to the feast?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte pointed to the hanging flesh and to the liquor skins, but did not
+      pause in his chewing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s a cup?&rdquo; inquired Maskull, lifting one of the
+      skins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte indicated a clay goblet lying on the floor. Maskull picked it up,
+      undid the neck of the skin, and, resting it under his arm, filled the cup.
+      Tasting the liquor, he discovered it to be raw spirit. He tossed off the
+      draught, and then felt much better.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second cupful he proffered to Corpang. The latter took a single sip,
+      swallowed it, and then passed the cup back without a word. He refused to
+      drink again, as long as they were in the cave. Maskull finished the cup,
+      and began to throw off care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Going to the meat line, he took down a large double handful, and sat down
+      on a pile of skins to eat at his ease. The flesh was tough and coarse, but
+      he had never tasted anything sweeter. He could not understand the flavour,
+      which was not surprising in a world of strange animals. The meal proceeded
+      in silence. Corpang ate sparingly, standing up, and afterward lay down on
+      a bundle of furs. His bold eyes watched all the movements of the other
+      two. Haunte had not drunk as yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last Maskull concluded his meal. He emptied another cup, sighed
+      pleasantly, and prepared to talk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now explain further about your women, Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fetched another skin of liquor and a second cup. He tore off the
+      string with his teeth, and poured out and drank cup after cup in quick
+      succession. Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and turned to Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So they are objectionable?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are deadly.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Deadly? In what way can they possibly be deadly?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will learn. I was watching you in the boat, Maskull. You had
+      some bad feelings, eh?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t conceal it. There were times when I felt as if I were
+      struggling with a nightmare. What caused it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The female atmosphere of Lichstorm. Sexual passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had no passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That <i>was</i> passion&mdash;the first stage. Nature tickles your
+      people into marriage, but it tortures us. Wait till you get outside. You&rsquo;ll
+      have a return of those sensations&mdash;only ten times worse. The drink
+      you&rsquo;ve had will see to that.... How do you suppose it will all end?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I knew, I wouldn&rsquo;t be asking you questions.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte laughed loudly. &ldquo;Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean it will end in my seeking Sullenbode?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what will come of it, Maskull? What will she give you? Sweet,
+      fainting, white-armed, feminine voluptuousness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull coolly drank another cup. &ldquo;And why should she give all that
+      to a passerby?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, as a matter of fact, she hasn&rsquo;t it to give. No, what
+      she will give you, and what you&rsquo;ll accept from her, because you can&rsquo;t
+      help it, is&mdash;anguish, insanity, possibly death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be talking sense, but it sounds like raving to me. Why
+      should I accept insanity and death?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because your passion will force you to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What about yourself?&rdquo; Maskull asked, biting his nails.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I have my male stones. I am immune.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that all that prevents you from being like other men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but don&rsquo;t attempt any tricks, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went on drinking steadily, and said nothing for a time. &ldquo;So
+      men and women here are hostile to each other, and love is unknown?&rdquo;
+      he proceeded at last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That magic word.... Shall I tell you what love is, Maskull? Love
+      between male and female is impossible. When Maskull loves a woman, it is
+      Maskull&rsquo;s female ancestors who are loving her. But here in this land
+      the men are pure males. They have drawn nothing from the female side.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where do the male stones come from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, they are not freaks. There must be whole beds of the stuff
+      somewhere. It is all that prevents the world from being a pure female
+      world. It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without individual
+      shapes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The life of an absolute male is fierce. An excess of life is
+      dangerous to the body. How can it be anything else than torturing?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte. &ldquo;I remind you of
+      your promise to tell about Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile. &ldquo;Ha! The underground
+      man has come to life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, tell us,&rdquo; put in Maskull carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte drank, and laughed a little. &ldquo;Well, the tale&rsquo;s short,
+      and hardly worth telling, but since you&rsquo;re interested.... A stranger
+      came here five years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light. His name was Lodd.
+      He came from the east. He came up to me one bright morning in summer,
+      outside this very cave. If you ask me to describe him&mdash;I can&rsquo;t
+      imagine a second man like him. He looked so proud, noble, superior, that I
+      felt my own blood to be dirty by comparison. You can guess I don&rsquo;t
+      have this feeling for everyone. Now that I am recalling him, he was not so
+      much superior as different. I was so impressed that I rose and talked to
+      him standing. He inquired the direction of the mountain Adage. He went on
+      to say, &lsquo;They say Muspel-light is sometimes seen there. What do you
+      know of such a thing?&rsquo; I told him the truth&mdash;that I knew
+      nothing about it, and then he went on, &lsquo;Well, I am going to Adage.
+      And tell those who come after me on the same errand that they had better
+      do the same thing.&rsquo; That was the whole conversation. He started on
+      his way, and I&rsquo;ve never seen him or heard of him since.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you didn&rsquo;t have the curiosity to follow him?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in
+      the man somehow seemed to vanish.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Probably because he was useless to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang glanced at Maskull. &ldquo;Our road is marked out for us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it would appear,&rdquo; said Maskull indifferently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk flagged for a time. Maskull felt the silence oppressive, and grew
+      restless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
+      daylight? It struck me as strange.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dolm,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A compound of ulfire and blue,&rdquo; explained Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I know. These colours are puzzling for a stranger.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What colours have you in your world?&rdquo; asked Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how
+      it comes about I can&rsquo;t imagine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two sets of three primary colours here,&rdquo; said
+      Corpang, &ldquo;but as one of the colours&mdash;blue&mdash;is identical in
+      both sets, altogether there are five primary colours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why two sets?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Produced by the two suns. Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and
+      red; Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me
+      before.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity of
+      nature. Blue is existence. It is darkness seen through light; a
+      contrasting of existence and nothingness. Yellow is relation. In yellow
+      light we see the relation of objects in the clearest way. Red is feeling.
+      When we see red, we are thrown back on our personal feelings.... As
+      regards the Alppain colours, blue stands in the middle and is therefore
+      not existence, but relation. Ulfire is existence; so it must be a
+      different sort of existence.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte yawned. &ldquo;There are marvellous philosophers in your
+      underground hole.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull got up and looked about him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where does that other door lead to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Better explore,&rdquo; said Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging the
+      curtain aside and disappearing into the night. Haunte rose abruptly and
+      hurried after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang too got to his feet. He went over to the untouched spirit skins,
+      untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to the floor.
+      Next he took the hunting spears, and snapped off the points between his
+      hands. Before he had time to resume his seat, Haunte and Maskull
+      reappeared. The host&rsquo;s quick, shifty eyes at once took in what had
+      happened. He smiled, and turned pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You haven&rsquo;t been idle, friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fixed Haunte with his bold, heavy gaze. &ldquo;I thought it well
+      to draw your teeth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull burst out laughing. &ldquo;The toad&rsquo;s come into the light to
+      some purpose, Haunte. Who would have expected it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte, after staring hard at Corpang for two or three minutes, suddenly
+      uttered a strange cry, like an evil spirit, and flung himself upon him.
+      The two men began to wrestle like wildcats. They were as often on the
+      floor as on their legs, and Maskull could not see who was getting the
+      better of it. He made no attempt to separate them. A thought came into his
+      head and, snatching up the two male stones, he ran with them, laughing,
+      through the upper doorway, into the open night air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The door overlooked an abyss on another face of the mountain. A narrow
+      ledge, sprinkled with green snow, wound along the cliff to the right; it
+      was the only available path. He pitched the pebbles over the edge of the
+      chasm. Although hard and heavy in his hand, they sank more like feathers
+      than stones, and left a long trail of vapour behind. While Maskull was
+      still watching them disappear, Haunte came rushing out of the cavern,
+      followed by Corpang. He gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm excitedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What in Krag&rsquo;s name have you done?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Overboard they have gone,&rdquo; replied Maskull, renewing his
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You accursed madman!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
+      light were breathing. Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme exertion of
+      his will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You know this kills me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you been doing your best this last hour to make me
+      ripe for Sullenbode? Well then, cheer up, and join the pleasure party!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say it as a joke, but it is the miserable truth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte&rsquo;s jeering malevolence had completely vanished. He looked a
+      sick man&mdash;yet somehow his face had become nobler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would be very sorry for you, Haunte, if it did not entail my
+      being also very sorry for myself. We are now all three together on the
+      same errand&mdash;which doesn&rsquo;t appear to have struck you yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why this errand at all?&rdquo; asked Corpang quietly. &ldquo;Can&rsquo;t
+      you men exercise self-control till you have arrived out of danger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte fixed him with wild eyes. &ldquo;No. The phantoms come trooping in
+      on me already.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sat down moodily, but the next minute was up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I cannot wait.... the game is started.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Soon afterward, by silent consent, they began to walk the ledge, Haunte in
+      front. It was narrow, ascending, and slippery, so that extreme caution was
+      demanded. The way was lighted by the self-luminous snow and rocks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When they had covered about half a mile, Maskull, who went second of the
+      party, staggered, caught the cliff, and finally sat down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The drink works. My old sensations are returning, but worse.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned back. &ldquo;Then you are a doomed man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation, imagined
+      that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless, supernatural being, who
+      was trying to clasp him. He was filled with horror, trembled violently,
+      yet could not move a limb. Sweat tumbled off his face in great drops. The
+      waking nightmare lasted a long time, but during that space it kept coming
+      and going. At one moment the vision seemed on the point of departing; the
+      next it almost took shape&mdash;which he knew would be his death. Suddenly
+      it vanished altogether&mdash;he was free. A fresh spring breeze fanned his
+      face; he heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet bird; and it seemed
+      to him as if a poem had shot together in his soul. Such flashing,
+      heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all his life! Almost
+      immediately that too vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly, like
+      one who has been visited by an angel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your colour changed to white,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;What
+      happened?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I passed through torture to love,&rdquo; replied Maskull simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He stood up. Haunte gazed at him sombrely. &ldquo;Will you not describe
+      that passage?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully. &ldquo;When I was in Matterplay,
+      I saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured, living
+      animals. In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now seemed to
+      consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of joy. The joy
+      would not have been possible without the preliminary nightmare. It is not
+      accidental; Nature intends it so. The truth has just flashed through my
+      brain.... You men of Lichstorm don&rsquo;t go far enough. You stop at the
+      pangs, without realising that they are birth pangs.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this is true, you are a great pioneer,&rdquo; muttered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How does this sensation differ from common love?&rdquo;
+      interrogated Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang fingered his chin awhile. &ldquo;The Lichstorm men, however, will
+      never reach this stage, for they are too masculine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Haunte turned pale. &ldquo;Why should we alone suffer?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nature is freakish and cruel, and doesn&rsquo;t act according to
+      justice.... Follow us, Haunte, and escape from it all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; muttered Haunte. &ldquo;Perhaps I will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have we far to go, to Sullenbode?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, her home&rsquo;s under the hanging cap of Sarclash.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is to happen tonight?&rdquo; Maskull spoke to himself, but
+      Haunte answered him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t expect anything pleasant, in spite of what has just
+      occurred. She is not a woman, but a mass of pure sex. Your passion will
+      draw her out into human shape, but only for a moment. If the change were
+      permanent, you would have endowed her with a soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the change might be made permanent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To do that, it is not enough to desire her; she must desire you as
+      well. But why should she desire you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing turns out as one expects,&rdquo; said Maskull, shaking his
+      head. &ldquo;We had better get on again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They resumed the journey. The ledge still rose, but, on turning a corner
+      of the cliff, Haunte quitted it and began to climb a steep gully, which
+      mounted directly to the upper heights. Here they were compelled to use
+      both hands and feet. Maskull thought all the while of nothing but the
+      overwhelming sweetness he had just experienced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The flat ground on top was dry and springy. There was no more snow, and
+      bright plants appeared. Haunte turned sharply to the left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This must be under the cap,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is; and within five minutes you will see Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he spoke his words, Maskull&rsquo;s lips surprised him by their
+      tender sensitiveness. Their action against each other sent thrills
+      throughout his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grass shone dimly. A huge tree, with glowing branches, came into
+      sight. It bore a multitude of red fruit, like hanging lanterns, but no
+      leaves. Underneath this tree Sullenbode was sitting. Her beautiful light&mdash;a
+      mingling of jale and white&mdash;gleamed softly through the darkness. She
+      sat erect, on crossed legs, asleep. She was clothed in a singular skin
+      garment, which started as a cloak thrown over one shoulder, and ended as
+      loose breeches terminating above the knees. Her forearms were lightly
+      folded, and in one hand she held a half-eaten fruit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stood over her and looked down, deeply interested. He thought he
+      had never seen anything half so feminine. Her flesh was almost melting in
+      its softness. So undeveloped were the facial organs that they looked
+      scarcely human; only the lips were full, pouting, and expressive. In their
+      richness, these lips seemed like a splash of vivid will on a background of
+      slumbering protoplasm. Her hair was undressed. Its colour could not be
+      distinguished. It was long and tangled, and had been tucked into her
+      garment behind, for convenience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly agitated.
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart was hammering away under his chest. Haunte pulled
+      him, and said, &ldquo;My head feels as if it were being torn from my
+      shoulders.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What can that mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet there&rsquo;s a horrible joy in it,&rdquo; added Haunte, with a
+      sickly smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his hand on the woman&rsquo;s shoulder. She awoke softly, glanced
+      up at them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit. Maskull did not
+      imagine that she had intelligence enough to speak. Haunte suddenly dropped
+      on his knees, and kissed her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not repulse him. During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull
+      noticed with a shock that her face was altering. The features emerged from
+      their indistinctness and became human, and almost powerful. The smile
+      faded, a scowl took its place. She thrust Haunte away, rose to her feet,
+      and stared beneath bent brows at the three men, each one in turn. Maskull
+      came last; his face she studied for quite a long time, but nothing
+      indicated what she thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning. She
+      suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he
+      fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with
+      an electric wire. The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay there
+      motionless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang sprang forward to his assistance. But, when he saw what had
+      happened, he left him where he was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull, come here quickly!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte&rsquo;s skin, as Maskull bent
+      over. The man was dead. His face was unrecognisable. The head had been
+      split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with
+      strange-coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an
+      axe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This couldn&rsquo;t be from the fall,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Sullenbode did it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman. She had resumed her former
+      attitude on the ground. The momentary intelligence had vanished from her
+      face, and she was again smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 19. SULLENBODE
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the
+      clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless,
+      smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang spoke out of the night. &ldquo;She looks like an evil spirit
+      filled with deadliness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was like deliberately kissing lightning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte was insane with passion.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So am I,&rdquo; said Maskull quietly. &ldquo;My body seems full of
+      rocks, all grinding against one another.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is what I was afraid of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It appears I shall have to kiss her too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang pulled his arm. &ldquo;Have you lost all manliness?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at his
+      beard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this had
+      gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and
+      lifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the rugged tree
+      trunk, he kissed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame. He thought that it was
+      death, and lost consciousness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder with
+      one hand at arm&rsquo;s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes. At
+      first he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but
+      another. Then he gradually realised that her face was identical with that
+      which Haunte&rsquo;s action had called into existence. A great calmness
+      came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul. Her skin was firm, her
+      features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.
+      She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements. Her
+      face was not beautiful. It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth
+      crossed the lower half like a gash of fire. The lips were as voluptuous as
+      before. Her brows were heavy. There was nothing vulgar in her&mdash;she
+      looked the <i>kingliest</i> of all women. She appeared not more than
+      twenty-five.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little way
+      and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth into a
+      long, bowlike smile. &ldquo;Whom have I to thank for this gift of life?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her voice was rich, slow, and odd. Maskull felt himself in a dream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My name is Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She motioned to him to come a step nearer. &ldquo;Listen, Maskull. Man
+      after man has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me there,
+      for I did not wish it. But now you have drawn me into it for all time, for
+      good or evil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and said
+      quietly, &ldquo;What have you to say about <i>him</i>?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who was it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haunte.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So that was Haunte. The news will travel far and wide. He was a
+      famous man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a horrible affair. I can&rsquo;t think that you killed
+      him deliberately.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our only
+      protection. We do not want these visits; we loathe them.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I might have died, too.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You came together?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were three of us. Corpang still stands over there.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see a faintly glimmering form. What do you want of me, Corpang?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then go away, and leave me with Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No need, Corpang. I am coming with you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not that pleasure, then?&rdquo; demanded the low, earnest
+      voice, out of the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that pleasure has not returned.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode gripped his arm hard. &ldquo;What pleasure are you speaking of?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what do you feel now?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Calm and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling
+      sea of elemental passions. &ldquo;I do not know how it will end, Maskull,
+      but we will still keep together a little. Where are you going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To Adage,&rdquo; said Corpang, stepping forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to
+      find Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<p>
+“What light is that?”
+</p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the light of another world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The quest is grand. But cannot women see that light?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one condition,&rdquo; said Corpang. &ldquo;They must forget
+      their sex. Womanhood and love belong to life, while Muspel is above life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I give you all other men,&rdquo; said Sullenbode. &ldquo;Maskull is
+      mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to remind him of
+      the existence of nobler things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are a good man. But you two alone will never strike the road to
+      Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you acquainted with it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the woman gripped Maskull&rsquo;s arm. &ldquo;What is love&mdash;which
+      Corpang despises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked at her attentively. Sullenbode went on, &ldquo;Love is that
+      which is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the sake
+      of the beloved.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang wrinkled his forehead. &ldquo;A magnanimous female lover is new in
+      my experience.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, &ldquo;Are
+      you contemplating a sacrifice?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gazed at her feet, and smiled. &ldquo;What does it matter what my
+      thoughts are? Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to rest
+      first? It&rsquo;s a rough road to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in your mind?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will guide you a little. When we reach the ridge between Sarclash
+      and Adage, perhaps I shall turn back.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak,
+      but if it is dark it&rsquo;s hardly likely.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not what I meant. What will become of you after we
+      have parted company?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall return somewhere&mdash;perhaps here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better. &ldquo;Shall
+      you sink back into&mdash;the old state?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, thank heaven.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how will you live?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm. There
+      was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes. &ldquo;And who said I would go
+      on living?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment. A few moments passed before he
+      spoke again. &ldquo;You women are a sacrificing lot. You know I can&rsquo;t
+      leave you like this.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their eyes met. Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull. Now let us
+      go.... Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we others&mdash;who
+      aren&rsquo;t so single-minded&mdash;can do is to help him to his
+      destination. We mustn&rsquo;t inquire whether the destination of
+      single-minded men is as a rule worth arriving at.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang gave a wry smile. &ldquo;During your long sleep you appear to have
+      picked up wisdom.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can we not bury that poor fellow?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves. But I do not
+      include Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have no tools, so you must have your way. You killed him, but I
+      am the real murderer. I stole his protecting light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me.&rdquo;
+      They left the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three
+      men had arrived. After a few steps, they came to green snow again. At the
+      same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse a steep,
+      pathless mountain slope. The snow and rocks glimmered, their own bodies
+      shone; otherwise everything was dark. The mists swirled around them, but
+      Maskull had no more nightmares. The breeze was cold, pure, and steady.
+      They walked in file, Sullenbode leading; her movements were slow and
+      fascinating. Corpang came last. His stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an
+      alluring girl and a half-infatuated man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
+      maintaining a slightly upward course. The angle was so steep that a false
+      step would have been fatal. The high ground was on their right. After a
+      while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level ground, and they
+      seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain. The ascending slope on
+      the right hand persisted for a few hundred yards more. Then Sullenbode
+      bore sharply to the left, and they found level ground all around them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are on the ridge,&rdquo; announced the woman, halting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst through
+      the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull uttered a cry. The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view was
+      quite unexpected. Teargeld was high in the sky to their left, shining down
+      on them from behind. Straight in front, like an enormously wide, smoothly
+      descending road, lay the great ridge which went on to Adage, though Adage
+      itself was out of sight. It was never less than two hundred yards wide. It
+      was covered with green snow, in some places entirely, but in other places
+      the naked rocks showed through like black teeth. From where they stood
+      they were unable to see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath. On
+      the right hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct.
+      There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of Barey.
+      But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty pinnacles, near and
+      far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight. All glittered green, and
+      all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps that characterised the
+      Lichstorm range. These caps were of fantastic shapes, and each one was
+      different. The valley directly opposite them was filled with rolling mist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe. Its two
+      ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile or more of
+      empty space. The northern end became the ridge on which they stood. The
+      southern end was the long line of cliffs on that part of the mountain
+      where Haunte&rsquo;s cave was situated. The connecting curve was the steep
+      slope they had just traversed. One peak of Sarclash was invisible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the south-west many mountains raised their heads. In addition, a few
+      summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared over the
+      south side of the horseshoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw her
+      for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on his lips.
+      The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features, and the face,
+      pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly became almost
+      beautiful. The lips were a long, womanish curve of rose-red. Her hair was
+      a dark maroon. Maskull was greatly disturbed; he thought that she
+      resembled a spirit, rather than a woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What puzzles you?&rdquo; she asked, smiling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing. But I would like to see you by sunlight.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you never will.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your life must be most solitary.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes. &ldquo;Why
+      do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means
+      I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode laughed outright. &ldquo;It assuredly does not mean the
+      approach of night.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
+      broke in. &ldquo;The road is plain now, Maskull. If you wish it, I&rsquo;ll
+      go on alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we&rsquo;ll go on together. Sullenbode will accompany us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A little way,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;but not to Adage, to
+      pit my strength against unseen powers. That light is not for me. I know
+      how to renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen? Corpang
+      is as ignorant as myself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corpang looked him full in the face. &ldquo;Maskull, you are quite well
+      aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of a
+      beautiful woman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gave an uneasy laugh. &ldquo;What Corpang doesn&rsquo;t tell you,
+      Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than he,
+      and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be saying his
+      prayers in Threal.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still, what he says must be true,&rdquo; she replied, looking from
+      one to the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so I am not to be allowed to&mdash;&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not
+      backward, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We need not quarrel yet,&rdquo; he remarked, with a forced smile.
+      &ldquo;No doubt things will straighten themselves out.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot. &ldquo;I picked up
+      another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell it to me, then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men who live by laws and rules are parasites. Others shed their
+      strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day, but the
+      law-abiders live at their ease&mdash;they have conquered nothing for
+      themselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and
+      perfect. You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They started walking again along the centre of the ridge. All three were
+      abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
+      comparatively smooth. The freezing point seemed higher than on Earth, for
+      the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt almost warm to
+      their naked feet. Maskull&rsquo;s soles were by now like tough hides. The
+      moonlit snow was green and dazzling. Their slanting, abbreviated shadows
+      were sharply defined, and red-black in colour. Maskull, who walked on
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s right hand, looked constantly to the left, toward the
+      galaxy of glorious distant peaks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You cannot belong to this world,&rdquo; said the woman. &ldquo;Men
+      of your stamp are not to be looked for here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I have come here from Earth.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that larger than our world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Smaller, I think. Small, and overcrowded with men and women. With
+      all those people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and
+      therefore the laws are of iron. As adventure would be impossible without
+      encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of adventure
+      among the Earthmen. Everything is safe, vulgar, and completed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do men hate women there, and women men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful. So poignant
+      is the sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open eyes.
+      There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion.
+      But now say&mdash;why did you come here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To meet with new experiences, perhaps. The old ones no longer
+      interested me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long have you been in this world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is the end of my fourth day.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days.
+      You cannot have been inactive.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Great misfortunes have happened to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from the
+      moment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert. Sullenbode listened,
+      with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time. Only twice did
+      she interrupt him. After his description of Tydomin&rsquo;s death, she
+      said, speaking in a low voice&mdash;&ldquo;None of us women ought by right
+      of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice. For that one act of hers,
+      I almost love her, although she brought evil to your door.&rdquo; Again,
+      speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, &ldquo;That grand-souled girl I admire
+      the most of all. She listened to her inner voice, and to nothing else
+      besides. Which of us others is strong enough for that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, &ldquo;Does it not strike
+      you, Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than the
+      men?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I recognise that. We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for a
+      substantial cause. For you women almost any cause will serve. You love the
+      sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are naturally noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so sweet,
+      that he was struck into silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he said, &ldquo;Now
+      you understand the sort of man I am. Much brutality, more weakness, scant
+      pity for anyone&mdash;Oh, it has been a bloody journey!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laid her hand on his arm. &ldquo;I, for one, would not have it less
+      rugged.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing good can be said of my crimes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not
+      what.... The grandest that life holds.... You at least have no cause to
+      look up to women.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thanks, Sullenbode!&rdquo; he responded, with a troubled smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When Maskull passes, let people watch. Everyone is thrown out of
+      your road. You go on, looking neither to right nor left.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care that you are not thrown as well,&rdquo; said Corpang
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull! And for
+      whatever he does, I will thank him.... In place of a heart you have a bag
+      of loose dust. Someone has described love to you. You have had it
+      described to you. You have heard that it is a small, fearful, selfish joy.
+      It is not that&mdash;it is wild, and scornful, and sportive, and
+      bloody.... How should you know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Selfishness has far too many disguises.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Only do not deceive yourself. Act decisively, or fate will be too
+      swift for you both.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode studied him through her lashes. &ldquo;Do you mean death&mdash;his
+      death as well as mine?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You go too far, Corpang,&rdquo; said Maskull, turning a shade
+      darker. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers. &ldquo;I wish you to
+      stay with us.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you may know what you are talking about. I don&rsquo;t wish
+      to bring harm to Maskull. Presently I&rsquo;ll leave you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will be best,&rdquo; said Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked angry. &ldquo;I shall decide&mdash;Sullenbode, whether you
+      go on, or back, I stay with you. My mind is made up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her efforts
+      to conceal it. &ldquo;Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered brows.
+      After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly. &ldquo;Wait, Sullenbode!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others came to a standstill. Corpang looked puzzled, but the woman
+      smiled. Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her lips. Then he
+      relinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hereafter, never dare to come between us. Sullenbode belongs to me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I say no more; but you are a fated man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of the others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A heavy gleam appeared in the woman&rsquo;s eyes. &ldquo;Now things are
+      changed, Maskull. Where are you taking me?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Choose, you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man I love must complete his journey. I won&rsquo;t have it
+      otherwise. You shall not stand lower than Corpang.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you go, I will go.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I&mdash;as long as your love endures, I will accompany you&mdash;even
+      to Adage.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you doubt its lasting?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish not to.... Now I will tell you what I refused to tell you
+      before. The term of your love is the term of my life. When you love me no
+      longer, I must die.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And why?&rdquo; asked Maskull slowly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, that&rsquo;s the responsibility you incurred when you kissed
+      me for the first time. I never meant to tell you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no other life but what you give me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then slowly
+      placed his arms around her body. During this embrace he turned very pale,
+      but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had been walking for two hours. Teargeld was higher in the sky and
+      nearer the south. They had descended many hundred feet, and the character
+      of the ridge began to alter for the worse. The thin snow disappeared, and
+      gave way to moist, boggy ground. It was all little grassy hillocks and
+      marshes. They began to slip about and become draggled with mud.
+      Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and the men followed in her
+      tracks. The southern half of the landscape grew grander. The greenish
+      light of the brilliant moon, shining on the multitude of snow-green peaks,
+      caused it to appear like a spectral world. Their nearest neighbour towered
+      high above them on the other side of the valley, due south, some five
+      miles distant. It was a slender, inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock,
+      the angles of which were too steep to retain snow. A great upward-curving
+      horn of rock sprang out from its topmost pinnacle. For a long time it
+      constituted their cheif landmark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture. The surface soil
+      was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed in the damp mists
+      by night, and breathed them out again by day, under Branchspell&rsquo;s
+      rays. The walking grew first unpleasant, then difficult, and finally
+      dangerous. None of the party could distinguish firm ground from bog.
+      Sullenbode sank up to her waist in a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her,
+      but after this incident took the lead himself. Corpang was the next to
+      meet with trouble. Exploring a new path for himself, he tumbled into
+      liquid mud up to his shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death. After
+      Maskull had got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded once more;
+      but now the scramble changed from bad to worse. Each step had to be
+      thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so the test
+      frequently failed. All of them went in so often, that in the end they no
+      longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plastered from top to
+      toe with black filth. The hardest work fell to Maskull. He not only had
+      the exhausting task of beating the way, but was continually called upon to
+      help his companions out of their difficulties. Without him they could not
+      have got through.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.
+      Corpang&rsquo;s breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless,
+      and depressed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at them doubtfully. &ldquo;Does this continue?&rdquo; he
+      inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No. I think,&rdquo; replied the woman, &ldquo;we can&rsquo;t be far
+      from the Mornstab Pass. After that we shall begin to climb again, and then
+      the road will improve perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can you have been here before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are tired out, Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What of it?&rdquo; she replied, smiling faintly. &ldquo;When one
+      has a terrible lover, one must pay the price.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter we
+      come to.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I leave it to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paced up and down, while the others sat. &ldquo;Do you regret anything?&rdquo;
+      he demanded suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, Maskull, nothing. I regret nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Your feelings are unchanged?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Love can&rsquo;t go back&mdash;it can only go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eternally on. It is so.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t mean that. There is a climax, but when the climax
+      has been reached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to sacrifice.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a dreadful creed,&rdquo; he said in a low voice,
+      turning pale beneath his coating of mud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps my nature is discordant.... I am tired. I don&rsquo;t know
+      what I feel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journey
+      recommenced. Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to drain
+      off the moisture of the soil. Sullenbode led them to the northern edge of
+      the ridge, to show them the nature of the country. The pass was nothing
+      but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the ridge, where it was the
+      lowest above the underlying land. A series of huge broken terraces of
+      earth and rock descended toward Barey. They were overgrown with stunted
+      vegetation. It was quite possible to get down to the lowlands that way,
+      but rather difficult. On either side of the landslip, to east and west,
+      the ridge came down in a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs. A low haze
+      concealed Barey from view. Complete stillness was in the air, broken only
+      by the distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open country. The
+      moon was directly behind them, high up. It was almost as light as an Earth
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tonight is like life,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull sighed. &ldquo;Poor girl, you are unhappy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you&mdash;are you happy?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He thought a while, and then replied&mdash;&ldquo;No. No, I&rsquo;m not
+      happy. Love is not happiness.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Restlessness&mdash;unshed tears&mdash;thoughts too grand for our
+      soul to think...&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sullenbode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time she asked, &ldquo;Why were we created, just to live for a few
+      years and then disappear?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are told that we shall live again.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps in Muspel,&rdquo; he added thoughtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What kind of life will that be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surely we shall meet again. Love is too wonderful and mysterious a
+      thing to remain uncompleted.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him. &ldquo;This dream is
+      untrue. Love is completed here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by
+      Fate?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is completed by anguish.... Oh, why must it always be enjoyment
+      for us? Can&rsquo;t we suffer&mdash;can&rsquo;t we go on suffering,
+      forever and ever? Maskull, until love crushes our spirit, finally and
+      without remedy, we don&rsquo;t begin to feel ourselves.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression. &ldquo;Can the memory of
+      love be worth more than its presence and reality?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t understand. Those pangs are more precious than all
+      the rest beside.&rdquo; She caught at him. &ldquo;Oh, if you could only
+      see inside my mind, Maskull! You would see strange things.... I can&rsquo;t
+      explain. It is all confused, even to myself.... This love is quite
+      different from what I thought.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sighed again. &ldquo;Love is a strong drink. Perhaps it is too strong
+      for human beings. And I think that it overturns our reason in different
+      ways.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them with
+      unseeing eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said Sullenbode at last, with a
+      smile, getting up. &ldquo;Soon it will be ended, one way or another. Come,
+      let us be off!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull too got up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Corpang?&rdquo; he asked listlessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage. At the point
+      where they stood it was nearly a mile wide. It sloped perceptibly toward
+      the southern edge, giving all the earth the appearance of a heavy list.
+      Toward the west the ground continued level for a thousand yards, but then
+      a high, sloping, grassy hill went right across the ridge from side to
+      side, like a vast billow on the verge of breaking. It shut out all further
+      view beyond. The whole crest of this hill, from one end to the other, was
+      crowned by a long row of enormous stone posts, shining brightly in the
+      moonlight against a background of dark sky. There were about thirty in
+      all, and they were placed at such regular intervals that there was little
+      doubt that they had been set there by human hands. Some were
+      perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extreme
+      antiquity was given to the entire colonnade. Corpang was seen climbing the
+      hill, not far from the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He wishes to arrive,&rdquo; said Maskull, watching the energetic
+      ascent with a rather cynical smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The heavens won&rsquo;t open for Corpang,&rdquo; returned
+      Sullenbode. &ldquo;He need not be in such a hurry.... What do these
+      pillars seem like to you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They might be the entrance to some mighty temple. Who can have
+      planted them there?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not answer. They watched Corpang gain the summit of the hill, and
+      disappear through the line of posts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned again to Sullenbode. &ldquo;Now we two are alone in a
+      lonely world.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She regarded him steadily. &ldquo;Our last night on this earth must be a
+      grand one. I am ready to go on.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you are fit to go on. It will be better to go
+      down the pass a little, and find shelter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She half smiled. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t study our poor bodies tonight. I
+      mean you to go to Adage, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long,
+      terrible climb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand to
+      him. &ldquo;Come, Maskull!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      When they had covered half the distance that separated them from the foot
+      of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps. They came from behind the hill,
+      and were loud, sharp, almost explosive. He glanced at Sullenbode, but she
+      appeared to hear nothing. A minute later the whole sky behind and above
+      the long chain of stone posts on the crest of the hill began to be
+      illuminated by a strange radiance. The moonlight in that quarter faded;
+      the posts stood out black on a background of fire. It was the light of
+      Muspel. As the moments passed, it grew more and more vivid, peculiar, and
+      awful. It was of no colour, and resembled nothing&mdash;it was
+      supernatural and indescribable. Maskull&rsquo;s spirit swelled. He stood
+      fast, with expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode touched him lightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you see, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muspel-light.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood. It burned
+      with a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before. He forgot the
+      existence of Sullenbode. The drum beats grew deafeningly loud. Each beat
+      was like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the sky and making
+      the air tremble. Presently the crashes coalesced, and one continuous roar
+      of thunder rocked the world. But the rhythm persisted&mdash;the four
+      beats, with the third accented, still came pulsing through the atmosphere,
+      only now against a background of thunder, and not of silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s heart beat wildly. His body was like a prison. He longed
+      to throw it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the sublime
+      universe which was beginning to unveil itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissed him&mdash;passionately,
+      again and again. He made no response; he was unaware of what she was
+      doing. She unclasped him and, with bent head and streaming eyes, went
+      noiselessly away. She started to go back toward the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade. The thunder died down.
+      The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside were again
+      bright. In a short time the supernatural light had entirely vanished, but
+      the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled rhythm, from behind the
+      hill. Maskull started violently, and stared around him like a suddenly
+      awakened sleeper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards off.
+      At that sight, death entered his heart. He ran after her, calling out....
+      She did not look around. When he had lessened the distance between them by
+      a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and fall. She did not get up again,
+      but lay motionless where she fell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He flew toward her, and bent over her body. His worst fears were realised.
+      Life had departed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly Crystalman
+      grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it. She had never appeared so beautiful
+      to him as at that moment.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees. He wept&mdash;but,
+      between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time, and
+      listened to the distant drum beats.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An hour passed&mdash;two hours. Teargeld was now in the south-west.
+      Maskull lifted Sullenbode&rsquo;s dead body on to his shoulders, and
+      started to walk toward the Pass. He cared no more for Muspel. He intended
+      to look for water in which to wash the corpse of his beloved, and earth in
+      which to bury her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which they
+      had sat together, he lowered his burden, and, placing the dead girl on the
+      stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over toward Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 20. BAREY
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskull awoke
+      from his miserable sleep. He sat up and yawned feebly. The air was cool
+      and sweet. Far away down the landslip a bird was singing; the song
+      consisted of only two notes, but it was so plaintive and heartbreaking
+      that he scarcely knew how to endure it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band of
+      chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The atmosphere was blue-tinted,
+      mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash nor Adage was visible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had descended
+      that distance overnight. The landslip continued downward, like a huge
+      flying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay perhaps fifteen
+      hundred feet beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and the angle was
+      excessively steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mile across. On
+      each side of it, east and west, the dark walls of the ridge descended
+      sheer. At the point where the pass sprang outward they were two thousand
+      feet from top to bottom, but as the ridge went upward, on the one hand
+      toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attained almost
+      unbelievable heights. Despite the great breadth and solidity of the pass,
+      Maskull felt as though he were suspended in midair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away marked
+      Sullenbode&rsquo;s grave. He had interred her by the light of the moon,
+      with a long, flat stone for a spade. A little lower down, the white steam
+      of a hot spring was curling about in the twilight. From where he sat he
+      was unable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately flowed, but it
+      was in that pool that he had last night washed first of all the dead girl&rsquo;s
+      body, and then his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him dully.
+      For a long time he eyed the grave. The half-darkness changed by
+      imperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear. The sky
+      was nearly cloudless. The whole wonderful extent of the mighty ridge
+      behind him began to emerge from the morning mist... there was a part of
+      Sarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic Adage itself, which he could
+      only take in by throwing his head right back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul. All his desires
+      were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do nothing. He thought
+      he would go to Barey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting
+      beside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull thought that he was dreaming. The man was clothed in a skin shirt
+      and breeches. His face was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyed Maskull
+      without smiling or getting up.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where in the devil&rsquo;s name have you come from, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great point is, I am here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not far away.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two leave me
+      in such a damnable fashion?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You were strong enough to get through alone.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it turned out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you&rsquo;ve
+      timed it well. It seems I am to die today.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag scowled. &ldquo;You will die this morning.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I am to, I shall. But where have you heard it from?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are ripe for it. You have run through the gamut. What else is
+      there to live for?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nothing,&rdquo; said Maskull, uttering a short laugh. &ldquo;I am
+      quite ready. I have failed in everything. I only wondered how you knew....
+      So now you&rsquo;ve come to rejoin me. Where are we going?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Through Barey.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what about Nightspore?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t wait
+      for him. He&rsquo;ll be there as soon as we shall.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At our destination.... Come! The sun&rsquo;s rising.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell, huge
+      and white, leaped fiercely into the sky. All the delicacy of the dawn
+      vanished, and another vulgar day began. They passed some trees and plants,
+      the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is it the sunshine doesn&rsquo;t open them?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long will it be before that sun rises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some time yet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I live to see it, do you think?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you want to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At one time I did, but now I&rsquo;m indifferent.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep in that humour, and you&rsquo;ll do well. Once for all, there&rsquo;s
+      nothing worth seeing on Tormance.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a few minutes Maskull said, &ldquo;Why did we come here, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To follow Surtur.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;True. But where is he?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?... There is
+      supernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehow
+      connected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what is
+      Surtur?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t disturb yourself about that. You will never know.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do <i>you</i> know?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; snarled Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil here is called Krag,&rdquo; went on Maskull, peering into
+      his face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I
+      to believe of you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They continued descending the landslip. The sun&rsquo;s rays had grown
+      insufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,
+      Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
+      travelling toward a lake district.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
+      Krag? What happened to the torpedo?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;re just about on the same mental level as a man who sees
+      a brand-new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What palace have you been building, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have not been idle,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;While you have been
+      murdering and lovemaking, we have had our work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, you&rsquo;re an open book. Now you&rsquo;ve got a mortal heart
+      wound on account of a woman you knew for six hours.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned pale. &ldquo;Sneer away, Krag! If you lived with a woman
+      for six hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your leather
+      heart. You haven&rsquo;t even the feelings of an insect.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Behold the child defending its toys!&rdquo; said Krag, grinning
+      faintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stopped short. &ldquo;What do you want with me, and why did you
+      bring me here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, pulling him into motion again. &ldquo;The distance has got to
+      be covered, however often we pull up.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through his
+      heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go on regarding you as a man, Krag. You&rsquo;re
+      something more than a man&mdash;whether good or evil, I can&rsquo;t say.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked yellow and formidable. He did not reply to Maskull&rsquo;s
+      remark, but after a pause said, &ldquo;So you&rsquo;ve been trying to find
+      Surtur on your own account, during the intervals between killing and
+      fondling?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What was that drumming?&rdquo; demanded Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You needn&rsquo;t look so important. We know you had your ear to
+      the keyhole. But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing
+      for you, my friend.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull smiled rather bitterly. &ldquo;At all events, I listen through no
+      more keyholes. I have finished with life. I belong to nobody and nothing
+      any more, from this time forward.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brave words, brave words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will
+      make one more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now I don&rsquo;t understand you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don&rsquo;t you? Well,
+      that may prove to be the last and strongest illusion of all.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conversation ceased. They reached the foot of the landslip an hour
+      later. Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky. It was
+      approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not it would
+      clear its peak. The heat was sweltering. The long, massive, saucer-shaped
+      ridge behind them, with its terrific precipices, was glowing with bright
+      morning colours. Adage, towering up many thousands of feet higher still,
+      guarded the end of it like a lonely Colossus. In front of them, starting
+      from where they stood, was a cool and enchanting wilderness of little
+      lakes and forests. The water of the lakes was dark green; the forests were
+      asleep, waiting for the rising of Alppain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we now in Barey?&rdquo; asked Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;and there is one of the natives.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskull did
+      not see it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees, apparently
+      waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, and beardless, and was
+      still in early manhood. He was clothed in a dark blue, loosely flowing
+      robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat. His face, which was not
+      disfigured by any special organs, was pale, earnest, and grave, yet
+      somehow remarkably pleasing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull&rsquo;s hand, but even
+      while he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag. The
+      latter responded with a scowling grin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating baritone, but
+      it was at the same time strangely womanish in its modulations and variety
+      of tone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,&rdquo; he said.
+      &ldquo;Welcome to Barey, Maskull! Let&rsquo;s hope you&rsquo;ll forget
+      your sorrows here, you over-tested man.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness. &ldquo;What made you
+      expect me, and how do you know my name?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m
+      Gangnet. I know most things.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Haven&rsquo;t you a greeting for me too&mdash;Gangnet?&rdquo; asked
+      Krag, thrusting his forbidding features almost into the other&rsquo;s
+      face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know you, Krag. There are few places where you are welcome.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I know you, Gangnet&mdash;you man-woman.... Well, we are here
+      together, and you must make what you can of it. We are going down to the
+      Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The smile faded from Gangnet&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t drive you
+      away, Krag&mdash;but I can make you the unwelcome third.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh. &ldquo;That
+      bargain suits me all right. As long as I have the substance, you may have
+      the shadow, and much good may it do you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now that it&rsquo;s all arranged so satisfactorily,&rdquo; said
+      Maskull, with a hard smile, &ldquo;permit me to say that I don&rsquo;t
+      desire any society at all at present.... You take too much for granted,
+      Krag. You have played the false friend once already.... I presume I&rsquo;m
+      a free agent?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be a free man, one must have a universe of one&rsquo;s own,&rdquo;
+      said Krag, with a jeering look. &ldquo;What do you say, Gangnet&mdash;is
+      this a free world?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man&rsquo;s
+      privilege,&rdquo; returned Gangnet tranquilly. &ldquo;Maskull is quite
+      within his rights, and if you&rsquo;ll engage to leave him I&rsquo;ll do
+      the same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won&rsquo;t
+      get rid of me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; muttered Maskull. &ldquo;Let
+      everyone join in the procession. In a few hours I shall finally be free,
+      anyhow, if what they say is true.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll lead the way,&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t
+      know this country, of course, Maskull. When we get to the flat lands some
+      miles farther down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we
+      must walk, I fear.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you fear&mdash;you fear!&rdquo; broke out Krag, in a
+      highpitched, scraping voice. &ldquo;You eternal loller!&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement. There seemed to
+      be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate
+      previous acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a
+      mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed
+      beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were
+      all folded. There was no underbrush&mdash;they walked on clean, brown
+      earth, A distant waterfall sounded. They were in shade, but the air was
+      pleasantly warm. There were no insects to irritate them. The bright lake
+      outside looked cool and poetic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet pressed Maskull&rsquo;s arm affectionately. &ldquo;If the bringing
+      of you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have
+      brought you, and not to the scarlet desert. Then you would have escaped
+      the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what then, Gangnet? The dark spots would have existed all the
+      same.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You could have seen them afterward. It makes all the difference
+      whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the
+      shadows.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A clear eye is the best. Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly
+      prefer to know it as it really is.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman. These are Crystalman&rsquo;s
+      thoughts, which you see around you. He is nothing but Beauty and
+      Pleasantness. Even Krag won&rsquo;t have the effrontery to deny that.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very nice here,&rdquo; said Krag, looking around him
+      malignantly. &ldquo;One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to
+      complete it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet. &ldquo;Last night, when I was
+      struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight&mdash;then I thought
+      the world beautiful.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Sullenbode!&rdquo; said Gangnet, sighing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! You knew her?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know her through you. By mourning for a noble woman, you show
+      your own nobility. I think all women are noble.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There may be millions of noble women, but there&rsquo;s only one
+      Sullenbode.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Sullenbode can exist,&rdquo; said Gangnet, &ldquo;the world
+      cannot be a bad place.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Change the subject.... The world&rsquo;s hard and cruel, and I am
+      thankful to be leaving it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;On one point, though, you both agree,&rdquo; said Krag, smiling
+      evilly. &ldquo;Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced at him coldly. &ldquo;We know your peculiar theories,
+      Krag. You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable. The world could
+      not go on being, without pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So Gangnet thinks!&rdquo; jeered Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a
+      little cliff. At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh series of
+      lakes and forests commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain slope,
+      built by nature into terraces. The lake along whose border they had been
+      travelling was not banked at the end, but overflowed to the lower level in
+      half a dozen beautiful, threadlike falls, white and throwing off spray.
+      The cliff was not perpendicular, and the men found it easy to negotiate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the base they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they
+      had nothing but trees all around them. A clear brook rippled through the
+      heart of it; they followed its bank.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It has occurred to me,&rdquo; said Maskull, addressing Gangnet,
+      &ldquo;that Alppain may be my death. Is that so?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These trees don&rsquo;t fear Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is
+      a wonderful, life-bringing sun.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The reason I ask is&mdash;I&rsquo;ve seen its afterglow, and it
+      produced such violent sensations that a very little more would have proved
+      too much.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because the forces were evenly balanced. When you see Alppain
+      itself, it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling of
+      wills inside you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,&rdquo; said Krag,
+      grinning, &ldquo;is Crystalman&rsquo;s trump card.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do you mean?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see. You&rsquo;ll renounce the world so eagerly that
+      you&rsquo;ll want to stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled. &ldquo;Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither
+      enjoy, nor renounce. What <i>are</i> you to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull turned toward Krag. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very odd, but I don&rsquo;t
+      understand your creed even yet. Are you recommending suicide?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute. &ldquo;What,
+      because they have left off stroking you?&rdquo; he exclaimed, laughing and
+      showing his discoloured teeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whoever you are, and whatever you want,&rdquo; said Maskull,
+      &ldquo;you seem very certain of yourself.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn&rsquo;t
+      you! That would be an excellent way of destroying lies.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees. He stooped and picked
+      up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To eat?&rdquo; asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one
+      mustn&rsquo;t insult Krag by offering him a pleasure&mdash;especially such
+      a low pleasure.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the liquid
+      contents. They tasted rather alcoholic. Krag snatched the remaining egg
+      out of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk, where it broke and
+      stuck, a splash of slime.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a
+      filthier sight than a smashed pleasure?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull&rsquo;s arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After they had alternately walked through forests and descended cliffs and
+      slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered. A steep
+      mountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of miles,
+      during which space the land must have dropped nearly four thousand feet,
+      at a practically uniform gradient. Maskull had seen nothing like this
+      immense slide of country anywhere. The hill slope carried an enormous
+      forest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those they
+      had hitherto passed through. The leaves of the trees were curled in sleep,
+      but the boughs were so close and numerous that, but for the fact that they
+      were translucent, the rays of the sun would have been completely
+      intercepted. As it was, the whole forest was flooded with light, and this
+      light, being tinged with the colour of the branches, was a soft and lovely
+      rose. So gay, feminine, and dawnlike was the illumination, that Maskull&rsquo;s
+      spirits immediately started to rise, although he did not wish it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!&rdquo;
+      rasped Krag mockingly. &ldquo;Why isn&rsquo;t Sullenbode here?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree. Krag
+      recovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a whit
+      discomposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Still what I said&mdash;was it true or untrue?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull gazed at him sternly. &ldquo;You seem to regard yourself as a
+      necessary evil. I&rsquo;m under no obligation to go on with you any
+      farther. I think we had better part.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do <i>you</i> say&mdash;do we part when Maskull pleases, or
+      when I please?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep your temper, Maskull,&rdquo; said Gangnet, showing Krag his
+      back. &ldquo;I know the man better than you do. Now that he has fastened
+      onto you there&rsquo;s only one way of making him lose his hold, by
+      ignoring him. Despise him&mdash;say nothing to him, don&rsquo;t answer his
+      questions. If you refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not
+      here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m beginning to be tired of it all,&rdquo; said Maskull.
+      &ldquo;It seems as if I shall add one more to my murders, before I have
+      finished.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I smell murder in the air,&rdquo; exclaimed Krag, pretending to
+      sniff. &ldquo;But whose?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do as I say, Maskull. To bandy words with him is to throw oil on
+      fire.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll say no more to anyone.... When do we get out of this
+      accursed forest?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s some way yet, but when we&rsquo;re once out we can take
+      to the water, and you will be able to rest, and think.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And brood comfortably over your sufferings,&rdquo; added Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into the open
+      day. The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced to run,
+      rather than walk, and this would have prevented any conversation, even if
+      they had otherwise felt inclined toward it. In less than half an hour they
+      were through. A flat, open landscape lay stretched in front of them as far
+      as they could see.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water. It was a succession
+      of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of tree-covered land.
+      The lake immediately before them had its small end to the forest. It was
+      there about a third of a mile wide. The water at the sides and end was
+      shallow, and choked with dolm-colored rushes; but in the middle, beginning
+      a few yards from the shore, there was a perceptible current away from
+      them. In view of this current, it was difficult to decide whether it was a
+      lake or a river. Some little floating islands were in the shallows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it here that we take to the water?&rdquo; inquired Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, here,&rdquo; answered Gangnet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But how?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of those islands will serve. It only needs to move it into the
+      stream.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull frowned. &ldquo;Where will it carry us to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, get on, get on!&rdquo; said Krag, laughing uncouthly. &ldquo;The
+      morning&rsquo;s wearing away, and you have to die before noon. We are
+      going to the Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gangnet will murder you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You lie!&rdquo; said Gangnet. &ldquo;I wish Maskull nothing but
+      good.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At all events, he will be the cause of your death. But what does it
+      matter? The great point is you are quitting this futile world.... Well,
+      Gangnet, I see you&rsquo;re as slack as ever. I suppose I must do the
+      work.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,
+      splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was up
+      to his thighs. The island was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feet from
+      end to end. It was composed of a sort of light brown peat; there was no
+      form of living vegetation on its surface. Krag went behind it, and started
+      shoving it toward the current, apparently without having unduly to exert
+      himself. When it was within the influence of the stream the others waded
+      out to him, and all three climbed on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The voyage began. The current was not travelling at more than two miles an
+      hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and there was no
+      shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the edge, and
+      periodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunches
+      next to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick steps, like an
+      animal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more, and the width of the
+      stream increased in proportion, until they seemed to themselves to be
+      floating on the bosom of some broad, flowing estuary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet&rsquo;s hat, crushing it
+      together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?&rdquo; he asked with
+      a harsh guffaw&mdash;&ldquo;Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has seen it
+      somewhere.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom. His
+      dark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and noble,
+      and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man that was
+      strangely appealing to the feelings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let Maskull judge,&rdquo; he said with proud composure, &ldquo;whether
+      I have anything to be ashamed of.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,&rdquo;
+      muttered Maskull, staring hard at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A capital valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happens
+      when poets try to carry through practical enterprises?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What enterprises?&rdquo; asked Maskull, in astonishment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are two forms of practical activity,&rdquo; replied Gangnet
+      calmly. &ldquo;One may either build up, or destroy.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, there&rsquo;s a third species. One may steal&mdash;and not even
+      know one is stealing. One may take the purse and leave the money.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull raised his eyebrows. &ldquo;Where have you two met before?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I&rsquo;m paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull, but once upon a
+      time Gangnet paid me a visit.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my home&mdash;whatever that is. Gangnet is a common thief.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are speaking in riddles, and I don&rsquo;t understand you. I
+      don&rsquo;t know either of you, but it&rsquo;s clear that if Gangnet is a
+      poet, you&rsquo;re a buffoon. Must you go on talking? I want to be quiet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag laughed, but said no more. Presently he lay down at full length, with
+      his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, and snoring
+      disagreeably. Maskull kept glancing over at his yellow, repulsive face
+      with strong disfavour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two hours passed. The land on either side was more than a mile distant. In
+      front of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the Lichstorm
+      Mountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had gathered together.
+      The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to be of a strange colour. It
+      was an intense jale-blue. The whole northern atmosphere was stained with
+      ulfire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull&rsquo;s mind grew disturbed. &ldquo;Alppain is rising, Gangnet.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled wistfully. &ldquo;It begins to trouble you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is so solemn&mdash;tragical, almost&mdash;yet it recalls me to
+      Earth. Life was no longer important&mdash;but this is important.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within half an hour you
+      will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open day.
+      Then you will ask yourself how you could have been blind.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men went on watching the blue sunrise. The entire sky in the
+      north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary colours,
+      among which jale and dolm predominated. Just as the principal character of
+      an ordinary dawn is <i>mystery</i>, the outstanding character of this dawn
+      was wildness. It did not baffle the understanding, but the heart. Maskull
+      felt no inarticulate craving to seize and perpetuate the sunrise, and make
+      it his own. Instead of that, it agitated and tormented him, like the
+      opening bars of a supernatural symphony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he looked back to the south, Branchspell&rsquo;s day had lost its
+      glare, and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching. He
+      instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from darkness to
+      light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If those were Crystalman&rsquo;s thoughts that you showed me
+      before, Gangnet, these must be his feelings. I mean it literally. What I
+      am feeling now, he must have felt before me.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is all <i>feeling</i>, Maskull&mdash;don&rsquo;t you understand
+      that?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
+      reply. His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
+      beginning of tears. The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious that
+      Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea. The island had by this
+      time floated past the mouth of the estuary. On three sides they were
+      surrounded by water. The haze crept up behind them and shut out all sight
+      of land. Krag was still sleeping&mdash;an ugly, wrinkled monstrosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water. It had lost its dark
+      green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing remains except my death.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t think of death, but life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s growing brighter&mdash;at the same time, more sombre.
+      Krag seems to be fading away....&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is Alppain!&rdquo; said Gangnet, touching his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea. Maskull was
+      struck to silence. He was hardly so much looking, as feeling. His emotions
+      were unutterable. His soul seemed too strong for his body. The great blue
+      orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an awful eye watching him.... it
+      shot above the sea with a bound, and Alppain&rsquo;s day commenced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you feel?&rdquo; Gangnet still held his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have set myself against the Infinite,&rdquo; muttered Maskull.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful idea swept
+      through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Gangnet&mdash;I am <i>nothing</i>.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, you are nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mist closed in all around them. Nothing was visible except the two
+      suns, and a few feet of sea. The shadows of the three men cast by Alppain
+      were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then nothing can hurt me,&rdquo; said Maskull with a peculiar
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet smiled too. &ldquo;How could it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scraped
+      away, leaving me clean and free.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you now understand life, Maskull?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Gangnet&rsquo;s face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual
+      beauty; he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more. But this
+      <i>is</i> life.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?&rdquo; said a
+      jeering voice above them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his
+      feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They both rose. At the same moment the gathering mist began to obscure
+      Alppain&rsquo;s disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do you want with us, Krag?&rdquo; asked Maskull with simple
+      composure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds. The water lapped around
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull made no response. Krag rested an arm lightly on his shoulder, and
+      suddenly he felt sick and faint. He sank to the ground, near the edge of
+      the island raft. His heart was thumping heavily and queerly; its beating
+      reminded him of the drum taps. He gazed languidly at the rippling water,
+      and it seemed to him as if he could see right <i>through</i> it... away,
+      away down... to a strange fire....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water disappeared. The two suns were extinguished. The island was
+      transformed into a cloud, and Maskull&mdash;alone on it&mdash;was floating
+      through the atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire&mdash;the fire of
+      Muspel. The light mounted higher and higher, until it filled the whole
+      world....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock, without
+      top or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was dealing
+      terrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer. The rhythmical,
+      clanging sounds were hideous.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drum beats.
+      &ldquo;What are you doing, Krag?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beating on your heart, Maskull,&rdquo; was his grinning response.
+</p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      The cliff and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in the air&mdash;but
+      it was not Gangnet&mdash;it was Crystalman. He seemed to be trying to
+      escape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and licking him,
+      whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire caught him. He
+      shrieked horribly. Maskull caught one glimpse of a vulgar, slobbering face&mdash;and
+      then that too disappeared.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      He opened his eyes. The floating island was still faintly illuminated by
+      Alppain. Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is this Ocean called?&rdquo; asked Maskull, bringing out the
+      words with difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Surtur&rsquo;s Ocean.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time. He rested his face on his
+      arm. &ldquo;Where&rsquo;s Nightspore?&rdquo; he asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag bent over him with a grave expression. &ldquo;You are Nightspore.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
+      &ldquo;Who are you?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull&rsquo;s heart,
+      and he died immediately.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Krag turned his head around. &ldquo;The night is really past at last,
+      Nightspore.... The day is here.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull&rsquo;s body. &ldquo;Why
+      was all this necessary?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask Crystalman,&rdquo; replied Krag sternly. &ldquo;His world is no
+      joke. He has a strong clutch&mdash;but I have a stronger... Maskull was
+      his, but Nightspore is mine.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021">
+       <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Chapter 21. MUSPEL
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The fog thickened so that the two suns wholly disappeared, and all grew as
+      black as night. Nightspore could no longer see his companion. The water
+      lapped gently against the side of the island raft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say the night is past,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;But the
+      night is still here. Am I dead, or alive?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still in Crystalman&rsquo;s world, but you belong to it no
+      more. We are approaching Muspel.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air&mdash;a rhythmical
+      pulsation, in four-four time. &ldquo;There is the drumming,&rdquo; he
+      exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you understand it, or have you forgotten?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I half understand it, but I&rsquo;m all confused.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It&rsquo;s evident Crystalman has dug his claws into you pretty
+      deeply,&rdquo; said Krag. &ldquo;The sound comes from Muspel, but the
+      rhythm is caused by its travelling through Crystalman&rsquo;s atmosphere.
+      His nature is rhythm as he loves to call it&mdash;or dull, deadly
+      repetition, as I name it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember,&rdquo; said Nightspore, biting his nails in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The throbbing became audible; it now sounded like a distant drum. A small
+      patch of strange light in the far distance, straight ahead of them, began
+      faintly to illuminate the floating island and the glassy sea around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do all men escape from that ghastly world, or only I, and a few
+      like me?&rdquo; asked Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If all escaped, I shouldn&rsquo;t sweat, my friend... There&rsquo;s
+      hard work, and anguish, and the risk of total death, waiting for us
+      yonder.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart sank. &ldquo;Have I not yet finished, then?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish it. You have got through. But will you wish it?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming grew loud and painful. The light resolved itself into a tiny
+      oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night. Krag&rsquo;s grim
+      and rocklike features were revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t face rebirth,&rdquo; said Nightspore. &ldquo;The
+      horror of death is nothing to it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will choose.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can do nothing. Crystalman is too powerful. I barely escaped with
+      my own soul.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,&rdquo;
+      said Krag.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall something. The
+      water around them was so still, colourless, and transparent, that they
+      scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid matter at all. Maskull&rsquo;s
+      corpse had disappeared.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The drumming was now like the clanging of iron. The oblong patch of light
+      grew much bigger; it burned, fierce and wild. The darkness above, below,
+      and on either side of it, began to shape itself into the semblance of a
+      huge, black wall, without bounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that really a wall we are coming to?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will soon find out. What you see is Muspel, and that light is
+      the gate you have to enter.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore&rsquo;s heart beat wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall I remember?&rdquo; he muttered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, you&rsquo;ll remember.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accompany me, Krag, or I shall be lost.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is nothing for me to do in there. I shall wait outside for
+      you.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are returning to the struggle?&rdquo; demanded Nightspore,
+      gnawing his fingertips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare not.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head like
+      actual blows. The light glared so vividly that he was no longer able to
+      look at it. It had the startling irregularity of continuous lightning, but
+      it possessed this further peculiarity&mdash;that it seemed somehow to give
+      out not actual light, but emotion, seen as light. They continued to
+      approach the wall of darkness, straight toward the door. The glasslike
+      water flowed right against it, its surface reaching up almost to the
+      threshold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They could not speak any more; the noise was too deafening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a few minutes they were before the gateway. Nightspore turned his back
+      and hid his eyes in his two hands, but even then he was blinded by the
+      light. So passionate were his feelings that his body seemed to enlarge
+      itself. At every frightful beat of sound, he quivered violently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entrance was doorless. Krag jumped onto the rocky platform and pulled
+      Nightspore after him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once through the gateway, the light vanished. The rhythmical sound&mdash;blows
+      totally ceased. Nightspore dropped his hands.... All was dark and quiet as
+      an opened tomb. But the air was filled with grim, burning passion, which
+      was to light and sound what light itself is to opaque colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore pressed his hand to his heart. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I
+      can endure it,&rdquo; he said, looking toward Krag. He <i>felt</i> his
+      person far more vividly and distinctly than if he had been able to see
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go in, and lose no time, Nightspore.... Time here is more precious
+      than on earth. We can&rsquo;t squander the minutes. There are terrible and
+      tragic affairs to attend to, which won&rsquo;t wait for us... Go in at
+      once. Stop for nothing.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where shall I go to?&rdquo; muttered Nightspore. &ldquo;I have
+      forgotten everything.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enter, enter! There is only one way. You can&rsquo;t mistake it.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do you bid me go in, if I am to come out again?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To have your wounds healed.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Almost before the words had left his mouth, Krag sprang back on to the
+      island raft. Nightspore involuntarily started after him, but at once
+      recovered himself and remained standing where he was. Krag was completely
+      invisible; everything outside was black night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment he had gone, a feeling shot up in Nightspore&rsquo;s heart like
+      a thousand trumpets.
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+      Straight in front of him, almost at his feet, was the lower end of a
+      steep, narrow, circular flight of stone steps. There was no other way
+      forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He put his foot on the bottom stair, at the same time peering aloft. He
+      saw nothing, yet as he proceeded upward every inch of the way was
+      perceptible to his inner feelings. The staircase was cold, dismal, and
+      deserted, but it seemed to him, in his exaltation of soul, like a ladder
+      to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After he had mounted a dozen steps or so, he paused to take breath. Each
+      step was increasingly difficult to ascend; he felt as though he were
+      carrying a heavy man on his shoulders. It struck a familiar chord in his
+      mind. He went on and, ten stairs higher up, came to a window set in a high
+      embrasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On to this he clambered, and looked through. The window was of a sort of
+      glass, but he could see nothing. Coming to him, however, from the world
+      outside, a disturbance of the atmosphere struck his senses, causing his
+      blood to run cold. At one moment it resembled a low, mocking, vulgar
+      laugh, travelling from the ends of the earth; at the next it was like a
+      rhythmical vibration of the air&mdash;the silent, continuous throbbing of
+      some mighty engine. The two sensations were identical, yet different. They
+      seemed to be related in the same manner as soul and body. After feeling
+      them for a long time, Nightspore got down from the embrasure, and
+      continued his ascent, having meanwhile grown very serious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The climbing became still more laborious, and he was forced to stop at
+      every third or fourth step, to rest his muscles and regain breath. When he
+      had mounted another twenty stairs in this way, he came to a second window.
+      Again he saw nothing. The laughing disturbance of the air, too, had
+      ceased; but the atmospheric throb was now twice as distinct as before, and
+      its rhythm had become <i>double</i>. There were two separate pulses; one was in
+      the time of a march, the other in the time of a waltz. The first was
+      bitter and petrifying to feel, but the second was gay, enervating, and
+      horrible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore spent little time at that window, for he felt that he was on
+      the eve of a great discovery, and that something far more important
+      awaited him higher up. He proceeded aloft. The ascent grew more and more
+      exhausting, so much so that he had frequently to sit down, utterly crushed
+      by his own dead weight. Still, he got to the third window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He climbed into the embrasure. His feelings translated themselves into
+      vision, and he saw a sight that caused him to turn pale. A gigantic,
+      self-luminous sphere was hanging in the sky, occupying nearly the whole of
+      it. This sphere was composed entirely of two kinds of active beings. There
+      were a myriad of tiny green corpuscles, varying in size from the very
+      small to the almost indiscernible. They were not green, but he somehow saw
+      them so. They were all striving in one direction&mdash;toward himself,
+      toward Muspel, but were too feeble and miniature to make any headway.
+      Their action produced the marching rhythm he had previously felt, but this
+      rhythm was not intrinsic in the corpuscles themselves, but was a
+      consequence of the obstruction they met with. And, surrounding these atoms
+      of life and light, were far larger whirls of white light that gyrated
+      hither and thither, carrying the green corpuscles with them wherever they
+      desired. Their whirling motion was accompanied by the waltzing rhythm. It
+      seemed to Nightspore that the green atoms were not only being danced about
+      against their will but were suffering excruciating shame and degradation
+      in consequence. The larger ones were steadier than the extremely small, a
+      few were even almost stationary, and one was advancing in the direction it
+      wished to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned his back to the window, buried his face in his hands, and
+      searched in the dim recesses of his memory for an explanation of what he
+      had just seen. Nothing came straight, but horror and wrath began to take
+      possession of him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his way upward to the next window, invisible fingers seemed to him to
+      be squeezing his heart and twisting it about here and there; but he never
+      dreamed of turning back. His mood was so grim that he did not once permit
+      himself to pause. Such was his physical distress by the time that he had
+      clambered into the recess, that for several minutes he could see nothing
+      at all&mdash;the world seemed to be spinning round him rapidly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last he looked, he saw the same sphere as before, but now all was
+      changed on it. It was a world of rocks, minerals, water, plants, animals,
+      and men. He saw the whole world at one view, yet everything was so
+      magnified that he could distinguish the smallest details of life. In the
+      interior of every individual, of every aggregate of individuals, of every
+      chemical atom, he clearly perceived the presence of the green corpuscles.
+      But, according to the degree of dignity of the life form, they were
+      fragmentary or comparatively large. In the crystal, for example, the
+      green, imprisoned life was so minute as to be scarcely visible; in some
+      men it was hardly bigger; but in other men and women it was twenty or a
+      hundred times greater. But, great or small, it played an important part in
+      every individual. It appeared as if the whirls of white light, which were
+      the individuals, and plainly showed themselves beneath the enveloping
+      bodies, were delighted with existence and wished only to enjoy it, but the
+      green corpuscles were in a condition of eternal discontent, yet, blind and
+      not knowing which way to turn for liberation, kept changing form, as
+      though breaking a new path, by way of experiment. Whenever the old
+      grotesque became metamorphosed into the new grotesque, it was in every
+      case the direct work of the green atoms, trying to escape toward Muspel,
+      but encountering immediate opposition. These subdivided sparks of living,
+      fiery spirit were hopelessly imprisoned in a ghastly mush of soft
+      pleasure. They were being effeminated and corrupted&mdash;that is to say,
+      <i>absorbed</i> in the foul, sickly enveloping forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore felt a sickening shame in his soul as he looked on at that
+      spectacle. His exaltation had long since vanished. He bit his nails, and
+      understood why Krag was waiting for him below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He mounted slowly to the fifth window. The pressure of air against him was
+      as strong as a full gale, divested of violence and irregularity, so that
+      he was not for an instant suffered to relax his efforts. Nevertheless, not
+      a breath stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight. The sphere was
+      still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which he was standing
+      he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any distinguishable shape, but
+      somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting sweetness. Nightspore knew that
+      it was Crystalman. A flood of fierce light&mdash;but it was not light, but
+      passion&mdash;was streaming all the time from Muspel to the Shadow, and
+      through it. When, however, it emerged on the other side, which was the
+      sphere, the light was altered in character. It became split, as by a
+      prism, into the two forms of life which he had previously seen&mdash;the
+      green corpuscles and the whirls. What had been fiery spirit but a moment
+      ago was now a disgusting mass of crawling, wriggling individuals, each
+      whirl of pleasure-seeking will having, as nucleus, a fragmentary spark of
+      living green fire. Nightspore recollected the back rays of Starkness, and
+      it flashed across him with the certainty of truth that the green sparks
+      were the back rays, and the whirls the forward rays, of Muspel. The former
+      were trying desperately to return to their place of origin, but were
+      overpowered by the brute force of the latter, which wished only to remain
+      where they were. The individual whirls were jostling and fighting with,
+      and even devouring, each other. This created pain, but, whatever pain they
+      felt, it was always pleasure that they sought. Sometimes the green sparks
+      were strong enough for a moment to move a little way in the direction of
+      Muspel; the whirls would then accept the movement, not only without demur,
+      but with pride and pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork&mdash;but
+      they never saw beyond the Shadow, they thought that they were travelling
+      toward <i>it</i>. The instant the direct movement wearied them, as
+      contrary to their whirling nature, they fell again to killing, dancing,
+      and loving.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to be the
+      last. Nothing would have kept him from ascending to it, for he guessed
+      that the nature of Crystalman himself would there become manifest. Every
+      step upward was like a bloody life-and-death struggle. The stairs nailed
+      him to the ground; the air pressure caused blood to gush from his nose and
+      ears; his head clanged like an iron bell. When he had fought his way up a
+      dozen steps, he found himself suddenly at the top; the staircase
+      terminated in a small, bare chamber of cold stone, possessing a single
+      window. On the other side of the apartment another short flight of stairs
+      mounted through a trap, apparently to the roof of the building. Before
+      ascending these stairs, Nightspore hastened to the window and stared out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadow form of Crystalman had drawn much closer to him, and filled the
+      whole sky, but it was not a shadow of darkness, but a bright shadow. It
+      had neither shape, nor colour, yet it in some way suggested the delicate
+      tints of early morning. It was so nebulous that the sphere could be
+      clearly distinguished through it; in extension, however, it was thick. The
+      sweet smell emanating from it was strong, loathsome, and terrible; it
+      seemed to spring from a sort of loose, mocking slime inexpressibly vulgar
+      and ignorant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The spirit stream from Muspel flashed with complexity and variety. It was
+      not below individuality, but above it. It was not the One, or the Many,
+      but something else far beyond either. It approached Crystalman, and
+      entered his body&mdash;if that bright mist could be called a body. It
+      passed right through him, and the passage caused him the most exquisite
+      pleasure. <i>The Muspel-stream was Crystalman&rsquo;s food</i>. The stream
+      emerged from the other side on to the sphere, in a double condition. Part
+      of it reappeared intrinsically unaltered, but shivered into a million
+      fragments. These were the green corpuscles. In passing through Crystalman
+      they had escaped absorption by reason of their extreme minuteness. The
+      other part of the stream had not escaped. Its fire had been abstracted,
+      its cement was withdrawn, and, after being fouled and softened by the
+      horrible sweetness of the host, it broke into individuals, which <i>were</i>
+      the whirls of living will.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore shuddered. He comprehended at last how the whole world of will
+      was doomed to eternal anguish in order that one Being might feel joy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently he set foot on the final flight leading to the roof; for he
+      remembered vaguely that now only that remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Halfway up, he fainted&mdash;but when he recovered consciousness he
+      persisted as though nothing had happened to him. As soon as his head was
+      above the trap, breathing the free air, he had the same physical sensation
+      as a man stepping out of water. He pulled his body up, and stood
+      expectantly on the stone-floored roof, looking round for his first glimpse
+      of Muspel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>There was nothing</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was standing upon the top of a tower, measuring not above fifteen feet
+      each way. Darkness was all around him. He sat down on the stone parapet,
+      with a sinking heart; a heavy foreboding possessed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, he had the distinct
+      impression that the darkness around him, on all four sides, was
+      grinning.... As soon as that happened, he understood that he was wholly
+      surrounded by Crystalman&rsquo;s world, and that Muspel consisted of
+      himself and the stone tower on which he was sitting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fire flashed in his heart.... Millions upon millions of grotesque, vulgar,
+      ridiculous, sweetened individuals&mdash;once <i>Spirit</i>&mdash;were
+      calling out from their degradation and agony for salvation from Muspel....
+      To answer that cry there was only himself... and Krag waiting below... and
+      Surtur&mdash;But where was Surtur?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The truth forced itself on him in all its cold, brutal reality. Muspel was
+      no all-powerful Universe, tolerating from pure indifference the existence
+      side by side with it of another false world, which had no right to be.
+      Muspel was fighting for its life&mdash;against all that is most shameful
+      and frightful&mdash;against sin masquerading as eternal beauty, against
+      baseness masquerading as Nature, against the Devil masquerading as God....
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now he understood everything. The moral combat was no mock one, no
+      Valhalla, where warriors are cut to pieces by day and feast by night; but
+      a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death&mdash;namely,
+      spiritual death&mdash;inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel.... By
+      what means could he hold back from this horrible war!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self&mdash;the corruption
+      of his life on Earth&mdash;were scorched out of Nightspore&rsquo;s soul,
+      perhaps not for the first time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend. Without warning, a
+      strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world. Starting in awful
+      mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery that he could
+      not doubt for a moment whence it originated. It was the voice of
+      Crystalman.
+</p>
+<hr />
+    <p>
+Krag was waiting for him on the island raft. He threw a stern
+      glance at Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you seen everything?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The struggle is hopeless,&rdquo; muttered Nightspore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did I not say I am the stronger?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am the stronger and the mightier. Crystalman&rsquo;s Empire is
+      but a shadow on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the
+      bloodiest blows.... What do you mean to do?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nightspore looked at him strangely. &ldquo;Are you not Surtur, Krag?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise.
+      &ldquo;But what is your name on Earth?&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is pain.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That, too, I must have known.&rdquo;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft.
+      Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Voyage to Arcturus, by Lindsay
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+A Voyage to Arcturus
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+
+
+
+A Voyage to Arcturus.
+By David Lindsay
+
+
+
+
+1   The Seance
+2   In the Street
+3   Starkness
+4   The Voice
+5   The Night of Departure
+6   Joiwind
+7   Panawe
+8   The Lusion Plain
+9   Oceaxe
+10  Tydomin
+11  On Disscourn
+12  Spadevil
+13  The Wombflash Forest
+14  Polecrab
+15  Swaylone's Island
+16  Leehallfae
+17  Corpang
+18  Haunte
+19  Sullenbode
+20  Barey
+21  Muspel
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+THE SEANCE
+
+On a march evening, at eight o'clock, Backhouse, the medium--a
+fast-rising star in the psychic world--was ushered into the study at
+Prolands, the Hampstead residence of Montague Faull.  The room was
+illuminated only by the light of a blazing fire.  The host, eying him
+with indolent curiosity, got up, and the usual conventional greetings
+were exchanged.  Having indicated an easy chair before the fire to
+his guest, the South American merchant sank back again into his own.
+The electric light was switched on.  Faull's prominent, clear-cut
+features, metallic-looking skin, and general air of bored
+impassiveness, did not seem greatly to impress the medium, who was
+accustomed to regard men from a special angle.  Backhouse, on the
+contrary, was a novelty to the merchant.  As he tranquilly studied
+him through half closed lids and the smoke of a cigar, he wondered
+how this little, thickset person with the pointed beard contrived to
+remain so fresh and sane in appearance, in view of the morbid nature
+of his occupation.
+
+"Do you smoke?" drawled Faull, by way of starting the Conversation.
+"No?  Then will you take a drink?"
+
+"Not at present, I thank you."
+
+A pause.
+
+"Everything is satisfactory?  The materialisation will take place?"
+
+"I see no reason to doubt it."
+
+"That's good, for I would not like my guests to be disappointed.  I
+have your check written out in my pocket."
+
+"Afterward will do quite well."
+
+"Nine o'clock was the time specified, I believe?"
+
+"I fancy so."
+
+The conversation continued to flag.  Faull sprawled in his chair, and
+remained apathetic.
+
+"Would you care to hear what arrangements I have made?"
+
+"I am unaware that any are necessary, beyond chairs for your guests."
+
+"I mean the decoration of the seance room, the music, and so forth."
+
+Backhouse stared at his host.  "But this is not a theatrical
+performance."
+
+"That's correct.  Perhaps I ought to explain....  There will be
+ladies present, and ladies, you know, are aesthetically inclined."
+
+"In that case I have no objection.  I only hope they will enjoy the
+performance to the end."
+
+He spoke rather dryly.
+
+"Well, that's all right, then," said Faull.  Flicking his cigar into
+the fire, he got up and helped himself to whisky.
+
+"Will you come and see the room?"
+
+"Thank you, no. I prefer to have nothing to do with it till the time
+arrives."
+
+"Then let's go to see my sister, Mrs. Jameson, who is in the drawing
+room.  She sometimes does me the kindness to act as my hostess, as I
+am unmarried."
+
+"I will be delighted," said Backhouse coldly.
+
+They found the lady alone, sitting by the open pianoforte in a
+pensive attitude.  She had been playing Scriabin and was overcome.
+The medium took in her small, tight, patrician features and porcelain-
+like hands, and wondered how Faull came by such a sister.  She
+received him bravely, with just a shade of quiet emotion.  He was
+used to such receptions at the hands of the sex, and knew well how to
+respond to them.
+
+"What amazes me," she half whispered, after ten minutes of graceful,
+hollow conversation, "is, if you must know it, not so much the
+manifestation itself--though that will surely be wonderful--as your
+assurance that it will take place.  Tell me the grounds of your
+confidence."
+
+"I dream with open eyes," he answered, looking around at the door,
+"and others see my dreams.  That is all."
+
+"But that's beautiful," responded Mrs. Jameson.  She smiled rather
+absently, for the first guest had just entered.
+
+It was Kent-Smith, the ex-magistrate, celebrated for his shrewd
+judicial humour, which, however, he had the good sense not to attempt
+to carry into private life.  Although well on the wrong side of
+seventy, his eyes were still disconcertingly bright.  With the
+selective skill of an old man, he immediately settled himself in the
+most comfortable of many comfortable chairs.
+
+"So we are to see wonders tonight?"
+
+"Fresh material for your autobiography," remarked Faull.
+
+"Ah, you should not have mentioned my unfortunate book.  An old
+public servant is merely amusing himself in his retirement, Mr.
+Backhouse.  You have no cause for alarm--I have studied in the
+school of discretion."
+
+"I am not alarmed.  There can be no possible objection to your
+publishing whatever you please."
+
+"You are most kind," said the old man, with a cunning smile.
+
+"Trent is not coming tonight," remarked Mrs. Jameson, throwing a
+curious little glance at her brother.
+
+"I never thought he would.  It's not in his line."
+
+"Mrs. Trent, you must understand," she went on, addressing the ex-
+magistrate, "has placed us all under a debt of gratitude.  She has
+decorated the old lounge hall upstairs most beautifully, and has
+secured the services of the sweetest little orchestra."
+
+"But this is Roman magnificence."
+
+"Backhouse thinks the spirits should be treated with more deference,"
+laughed Faull.
+
+"Surely, Mr. Backhouse--a poetic environment..."
+
+"Pardon me.  I am a simple man, and always prefer to reduce things to
+elemental simplicity.  I raise no opposition, but I express my
+opinion.  Nature is one thing, and art is another."
+
+"And I am not sure that I don't agree with you," said the ex-
+magistrate.  "An occasion like this ought to be simple, to guard
+against the possibility of deception--if you will forgive my
+bluntness, Mr. Backhouse."
+
+"We shall sit in full light," replied Backhouse, "and every
+opportunity will be given to all to inspect the room.  I shall also
+ask you to submit me to a personal examination."
+
+A rather embarrassed silence followed.  It was broken by the arrival
+of two more guests, who entered together.  These were Prior, the
+prosperous City coffee importer, and Lang, the stockjobber, well
+known in his own circle as an amateur prestidigitator.  Backhouse was
+slightly acquainted with the latter.  Prior, perfuming the room with
+the faint odour of wine and tobacco smoke, tried to introduce an
+atmosphere of joviality into the proceedings.  Finding that no one
+seconded his efforts, however, he shortly subsided and fell to
+examining the water colours on the walls.  Lang, tall, thin, and
+growing bald, said little, but stared at Backhouse a good deal.
+
+Coffee, liqueurs, and cigarettes were now brought in.  Everyone
+partook, except Lang and the medium.  At the same moment, Professor
+Halbert was announced.  He was the eminent psychologist, the author
+and lecturer on crime, insanity, genius, and so forth, considered in
+their mental aspects.  His presence at such a gathering somewhat
+mystified the other guests, but all felt as if the object of their
+meeting had immediately acquired additional solemnity.  He was small,
+meagre-looking, and mild in manner, but was probably the most
+stubborn-brained of all that mixed company.  Completely ignoring the
+medium, he at once sat down beside Kent-Smith, with whom he began to
+exchange remarks.
+
+At a few minutes past the appointed hour Mrs. Trent entered,
+unannounced.  She was a woman of about twenty-eight.  She had a
+white, demure, saintlike face, smooth black hair, and lips so crimson
+and full that they seemed to be bursting with blood.  Her tall,
+graceful body was most expensively attired.  Kisses were exchanged
+between her and Mrs. Jameson.  She bowed to the rest of the assembly,
+and stole a half glance and a smile at Faull.  The latter gave her a
+queer look, and Backhouse, who lost nothing, saw the concealed
+barbarian in the complacent gleam of his eye.  She refused the
+refreshment that was offered her, and Faull proposed that, as
+everyone had now arrived, they should adjourn to the lounge hall.
+
+Mrs. Trent held up a slender palm.  "Did you, or did you not, give me
+carte blanche, Montague?"
+
+"Of course I did," said Faull, laughing.  "But what's the matter?"
+
+"Perhaps I have been rather presumptuous.  I don't know.  I have
+invited a couple of friends to join us.  No, no one knows them....
+The two most extraordinary individuals you ever saw.  And mediums, I
+am sure."
+
+"It sounds very mysterious.  Who are these conspirators?"
+
+"At least tell us their names, you provoking girl," put in Mrs.
+Jameson.
+
+"One rejoices in the name of Maskull, and the other in that of
+Nightspore.  That's nearly all that I know about them, so don't
+overwhelm me with, any more questions."
+
+"But where did you pick them up?  You must have picked them up
+somewhere."
+
+"But this is a cross-examination.  Have I sinned again convention?
+I swear I will tell you not another word about them.  They will be
+here directly, and then I will deliver them to your tender mercy."
+
+"I don't know them," said Faull, "and nobody else seems to, but, of
+course, we will all be very pleased to have them....  Shall we wait,
+or what?"
+
+"I said nine, and it's past that now.  It's quite possible they may
+not turn up after all....  Anyway, don't wait."
+
+"I would prefer to start at once," said Backhouse.
+
+The lounge, a lofty room, forty feet long by twenty wide, had been
+divided for the occasion into two equal parts by a heavy brocade
+curtain drawn across the middle.  The far end was thus concealed.
+The nearer half had been converted into an auditorium by a crescent
+of armchairs.  There was no other furniture.  A large fire was burning
+halfway along the wall, between the chairbacks and the door.  The
+room was brilliantly lighted by electric bracket lamps.  A sumptuous
+carpet covered the floor.
+
+Having settled his guests in their seats, Faull stepped up to the
+curtain and flung it aside.  A replica, or nearly so, of the Drury
+Lane presentation of the temple scene in The Magic Flute was then
+exposed to view: the gloomy, massive architecture of the interior,
+the glowing sky above it in the background, and, silhouetted against
+the latter, the gigantic seated statue of the Pharaoh.  A
+fantastically carved wooden couch lay before the pedestal of the
+statue.  Near the curtain, obliquely placed to the auditorium, was a
+plain oak armchair, for the use of the medium.
+
+Many of those present felt privately that the setting was quite
+inappropriate to the occasion and savoured rather unpleasantly of
+ostentation.  Backhouse in particular seemed put out.  The usual
+compliments, however, were showered on Mrs. Trent as the deviser of
+so remarkable a theatre.  Faull invited his friends to step forward
+and examine the apartment as minutely as they might desire.  Prior
+and Lang were the only ones to accept.  The former wandered about
+among the pasteboard scenery, whistling to himself and occasionally
+tapping a part of it with his knuckles.  Lang, who was in his
+element, ignored the rest of his party and commenced a patient,
+systematic search, on his own account, for secret apparatus.  Faull
+and Mrs. Trent stood in a corner of the temple, talking together in
+low tones; while Mrs. Jameson, pretending to hold Backhouse in
+conversation, watched them as only a deeply interested woman knows
+how to watch.
+
+Lang, to his own disgust, having failed to find anything of a
+suspicious nature, the medium now requested that his own clothing
+should be searched.
+
+"All these precautions are quite needless and beside the matter in
+hand, as you will immediately see for yourselves.  My reputation
+demands, however, that other people who are not present would not be
+able to say afterward that trickery has been resorted to."
+
+To Lang again fell the ungrateful task of investigating pockets and
+sleeves.  Within a few minutes he expressed himself satisfied that
+nothing mechanical was in Backhouse's possession.  The guests
+reseated themselves.  Faull ordered two more chairs to be brought for
+Mrs. Trent's friends, who, however, had not yet arrived.  He then
+pressed an electric bell, and took his own seat.
+
+The signal was for the hidden orchestra to begin playing.  A murmur
+of surprise passed through the audience as, without previous warning,
+the beautiful and solemn strains of Mozart's "temple" music pulsated
+through the air.  The expectation of everyone was raised, while,
+beneath her pallor and composure, it could be seen that Mrs. Trent
+was deeply moved.  It was evident that aesthetically she was by far
+the most important person present.  Faull watched her, with his face
+sunk on his chest, sprawling as usual.
+
+Backhouse stood up, with one hand on the back of his chair, and began
+speaking.  The music instantly sank to pianissimo, and remained so
+for as long as he was on his legs.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a materialisation.
+That means you will see something appear in space that was not
+previously there.  At first it will appear as a vaporous form, but
+finally it will be a solid body, which anyone present may feel and
+handle--and, for example, shake hands with.  For this body will be
+in the human shape.  It will be a real man or woman--which, I can't
+say--but a man or woman without known antecedents.  If, however, you
+demand from me an explanation of the origin of this materialised
+form--where it comes from, whence the atoms and molecules composing
+its tissues are derived--I am unable to satisfy you.  I am about to
+produce the phenomenon; if anyone can explain it to me afterward, I
+shall be very grateful....  That is all I have to say."
+
+He resumed his seat, half turning his back on the assembly, and
+paused for a moment before beginning his task.
+
+It was precisely at this minute that the manservant opened the door
+and announced in a subdued but distinct voice: "Mr. Maskull, Mr.
+Nightspore."
+
+Everyone turned round.  Faull rose to welcome the late arrivals.
+Backhouse also stood up, and stared hard at them.
+
+The two strangers remained standing by the door, which was closed
+quietly behind them.  They seemed to be waiting for the mild
+sensation caused by their appearance to subside before advancing into
+the room.  Maskull was a kind of giant, but of broader and more
+robust physique than most giants.  He wore a full beard.  His
+features were thick and heavy, coarsely modelled, like those of a
+wooden carving; but his eyes, small and black, sparkled with the
+fires of intelligence and audacity.  His hair was short, black, and
+bristling.  Nightspore was of middle height, but so tough-looking
+that he appeared to be trained out of all human frailties and
+susceptibilities.  His hairless face seemed consumed by an intense
+spiritual hunger, and his eyes were wild and distant.  Both men were
+dressed in tweeds.
+
+Before any words were spoken, a loud and terrible crash of falling
+masonry caused the assembled party to start up from their chairs in
+consternation.  It sounded as if the entire upper part of the
+building had collapsed.  Faull sprang to the door, and called to the
+servant to say what was happening.  The man had to be questioned
+twice before he gathered what was required of him.  He said he had
+heard nothing.  In obedience to his master's order, he went upstairs.
+Nothing, however, was amiss there, neither had the maids heard
+anything.
+
+In the meantime Backhouse, who almost alone of those assembled had
+preserved his sangfroid, went straight up to Nightspore, who stood
+gnawing his nails.
+
+"Perhaps you can explain it, sir?"
+
+"It was supernatural," said Nightspore, in a harsh, muffled voice,
+turning away from his questioner.
+
+"I guessed so.  It is a familiar phenomenon, but I have never heard
+it so loud."
+
+He then went among the guests, reassuring them.  By degrees they
+settled down, but it was observable that their former easy and good-
+humoured interest in the proceedings was now changed to strained
+watchfulness.  Maskull and Nightspore took the places allotted to
+them.  Mrs. Trent kept stealing uneasy glances at them.  Throughout
+the entire incident, Mozart's hymn continued to be played.  The
+orchestra also had heard nothing.
+
+Backhouse now entered on his task.  It was one that began to be
+familiar to him, and he had no anxiety about the result.  It was not
+possible to effect the materialisation by mere concentration of will,
+or the exercise of any faculty; otherwise many people could have done
+what he had engaged himself to do.  His nature was phenomenal--the
+dividing wall between himself and the spiritual world was broken in
+many places.  Through the gaps in his mind the inhabitants of the
+invisible, when he summoned them, passed for a moment timidly and
+awfully into the solid, coloured universe....  He could not say how it
+was brought about....  The experience was a rough one for the body,
+and many such struggles would lead to insanity and early death.  That
+is why Backhouse was stern and abrupt in his manner.  The coarse,
+clumsy suspicion of some of the witnesses, the frivolous aestheticism
+of others, were equally obnoxious to his grim, bursting heart; but he
+was obliged to live, and, to pay his way, must put up with these
+impertinences.
+
+He sat down facing the wooden couch.  His eyes remained open but
+seemed to look inward.  His cheeks paled, and he became noticeably
+thinner.  The spectators almost forgot to breathe.  The more
+sensitive among them began to feel, or imagine, strange presences all
+around them.  Maskull's eyes glittered with anticipation, and his
+brows went up and down, but Nightspore appeared bored.
+
+After a long ten minutes the pedestal of the statue was seen to
+become slightly blurred, as though an intervening mist were rising
+from the ground.  This slowly developed into a visible cloud, coiling
+hither and thither, and constantly changing shape.  The professor
+half rose, and held his glasses with one hand further forward on the
+bridge of his nose.
+
+By slow stages the cloud acquired the dimensions and approximate
+outline of an adult human body, although all was still vague and
+blurred.  It hovered lightly in the air, a foot or so above the
+couch.  Backhouse looked haggard and ghastly.  Mrs. Jameson quietly
+fainted in her chair, but she was unnoticed, and presently revived.
+The apparition now settled down upon the couch, and at the moment of
+doing so seemed suddenly to grow dark, solid, and manlike.  Many of
+the guests were as pale as the medium himself, but Faull preserved
+his stoical apathy, and glanced once or twice at Mrs. Trent.  She was
+staring straight at the couch, and was twisting a little lace
+handkerchief through the different fingers of her hand.  The music
+went on playing.
+
+The figure was by this time unmistakably that of a man lying down.
+The face focused itself into distinctness.  The body was draped in a
+sort of shroud, but the features were those of a young man.  One
+smooth hand fell over, nearly touching the floor, white and
+motionless.  The weaker spirits of the company stared at the vision
+in sick horror; the rest were grave and perplexed.  The seeming man
+was dead, but somehow it did not appear like a death succeeding life,
+but like a death preliminary to life.  All felt that he might sit up
+at any minute.
+
+"Stop that music!" muttered Backhouse, tottering from his chair and
+facing the party.  Faull touched the bell.  A few more bars sounded,
+and then total silence ensued.
+
+"Anyone who wants to may approach the couch," said Backhouse with
+difficulty.
+
+Lang at once advanced, and stared awestruck at the supernatural
+youth.
+
+"You are at liberty to touch," said the medium.
+
+But Lang did not venture to, nor did any of the others, who one by
+one stole up to the couch--until it came to Faull's turn.  He looked
+straight at Mrs. Trent, who seemed frightened and disgusted at the
+spectacle before her, and then not only touched the apparition but
+suddenly grasped the drooping hand in his own and gave it a powerful
+squeeze.  Mrs. Trent gave a low scream.  The ghostly visitor opened
+his eyes, looked at Faull strangely, and sat up on the couch.  A
+cryptic smile started playing over his mouth.  Faull looked at his
+hand; a feeling of intense pleasure passed through his body.
+
+Maskull caught Mrs. Jameson in his arms; she was attacked by another
+spell of faintness.  Mrs. Trent ran forward, and led her out of the
+room.  Neither of them returned.
+
+The phantom body now stood upright, looking about him, still with his
+peculiar smile.  Prior suddenly felt sick, and went out.  The other
+men more or less hung together, for the sake of human society, but
+Nightspore paced up and down, like a man weary and impatient, while
+Maskull attempted to interrogate the youth.  The apparition watched
+him with a baffling expression, but did not answer.  Backhouse was
+sitting apart, his face buried in his hands.
+
+It was at this moment that the door was burst open violently, and a
+stranger, unannounced, half leaped, half strode a few yards into the
+room, and then stopped.  None of Faull's friends had ever seen him
+before.  He was a thick, shortish man, with surprising muscular
+development and a head far too large in proportion to his body.  His
+beardless yellow face indicated, as a first impression, a mixture of
+sagacity, brutality, and humour.
+
+"Aha-i, gentlemen!" he called out loudly.  His voice was piercing,
+and oddly disagreeable to the ear.  "So we have a little visitor
+here."
+
+Nightspore turned his back, but everyone else stared at the intruder
+in astonishment.  He took another few steps forward, which brought
+him to the edge of the theatre.
+
+"May I ask, sir, how I come to have the honour of being your host?"
+asked Faull sullenly.  He thought that the evening was not proceeding
+as smoothly as he had anticipated.
+
+The newcomer looked at him for a second, and then broke into a great,
+roaring guffaw.  He thumped Faull on the back playfully--but the
+play was rather rough, for the victim was sent staggering against the
+wall before he could recover his balance.
+
+"Good evening, my host!"
+
+"And good evening to you too, my lad!" he went on, addressing the
+supernatural youth, who was now beginning to wander about the room,
+in apparent unconsciousness of his surroundings.  "I have seen
+someone very like you before, I think."
+
+There was no response.
+
+The intruder thrust his head almost up to the phantom's face.  "You
+have no right here, as you know."
+
+The shape looked back at him with a smile full of significance,
+which, however, no one could understand.
+
+"Be careful what you are doing," said Backhouse quickly.
+
+"What's the matter, spirit usher?"
+
+"I don't know who you are, but if you use physical violence toward
+that, as you seem inclined to do, the consequences may prove very
+unpleasant."
+
+"And without pleasure our evening would be spoiled, wouldn't it, my
+little mercenary friend?"
+
+Humour vanished from his face, like sunlight from a landscape,
+leaving it hard and rocky.  Before anyone realised what he was doing,
+he encircled the soft, white neck of the materialised shape with his
+hairy hands and, with a double turn, twisted it completely round.  A
+faint, unearthly shriek sounded, and the body fell in a heap to the
+floor.  Its face was uppermost.  The guests were unutterably shocked
+to observe that its expression had changed from the mysterious but
+fascinating smile to a vulgar, sordid, bestial grin, which cast a
+cold shadow of moral nastiness into every heart.  The transformation
+was accompanied by a sickening stench of the graveyard.
+
+The features faded rapidly away, the body lost its consistence,
+passing from the solid to the shadowy condition, and, before two
+minutes had elapsed, the spirit-form had entirely disappeared.
+
+The short stranger turned and confronted the party, with a long, loud
+laugh, like nothing in nature.
+
+The professor talked excitedly to Kent-Smith in low tones.  Faull
+beckoned Backhouse behind a wing of scenery, and handed him his check
+without a word.  The medium put it in his pocket, buttoned his coat,
+and walked out of the room.  Lang followed him, in order to get a
+drink.
+
+The stranger poked his face up into Maskull's.
+
+"Well, giant, what do you think of it all?  Wouldn't you like to see
+the land where this sort of fruit grows wild?"
+
+"What sort of fruit?"
+
+"That specimen goblin."
+
+Maskull waved him away with his huge hand.  "Who are you, and how did
+you come here?"
+
+"Call up your friend.  Perhaps he may recognise me."  Nightspore had
+moved a chair to the fire, and was watching the embers with a set,
+fanatical expression.
+
+"Let Krag come to me, if he wants me," he said, in his strange voice.
+
+"You see, he does know me," uttered Krag, with a humorous look.
+Walking over to Nightspore, he put a hand on the back of his chair.
+
+"Still the same old gnawing hunger?"
+
+"What is doing these days?" demanded Nightspore disdainfully, without
+altering his attitude.
+
+"Surtur has gone, and we are to follow him."
+
+"How do you two come to know each other, and of whom are you
+speaking?" asked Maskull, looking from one to the other in
+perplexity.
+
+"Krag has something for us.  Let us go outside," replied Nightspore.
+He got up, and glanced over his shoulder.  Maskull, following the
+direction of his eye, observed that the few remaining men were
+watching their little group attentively.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+IN THE STREET
+
+The three men gathered in the street outside the house.  The night
+was slightly frosty, but particularly clear, with an east wind
+blowing.  The multitude of blazing stars caused the sky to appear
+like a vast scroll of hieroglyphic symbols.  Maskull felt oddly
+excited; he had a sense that something extraordinary was about to
+happen "What brought you to this house tonight, Krag, and what made
+you do what you did?  How are we understand that apparition?"
+
+"That must have been Crystalman's expression on face," muttered
+Nightspore.
+
+"We have discussed that, haven't we, Maskull?  Maskull is anxious to
+behold that rare fruit in its native wilds."
+
+Maskull looked at Krag carefully, trying to analyse his own feelings
+toward him.  He was distinctly repelled by the man's personality, yet
+side by side with this aversion a savage, living energy seemed to
+spring up in his heart that in some strange fashion was attributable
+to Krag.
+
+"Why do you insist on this simile?" he asked.
+
+"Because it is apropos.  Nightspore's quite right.  That was
+Crystalman's face, and we are going to Crystalman's country."
+
+"And where is this mysterious country?"
+
+"Tormance."
+
+"That's a quaint name.  But where is it?"
+
+Krag grinned, showing his yellow teeth in the light of the street
+lamp.
+
+"It is the residential suburb of Arcturus."
+
+"What is he talking about, Nightspore? ...  Do you mean the star of
+that name?" he went on, to Krag.
+
+"Which you have in front of you at this very minute" said Krag,
+pointing a thick finger toward the brightest star in the south-
+eastern sky.  "There you see Arcturus, and Tormance is its one
+inhabited planet."
+
+Maskull looked at the heavy, gleaning star, and again at Krag.  Then
+he pulled out a pipe, and began to fill it.
+
+"You must have cultivated a new form of humour, Krag."
+
+"I am glad if I can amuse you, Maskull, if only for a few days."
+
+"I meant to ask you--how do you know my name?"
+
+"It would be odd if I didn't, seeing that I only came here on your
+account.  As a matter of fact, Nightspore and I are old friends."
+
+Maskull paused with his suspended match.  "You came here on my
+account?"
+
+"Surely.  On your account and Nightspore's.  We three are to be
+fellow travellers."
+
+Maskull now lit his pipe and puffed away coolly for a few moments.
+
+"I'm sorry, Krag, but I must assume you are mad."
+
+Krag threw his head back, and gave a scraping laugh.  "Am I mad,
+Nightspore?"
+
+"Has Surtur gone to Tormance?" ejaculated Nightspore in a strangled
+voice, fixing his eyes on Krag's face.
+
+"Yes, and he requires that we follow him at once."
+
+Maskull's heart began to beat strangely.  It all sounded to him like
+a dream conversation.
+
+"And since how long, Krag, have I been required to do things by a
+total stranger....  Besides, who is this individual?"
+
+"Krag's chief," said Nightspore, turning his head away.
+
+"The riddle is too elaborate for me.  I give up."
+
+"You are looking for mysteries," said Krag, "so naturally you are
+finding them.  Try and simplify your ideas, my friend.  The affair is
+plain and serious."
+
+Maskull stared hard at him and smoked rapidly.
+
+"Where have you come from now?" demanded Nightspore suddenly.
+
+"From the old observatory at Starkness....  Have you heard of the
+famous Starkness Observatory, Maskull?"
+
+"No.  Where is it?"
+
+"On the north-east coast of Scotland.  Curious discoveries are made
+there from time to time."
+
+"As, for example, how to make voyages to the stars.  So this Surtur
+turns out to be an astronomer.  And you too, presumably?"
+
+Krag grinned again.  "How long will it take you to wind up your
+affairs?  When can you be ready to start?"
+
+"You are too considerate," said Maskull, laughing outright.  "I was
+beginning to fear that I would be hauled away at once....  However, I
+have neither wife, land, nor profession, so there's nothing to wait
+for....  What is the itinerary?"
+
+"You are a fortunate man.  A bold, daring heart, and no
+encumbrances."  Krag's features became suddenly grave and rigid.
+"Don't be a fool, and refuse a gift of luck.  A gift declined is not
+offered a second time."
+
+"Krag," replied Maskull simply, returning his pipe to his pocket.  "I
+ask you to put yourself in my place.  Even if were a man sick for
+adventures, how could I listen seriously to such an insane
+proposition as this?  What do I know about you, or your past record?
+You may be a practical joker, or you may have come out of a madhouse--
+I know nothing about it.  If you claim to be an exceptional man,
+and want my cooperation, you must offer me exceptional proofs."
+
+"And what proofs would you consider adequate, Maskull?"
+
+As he spoke he gripped Maskull's arm.  A sharp, chilling pain
+immediately passed through the latter's body and at the same moment
+his brain caught fire.  A light burst in upon him like the rising of
+the sun.  He asked himself for the first time if this fantastic
+conversation could by any chance refer to real things.
+
+"Listen, Krag," he said slowly, while peculiar images and conceptions
+started to travel in rich disorder through his mind.  "You talk about
+a certain journey.  Well, if that journey were a possible one, and I
+were given the chance of making it, I would be willing never to come
+back.  For twenty-four hours on that Arcturian planet, I would give
+my life.  That is my attitude toward that journey....  Now prove to me
+that you're not talking nonsense.  Produce your credentials."
+
+Krag stared at him all the time he was speaking, his face gradually
+resuming its jesting expression.
+
+"Oh, you will get your twenty-four hours, and perhaps longer, but
+not much longer.  You're an audacious fellow, Maskull, but this trip
+will prove a little strenuous, even for you....  And so, like the
+unbelievers of old, you want a sign from heaven?"
+
+Maskull frowned.  "But the whole thing is ridiculous.  Our brains are
+overexcited by what took place in there.  Let us go home, and sleep
+it off."
+
+Krag detained him with one hand, while groping in his breast pocket
+with the other.  He presently fished out what resembled a small
+folding lens.  The diameter of the glass did not exceed two inches.
+
+"First take a peep at Arcturus through this, Maskull.  It may serve
+as a provisional sign.  It's the best I can do, unfortunately.  I am
+not a travelling magician....  Be very careful not to drop it.  It's
+somewhat heavy."
+
+Maskull took the lens in his hand, struggled with it for a minute,
+and then looked at Krag in amazement.  The little object weighed at
+least twenty pounds, though it was not much bigger than a crown
+piece.
+
+"What stuff can this be, Krag?"
+
+"Look through it, my good friend.  That's what I gave it to you for."
+
+Maskull held it up with difficulty, directed it toward the gleaming
+Arcturus, and snatched as long and as steady a glance at the star as
+the muscles of his arm would permit.  What he saw was this.  The
+star, which to the naked eye appeared as a single yellow point of
+light, now became clearly split into two bright but minute suns, the
+larger of which was still yellow, while its smaller companion was a
+beautiful blue.  But this was not all.  Apparently circulating around
+the yellow sun was a comparatively small and hardly distinguishable
+satellite, which seemed to shine, not by its own, but by reflected
+light....  Maskull lowered and raised his arm repeatedly.  The same
+spectacle revealed itself again and again, but he was able to see
+nothing else.  Then he passed back the lens to Krag, without a word,
+and stood chewing his underlip.
+
+"You take a glimpse too," scraped Krag, proffering the glass to
+Nightspore.
+
+Nightspore turned his back and began to pace up an down.  Krag
+laughed sardonically, and returned the lens to his pocket.  "Well,
+Maskull, are you satisfied?"
+
+"Arcturus, then, is a double sun.  And is that third point the planet
+Tormance?"
+
+"Our future home, Maskull."
+
+Maskull continued to ponder.  "You inquire if I am satisfied.  I don't
+know, Krag.  It's miraculous, and that's all I can say about it....
+But I'm satisfied of one thing.  There must be very wonderful
+astronomers at Starkness and if you invite me to your observatory I
+will surely come."
+
+"I do invite you.  We set off from there."
+
+"And you, Nightspore?" demanded Maskull.
+
+"The journey has to be made," answered his friend in indistinct
+tones, "though I don't see what will come of it."
+
+Krag shot a penetrating glance at him.  "More remarkable adventures
+than this would need to be arranged before we could excite
+Nightspore."
+
+"Yet he is coming."
+
+"But not con amore.  He is coming merely to bear you company."
+
+Maskull again sought the heavy, sombre star, gleaming in solitary
+might, in the south-eastern heavens, and, as he gazed, his heart
+swelled with grand and painful longings, for which, however, he was
+unable to account to his own intellect.  He felt that his destiny was
+in some way bound up with this gigantic, far-distant sun.  But
+still he did not dare to admit to himself Krag's seriousness.
+
+He heard his parting remarks in deep abstraction, and only after the
+lapse of several minutes, when, alone with Nightspore, did he realise
+that they referred to such mundane matters as travelling routes and
+times of trains.
+
+"Does Krag travel north with us, Nightspore?  I didn't catch that."
+
+"No.  We go on first, and he joins us at Starkness on the evening of
+the day after tomorrow."
+
+Maskull remained thoughtful.  "What am I to think of that man?"
+
+"For your information," replied Nightspore wearily, "I have never
+known him to lie."
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+STARKNESS
+
+A couple of days later, at two o'clock in the afternoon, Maskull and
+Nightspore arrived at Starkness Observatory, having covered the seven
+miles from Haillar Station on foot.  The road, very wild and lonely,
+ran for the greater part of the way near the edge of rather lofty
+cliffs, within sight of the North Sea.  The sun shone, but a brisk
+east wind was blowing and the air was salt and cold.  The dark green
+waves were flecked with white.  Throughout the walk, they were
+accompanied by the plaintive, beautiful crying of the gulls.
+
+The observatory presented itself to their eyes as a self-contained
+little community, without neighbours, and perched on the extreme end
+of the land.  There were three buildings: a small, stone-built
+dwelling house, a low workshop, and, about two hundred yards farther
+north, a square tower of granite masonry, seventy feet in height.
+
+The house and the shop were separated by an open yard, littered with
+waste.  A single stone wall surrounded both, except on the side
+facing the sea, where the house itself formed a continuation of the
+cliff.  No one appeared.  The windows were all closed, and Maskull
+could have sworn that the whole establishment was shut up and
+deserted.
+
+He passed through the open gate, followed by Nightspore, and knocked
+vigorously at the front door.  The knocker was thick with dust and
+had obviously not been used for a long time.  He put his ear to the
+door, but could hear no movements inside the house.  He then tried
+the handle; the door was looked.
+
+They walked around the house, looking for another entrance, but there
+was only the one door.
+
+"This isn't promising," growled Maskull  "There's no one here.....
+Now you try the shed, while I go over to that tower."
+
+Nightspore, who had not spoken half a dozen words since leaving the
+train, complied in silence, and started off across the yard.  Maskull
+passed out of the gate again.  When he arrived at the foot of the
+tower, which stood some way back from the cliff, he found the door
+heavily padlocked.  Gazing up, he saw six windows, one above the
+other at equal distances, all on the east face--that is, overlooking
+the sea.  Realising that no satisfaction was to be gained here, he
+came away again, still more irritated than before.  When he rejoined
+his friend, Nightspore reported that the workshop was also locked.
+
+"Did we, or did we not, receive an invitation?" demanded Maskull
+energetically.
+
+"The house is empty," replied Nightspore, biting his nails.  "Better
+break a window."
+
+"I certainly don't mean to camp out till Krag condescends to come."
+
+He picked up an old iron bolt from the yard and, retreating to a safe
+distance, hurled it against a sash window on the ground floor.  The
+lower pane was completely shattered.  Carefully avoiding the broken
+glass, Maskull thrust his hand through the aperture and pushed back
+the frame fastening.  A minute later they had climbed through and
+were standing inside the house.
+
+The room, which was a kitchen, was in an indescribably filthy and
+neglected condition.  The furniture scarcely held together, broken
+utensils and rubbish lay on the floor instead of on the dust heap,
+everything was covered with a deep deposit of dust.  The atmosphere
+was so foul that Maskull judged that no fresh air had passed into the
+room for several months.  Insects were crawling on the walls.
+
+They went into the other rooms on the lower floor--a scullery, a
+barely furnished dining room, and a storing place for lumber.  The
+same dirt, mustiness, and neglect met their eyes.  At least half a
+year must have elapsed since these rooms were last touched, or even
+entered.
+
+"Does your faith in Krag still hold?" asked Maskull.  "I confess mine
+is at vanishing point.  If this affair isn't one big practical joke,
+it has every promise of being one.  Krag never lived here in his
+life."
+
+"Come upstairs first," said Nightspore.
+
+The upstairs rooms proved to consist of a library and three bedrooms.
+All the windows were tightly closed, and the air was insufferable.
+The beds had been slept in, evidently a long time ago, and had never
+been made since.  The tumbled, discoloured bed linen actually
+preserved the impressions of the sleepers.  There was no doubt that
+these impressions were ancient, for all sorts of floating dirt had
+accumulated on the sheets and coverlets.
+
+"Who could have slept here, do you think?" interrogated Maskull.
+"The observatory staff?"
+
+"More likely travellers like ourselves.  They left suddenly."
+
+Maskull flung the windows wide open in every room he came to, and
+held his breath until he had done so.  Two of the bedrooms faced the
+sea; the third, the library, the upward-sloping moorland.  This
+library was now the only room left unvisited, and unless they
+discovered signs of recent occupation here Maskull made up his mind
+to regard the whole business as a gigantic hoax.
+
+But the library, like all the other rooms, was foul with stale air
+and dust-laden.  Maskull, having flung the window up and down, fell
+heavily into an armchair and looked disgustedly at his friend.
+
+"Now what is your opinion of Krag?"
+
+Nightspore sat on the edge of the table which stood before the
+window.  "He may still have left a message for us."
+
+"What message?  Why?  Do you mean in this room?--I see no message."
+
+Nightspore's eyes wandered about the room, finally seeming to linger
+upon a glass-fronted wall cupboard, which contained a few old
+bottles on one of the shelves and nothing else.  Maskull glanced at
+him and at the cupboard.  Then, without a word, he got up to examine
+the bottles.
+
+There were four altogether, one of which was larger than the rest.
+The smaller ones were about eight inches long.  All were torpedo-
+shaped, but had flattened bottoms, which enabled them to stand
+upright.  Two of the smaller ones were empty and unstoppered, the
+others contained a colourless liquid, and possessed queer-looking,
+nozzle-like stoppers that were connected by a thin metal rod with a
+catch halfway down the side of the bottle.  They were labelled, but
+the labels were yellow with age and the writing was nearly
+undecipherable.  Maskull carried the filled bottles with him to the
+table in front of the window, in order to get better light.
+Nightspore moved away to make room for him.
+
+He now made out on the larger bottle the words "Solar Back Rays"; and
+on the other one, after some doubt, he thought that he could
+distinguish something like "Arcturian Back Rays."
+
+He looked up, to stare curiously at his friend.  "Have you been here
+before, Nightspore?"
+
+"I guessed Krag would leave a message."
+
+"Well, I don't know--it may be a message, but it means nothing to
+us, or at all events to me.  What are 'back rays'?"
+
+"Light that goes back to its source," muttered Nightspore.
+
+"And what kind of light would that be?"
+
+Nightspore seemed unwilling to answer, but, finding Maskull's eyes
+still fixed on him, he brought out: "Unless light pulled, as well as
+pushed, how would flowers contrive to twist their heads around after
+the sun?"
+
+"I don't know.  But the point is, what are these bottles for?"
+
+While he was still talking, with his hand on the smaller bottle, the
+other, which was lying on its side, accidentally rolled over in such
+a manner that the metal caught against the table.  He made a movement
+to stop it, his hand was actually descending, when--the bottle
+suddenly disappeared before his eyes.  It had not rolled off the
+table, but had really vanished--it was nowhere at all.
+
+Maskull stared at the table.  After a minute he raised his brows, and
+turned to Nightspore with a smile.  "The message grows more
+intricate."
+
+Nightspore looked bored.  "The valve became unfastened.  The contents
+have escaped through the open window toward the sun, carrying the
+bottle with them.  But the bottle will be burned up by the earth's
+atmosphere, and the contents will dissipate, and will not reach the
+sun."
+
+Maskull listened attentively, and his smile faded.  "Does anything
+prevent us from experimenting with this other bottle?"
+
+"Replace it in the cupboard," said Nightspore.  "Arcturus is still
+below the horizon, and you would succeed only in wrecking the house."
+
+Maskull remained standing before the window, pensively gazing out at
+the sunlit moors.
+
+"Krag treats me like a child," he remarked presently.  "And perhaps I
+really am a child....  My cynicism must seem most amusing to Krag.
+But why does he leave me to find out all this by myself--for I don't
+include you, Nightspore....  But what time will Krag be here?"
+
+"Not before dark, I expect," his friend replied.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+THE VOICE
+
+It was by this time past three o'clock.  Feeling hungry, for they had
+eaten nothing since early morning, Maskull went downstairs to forage,
+but without much hope of finding anything in the shape of food.  In a
+safe in the kitchen he discovered a bag of mouldy oatmeal, which was
+untouchable, a quantity of quite good tea in an airtight caddy, and
+an unopened can of ox tongue.  Best of all, in the dining-room
+cupboard he came across an uncorked bottle of first-class Scotch
+whisky.  He at once made preparations for a scratch meal.
+
+A pump in the yard ran clear after a good deal of hard working at it,
+and he washed out and filled the antique kettle.  For firewood, one
+of the kitchen chairs was broken up with a chopper.  The light, dusty
+wood made a good blaze in the grate, the kettle was boiled, and cups
+were procured and washed.  Ten minutes later the friends were dining
+in the library.
+
+Nightspore ate and drank little, but Maskull sat down with good
+appetite.  There being no milk, whisky took the place of it; the
+nearly black tea was mixed with an equal quantity of the spirit.  Of
+this concoction Maskull drank cup after cup, and long after the
+tongue had disappeared he was still imbibing.
+
+Nightspore looked at him queerly.  "Do you intend to finish the
+bottle before Krag comes?"
+
+"Krag won't want any, and one must do something.  I feel restless."
+
+"Let us take a look at the country."
+
+The cup, which was on its way to Maskull's lips, remained poised in
+the air.  "Have you anything in view, Nightspore?"
+
+"Let us walk out to the Gap of Sorgie."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"A showplace," answered Nightspore, biting his lip.
+
+Maskull finished off the cup, and rose to his feet.  "Walking is
+better than soaking at any time, and especially on a day like
+this....  How far is it?"
+
+"Three or four miles each way."
+
+"You probably mean something," said Maskull, "for I'm beginning to
+regard you as a second Krag.  But if so, so much the better.
+I am growing nervous, and need incidents."
+
+They left the house by the door, which they left ajar, and
+immediately found themselves again on the moorland road that had
+brought them from Haillar.  This time they continued along it, past
+the tower.
+
+Maskull, as they went by, regarded the erection with puzzled
+interest.  "What is that tower, Nightspore?"
+
+"We sail from the platform on the top."
+
+"Tonight?"--throwing him a quick look.
+
+"Yes."
+
+Maskull smiled, but his eyes were grave.  "Then we are looking at the
+gateway of Arcturus, and Krag is now travelling north to unlock it."
+
+"You no longer think it impossible, I fancy," mumbled Nightspore.
+
+After a mile or two, the road parted from the sea coast and swerved
+sharply inland, across the hills.  With Nightspore as guide, they
+left it and took to the grass.  A faint sheep path marked the way
+along the cliff edge for some distance, but at the end of another
+mile it vanished.  The two men then had some rough walking up and
+down hillsides and across deep gullies.  The sun disappeared behind
+the hills, and twilight imperceptibly came on.  They soon reached a
+spot where further progress appeared impossible.  The buttress of a
+mountain descended at a steep angle to the very edge of the cliff,
+forming an impassable slope of slippery grass.  Maskull halted,
+stroked his beard, and wondered what the next step was to be.
+
+"There's a little scrambling here," said Nightspore.  "We are both
+used to climbing, and there is not much in it."
+
+He indicated a narrow ledge, winding along the face of the precipice
+a few yards beneath where they were standing.  It averaged from
+fifteen to thirty inches in width.  Without waiting for Maskull's
+consent to the undertaking, he instantly swung himself down and
+started walking along this ledge at a rapid pace.  Maskull, seeing
+that there was no help for it, followed him.  The shelf did not
+extend for above a quarter of a mile, but its passage was somewhat
+unnerving; there was a sheer drop to the sea, four hundred feet
+below.  In a few places they had to sidle along without placing one
+foot before another.  The sound of the breakers came up to them in a
+low, threatening roar.
+
+Upon rounding a corner, the ledge broadened out into a fair-sized
+platform of rock and came to a sudden end.  A narrow inlet of the sea
+separated them from the continuation of the cliffs beyond.
+
+"As we can't get any further," said Maskull, "I presume this is your
+Gap of Sorgie?"
+
+"Yes," answered his friend, first dropping on his knees and then
+lying at full length, face downward.  He drew his head and shoulders
+over the edge and began to stare straight down at the water.
+
+"What is there interesting down there, Nightspore?"
+
+Receiving no reply, however, he followed his friend's example, and
+the next minute was looking for himself.  Nothing was to be seen; the
+gloom had deepened, and the sea was nearly invisible.  But, while he
+was ineffectually gazing, he heard what sounded like the beating of a
+drum on the narrow strip of shore below.  It was very faint, but
+quite distinct.  The beats were in four-four time, with the third
+beat slightly accented.  He now continued to hear the noise all the
+time he was lying there.  The beats were in no way drowned by the far
+louder sound of the surf, but seemed somehow to belong to a different
+world....
+
+When they were on their feet again, he questioned Nightspore.  "We
+came here solely to hear that?"
+
+Nightspore cast one of his odd looks at him.  "It's called locally
+'The Drum Taps of Sorgie.'  You will not hear that name again, but
+perhaps you will hear the sound again."
+
+"And if I do, what will it imply?" demanded Maskull in amazement.
+
+"It bears its own message.  Only try always to hear it more and more
+distinctly....  Now it's growing dark, and we must get back."
+
+Maskull pulled out his watch automatically, and looked at the time.
+It was past six....  But he was thinking of Nightspore's words, and
+not of the time.
+
+Night had already fallen by the time they regained the tower.  The
+black sky was glorious with liquid stars.  Arcturus was a little way
+above the sea, directly opposite them, in the east.  As they were
+passing the base of the tower, Maskull observed with a sudden shock
+that the gate was open.  He caught hold of Nightspore's arm
+violently.  "Look!  Krag is back."
+
+"Yes, we must make haste to the house."
+
+"And why not the tower?  He's probably in there, since the gate is
+open.  I'm going up to look."
+
+Nightspore grunted, but made no opposition.
+
+All was pitch-black inside the gate.  Maskull struck a match, and
+the flickering light disclosed the lower end of a circular flight of
+stone steps.  "Are you coming up?" he asked.
+
+"No, I'll wait here."
+
+Maskull immediately began the ascent.  Hardly had he mounted half a
+dozen steps, however, before he was compelled to pause, to gain
+breath.  He seemed to be carrying upstairs not one Maskull, but
+three.  As he proceeded, the sensation of crushing weight, so far
+from diminishing, grew worse and worse.  It was nearly physically
+impossible to go on; his lungs could not take in enough oxygen, while
+his heart thumped like a ship's engine.  Sweat coursed down his face.
+At the twentieth step he completed the first revolution of the tower
+and came face to face with the first window, which was set in a high
+embrasure.
+
+Realising that he could go no higher, he struck another match, and
+climbed into the embrasure, in order that he might at all events see
+something from the tower.  The flame died, and he stared through the
+window at the stars.  Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that it
+was not a window at all but a lens....  The sky was not a wide
+expanse of space containing a multitude of stars, but a blurred
+darkness, focused only in one part, where two very bright stars, like
+small moons in size, appeared in close conjunction; and near them a
+more minute planetary object, as brilliant as Venus and with an
+observable disk.  One of the suns shone with a glaring white light;
+the other was a weird and awful blue.  Their light, though almost
+solar in intensity, did not illuminate the interior of the tower.
+
+Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was
+gazing was what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus....  He
+had seen the sight before, through Krag's glass, but then the scale
+had been smaller, the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in
+their naked reality....  These colors seemed to him most marvellous,
+as if, in seeing them through earth eyes, he was not seeing them
+correctly....  But it was at Tormance that he stared the longest and
+the most earnestly.  On that mysterious and terrible earth, countless
+millions of miles distant, it had been promised him that he would set
+foot, even though he might leave his bones there.  The strange
+creatures that he was to behold and touch were already living, at
+this very moment.
+
+A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard
+away.  "Don't you understand, Maskull, that you are only an
+instrument, to be used and then broken?  Nightspore is asleep now,
+but when he wakes you must die.  You will go, but he will return."
+
+Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers.  No one
+was in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.
+
+The voice did not sound again.  After waiting a few minutes, he
+redescended to the foot of the tower.  On gaining the open air, his
+sensation of weight was instantly removed, but he continued panting
+and palpitating, like a man who has lifted a far too heavy load.
+
+Nightspore's dark form came forward.  "Was Krag there?"
+
+"If he was.  I didn't see him.  But I heard someone speak."
+
+"Was it Krag?"
+
+"It was not Krag--but a voice warned me against you."
+
+"Yes, you will hear these voices too," said Nightspore enigmatically.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE
+
+When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and
+the door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not
+there.  Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every
+room--at the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the
+man they were expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the
+premises.  Groping their way into the library, they sat down in the
+total darkness to wait, for nothing else remained to be done.
+Maskull lit his pipe, and began to drink the remainder of the whisky.
+Through the open window sounded in their ears the trainlike grinding
+of the sea at the foot of the cliffs.
+
+"Krag must be in the tower after all," remarked Maskull, breaking the
+silence.
+
+"Yes, he is getting ready."
+
+"I hope he doesn't expect us to join him there.  It was beyond my
+powers--but why, heaven knows.  The stairs must have a magnetic pull
+of some sort."
+
+"It is Tormantic gravity," muttered Nightspore.
+
+"I understand you--or, rather, I don't--but it doesn't matter."
+
+He went on smoking in silence, occasionally taking a mouthful of the
+neat liquor.  "Who is Surtur?" he demanded abruptly.
+
+"We others are gropers and bunglers, but he is a master."
+
+Maskull digested this.  "I fancy you are right, for though I know
+nothing about him his mere name has an exciting effect on me....  Are
+you personally acquainted with him?"
+
+"I must be... I forget..." replied Nightspore in a choking voice.
+
+Maskull looked up, surprised, but could make nothing out in the
+blackness of the room.
+
+"Do you know so many extraordinary men that you can forget some of
+them? ...  Perhaps you can tell me this... will we meet him, where
+we are going?"
+
+"You will meet death, Maskull....  Ask me no more questions--I can't
+answer them."
+
+"Then let us go on waiting for Krag," said Maskull coldly.
+
+Ten minutes later the front door slammed, and a light, quick footstep
+was heard running up the stairs.  Maskull got up, with a beating
+heart.
+
+Krag appeared on the threshold of the door, bearing in his hand a
+feebly glimmering lantern.  A hat was on his head, and he looked
+stern and forbidding.  After scrutinising the two friends for a
+moment or so, he strode into the room and thrust the lantern on the
+table.  Its light hardly served to illuminate the walls.
+
+"You have got here, then, Maskull?"
+
+"So it seems--but I shan't thank you for your hospitality, for it
+has been conspicuous by its absence."
+
+Krag ignored the remark.  "Are you ready to start?"
+
+"By all means--when you are.  It is not so entertaining here."
+
+Krag surveyed him critically.  "I heard you stumbling about in the
+tower.  You couldn't get up, it seems."
+
+"It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore informs me that the start
+takes place from the top."
+
+"But your other doubts are all removed?"
+
+"So far, Krag, that I now possess an open mind.  I am quite willing
+to see what you can do."
+
+"Nothing more is asked....  But this tower business.  You know that
+until you are able to climb to the top you are unfit to stand the
+gravitation of Tormance?"
+
+"Then I repeat, it's an awkward obstacle, for I certainly can't get
+up."
+
+Krag hunted about in his pockets, and at length produced a clasp
+knife.
+
+"Remove you coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve," he directed.
+
+"Do you propose to make an incision with that?"
+
+"Yes, and don't start difficulties, because the effect is certain,
+but you can't possibly understand it beforehand."
+
+"Still, a cut with a pocket-knife--" began Maskull, laughing.
+
+"It will answer, Maskull," interrupted Nightspore.
+
+"Then bare your arm too, you aristocrat of the universe," said Krag.
+"Let us see what your blood is made of."
+
+Nightspore obeyed.
+
+Krag pulled out the big blade of the knife, and made a careless and
+almost savage slash at Maskull's upper arm.  The wound was deep, and
+blood flowed freely.
+
+"Do I bind it up?" asked Maskull, scowling with pain.
+
+Krag spat on the wound.  "Pull your shirt down, it won't bleed any
+more."
+
+He then turned his attention to Nightspore, who endured his operation
+with grim indifference.  Krag threw the knife on the floor.
+
+An awful agony, emanating from the wound, started to run through
+Maskull's body, and he began to doubt whether he would not have to
+faint, but it subsided almost immediately, and then he felt nothing
+but a gnawing ache in the injured arm, just strong enough to make
+life one long discomfort.
+
+"That's finished," said Krag.  "Now you can follow me."
+
+Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door.  The others
+hastened after him, to take advantage of the light, and a moment
+later their footsteps, clattering down the uncarpeted stairs,
+resounded through the deserted house.  Krag waited till they were
+out, and then banged the front door after them with such violence
+that the windows shook.
+
+While they were walking swiftly across to the tower, Maskull caught
+his arm.  "I heard a voice up those stairs."
+
+"What did it say?"
+
+"That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return."
+
+Krag smiled.  "The journey is getting notorious," he remarked, after
+a pause.  "There must be ill-wishers about....  Well, do you want to
+return?"
+
+"I don't know what I want.  But I thought the thing was curious
+enough to be mentioned."
+
+"It is not a bad thing to hear voices," said Krag, "but you mustn't
+for a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you out of the
+night world."
+
+When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he
+immediately set foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and
+ran nimbly up, bearing the lantern.  Maskull followed him with some
+trepidation, in view of his previous painful experience on these
+stairs, but when, after the first half-dozen steps, he discovered
+that he was still breathing freely, his dread changed to relief and
+astonishment, and he could have chattered like a girl.
+
+At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stepping, but
+Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his
+acquaintance with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group.
+The lens had lost its magic property.  It had become a common sheet
+of glass, through which the ordinary sky field appeared.
+
+The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again
+mounted and stared out, but still the common sights presented
+themselves.  After that, he gave up and looked through no more
+windows.
+
+Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so
+that he had to complete the ascent in darkness.  When he was near the
+top, he saw yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened
+door.  His companions were standing just inside a small room, shut
+off from the staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely
+furnished and contained nothing of astronomical interest.  The
+lantern was resting on a table.
+
+Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity.  "Are we at
+the top?"
+
+"Except for the platform over our heads," replied Krag.
+
+"Why didn't that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in the
+evening?"
+
+"Oh, you missed your opportunity," said Krag, grinning.  "If you had
+finished your climb then, you would have seen heart-expanding
+sights.  From the fifth window, for example, you would have seen
+Tormance like a continent in relief; from the sixth you would have
+seen it like a landscape....  But now there's no need."
+
+"Why not--and what has need got to do with it?"
+
+"Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours.  For the
+same reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there
+was no necessity to stop and gape at illusions en route."
+
+"Very well," said Maskull, not quite understanding what he meant.
+"But is this Surtur's den?"
+
+"He has spent time here."
+
+"I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag.  We may
+not get another chance."
+
+"What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur.  There's no
+need to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately
+going on to the reality."
+
+"Then let us go."  He pressed his eyeballs wearily.
+
+"Do we strip?" asked Nightspore.
+
+"Naturally," answered Krag, and he began to tear off his clothes with
+slow, uncouth movements.
+
+"Why?" demanded Maskull, following, however, the example of the other
+two men.
+
+Krag thumped his vast chest, which was covered with thick hairs, like
+an ape's.  "Who knows what the Tormance fashions are like?  We may
+sprout limbs--I don't say we shall."
+
+"A-ha!" exclaimed Maskull, pausing in the middle of his undressing.
+
+Krag smote him on the back.  "New pleasure organs possible, Maskull.
+You like that?"
+
+The three men stood as nature made them.  Maskull's spirits rose
+fast, as the moment of departure drew near.
+
+"A farewell drink to success!" cried Krag, seizing a bottle and
+breaking its head off between his fingers.  There were no glasses,
+but he poured the amber-coloured wine into some cracked cups.
+
+Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull tossed off his cupful.  It
+was as if he had swallowed a draught of liquid electricity....  Krag
+dropped onto the floor and rolled around on his back, kicking his
+legs in the air.  He tried to drag Maskull down on top of him, and a
+little horseplay went on between the two.  Nightspore took no part in
+it, but walked to and fro, like a hungry caged animal.
+
+Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged,
+piercing wail, such as a banshee might be imagined to utter.  It
+ceased abruptly, and was not repeated.
+
+"What's that?" called out Maskull, disengaging himself impatiently
+from Krag.
+
+Krag rocked with laughter.  "A Scottish spirit trying to reproduce
+the bagpipes of its earth life--in honour of our departure."
+
+Nightspore turned to Krag.  "Maskull will sleep throughout the
+journey?"
+
+"And you too, if you wish, my altruistic friend.  I am pilot, and you
+passengers can amuse yourselves as you please."
+
+"Are we off at last?" asked Maskull.
+
+"Yes, you are about to cross your Rubicon, Maskull.  But what a
+Rubicon! ...  Do you know that it takes light a hundred years or so
+to arrive here from Arcturus?  Yet we shall do it in nineteen hours."
+
+"Then you assert that Surtur is already there?"
+
+"Surtur is where he is.  He is a great traveller."
+
+"Won't I see him?"
+
+Krag went up to him and looked him in the eyes.  "Don't forget that
+you have asked for it, and wanted it.  Few people in Tormance will
+know more about him than you do, but your memory will be your worst
+friend."
+
+He led the way up a short iron ladder, mounting through a trap to the
+flat roof above.  When they were up, he switched on a small electric
+torch.
+
+Maskull beheld with awe the torpedo of crystal that was to convey
+them through the whole breadth of visible space.  It was forty feet
+long, eight wide, and eight high; the tank containing the Arcturian
+back rays was in front, the car behind.  The nose of the torpedo was
+directed toward the south-eastern sky.  The whole machine rested upon
+a flat platform, raised about four feet above the level of the roof,
+so as to encounter no obstruction on starting its flight.
+
+Krag flashed the light on to the door of the car, to enable them to
+enter.  Before doing so, Maskull gazed sternly once again at the
+gigantic, far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now
+onward.  He frowned, shivered slightly, and got in beside Nightspore.
+Krag clambered past them onto his pilot's seat.  He threw the
+flashlight through the open door, which was then carefully closed,
+fastened, and screwed up.
+
+He pulled the starting lever.  The torpedo glided gently from its
+platform, and passed rather slowly away from the tower, seaward.  Its
+speed increased sensibly, though not excessively, until the
+approximate limits of the earth's atmosphere were reached.  Krag then
+released the speed valve, and the car sped on its way with a velocity
+more nearly approaching that of thought than of light.
+
+Maskull had no opportunity of examining through the crystal walls the
+rapidly changing panorama of the heavens.  An extreme drowsiness
+oppressed him.  He opened his eyes violently a dozen times, but on
+the thirteenth attempt he failed.  From that time forward he slept
+heavily.
+
+The bored, hungry expression never left Nightspore's face.  The
+alterations in the aspect of the sky seemed to possess not the least
+interest for him.
+
+Krag sat with his hand on the lever, watching with savage intentness
+his phosphorescent charts and gauges.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+JOIWIND
+
+IT WAS DENSE NIGHT when Maskull awoke from his profound sleep.  A
+wind was blowing against him, gentle but wall-like, such as he had
+never experienced on earth.  He remained sprawling on the ground, as
+he was unable to lift his body because of its intense weight.  A
+numbing pain, which he could not identify with any region of his
+frame, acted from now onward as a lower, sympathetic note to all his
+other sensations.  It gnawed away at him continuously; sometimes it
+embittered and irritated him, at other times he forgot it.
+
+He felt something hard on his forehead.  Putting his hand up, he
+discovered there a fleshy protuberance the size of a small plum,
+having a cavity in the middle, of which he could not feel the bottom.
+Then he also became aware of a large knob on each side of his neck,
+an inch below the ear.
+
+From the region of his heart, a tentacle had budded.  It was as long
+as his arm, but thin, like whipcord, and soft and flexible.
+
+As soon as he thoroughly realised the significance of these new
+organs, his heart began to pump.  Whatever might, or might not, be
+their use, they proved one thing that he was in a new world.
+
+One part of the sky began to get lighter than the rest.  Maskull
+cried out to his companions, but received no response.  This
+frightened him.  He went on shouting out, at irregular intervals--
+equally alarmed at the silence and at the sound of his own voice.
+Finally, as no answering hail came, he thought it wiser not to make
+too much noise, and after that he lay quiet, waiting in cold blood
+for what might happen.
+
+In a short while he perceived dim shadows around him, but these were
+not his friends.
+
+A pale, milky vapour over the ground began to succeed the black
+night, while in the upper sky rosy tints appeared.  On earth, one
+would have said that day was breaking.  The brightness went on
+imperceptibly increasing for a very long time.
+
+Maskull then discovered that he was lying on sand.  The colour of the
+sand was scarlet.  The obscure shadows he had seen were bushes, with
+black stems and purple leaves.  So far, nothing else was visible.
+
+The day surged up.  It was too misty for direct sunshine, but before
+long the brilliance of the light was already greater than that of the
+midday sun on earth.  The heat, too, was intense, but Maskull
+welcomed it--it relieved his pain and diminished his sense of
+crushing weight.  The wind had dropped with the rising of the sun.
+
+He now tried to get onto his feet, but succeeded only in kneeling.
+He was unable to see far.  The mists had no more than partially
+dissolved, and all that he could distinguish was a narrow circle of
+red sand dotted with ten or twenty bushes.
+
+He felt a soft, cool touch on the back of his neck.  He started
+forward in nervous fright and, in doing so, tumbled over onto the
+sand.  Looking up over his shoulder quickly, he was astounded to see
+a woman standing beside him.
+
+She was clothed in a single flowing, pale green garment, rather
+classically draped.  According to earth standards she was not
+beautiful, for, although her face was otherwise human, she was
+endowed--or afflicted--with the additional disfiguring organs that
+Maskull had discovered in himself.  She also possessed the heart
+tentacle.  But when he sat up, and their eyes met and remained in
+sympathetic contact, he seemed to see right into a soul that was the
+home of love, warmth, kindness, tenderness, and intimacy.  Such was
+the noble familiarity of that gaze, that he thought he knew her.
+After that, he recognised all the loveliness of her person.  She was
+tall and slight.  All her movements were as graceful as music.  Her
+skin was not of a dead, opaque colour, like that of an earth beauty,
+but was opalescent; its hue was continually changing, with every
+thought and emotion, but none of these tints was vivid--all were
+delicate, half-toned, and poetic.  She had very long, loosely
+plaited, flaxen hair.  The new organs, as soon as Maskull had
+familiarised himself with them, imparted something to her face that
+was unique and striking.  He could not quite define it to himself,
+but subtlety and inwardness seemed added.  The organs did not
+contradict the love of her eyes or the angelic purity of her
+features, but nevertheless sounded a deeper note--a note that saved
+her from mere girlishness.
+
+Her gaze was so friendly and unembarrassed that Maskull felt scarcely
+any humiliation at sitting at her feet, naked and helpless.  She
+realised his plight, and put into his hands a garment that she had
+been carrying over her arm.  It was similar to the one she was
+wearing, but of a darker, more masculine colour.
+
+"Do you think you can put it on by yourself?"
+
+He was distinctly conscious of these words, yet her voice had not
+sounded.
+
+He forced himself up to his feet, and she helped him to master the
+complications of the drapery.
+
+"Poor man--how you are suffering!" she said, in the same inaudible
+language.  This time he discovered that the sense of what she said
+was received by his brain through the organ on his forehead.
+
+"Where am I?  Is this Tormance?" he asked.  As he spoke, he staggered.
+
+She caught him, and helped him to sit down.  "Yes.  You are with
+friends."
+
+Then she regarded him with a smile, and began speaking aloud, in
+English.  Her voice somehow reminded him of an April day, it was so
+fresh, nervous, and girlish.  "I can now understand your language.
+It was strange at first.  In the future I'll speak to you with my
+mouth."
+
+"This is extraordinary!  What is this organ?" he asked, touching his
+forehead.
+
+"It is named the 'breve.'  By means of it we read one another's
+thoughts.  Still, speech is better, for then the heart can be read
+too."
+
+He smiled.  "They say that speech is given us to deceive others."
+
+"One can deceive with thought, too.  But I'm thinking of the best,
+not the worst."
+
+"Have you seen my friends?"
+
+She scrutinised him quietly, before answering.  "Did you not come
+alone?"
+
+"I came with two other men, in a machine.  I must have lost
+consciousness on arrival, and I haven't seen them since."
+
+"That's very strange!  No, I haven't seen them.  They can't be here,
+or we would have known it.  My husband and I--"
+
+"What is your name, and your husband's name?"
+
+"Mine is Joiwind--my husband's is Panawe.  We live a very long way
+from here; still, it came to us both last night that you were lying
+here insensible.  We almost quarrelled about which of us should come
+to you, but in the end I won."  Here she laughed.  "I won, because I
+am the stronger-hearted of the two; he is the purer in perception."
+
+"Thanks, Joiwind!" said Maskull simply.
+
+The colors chased each other rapidly beneath her skin.  "Oh, why do
+you say that?  What pleasure is greater than loving-kindness?  I
+rejoiced at the opportunity....  But now we must exchange blood."
+
+"What is this?" he demanded, rather puzzled.
+
+"It must be so.  Your blood is far too thick and heavy for our world.
+Until you have an infusion of mine, you will never get up."
+
+Maskull flushed.  "I feel like a complete ignoramus here....  Won't it
+hurt you?"
+
+"If your blood pains you, I suppose it will pain me.  But we will
+share the pain."
+
+"This is a new kind of hospitality to me," he muttered.
+
+"Wouldn't you do the same for me?" asked Joiwind, half smiling,
+half agitated.
+
+"I can't answer for any of my actions in this world.  I scarcely know
+where I am....  Why, yes--of course I would, Joiwind."
+
+While they were talking it had become full day.  The mists had rolled
+away from the ground, and only the upper atmosphere remained fog-
+charged.  The desert of scarlet sand stretched in all directions,
+except one, where there was a sort of little oasis--some low hills,
+clothed sparsely with little purple trees from base to summit.  It
+was about a quarter of a mile distant.
+
+Joiwind had brought with her a small flint knife.  Without any trace
+of nervousness, she made a careful, deep incision on her upper arm.
+Maskull expostulated.
+
+"Really, this part of it is nothing," she said, laughing.  "And if it
+were--a sacrifice that is no sacrifice--what merit is there in
+that? ... Come now--your arm!"
+
+The blood was streaming down her arm.  It was not red blood, but a
+milky, opalescent fluid.
+
+"Not that one!" said Maskull, shrinking.  "I have already been cut
+there."  He submitted the other, and his blood poured forth.
+
+Joiwind delicately and skilfully placed the mouths of the two wounds
+together, and then kept her arm pressed tightly against Maskull's for
+a long time.  He felt a stream of pleasure entering his body through
+the incision.  His old lightness and vigour began to return to him.
+After about five minutes a duel of kindness started between them; he
+wanted to remove his arm, and she to continue.  At last he had his
+way, but it was none too soon--she stood there pale and dispirited.
+
+She looked at him with a more serious expression than before, as if
+strange depths had opened up before her eyes.
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Maskull."
+
+"Where have you come from, with this awful blood?"
+
+"From a world called Earth....  The blood is clearly unsuitable for
+this world, Joiwind, but after all, that was only to be expected.  I
+am sorry I let you have your way."
+
+"Oh, don't say that!  There was nothing else to be done.  We must all
+help one another.  Yet, somehow--forgive me--I feel polluted."
+
+"And well you may, for it's a fearful thing for a girl to accept in
+her own veins the blood of a strange man from a strange planet.  If I
+had not been so dazed and weak I would never have allowed it."
+
+"But I would have insisted.  Are we not all brothers and sisters?
+Why did you come here, Maskull?"
+
+He was conscious of a slight degree of embarrassment.  "Will you
+think it foolish if I say I hardly know?--I came with those two men.
+Perhaps I was attracted by curiosity, or perhaps it was the love of
+adventure."
+
+"Perhaps," said Joiwind.  "I wonder...  These friends of yours must
+be terrible men.  Why did they come?"
+
+"That I can tell you.  They came to follow Surtur."
+
+Her face grew troubled.  "I don't understand it.  One of them at
+least must be a bad man, and yet if he is following Surtur--or
+Shaping, as he is called here--he can't be really bad."
+
+"What do you know of Surtur?" asked Maskull in astonishment.
+
+Joiwind remained silent for a time, studying his face.  His brain
+moved restlessly, as though it were being probed from outside.  "I
+see.... and yet I don't see," she said at last.  "It is very
+difficult....  Your God is a dreadful Being--bodyless, unfriendly,
+invisible.  Here we don't worship a God like that.  Tell me, has any
+man set eyes on your God?"
+
+"What does all this mean, Joiwind?  Why speak of God?"
+
+"I want to know."
+
+"In ancient times, when the earth was young and grand, a few holy men
+are reputed to have walked and spoken with God, but those days are
+past."
+
+"Our world is still young," said Joiwind.  "Shaping goes among us and
+converses with us.  He is real and active--a friend and lover.
+Shaping made us, and he loves his work."
+
+"Have you met him?" demanded Maskull, hardly believing his ears.
+
+"No.  I have done nothing to deserve it yet.  Some day I may have an
+opportunity to sacrifice myself, and then I may be rewarded by
+meeting and talking with Shaping."
+
+"I have certainly come to another world.  But why do you say he is
+the same as Surtur?"
+
+"Yes, he is the same.  We women call him Shaping, and so do most men,
+but a few name him Surtur."
+
+Maskull bit his nail.  "Have you ever heard of Crystalman?"
+
+"That is Shaping once again.  You see, he has many names--which
+shows how much he occupies our minds.  Crystalman is a name of
+affection."
+
+"It's odd," said Maskull.  "I came here with quite different ideas
+about Crystalman."
+
+Joiwind shook her hair.  "In that grove of trees over there stands a
+desert shrine of his.  Let us go and pray there, and then we'll go on
+our way to Poolingdred.  That is my home.  It's a long way off, and
+we must get there before Blodsombre."
+
+"Now, what is Blodsombre?"
+
+"For about four hours in the middle of the day Branchspell's rays are
+so hot that no one can endure them.  We call it Blodsombre."
+
+"Is Branchspell another name for Arcturus?"
+
+Joiwind threw off her seriousness and laughed.  "Naturally we don't
+take our names from you, Maskull.  I don't think our names are very
+poetic, but they follow nature."
+
+She took his arm affectionately, and directed their walk towards the
+tree-covered hills.  As they went along, the sun broke through the
+upper mists and a terrible gust of scorching heat, like a blast from
+a furnace, struck Maskull's head.  He involuntarily looked up, but
+lowered his eyes again like lightning.  All that he saw in that
+instant was a glaring ball of electric white, three times the
+apparent diameter of the sun.  For a few minutes he was quite blind.
+
+"My God!" he exclaimed.  "If it's like this in early morning you must
+be right enough about Blodsombre."  When he had somewhat recovered
+himself he asked, "How long are the days here, Joiwind?"
+
+Again he felt his brain being probed.
+
+"At this time of the year, for every hour's daylight that you have in
+summer, we have two."
+
+"The heat is terrific--and yet somehow I don't feel so distressed by
+it as I would have expected."
+
+"I feel it more than usual.  It's not difficult to account for it;
+you have some of my blood, and I have some of yours."
+
+"Yes, every time I realise that, I--Tell me, Joiwind, will my blood
+alter, if I stay here long enough?--I mean, will it lose its redness
+and thickness, and become pure and thin and light-coloured, like
+yours?"
+
+"Why not?  If you live as we live, you will assuredly grow like us."
+
+"Do you mean food and drink?"
+
+"We eat no food, and drink only water."
+
+"And on that you manage to sustain life?"
+
+"Well, Maskull, our water is good water," replied Joiwind, smiling.
+
+As soon as he could see again he stared around at the landscape.  The
+enormous scarlet desert extended everywhere to the horizon, excepting
+where it was broken by the oasis.  It was roofed by a cloudless, deep
+blue, almost violet, sky.  The circle of the horizon was far larger
+than on earth.  On the skyline, at right angles to the direction in
+which they were walking, appeared a chain of mountains, apparently
+about forty miles distant.  One, which was higher than the rest, was
+shaped like a cup.  Maskull would have felt inclined to believe he
+was travelling in dreamland, but for the intensity of the light,
+which made everything vividly real.
+
+Joiwind pointed to the cup-shaped mountain.  "That's Poolingdred."
+
+"You didn't come from there!" he exclaimed, quite startled.
+
+"Yes, I did indeed.  And that is where we have to go to now."
+
+"With the single object of finding me?"
+
+"Why, yes."
+
+The colour mounted to his face.  "Then you are the bravest and
+noblest of all girls," he said quietly, after a pause.  "Without
+exception.  Why, this is a journey for an athlete!"
+
+She pressed his arm, while a score of unpaintable, delicate hues
+stained her cheeks in rapid transition.  "Please don't say any more
+about it, Maskull.  It makes me feel unpleasant."
+
+"Very well.  But can we possibly get there before midday?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  And you mustn't be frightened at the distance.  We think
+nothing of long distances here--we have so much to think about and
+feel.  Time goes all too quickly."
+
+During their conversation they had drawn neat the base of the hills,
+which sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height.
+Maskull now began to see strange specimens of vegetable life.  What
+looked like a small patch of purple grass, above five feet square,
+was moving across the sand in their direction.  When it came near
+enough he perceived that it was not grass; there were no blades, but
+only purple roots.  The roots were revolving, for each small plant in
+the whole patch, like the spokes of a rimless wheel.  They were
+alternately plunged in the sand, and withdrawn from it, and by this
+means the plant proceeded forward.  Some uncanny, semi-intelligent
+instinct was keeping all the plants together, moving at one pace, in
+one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in flight.
+
+Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
+dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air.
+Joiwind caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm,
+and showed it to Maskull.  It had roots and presumably lived in the
+air and fed on the chemical constituents of the atmosphere.  But what
+was peculiar about it was its colour.  It was an entirely new colour--
+not a new shade or combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid
+as blue, red, or yellow, but quite different.  When he inquired, she
+told him that it was known as "ulfire."  Presently he met with a
+second new colour.  This she designated "jale."  The sense impressions
+caused in Maskull by these two additional primary colors can only be
+vaguely hinted at by analogy.  Just as blue is delicate and
+mysterious, yellow clear and unsubtle, and red sanguine and
+passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild and painful, and jale
+dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
+
+The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould.  Small trees, of weird
+shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured,
+covered the slopes and top.  Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and
+through.  Some hard fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a
+large apple, and shaped like an egg, was lying in profusion
+underneath the trees.
+
+"Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don't you eat it?" asked
+Maskull.
+
+She looked at him tranquilly.  "We don't eat living things.  The
+thought is horrible to us."
+
+"I have nothing to say against that, theoretically.  But do you
+really sustain your bodies on water?"
+
+"Supposing you could find nothing else to live on, Maskull--would
+you eat other men?"
+
+"I would not."
+
+"Neither will we eat plants and animals, which are our fellow
+creatures.  So nothing is left to us but water, and as one can really
+live on anything, water does very well."
+
+Maskull picked up one of the fruits and handled it curiously.  As he
+did so another of his newly acquired sense organs came into action.
+He found that the fleshy knobs beneath his ears were in some novel
+fashion acquainting him with the inward properties of the fruit.  He
+could not only see, feel, and smell it, but could detect its
+intrinsic nature.  This nature was hard, persistent and melancholy.
+
+Joiwind answered the questions he had not asked.
+
+"Those organs are called 'poigns.'  Their use is to enable us to
+understand and sympathise with all living creatures."
+
+"What advantage do you derive from that, Joiwind?"
+
+"The advantage of not being cruel and selfish, dear Maskull."
+
+He threw the fruit away and flushed again.
+
+Joiwind looked into his swarthy, bearded face without embarrassment
+and slowly smiled.  "Have I said too much?  Have I been too familiar?
+Do you know why you think so?  It's because you are still impure.  By
+and by you will listen to all language without shame."
+
+Before he realised what she was about to do, she threw her tentacle
+round his neck, like another arm.  He offered no resistance to its
+cool pressure.  The contact of her soft flesh with his own was so
+moist and sensitive that it resembled another kind of kiss.  He saw
+who it was that embraced him--a pale, beautiful girl.  Yet, oddly
+enough, he experienced neither voluptuousness nor sexual pride.  The
+love expressed by the caress was rich, glowing, and personal, but
+there was not the least trace of sex in it--and so he received it.
+
+She removed her tentacle, placed her two arms on his shoulders and
+penetrated with her eyes right into his very soul.
+
+"Yes, I wish to be pure," he muttered.  "Without that what can I ever
+be but a weak, squirming devil?"
+
+Joiwind released him.  "This we call the 'magn,'" she said,
+indicating her tentacle.  "By means of it what we love already we
+love more, and what we don't love at all we begin to love."
+
+"A godlike organ!"
+
+"It is the one we guard most jealously," said Joiwind.
+
+The shade of the trees afforded a timely screen from the now almost
+insufferable rays of Branchspell, which was climbing steadily upward
+to the zenith.  On descending the other side of the little hills,
+Maskull looked anxiously for traces of Nightspore and Krag, but
+without result.  After staring about him for a few minutes he
+shrugged his shoulders; but suspicions had already begun to gather in
+his mind.
+
+A small, natural amphitheatre lay at their feet, completely circled
+by the tree-clad heights.  The centre was of red sand.  In the very
+middle shot up a tall, stately tree, with a black trunk and branches,
+and transparent, crystal leaves.  At the foot of this tree was a
+natural, circular well, containing dark green water.
+
+When they had reached the bottom, Joiwind took him straight over to
+the well.
+
+Maskull gazed at it intently.  "Is this the shrine you talked about?"
+
+"Yes.  It is called Shaping's Well.  The man or woman who wishes to
+invoke Shaping must take up some of the gnawl water, and drink it."
+
+"Pray for me," said Maskull.  "Your unspotted prayer will carry more
+weight."
+
+"What do you wish for?"
+
+"For purity," answered Maskull, in a troubled voice.
+
+Joiwind made a cup of her hand, and drank a little of the water.  She
+held it up to Maskull's mouth.  "You must drink too."  He obeyed.  She
+then stood erect, closed her eyes, and, in a voice like the soft
+murmurings of spring, prayed aloud.
+
+"Shaping, my father, I am hoping you can hear me.  A strange man has
+come to us weighed down with heavy blood.  He wishes to be pure.  Let
+him know the meaning of love, let him live for others.  Don't spare
+him pain, dear Shaping, but let him seek his own pain.  Breathe into
+him a noble soul."
+
+Maskull listened with tears in his heart.
+
+As Joiwind finished speaking, a blurred mist came over his eyes, and,
+half buried in the scarlet sand, appeared a large circle of
+dazzlingly white pillars.  For some minutes they flickered to and fro
+between distinctness and indistinctness, like an object being
+focused.  Then they faded out of sight again.
+
+"Is that a sign from Shaping?" asked Maskull, in a low, awed tone.
+
+"Perhaps it is.  It is a time mirage."
+
+"What can that be, Joiwind?"
+
+"You see, dear Maskull, the temple does not yet exist but it will do
+so, because it must.  What you and I are now doing in simplicity,
+wise men will do hereafter in full knowledge."
+
+"It is right for man to pray," said Maskull.  "Good and evil in the
+world don't originate from nothing.  God and Devil must exist.  And
+we should pray to the one, and fight the other."
+
+"Yes, we must fight Krag."
+
+"What name did you say?" asked Maskull in amazement.
+
+"Krag--the author of evil and misery--whom you call Devil."
+
+He immediately concealed his thoughts.  To prevent Joiwind from
+learning his relationship to this being, he made his mind a blank.
+
+"Why do you hide your mind from me?" she demanded, looking at him
+strangely and changing colour.
+
+"In this bright, pure, radiant world, evil seems so remote, one can
+scarcely grasp its meaning."  But he lied.
+
+Joiwind continued gazing at him, straight out of her clean soul.
+"The world is good and pure, but many men are corrupt.  Panawe, my
+husband, has travelled, and he has told me things I would almost
+rather have not heard.  One person he met believed the universe to
+be, from top to bottom, a conjurer's cave."
+
+"I should like to meet your husband."
+
+"Well, we are going home now."
+
+Maskull was on the point of inquiring whether she had any children,
+but was afraid of offending her, and checked himself.
+
+She read the mental question.  "What need is there?  Is not the whole
+world full of lovely children?  Why should I want selfish
+possessions?"
+
+An extraordinary creature flew past, uttering a plaintive cry of five
+distinct notes.  It was not a bird, but had a balloon-shaped body,
+paddled by five webbed feet.  It disappeared among the trees.
+
+Joiwind pointed to it, as it went by.  "I love that beast, grotesque
+as it is--perhaps all the more for its grotesqueness.  But if I had
+children of my own, would I still love it?  Which is best--to love
+two or three, or to love all?"
+
+"Every woman can't be like you, Joiwind, but it is good to have a few
+like you.  Wouldn't it be as well," he went on, "since we've got to
+walk through that sun-baked wilderness, to make turbans for our
+heads out of some of those long leaves?"
+
+She smiled rather pathetically.  "You will think me foolish, but
+every tearing off of a leaf would be a wound in my heart.  We have
+only to throw our robes over our heads."
+
+"No doubt that will answer the same purpose, but tell me--weren't
+these very robes once part of a living creature?"
+
+"Oh, no--no, they are the webs of a certain animal, but they have
+never been in themselves alive."
+
+"You reduce life to extreme simplicity," remarked Maskull
+meditatively, "but it is very beautiful."
+
+Climbing back over the hills, they now without further ceremony began
+their march across the desert.
+
+They walked side by side.  Joiwind directed their course straight
+toward Poolingdred.  From the position of the sun, Maskull judged
+their way to lie due north.  The sand was soft and powdery, very
+tiring to his naked feet.  The red glare dazed his eyes, and made him
+semi-blind.  He was hot, parched, and tormented with the craving to
+drink; his undertone of pain emerged into full consciousness.
+
+"I see my friends nowhere, and it is very queer."
+
+"Yes, it is queer--if it is accidental," said Joiwind, with a
+peculiar intonation.
+
+"Exactly!" agreed Maskull.  "If they had met with a mishap, their
+bodies would still be there.  It begins to look like a piece of bad
+work to me.  They must have gone on, and left me....  Well, I am here,
+and I must make the best of it, I will trouble no more about them."
+
+"I don't wish to speak ill of anyone," said Joiwind, "but my instinct
+tells me that you are better away from those men.  They did not come
+here for your sake, but for their own."
+
+They walked on for a long time.  Maskull was beginning to feel faint.
+She twined her magn lovingly around his waist, and a strong current
+of confidence and well-being instantly coursed through his veins.
+
+"Thanks, Joiwind!  But am I not weakening you?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, with a quick, thrilling glance.  "But not much--
+and it gives me great happiness."
+
+Presently they met a fantastic little creature, the size of a new-
+born lamb, waltzing along on three legs.  Each leg in turn moved to
+the front, and so the little monstrosity proceeded by means of a
+series of complete rotations.  It was vividly coloured, as though it
+had been dipped into pots of bright blue and yellow paint.  It looked
+up with small, shining eyes, as they passed.
+
+Joiwind nodded and smiled to it.  "That's a personal friend of mine,
+Maskull.  Whenever I come this way, I see it.  It's always waltzing,
+and always in a hurry, but it never seems to get anywhere."
+
+"It seems to me that life is so self-sufficient here that there is
+no need for anyone to get anywhere.  What I don't quite understand is
+how you manage to pass your days without ennui."
+
+"That's a strange word.  It means, does it not, craving for
+excitement?"
+
+"Something of the kind," said Maskull.
+
+"That must be a disease brought on by rich food."
+
+"But are you never dull?"
+
+"How could we be?  Our blood is quick and light and free, our flesh
+is clean and unclogged, inside and out....  Before long I hope you
+will understand what sort of question you have asked."
+
+Farther on they encountered a strange phenomenon.  In the heart of
+the desert a fountain rose perpendicularly fifty feet into the air,
+with a cool and pleasant hissing sound.  It differed, however, from a
+fountain in this respect--that the water of which it was composed
+did not return to the ground but was absorbed by the atmosphere at
+the summit.  It was in fact a tall, graceful column of dark green
+fluid, with a capital of coiling and twisting vapours.
+
+When they came closer, Maskull perceived that this water column was
+the continuation and termination of a flowing brook, which came down
+from the direction of the mountains.  The explanation of the
+phenomenon was evidently that the water at this spot found chemical
+affinities in the upper air, and consequently forsook the ground.
+
+"Now let us drink," said Joiwind.
+
+She threw herself unaffectedly at full length on the sand, face
+downward, by the side of the brook, and Maskull was not long in
+following her example.  She refused to quench her thirst until she
+had seen him drink.  He found the water heavy, but bubbling with gas.
+He drank copiously.  It affected his palate in a new way--with the
+purity and cleanness of water was combined the exhilaration of a
+sparkling wine, raising his spirits--but somehow the intoxication
+brought out his better nature, and not his lower.
+
+"We call it 'gnawl water'," said Joiwind.  "This is not quite pure, as
+you can see by the colour.  At Poolingdred it is crystal clear.  But
+we would be ungrateful if we complained.  After this you'll find
+we'll get along much better."
+
+Maskull now began to realise his environment, as it were for the
+first time.  All his sense organs started to show him beauties and
+wonders that he had not hitherto suspected.  The uniform glaring
+scarlet of the sands became separated into a score of clearly
+distinguished shades of red.  The sky was similarly split up into
+different blues.  The radiant heat of Branchspell he found to affect
+every part of his body with unequal intensities.  His ears awakened;
+the atmosphere was full of murmurs, the sands hummed, even the sun's
+rays had a sound of their own--a kind of faint Aeolian harp.
+Subtle, puzzling perfumes assailed his nostrils.  His palate lingered
+over the memory of the gnawl water.  All the pores of his skin were
+tickled and soothed by hitherto unperceived currents of air.  His
+poigns explored actively the inward nature of everything in his
+immediate vicinity.  His magn touched Joiwind, and drew from her
+person a stream of love and joy.  And lastly by means of his breve he
+exchanged thoughts with her in silence.  This mighty sense symphony
+stirred him to the depths, and throughout the walk of that endless
+morning he felt no more fatigue.
+
+When it was drawing near to Blodsombre, they approached the sedgy
+margin of a dark green lake, which lay underneath Poolingdred.
+
+Panawe was sitting on a dark rock, waiting for them.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+PANAWE
+
+The husband got up to meet his wife and their guest.  He was clothed
+in white.  He had a beardless face, with breve and poigns.  His skin,
+on face and body alike, was so white, fresh, and soft, that it
+scarcely looked skin at all--it rather resembled a new kind of pure,
+snowy flesh, extending right down to his bones.  It had nothing in
+common with the artificially whitened skin of an over-civilised
+woman.  Its whiteness and delicacy aroused no voluptuous thoughts; it
+was obviously the manifestation of a cold and almost cruel chastity
+of nature.  His hair, which fell to the nape of his neck, also was
+white; but again, from vigour, not decay.  His eyes were black, quiet
+and fathomless.  He was still a young man, but so stern were his
+features that he had the appearance of a lawgiver, and this in spite
+of their great beauty and harmony.
+
+His magn and Joiwind's intertwined for a single moment and Maskull
+saw his face soften with love, while she looked exultant.  She put
+him in her husband's arms with gentle force, and stood back, gazing
+and smiling.  Maskull felt rather embarrassed at being embraced by a
+man, but submitted to it; a sense of cool, pleasant languor passed
+through him in the act.
+
+"The stranger is red-blooded, then?"
+
+He was startled by Panawe's speaking in English, and the voice too
+was extraordinary.  It was absolutely tranquil, but its tranquillity
+seemed in a curious fashion to be an illusion, proceeding from a
+rapidity of thoughts and feelings so great that their motion could
+not be detected.  How this could be, he did not know.
+
+"How do you come to speak in a tongue you have never heard before?"
+demanded Maskull.
+
+"Thought is a rich, complex thing.  I can't say if I am really
+speaking your tongue by instinct, or if you yourself are translating
+my thoughts into your tongue as I utter them."
+
+"Already you see that Panawe is wiser than I am," said Joiwind gaily.
+
+"What is your name?" asked the husband.
+
+"Maskull."
+
+"That name must have a meaning--but again, thought is a strange
+thing.  I connect that name with something--but with what?"
+
+"Try to discover," said Joiwind.
+
+"Has there been a man in your world who stole something from the
+Maker of the universe, in order to ennoble his fellow creatures?"
+
+"There is such a myth, The hero's name was Prometheus."
+
+"Well, you seem to be identified in my mind with that action--but
+what it all means I can't say, Maskull."
+
+"Accept it as a good omen, for Panawe never lies, and never speaks
+thoughtlessly."
+
+"There must be some confusion.  These are heights beyond me," said
+Maskull calmly, but looking rather contemplative.
+
+"Where do you come from?"
+
+"From the planet of a distant sun, called Earth."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I was tired of vulgarity," returned Maskull laconically.  He
+intentionally avoided mentioning his fellow voyagers, in order that
+Krag's name should not come to light.
+
+"That's an honourable motive," said Panawe.  "And what's more, it may
+be true, though you spoke it as a prevarication."
+
+"As far as it goes, it's quite true," said Maskull, staring at him
+with annoyance and surprise.
+
+The swampy lake extended for about half a mile from where they were
+standing to the lower buttresses of the mountain.  Feathery purple
+reeds showed themselves here and there through the shallows.  The
+water was dark green.  Maskull did not see how they were going to
+cross it.
+
+Joiwind caught his arm.  "Perhaps you don't know that the lake will
+bear us?"
+
+Panawe walked onto the water; it was so heavy that it carried his
+weight.  Joiwind followed with Maskull.  He instantly started to slip
+about--nevertheless the motion was amusing, and he learned so fast,
+by watching and imitating Panawe, that he was soon able to balance
+himself without assistance.  After that he found the sport excellent.
+
+For the same reason that women excel in dancing, Joiwind's half falls
+and recoveries were far more graceful and sure than those of either
+of the men.  Her slight, draped form--dipping, bending, rising,
+swaying, twisting, upon the surface of the dark water--this was a
+picture Maskull could not keep his eyes away from.
+
+The lake grew deeper.  The gnawl water became green-black.  The
+crags, gullies, and precipices of the shore could now be
+distinguished in detail.  A waterfall was visible, descending several
+hundred feet.  The surface of the lake grew disturbed--so much so
+that Maskull had difficulty in keeping his balance.  He therefore
+threw himself down and started swimming on the face of the water.
+Joiwind turned her head, and laughed so joyously that all her teeth
+flashed in the sunlight.
+
+They landed in a few more minutes on a promontory of black rock.  The
+water on Maskull's garment and body evaporated very quickly.  He
+gazed upward at the towering mountain, but at that moment some
+strange movements on the part of Panawe attracted his attention.  His
+face was working convulsively, and he began to stagger about.  Then
+he put his hand to his mouth and took from it what looked like a
+bright-coloured pebble.  He looked at it carefully for some
+seconds.  Joiwind also looked, over his shoulder, with quickly
+changing colors.  After this inspection, Panawe let the object--
+whatever it was--fall to the ground, and took no more interest in
+it.
+
+"May I look?" asked Maskull; and, without waiting for permission, he
+picked it up.  It was a delicately beautiful egg-shaped crystal of
+pale green.
+
+"Where did this come from?" he asked queerly.
+
+Panawe turned away, but Joiwind answered for him.  "It came out of my
+husband."
+
+"That's what I thought, but I couldn't believe it.  But what is it?"
+
+"I don't know that it has either name or use.  It is merely an
+overflowing of beauty."
+
+"Beauty?"
+
+Joiwind smiled.  "If you were to regard nature as the husband, and
+Panawe as the wife, Maskull, perhaps everything would be explained."
+
+Maskull reflected.
+
+"On Earth," he said after a minute, "men like Panawe are called
+artists, poets, and musicians.  Beauty overflows into them too, and
+out of them again.  The only distinction is that their productions
+are more human and intelligible."
+
+"Nothing comes from it but vanity," said Panawe, and, taking the
+crystal out of Maskull's hand, he threw it into the lake.
+
+The precipice they now had to climb was several hundred feet in
+height.  Maskull was more anxious for Joiwind than for himself.  She
+was evidently tiring, but she refused all help, and was in fact still
+the nimbler of the two.  She made a mocking face at him.  Panawe
+seemed lost in quiet thoughts.  The rock was sound, and did not
+crumble under their weight.  The heat of Branchspell, however, was by
+this time almost killing, the radiance was shocking in its white
+intensity, and Maskull's pain steadily grew worse.
+
+When they got to the top, a plateau of dark rock appeared, bare of
+vegetation, stretching in both directions as far as the eye could
+see.  It was of a nearly uniform width of five hundred yards, from
+the edge of the cliffs to the lower slopes of the chain of hills
+inland.  The hills varied in height.  The cup-shaped Poolingdred
+was approximately a thousand feet above them.  The upper part of it
+was covered with a kind of glittering vegetation which he could not
+comprehend.
+
+Joiwind put her hand on Maskull's shoulder, and pointed upward.
+"Here you have the highest peak in the whole land--that is, until
+you come to the Ifdawn Marest."
+
+On hearing that strange name, he experienced a momentary
+unaccountable sensation of wild vigour and restlessness--but it
+passed away.
+
+Without losing time, Panawe led the way up the mountainside.  The
+lower half was of bare rock, not difficult to climb.  Halfway up,
+however, it grew steeper, and they began to meet bushes and small
+trees.  The growth became thicker as they continued to ascend, and
+when they neared the summit, tall forest trees appeared.
+
+These bushes and trees had pale, glassy trunks and branches, but the
+small twigs and the leaves were translucent and crystal.  They cast
+no shadows from above, but still the shade was cool.  Both leaves and
+branches were fantastically shaped.  What surprised Maskull the most,
+however, was the fact that, as far as he could see, scarcely any two
+plants belonged to the same species.
+
+"Won't you help Maskull out of his difficulty?" said Joiwind, pulling
+her husband's arm.
+
+He smiled.  "If he'll forgive me for again trespassing in his brain.
+But the difficulty is small.  Life on a new planet, Maskull, is
+necessarily energetic and lawless, and not sedate and imitative.
+Nature is still fluid--not yet rigid--and matter is plastic.  The
+will forks and sports incessantly, and thus no two creatures are
+alike."
+
+"Well, I understand all that," replied Maskull, after listening
+attentively.  "But what I don't grasp is this--if living creatures
+here sport so energetically, how does it come about that human beings
+wear much the same shape as in my world?"
+
+"I'll explain that too," said Panawe.  "All creatures that resemble
+Shaping must of necessity resemble one another."
+
+"Then sporting is the blind will to become like Shaping?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"It is most wonderful," said Maskull.  "Then the brotherhood of man
+is not a fable invented by idealists, but a solid fact."
+
+Joiwind looked at him, and changed colour.  Panawe relapsed into
+sternness.
+
+Maskull became interested in a new phenomenon.  The jale-coloured
+blossoms of a crystal bush were emitting mental waves, which with his
+breve he could clearly distinguish.  They cried out silently, "To me
+To me!"  While he looked, a flying worm guided itself through the air
+to one of these blossoms and began to suck its nectar.  The floral
+cry immediately ceased.
+
+They now gained the crest of the mountain, and looked down beyond.  A
+lake occupied its crater-like cavity.  A fringe of trees partly
+intercepted the view, but Maskull was able to perceive that this
+mountain lake was nearly circular and perhaps a quarter of a mile
+across.  Its shore stood a hundred feet below them.
+
+Observing that his hosts did not propose to descend, he begged them
+to wait for him, and scrambled down to the surface.  When he got
+there, he found the water perfectly motionless and of a colourless
+transparency.  He walked onto it, lay down at full length, and peered
+into the depths.  It was weirdly clear: he could see down for an
+indefinite distance, without arriving at any bottom.  Some dark,
+shadowy objects, almost out of reach of his eyes, were moving about.
+Then a sound, very faint and mysterious, seemed to come up through
+the gnawl water from an immense depth.  It was like the rhythm of a
+drum.  There were four beats of equal length, but the accent was on
+the third.  It went on for a considerable time, and then ceased.
+
+The sound appeared to him to belong to a different world from that
+in which he was travelling.  The latter was mystical, dreamlike, and
+unbelievable--the drumming was like a very dim undertone of reality.
+It resembled the ticking of a clock in a room full of voices, only
+occasionally possible to be picked up by the ear.
+
+He rejoined Panawe and Joiwind, but said nothing to them about his
+experience.  They all walked round the rim of the crater, and gazed
+down on the opposite side.  Precipices similar to those that had
+overlooked the desert here formed the boundary of a vast moorland
+plain, whose dimensions could not be measured by the eye.  It was
+solid land, yet he could not make out its prevailing colour.  It was
+as if made of transparent glass, but it did not glitter in the
+sunlight.  No objects in it could be distinguished, except a rolling
+river in the far distance, and, farther off still, on the horizon, a
+line of dark mountains, of strange shapes.  Instead of being rounded,
+conical, or hogbacked, these heights were carved by nature into the
+semblance of castle battlements, but with extremely deep
+indentations.
+
+The sky immediately above the mountains was of a vivid, intense blue.
+It contrasted in a most marvellous way with the blue of the rest of
+the heavens.  It seemed more luminous and radiant, and was in fact
+like the afterglow of a gorgeous blue sunset.
+
+Maskull kept on looking.  The more he gazed, the more restless and
+noble became his feelings.
+
+"What is that light?"
+
+Panawe was sterner than usual, while his wife clung to his arm.  "It
+is Alppain--our second sun," he replied.  "Those hills are the
+Ifdawn Marest....  Now let us get to our shelter."
+
+"Is it imagination, or am I really being affected--tormented by that
+light?"
+
+"No, it's not imagination--it's real.  How can it be otherwise when
+two suns, of different natures, are drawing you at the same time?
+Luckily you are not looking at Alppain itself.  It's invisible here.
+You would need to go at least as far as Ifdawn, to set eyes on it."
+
+"Why do you say 'luckily'?"
+
+"Because the agony caused by those opposing forces would perhaps be
+more than you could bear....  But I don't know."
+
+For the short distance that remained of their walk, Maskull was very
+thoughtful and uneasy.  He understood nothing.  Whatever object his
+eye chanced to rest on changed immediately into a puzzle.  The
+silence and stillness of the mountain peak seemed brooding,
+mysterious, and waiting.  Panawe gave him a friendly, anxious look,
+and without further delay led the way down a little track, which
+traversed the side of the mountain and terminated in the mouth of a
+cave.
+
+This cave was the home of Panawe and Joiwind.  It was dark inside.
+The host took a shell and, filling it with liquid from a well,
+carelessly sprinkled the sandy floor of the interior.  A greenish,
+phosphorescent light gradually spread to the furthest limits of the
+cavern, and continued to illuminate it for the whole time they were
+there.  There was no furniture.  Some dried, fernlike leaves served
+for couches.
+
+The moment she got in, Joiwind fell down in exhaustion.  Her husband
+tended her with calm concern.  He bathed her face, put drink to her
+lips, energised her with his magn, and finally laid her down to
+sleep.  At the sight of the noble woman thus suffering on his
+account, Maskull was distressed.
+
+Panawe, however, endeavoured to reassure him.  "It's quite true this
+has been a very long, hard double journey, but for the future it will
+lighten all her other journeys for her....  Such is the nature of
+sacrifice."
+
+"I can't conceive how I have walked so far in a morning," said
+Maskull, "and she has been twice the distance."
+
+"Love flows in her veins, instead of blood, and that's why she is so
+strong."
+
+"You know she gave me some of it?"
+
+"Otherwise you couldn't even have started."
+
+"I shall never forget that."
+
+The languorous beat of the day outside, the bright mouth of the
+cavern, the cool seclusion of the interior, with its pale green glow,
+invited Maskull to sleep.  But curiosity got the better of his
+lassitude.
+
+"Will it disturb her if we talk?"
+
+"No."
+
+"But how do you feel?"
+
+"I require little sleep.  In any case, it's more important that you
+should hear something about your new life.  It's not all as innocent
+and idyllic as this.  If you intend to go through, you ought to be
+instructed about the dangers."
+
+"Oh, I guessed as much.  But how shall we arrange--shall I put
+questions, or will you tell me what you think is most essential?"
+
+Panawe motioned to Maskull to sit down on a pile of ferns, and at the
+same time reclined himself, leaning on one arm, with outstretched
+legs.
+
+"I will tell some incidents of my life.  You will begin to learn from
+them what sort of place you have come to."
+
+"I shall be grateful," said Maskull, preparing himself to listen.
+
+Panawe paused for a moment or two, and then started his narrative in
+tranquil, measured, yet sympathetic tones.
+
+PANAWE'S STORY
+
+"My earliest recollection is of being taken, when three years old
+(that's equivalent to fifteen of your years, but we develop more
+slowly here), by my father and mother, to see Broodviol, the wisest
+man in Tormance.  He dwelt in the great Wombflash Forest.  We walked
+through trees for three days, sleeping at night.  The trees grew
+taller as we went along, until the tops were out of sight.  The
+trunks were of a dark red colour and the leaves were of pale ulfire.
+My father kept stopping to think.  If left uninterrupted, he would
+remain for half a day in deep abstraction.  My mother came out of
+Poolingdred, and was of a different stamp.  She was beautiful,
+generous, and charming--but also active.  She kept urging him on.
+This led to many disputes between them, which made me miserable.  On
+the fourth day we passed through a part of the forest which bordered
+on the Sinking Sea.  This sea is full of pouches of water that will
+not bear a man's weight, and as these light parts don't differ in
+appearance from the rest, it is dangerous to cross.  My father
+pointed out a dim outline on the horizon, and told me it was
+Swaylone's Island.  Men sometimes go there, but none ever return.  In
+the evening of the same day we found Broodviol standing in a deep,
+miry pit in the forest, surrounded on all sides by trees three
+hundred feet high.  He was a big gnarled, rugged, wrinkled, sturdy
+old man.  His age at that time was a hundred and twenty of our years,
+or nearly six hundred of yours.  His body was trilateral: he had
+three legs, three arms, and six eyes, placed at equal distances all
+around his head.  This gave him an aspect of great watchfulness and
+sagacity.  He was standing in a sort of trance.  I afterward heard
+this saying of his: 'To lie is to sleep, to sit is to dream, to stand
+is to think.'  My father caught the infection, and fell into
+meditation, but my mother roused them both thoroughly.  Broodviol
+scowled at her savagely, and demanded what she required.  Then I too
+learned for the first time the object of our journey.  I was a
+prodigy--that is to say, I was without sex.  My parents were
+troubled over this, and wished to consult the wisest of men.
+
+"Old Broodviol smoothed his face, and said, 'This perhaps will not be
+so difficult.  I will explain the marvel.  Every man and woman among
+us is a walking murderer.  If a male, he has struggled with and
+killed the female who was born in the same body with him--if a
+female, she has killed the male.  But in this child the struggle is
+still continuing.'
+
+"'How shall we end it?' asked my mother.
+
+"'Let the child direct its will to the scene of the combat, and it
+will be of whichever sex it pleases.'
+
+"'You want, of course, to be a man, don't you?' said my mother to me
+earnestly.
+
+"'Then I shall be slaying your daughter, and that would be a crime.'
+
+"Something in my tone attracted Broodviol's notice.
+
+"'That was spoken, not selfishly, but magnanimously.  Therefore the
+male must have spoken it, and you need not trouble further.  Before
+you arrive home, the child will be a boy.'
+
+"My father walked away out of sight.  My mother bent very low before
+Broodviol for about ten minutes, and he remained all that time
+looking kindly at her.
+
+"I heard that shortly afterward Alppain came into that land for a few
+hours daily.  Broodviol grew melancholy, and died.
+
+"His prophecy came true--before we reached home, I knew the meaning
+of shame.  But I have often pondered over his words since, in later
+years, when trying to understand my own nature; and I have come to
+the conclusion that, wisest of men as he was, he still did not see
+quite straight on this occasion.  Between me and my twin sister,
+enclosed in one body, there never was any struggle, but instinctive
+reverence for life withheld both of us from fighting for existence.
+Hers was the stronger temperament, and she sacrificed herself--
+though not consciously--for me.
+
+"As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or destroy
+anything that contained life--and I have kept it ever since.
+
+"While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died.  My mother's
+death followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land.
+I therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother's country,
+where, as she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
+
+"One hot morning I came to Shaping's Causeway.  It is so called
+either because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous
+character.  It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which
+links the mountains bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest.
+The valley lies below at a depth varying from eight to ten thousand
+feet--a terrible precipice on either side.  The knife edge of the
+ridge is generally not much over a foot wide.  The causeway goes due
+north and south.  The valley on my right hand was plunged in shadow--
+that on my left was sparkling with sunlight and dew.  I walked
+fearfully along this precarious path for some miles.  Far to the east
+the valley was closed by a lofty tableland, connecting the two chains
+of mountains, but overtopping even the most towering pinnacles.  This
+is called the Sant Levels.  I was never there, but I have heard two
+curious facts concerning the inhabitants.  The first is that they
+have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to
+travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples
+with whom they reside.
+
+"Presently I turned giddy, and lay at full length for a great while,
+clutching the two edges of the path with both hands, and staring at
+the ground I was lying on with wide-open eyes.  When that passed I
+felt like a different man and grew conceited and gay.  About halfway
+across I saw someone approaching me a long way off.  This put fear
+into my heart again, for I did not see how we could very well pass.
+However, I went slowly on, and presently we drew near enough together
+for me to recognise the walker.  It was Slofork, the so-called
+sorcerer.  I had never met him before, but I knew him by his
+peculiarities of person.  He was of a bright gamboge colour and
+possessed a very long, proboscis-like nose, which appeared to be a
+useful organ, but did not add to his beauty, as I knew beauty.  He
+was dubbed 'sorcerer' from his wondrous skill in budding limbs and
+organs.  The tale is told that one evening he slowly sawed his leg
+off with a blunt stone and then lay for two days in agony while his
+new leg was sprouting.  He was not reputed to be a consistently wise
+man, but he had periodical flashes of penetration and audacity that
+none could equal.
+
+"We sat down and faced one another, about two yards apart.
+
+"'Which of us walks over the other?' asked Slofork.  His manner was
+as calm as the day itself, but, to my young nature, terrible with
+hidden terrors.  I smiled at him, but did not wish for this
+humiliation.  We continued sitting thus, in a friendly way, for many
+minutes.
+
+"'What is greater than Pleasure?' he asked suddenly.
+
+"I was at an age when one wishes to be thought equal to any
+emergency, so, concealing my surprise, I applied myself to the
+conversation, as if it were for that purpose we had met.
+
+"'Pain,' I replied, 'for pain drives out pleasure.'
+
+"'What is greater than Pain?'
+
+"I reflected.  'Love.  Because we will accept our loved one's share
+of pain.'
+
+"'But what is greater than Love?' he persisted.
+
+"'Nothing, Slofork.'
+
+"'And what is Nothing?'
+
+"'That you must tell me.'
+
+"'Tell you I will.  This is Shaping's world.  He that is a good child
+here, knows pleasure, pain, and love, and gets his rewards.  But
+there's another world--not Shaping's and there all this is unknown,
+and another order of things reigns.  That world we call Nothing--but
+it is not Nothing, but Something.'
+
+"There was a pause.
+
+"'I have heard,' said I, 'that you are good at growing and ungrowing
+organs?'
+
+"'That's not enough for me.  Every organ tells me the same story.  I
+want to hear different stories.'
+
+"'Is it true, what men say, that your wisdom flows and ebbs in
+pulses?'
+
+"'Quite true,' replied Slofork.  'But those you had it from did not
+add that they have always mistaken the flow for the ebb.'
+
+"'My experience is,' said I sententiously, 'that wisdom is misery.'
+
+"'Perhaps it is, young man, but you have never learned that, and
+never will.  For you the world will continue to wear a noble, awful
+face.  You will never rise above mysticism....  But be happy in your
+own way.'
+
+"Before I realised what he was doing, he jumped tranquilly from the
+path, down into the empty void.  He crashed with ever-increasing
+momentum toward the valley below.  I screeched, flung myself down on
+the ground, and shut my eyes.
+
+"Often have I wondered which of my ill-considered, juvenile remarks
+it was that caused this sudden resolution on his part to commit
+suicide.  Whichever it might be, since then I have made it a rigid
+law never to speak for my own pleasure, but only to help others.
+
+"I came eventually to the Marest.  I threaded its mazes in terror for
+four days.  I was frightened of death, but still more terrified at the
+possibility of losing my sacred attitude toward life.  When I was
+nearly through, and was beginning to congratulate myself, I stumbled
+across the third extraordinary personage of my experience--the grim
+Muremaker.  It was under horrible circumstances.  On an afternoon,
+cloudy and stormy, I saw, suspended in the air without visible
+support, a living man.  He was hanging in an upright position in
+front of a cliff--a yawning gulf, a thousand feet deep, lay beneath
+his feet.  I climbed as near as I could, and looked on.  He saw me,
+and made a wry grimace, like one who wishes to turn his humiliation
+into humour.  The spectacle so astounded me that I could not even
+grasp what had happened.
+
+"'I am Muremaker,' he cried in a scraping voice which shocked my
+ears.  'All my life I have sorbed others--now I am sorbed.  Nuclamp
+and I fell out over a woman.  Now Nuclamp holds me up like this.
+While the strength of his will lasts I shall remain suspended; but
+when he gets tired--and it can't be long now--I drop into those
+depths.'
+
+"Had it been another man, I would have tried to save him, but this
+ogre-like being was too well known to me as one who passed his
+whole existence in tormenting, murdering, and absorbing others, for
+the sake of his own delight.  I hurried away, and did not pause again
+that day.
+
+"In Poolingdred I met Joiwind.  We walked and talked together for a
+month, and by that time we found that we loved each other too well to
+part."
+
+Panawe stopped speaking.
+
+"That is a fascinating story," remarked Maskull.  "Now I begin to
+know my way around better.  But one thing puzzles me."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"How it happens that men here are ignorant of tools and arts, and
+have no civilisation, and yet contrive to be social in their habits
+and wise in their thoughts."
+
+"Do you imagine, then, that love and wisdom spring from tools?  But I
+see how it arises.  In your world you have fewer sense organs, and to
+make up for the deficiency you have been obliged to call in the
+assistance of stones and metals.  That's by no means a sign of
+superiority."
+
+"No, I suppose not," said Maskull, "but I see I have a great deal to
+unlearn."
+
+They talked together a little longer, and then gradually fell asleep.
+Joiwind opened her eyes, smiled, and slumbered again.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+THE LUSION PLAIN
+
+Maskull awoke before the others.  He got up, stretched himself, and
+walked out into the sunlight.  Branchspell was already declining.  He
+climbed to the top of the crater edge and looked away toward Ifdawn.
+The afterglow of Alppain had by now completely disappeared.  The
+mountains stood up wild and grand.
+
+They impressed him like a simple musical theme, the notes of which
+are widely separated in the scale; a spirit of rashness, daring, and
+adventure seemed to call to him from them.  It was at that moment
+that the determination flashed into his heart to walk to the Marest
+and explore its dangers.
+
+He returned to the cavern to say good-by to his hosts.
+
+Joiwind looked at him with her brave and honest eyes.  "Is this
+selfishness, Maskull?" she asked, "or are you drawn by something
+stronger than yourself?"
+
+"We must be reasonable," he answered, smiling.  "I can't settle down
+in Poolingdred before I have found out something about this
+surprising new planet of yours.  Remember what a long way I have
+come....  But very likely I shall come back here."
+
+"Will you make me a promise?"
+
+Maskull hesitated.  "Ask nothing difficult, for I hardly know my
+powers yet."
+
+"It is not hard, and I wish it.  Promise this--never to raise your
+hand against a living creature, either to strike, pluck, or eat,
+without first recollecting its mother, who suffered for it."
+
+"Perhaps I won't promise that," said Maskull slowly, "but I'll
+undertake something more tangible.  I will never lift my hand against
+a living creature without first recollecting you, Joiwind."
+
+She turned a little pale.  "Now if Panawe knew that Panawe existed,
+he might be jealous."
+
+Panawe put his hand on her gently.  "You would not talk like that in
+Shaping's presence," he said.
+
+"No.  Forgive me!  I'm not quite myself.  Perhaps it is Maskull's.
+blood in my veins....  Now let us bid him adieu.  Let us pray that he
+will do only honourable deeds, wherever he may be."
+
+"I'll set Maskull on his way," said Panawe.
+
+"There's no need," replied Maskull.  "The way is plain."
+
+"But talking shortens the road."
+
+Maskull turned to go.
+
+Joiwind pulled him around toward her softly.  "You won't think badly
+of other women on my account?"
+
+"You are a blessed spirit," answered he.
+
+She trod quietly to the inner extremity of the cave and stood there
+thinking.  Panawe and Maskull emerged into the open air.
+Halfway down the cliff face a little spring was encountered.  Its
+water was colourless, transparent, but gaseous.  As soon as Maskull
+had satisfied his thirst he felt himself different.  His surroundings
+were so real to him in their vividness and colour, so unreal in their
+phantom-like mystery, that he scrambled downhill like one in a
+winter's dream.
+
+When they reached the plain he saw in front of them an interminable
+forest of tall trees, the shapes of which were extraordinarily
+foreign looking.  The leaves were crystalline and, looking upward, it
+was as if he were gazing through a roof of glass.  The moment they
+got underneath the trees the light rays of the sun continued to come
+through--white, savage, and blazing--but they were gelded of heat.
+Then it was not hard to imagine that they were wandering through
+cool, bright elfin glades.
+
+Through the forest, beginning at their very feet an avenue, perfectly
+straight and not very wide, went forward as far as the eye could see.
+
+Maskull wanted to talk to his travelling companion, but was somehow
+unable to find words.  Panawe glanced at him with an inscrutable
+smile--stern, yet enchanting and half feminine.  He then broke the
+silence, but, strangely enough, Maskull could not make out whether he
+was singing or speaking.  From his lips issued a slow musical
+recitative, exactly like a bewitching adagio from a low toned
+stringed instrument--but there was a difference.  Instead of the
+repetition and variation of one or two short themes, as in music,
+Panawe's theme was prolonged--it never came to an end, but rather
+resembled a conversation in rhythm and melody.  And, at the same
+time, it was no recitative, for it was not declamatory.  It was a
+long, quiet stream of lovely emotion.
+
+Maskull listened entranced, yet agitated.  The song, if it might be
+termed song, seemed to be always just on the point of becoming clear
+and intelligible--not with the intelligibility of words, but in the
+way one sympathises with another's moods and feelings; and Maskull
+felt that something important was about to be uttered, which would
+explain all that had gone before.  But it was invariably postponed,
+he never understood--and yet somehow he did understand.
+
+Late in the afternoon they came to a clearing, and there Panawe
+ceased his recitative.  He slowed his pace and stopped, in the
+fashion of a man who wishes to convey that he intends to go no
+farther.
+
+"What is the name of this country?" asked Maskull.
+
+"It is the Lusion Plain."
+
+"Was that music in the nature of a temptation--do you wish me not to
+go on?"
+
+"Your work lies before you, and not behind you."
+
+"What was it, then?  What work do you allude to?"
+
+"It must have seemed like something to you, Maskull."
+
+"It seemed like Shaping music to me."
+
+The instant he had absently uttered these words, Maskull wondered why
+he had done so, as they now appeared meaningless to him.
+
+Panawe, however, showed no surprise.  "Shaping you will find
+everywhere."
+
+"Am I dreaming, or awake?"
+
+"You are awake."
+
+Maskull fell into deep thought.  "So be it," he said, rousing
+himself.  "Now I will go on.  But where must I sleep tonight?"
+
+"You will reach a broad river.  On that you can travel to the foot of
+the Marest tomorrow; but tonight you had better sleep where the
+forest and river meet."
+
+"Adieu, then, Panawe!  But do you wish to say anything more to me?"
+
+"Only this, Maskull--wherever you go, help to make the world
+beautiful, and not ugly."
+
+"That's more than any of us can undertake.  I am a simple man, and
+have no ambitions in the way of beautifying life--But tell Joiwind I
+will try to keep myself pure."
+
+They parted rather coldly.  Maskull stood erect where they had
+stopped, and watched Panawe out of sight.  He sighed more than once.
+
+He became aware that something was about to happen.  The air was
+breathless.  The late-afternoon sunshine, unobstructed, wrapped his
+frame in voluptuous heat.  A solitary cloud, immensely high, raced
+through the sky overhead.
+
+A single trumpet note sounded in the far distance from somewhere
+behind him.  It gave him an impression of being several miles away at
+first; but then it slowly swelled, and came nearer and nearer at the
+same time that it increased in volume.  Still the same note sounded,
+but now it was as if blown by a giant trumpeter immediately over his
+head.  Then it gradually diminished in force, and  travelled away in
+front of him.  It ended very faintly and distantly.
+
+He felt himself alone with Nature.  A sacred stillness came over his
+heart.  Past and future were forgotten.  The forest, the sun, the day
+did not exist for him.  He was unconscious of himself--he had no
+thoughts and no feelings.  Yet never had Life had such an altitude
+for him.
+
+A man stood, with crossed arms, right in his path.  He was so clothed
+that his limbs were exposed, while his body was covered.  He was
+young rather than old.  Maskull observed that his countenance
+possessed none of the special organs of Tormance, to which he had not
+even yet become reconciled.  He was smooth-faced.  His whole person
+seemed to radiate an excess of life, like the trembling of air on a
+hot day.  His eyes had such force that Maskull could not meet them.
+
+He addressed Maskull by name, in an extraordinary voice.  It had a
+double tone.  The primary one sounded far away; the second was an
+undertone, like a sympathetic tanging string.
+
+Maskull felt a rising joy, as he continued standing in the presence
+of this individual.  He believed that something good was happening to
+him.  He found it physically difficult to bring any words out.  "Why
+do you stop me?"
+
+"Maskull, look well at me.  Who am I?"
+
+"I think you are Shaping."
+
+"I am Surtur."
+
+Maskull again attempted to meet his eyes, but felt as if he were
+being stabbed.
+
+"You know that this is my world.  Why do you think I have brought you
+here?  I wish you to serve me."
+
+Maskull could no longer speak.
+
+"Those who joke at my world," continued the vision, "those who make a
+mock of its stern, eternal rhythm, its beauty and sublimity, which
+are not skin-deep, but proceed from fathomless roots--they shall
+not escape."
+
+"I do not mock it."
+
+"Ask me your questions, and I will answer them."
+
+"I have nothing."
+
+"It is necessary for you to serve me,  Maskull.  Do you not
+understand?  You are my servant and helper."
+
+"I shall not fail."
+
+"This is for my sake, and not for yours."
+
+These last words had no sooner left Surtur's mouth than Maskull saw
+him spring suddenly upward and outward.  Looking up at the vault of
+the sky, he saw the whole expanse of vision filled by Surtur's form--
+not as a concrete man, but as a vast, concave cloud image, looking
+down and frowning at him.  Then the spectacle vanished, as a light
+goes out.
+
+Maskull stood inactive, with a thumping heart.  Now he again heard
+the solitary trumpet note.  The sound began this time faintly in the
+far distance in front of him, travelled slowly toward him with
+regularly increasing intensity, passed overhead at its loudest, and
+then grew more and more quiet, wonderful, and solemn, as it fell away
+in the rear, until the note was merged in the deathlike silence of
+the forest.  It appeared to Maskull like the closing of a marvellous
+and important chapter.
+
+Simultaneously with the fading away of the sound, the heavens seemed
+to open up with the rapidity of lightning into a blue vault of
+immeasurable height.  He breathed a great breath, stretched all his
+limbs, and looked around him with a slow smile.
+
+After a while he resumed his journey.  His brain was all dark and
+confused, but one idea was already beginning to stand out from the
+rest--huge, shapeless, and grand, like the growing image in the soul
+of a creative artist: the staggering thought that he was a man of
+destiny.
+
+The more he reflected upon all that had occurred since his arrival in
+this new world--and even before leaving Earth--the clearer and more
+indisputable it became, that he could not be here for his own
+purposes, but must be here for an end.  But what that end was, he
+could not imagine.
+
+Through the forest he saw Branchspell at last sinking in the west.
+It looked a stupendous ball of red fire--now he could realise at his
+ease what a sun it was!  The avenue took an abrupt turn to the left
+and began to descend steeply.
+
+A wide, rolling river of clear and dark water was visible in front of
+him, no great way off.  It flowed from north to south.  The forest
+path led him straight to its banks.  Maskull stood there, and
+regarded the lapping, gurgling waters pensively.  On the opposite
+bank, the forest continued.  Miles to the south, Poolingdred could
+just be distinguished.  On the northern skyline the Ifdawn Mountains
+loomed up--high, wild, beautiful, and dangerous.  They were not a
+dozen miles away.
+
+Like the first mutterings of a thunderstorm, the first faint breaths
+of cool wind, Maskull felt the stirrings of passion in his heart.  In
+spite of his bodily fatigue, he in wished to test his strength
+against something.  This craving he identified with the crags of the
+Marest.  They seemed to have the same magical attraction for his will
+as the lodestone for iron.  He kept biting his nails, as he turned
+his eyes in that direction--wondering if it would not be possible to
+conquer the heights that evening.  But when he glanced back again at
+Poolingdred, he remembered Joiwind and Panawe, and grew more
+tranquil.  He decided to make his bed at this spot, and to set off as
+soon after daybreak as he should awake.
+
+He drank at the river, washed himself, and lay down on the bank to
+sleep.  By this time, so far had his idea progressed, that he cared
+nothing for the possible dangers of the night--he confided in his
+star.
+
+Branchspell set, the day faded, night with its terrible weight came
+on, and through it all Maskull slept.  Long before midnight, however,
+he was awakened by a crimson glow in the sky.  He opened his eyes,
+and wondered where he was.  He felt heaviness and pain.  The red glow
+was a terrestrial phenomenon; it came from among the trees.  He got
+up and went toward the source of the light.
+
+Away from the river, not a hundred feet off, he nearly stumbled
+across the form of a sleeping woman.  The object which emitted the
+crimson rays was lying on the ground, several yards away from her.
+It was like a small jewel, throwing off sparks of red light.  He
+barely threw a glance at that, however.
+
+The woman was clothed in the large skin of an animal.  She had big,
+smooth, shapely limbs, rather muscular than fat.  Her magn was not a
+thin tentacle, but a third arm, terminating in a hand.  Her face,
+which was upturned, was wild, powerful, and exceedingly handsome.
+But he saw with surprise that in place of a breve on her forehead,
+she possessed another eye.  All three were closed.  The colour of her
+skin in the crimson glow he could not distinguish.
+
+He touched her gently with his hand.  She awoke calmly and looked up
+at him without stirring a muscle.  All three eyes stared at him; but
+the two lower ones were dull and vacant--mere carriers of vision.
+The middle, upper one alone expressed her inner nature.  Its haughty,
+unflinching glare had yet something seductive and alluring in it.
+Maskull felt a challenge in that look of lordly, feminine will, and
+his manner instinctively stiffened.
+
+She sat up.
+
+"Can you speak my language?" he asked.  "I wouldn't put such a
+question, but others have been able to."
+
+"Why should you imagine that I can't read your mind?  Is it so
+extremely complex?"
+
+She spoke in a rich, lingering, musical voice, which delighted him to
+listen to.
+
+"No, but you have no breve."
+
+"Well, but haven't I a sorb, which is better?"  And she pointed to the
+eye on her brow.
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Oceaxe."
+
+"And where do you come from?"
+
+"Ifdawn."
+
+These contemptuous replies began to irritate him, and yet the mere
+sound of her voice was fascinating.
+
+"I am going there tomorrow," he remarked.
+
+She laughed, as if against her will, but made no comment.
+
+"My name is Maskull," he went on.  "I am a stranger--from another
+world."
+
+"So I should judge, from your absurd appearance."
+
+"Perhaps it would be as well to say at once," said Maskull bluntly,
+"are we, or are we not, to be friends?"
+
+She yawned and stretched her arms, without rising.  "Why should we be
+friends?  If I thought you were a man, I might accept you as a
+lover."
+
+"You must look elsewhere for that."
+
+"So be it, Maskull!  Now go away, and leave me in peace."
+
+She dropped her head again to the ground, but did not at once close her
+eyes.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he interrogated.
+
+"Oh, we Ifdawn folk occasionally come here to sleep, for there often
+enough it is a night for us which has no next morning."
+
+"Being such a terrible place, and seeing that I am a total stranger,
+it would be merely courteous if you were to warn me what I have to
+expect in the way of dangers."
+
+"I am perfectly and utterly indifferent to what becomes of you,"
+retorted Oceaxe.
+
+"Are you returning in the morning?" persisted Maskull.
+
+"If I wish."
+
+"Then we will go together."
+
+She got up again on her elbow.  "Instead of making plans for other
+people, I would do a very necessary thing."
+
+"Pray, tell me."
+
+"Well, there's no reason why I should, but I will.  I would try to
+convert my women's organs into men's organs.  It is a man's country."
+
+"Speak more plainly."
+
+"Oh, it's plain enough.  If you attempt to pass through Ifdawn
+without a sorb, you are simply committing suicide.  And that magn too
+is worse than useless."
+
+"You probably know what you are talking about, Oceaxe.  But what do
+you advise me to do?"
+
+She negligently pointed to the light-emitting stone lying on the
+ground.
+
+"There is the solution.  If you hold that drude to your organs for a
+good while, perhaps it will start the change, and perhaps nature will
+do the rest during the night.  I promise nothing."
+
+Oceaxe now really turned her back on Maskull.
+
+He considered for a few minutes, and then walked over and to where
+the stone was lying, and took it in his hand.  It was a pebble the
+size of a hen's egg, radiant with crimson light, as though red-hot,
+and throwing out a continuous shower of small, blood-red sparks.
+
+Finally deciding that Oceaxe's advice was good, he applied the drude
+first to his magn, and then to his breve.  He experienced a
+cauterising sensation--a feeling of healing pain.
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+OCEAXE
+
+Maskull's second day on Tormance dawned.  Branchspell was already
+above the horizon when he awoke.  He was instantly aware that his
+organs had changed during the night.  His fleshy breve was altered
+into an eyelike sorb; his magn had swelled and developed into a third
+arm, springing from the breast.  The arm gave him at once a sense of
+greater physical security, but with the sorb he was obliged to
+experiment, before he could grasp its function.
+
+As he lay there in the white sunlight, opening and shutting each of
+his three eyes in turn, he found that the two lower ones served his
+understanding, the upper one his will.  That is to say, with the
+lower eyes he saw things in clear detail, but without personal
+interest; with the sorb he saw nothing as self-existent--
+everything appeared as an object of importance or non-importance to
+his own needs.
+
+Rather puzzled as to how this would turn out, he got up and looked
+about him.  He had slept out of sight of Oceaxe.  He was anxious to
+learn if she were still on the spot, but before going to ascertain he
+made up his mind to bathe in the river.
+
+It was a glorious morning.  The hot white sun already began to glare,
+but its heat was tempered by a strong wind, which whistled through
+the trees.  A host of fantastic clouds filled the sky.  They looked
+like animals, and were always changing shape.  The ground, as well as
+the leaves and branches of the forest trees, still held traces of
+heavy dew or rain during the night.  A poignantly sweet smell of
+nature entered his nostrils.  His pain was quiescent, and his spirits
+were high.
+
+Before he bathed, he viewed the mountains of the Ifdawn Marest.  In
+the morning sunlight they stood out pictorially.  He guessed that
+they were from five to six thousand feet high.  The lofty, irregular,
+castellated line seemed like the walls of a magic city.  The cliffs
+fronting him were composed of gaudy rocks--vermilion, emerald,
+yellow, ulfire, and black.  As he gazed at them, his heart began to
+beat like a slow, heavy drum, and he thrilled all over--
+indescribable hopes, aspirations, and emotions came over him.  It was
+more than the conquest of a new world which he felt--it was
+something different....
+
+He bathed and drank, and as he was reclothing himself, Oceaxe
+strolled indolently up.
+
+He could now perceive the colour of her skin--it was a vivid, yet
+delicate mixture of carmine, white, and jale.  The effect was
+startlingly unearthly.  With these new colors she looked like a
+genuine representative of a strange planet.  Her frame also had
+something curious about it.  The curves were womanly, the bones were
+characteristically female--yet all seemed somehow to express a
+daring, masculine underlying will.  The commanding eye on her
+forehead set the same puzzle in plainer language.  Its bold,
+domineering egotism was shot with undergleams of sex and softness.
+
+She came to the river's edge and reviewed him from top to toe.  "Now
+you are built more like a man," she said, in her lovely, lingering
+voice.
+
+"You see, the experiment was successful," he answered, smiling gaily.
+
+Oceaxe continued looking him over.  "Did some woman give you that
+ridiculous robe?"
+
+"A woman did give it to me"--dropping his smile--"but I saw
+nothing ridiculous in the gift at the time, and I don't now."
+
+"I think I'd look better in it."
+
+As she drawled the words, she began stripping off the skin, which
+suited her form so well, and motioned to him to exchange garments.
+He obeyed, rather shamefacedly, for he realised that the proposed
+exchange was in fact more appropriate to his sex.  He found the skin
+a freer dress.  Oceaxe in her drapery appeared more dangerously
+feminine to him.
+
+"I don't want you to receive gifts at all from other women," she
+remarked slowly.
+
+"Why not?  What can I be to you?"
+
+"I have been thinking about you during the night."  Her voice was
+retarded, scornful, viola-like.  She sat down on the trunk of a
+fallen tree, and looked away.
+
+"In what way?"
+
+She returned no answer to his question, but began to pull off pieces
+of the bark.
+
+"Last night you were so contemptuous."
+
+"Last night is not today.  Do you always walk through the world with
+your head over your shoulder?"
+
+It was now Maskull's turn to be silent.
+
+"Still, if you have male instincts, as I suppose you have, you can't
+go on resisting me forever."
+
+"But this is preposterous" said Maskull, opening his eyes wide.
+"Granted that you are a beautiful woman--we can't be quite so
+primeval."
+
+Oceaxe sighed, and rose to her feet.  "It doesn't matter.  I can
+wait."
+
+"From that I gather that you intend to make the journey in my
+society.  I have no objection--in fact I shall be glad--but only on
+condition that you drop this language."
+
+"Yet you do think me beautiful?"
+
+"Why shouldn't I think so, if it is the fact?  I fail to see what
+that has to do with my feelings.  Bring it to an end, Oceaxe.  You
+will find plenty of men to admire--and love you."
+
+At that she blazed up.  "Does love pick and choose, you fool?  Do you
+imagine I am so hard put to it that I have to hunt for lovers?  Is
+not Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?"
+
+"Very well.  I am sorry to have hurt your feelings.  Now carry the
+temptation no farther--for it is a temptation, where a lovely woman
+is concerned.  I am not my own master."
+
+"I'm not proposing anything so very hateful, am I?  Why do you
+humiliate me so?"
+
+Maskull put his hands behind his back.  "I repeat, I am not my own
+master."
+
+"Then who is your master?"
+
+"Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving him."
+
+"Did you speak with him?" she asked curiously.
+
+"I did."
+
+"Tell me what he said."
+
+"No, I can't--I won't.  But whatever he said, his beauty was more
+tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and that's why I can look at you in
+cold blood."
+
+"Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?"
+
+Maskull frowned.  "Is love such a manly sport, then?  I should have
+thought it effeminate."
+
+"It doesn't matter.  You won't always be so boyish.  But don't try my
+patience too far."
+
+"Let us talk about something else--and, above all, let us get on
+our road."
+
+She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that
+he grew half inflamed, and half wished to catch her body in his arms.
+"Oh, Maskull, Maskull--what a fool you are!"
+
+"In what way am I a fool?" he demanded, scowling not at her words,
+but at his own weakness.
+
+"Isn't the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of lovers?
+And yet you think yourself above all that.  You try to fly away from
+nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?"
+
+"Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality:
+persistence."
+
+"Read me well, and then it is natural law that you'll think twice and
+three times before throwing me away....  And now, before we go, we
+had better eat."
+
+"Eat?" said Maskull thoughtfully.
+
+"Don't you eat?  Is food in the same category as love?"
+
+"What food is it?"
+
+"Fish from the river."
+
+Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind.  At the same time, he
+felt hungry.
+
+"Is there nothing milder?"
+
+She pulled her mouth scornfully.  "You came through Poolingdred,
+didn't you?  All the people there are the same.  They think life is
+to be looked at, and not lived.  Now that you are visiting Ifdawn,
+you will have to change your notions."
+
+"Go catch your fish," he returned, pulling down his brows.
+
+The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations,
+from the direction of the mountains.  Oceaxe knelt down on the bank,
+and peered into the depths.  Presently her look became tense and
+concentrated; she dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of
+little monster.  It was more like a reptile than a fish, with its
+scaly plates and teeth.  She threw it on the ground, and it started
+crawling about.  Suddenly she darted all her will into her sorb.  The
+creature leaped into the air, and fell down dead.
+
+She picked up a sharp-edged slate, and with it removed the scales
+and entrails.  During this operation, her hands and garment became
+stained with the light scarlet blood.
+
+"Find the drude, Maskull," she said, with a lazy smile.  "You had it
+last night."
+
+He searched for it.  It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown
+dull and feeble in the sunlight, but at last he found it.  Oceaxe
+placed it in the interior of the monster, and left the body lying on
+the ground.
+
+"While it's cooking, I'll wash some of this blood away, which
+frightens you so much.  Have you never seen blood before?"
+
+Maskull gazed at her in perplexity.  The old paradox came back--the
+contrasting sexual characteristics in her person.  Her bold,
+masterful, masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous with
+the fascinating and disturbing femininity of her voice.  A startling
+idea flashed into his mind.
+
+"In your country I'm told there is an act of will called 'absorbing.'
+What is that?"
+
+She held her red, dripping hands away from her draperies, and uttered
+a delicious, clashing laugh.  "You think I am half a man?"
+
+"Answer my question."
+
+"I'm a woman through and through, Maskull--to the marrowbone.  But
+that's not to say I have never absorbed males."
+
+"And that means..."
+
+"New strings for my harp, Maskull.  A wider range of passions, a
+stormier heart..."
+
+"For you, yes--But for them?..."
+
+"I don't know.  The victims don't describe their experiences.
+Probably unhappiness of some sort--if they still know anything."
+
+"This is a fearful business!" he exclaimed, regarding her gloomily.
+"One would think Ifdawn a land of devils."
+
+Oceaxe gave a beautiful sneer as she took a step toward the river.
+"Better men than you--better in every sense of the word--are
+walking about with foreign wills inside them.  You may be as moral as
+you like, Maskull, but the fact remains, animals were made to be
+eaten, and simple natures were made to be absorbed."
+
+"And human rights count for nothing!"
+
+She had bent over the river's edge, to wash her arms and hands, but
+glanced up over her shoulder to answer his remark.  "They do count.
+But we only regard a man as human for just as long as he's able to
+hold his own with others."
+
+The flesh was soon cooked, and they breakfasted in silence.  Maskull
+cast heavy, doubtful glances from time to time toward his companion.
+Whether it was due to the strange quality of the food, or to his long
+abstention, he did not know, but the meal tasted nauseous, and even
+cannibalistic.  He ate little, and the moment he got up he felt
+defiled.
+
+"Let me bury this drude, where I can find it some other time," said
+Oceaxe.  "On the next occasion, though, I shall have no Maskull with
+me, to shock....  Now we have to take to the river."
+
+They stepped off the land onto the water.  It flowed against them
+with a sluggish current, but the opposition, instead of hindering
+them, had the contrary effect--it caused them to exert themselves,
+and they moved faster.  They climbed the river in this way for
+several miles.  The exercise gradually improved the circulation of
+Maskull's blood, and he began to look at things in a far more way.
+The hot sunshine, the diminished wind, the cheerful marvellous cloud
+scenery, the quiet, crystal forests--all was soothing and delightful.
+They approached nearer and  nearer to the gaily painted heights of
+Ifdawn.
+
+There was something enigmatic to him in those bright walls.  He was
+attracted by them, yet felt a sort of awe.  They looked real, but at
+the same time very supernatural.  If one could see the portrait of a
+ghost, painted with a hard, firm outline, in substantial colors, the
+feelings produced by such a sight would be exactly similar to
+Maskull's impressions as he studied the Ifdawn precipices.
+
+He broke the long silence.  "Those mountains have most extraordinary
+shapes.  All the lines are straight and perpendicular--no slopes or
+curves."
+
+She walked backward on the water, in order to face him.  "That's
+typical of Ifdawn.  Nature is all hammer blows with us.  Nothing soft
+and gradual."
+
+"I hear you, but I don't understand you."
+
+"All over the Marest you'll find patches of ground plunging down or
+rushing up.  Trees grow fast.  Women and men don't think twice before
+acting.  One may call Ifdawn a place of quick decisions."
+
+Maskull was impressed.  "A fresh, wild, primitive land."
+
+"How is it where you come from?" asked Oceaxe.
+
+"Oh, mine is a decrepit world, where nature takes a hundred years to
+move a foot of solid land.  Men and animals go about in flocks.
+Originality is a lost habit."
+
+"Are there women there?"
+
+"As with you, and not very differently formed."
+
+"Do they love?"
+
+He laughed.  "So much so that it has changed the dress, speech, and
+thoughts of the whole sex."
+
+"Probably they are more beautiful than I?"
+
+"No, I think not," said Maskull.
+
+There was another rather long silence, as they travelled unsteadily
+onward.
+
+"What is your business in Ifdawn?" demanded Oceaxe suddenly.
+
+He hesitated over his answer.  "Can you grasp that it's possible to
+have an aim right in front of one, so big that one can't see it as a
+whole?"
+
+She stole a long, inquisitive look at him, "What sort of aim?"
+
+"A moral aim."
+
+"Are you proposing to set the world right?"
+
+"I propose nothing--I am waiting."
+
+"Don't wait too long, for time doesn't wait--especially in Ifdawn."
+
+"Something will happen," said Maskull.
+
+Oceaxe threw a subtle smile.  "So you have no special destination in
+the Marest?"
+
+"No, and if you'll permit me, I will come home with you."
+
+"Singular man!" she said, with a short, thrilling laugh.  "That's
+what I have been offering all the time.  Of course you will come home
+with me.  As for Crimtyphon..."
+
+"You mentioned that name before.  Who is he?"
+
+"Oh!  My lover, or, as you would say, my husband."
+
+"This doesn't improve matters," said Maskull.
+
+"It leaves them exactly where they were.  We merely have to remove
+him."
+
+"We are certainly misunderstanding each other," said Maskull, quite
+startled.  "Do you by any chance imagine that I am making a compact
+with you?"
+
+"You will do nothing against your will.  But you have promised to
+come home with me."
+
+"Tell me, how do you remove husbands in Ifdawn?"
+
+"Either you or I must kill him."
+
+He eyed her for a full minute.  "Now we are passing from folly to
+insanity."
+
+"Not at all," replied Oceaxe.  "It is the too-sad truth.  And when
+you have seen Crimtyphon, you will realise it."
+
+"I'm aware I am on a strange planet," said Maskull slowly, "where all
+sorts of unheard of things may happen, and where the very laws of
+morality may be different.  Still as far as I am concerned, murder is
+murder, and I'll have no more to do with a woman who wants to make
+use of me, to get rid of her husband."
+
+"You think me wicked?" demanded Oceaxe steadily.
+
+"Or mad."
+
+"Then you had better leave me, Maskull--only--"
+
+"Only what?"
+
+"You wish to be consistent, don't you?  Leave all other mad and
+wicked people as well.  Then you'll find it easier to reform the
+rest."
+
+Maskull frowned, but said nothing.
+
+"Well?" demanded Oceaxe, with a half smile.
+
+"I'll come with you, and I'll see Crimtyphon--if only to warn him."
+
+Oceaxe broke into a cascade of rich, feminine laughter, but whether
+at the image conjured up by Maskull's last words, or from some other
+cause, he did not know.  The conversation dropped.
+
+At a distance of a couple of miles from the now towering cliffs, the
+river made a sharp, right-angled turn to the west, and was no
+longer of use to them on their journey.  Maskull stared up
+doubtfully.
+
+"It's a stiff climb for a hot morning."
+
+"Let's rest here a little," said she, indicating a smooth flat island
+of black rock, standing up just out of the water in the middle of the
+river.
+
+They accordingly went to it, and Maskull sat down.  Oceaxe, however,
+standing graceful and erect, turned her face toward the cliffs
+opposite, and uttered a piercing and peculiar call.
+
+"What is that for?"  She did not answer.  After waiting a minute, she
+repeated the call.  Maskull now saw a large bird detach itself from
+the top of one of the precipices, and sail slowly down toward them.
+It was followed by two others.  The flight of these birds was
+exceedingly slow and clumsy.
+
+"What are they?" he asked.
+
+She still returned no answer, but smiled rather peculiarly and sat
+down beside him.  Before many minutes he was able to distinguish the
+shapes and colors of the flying monsters.  They were not birds, but
+creatures with long, snakelike bodies, and ten reptilian legs apiece,
+terminating in fins which acted as wings.  The bodies were of bright
+blue, the legs and fins were yellow.  They were flying, without
+haste, but in a somewhat ominous fashion, straight toward them.  He
+could make out a long, thin spike projecting from each of the heads.
+
+"They are shrowks," explained Oceaxe at last.  "If you want to know
+their intention, I'll tell you.  To make a meal of us.  First of all
+their spikes will pierce us, and then their mouths, which are really
+suckers, will drain us dry of blood--pretty thoroughly too; there
+are no half measures with shrowks.  They are toothless beasts, so
+don't eat flesh."
+
+"As you show such admirable sangfroid," said Maskull dryly, "I take
+it there's no particular danger."
+
+Nevertheless he instinctively tried to get on to his feet and failed.
+A new form of paralysis was chaining him to the ground.
+
+"Are you trying to get up?" asked Oceaxe smoothly.
+
+"Well, yes, but those cursed reptiles seem to be nailing me down to
+the rock with their wills.  May I ask if you had any special object
+in view in waking them up?"
+
+"I assure you the danger is quite real, Maskull.  Instead of talking
+and asking questions, you had much better see what you can do with
+your will."
+
+"I seem to have no will, unfortunately."
+
+Oceaxe was seized with a paroxysm of laughter, but it was still rich
+and beautiful.  "It's obvious you aren't a very heroic protector,
+Maskull.  It seems I must play the man, and you the woman.  I expected
+better things of your big body.  Why, my husband would send those
+creatures dancing all around the sky, by way of a joke, before
+disposing of them.  Now watch me.. Two of the three I'll kill; the
+third we will ride home on.  Which one shall we keep?"
+
+The shrowks continued their slow, wobbling flight toward them.  Their
+bodies were of huge size.  They produced in Maskull the same
+sensation of loathing as insects did.  He instinctively understood
+that as they hunted with their wills, there was no necessity for them
+to possess a swift motion.
+
+"Choose which you please," he said shortly.  "They are equally
+objectionable to me."
+
+"Then I'll choose the leader, as it is presumably the most energetic
+animal.  Watch now."
+
+She stood upright, and her sorb suddenly blazed with fire.  Maskull
+felt something snap inside his brain.  His limbs were free once more.
+The two monsters in the rear staggered and darted head foremost
+toward the earth, one after the other.  He watched them crash on the
+ground, and then lie motionless.  The leader still came toward them,
+but he fancied that its flight was altered in character; it was no
+longer menacing, but tame and unwilling.
+
+Oceaxe guided it with her will to the mainland shore opposite their
+island rock.  Its vast bulk lay there extended, awaiting her
+pleasure.  They immediately crossed the water.
+
+Maskull viewed the shrowk at close quarters.  It was about thirty
+feet long.  Its bright-coloured skin was shining, slippery, and
+leathery; a mane of black hair covered its long neck.  Its face was
+awesome and unnatural, with its carnivorous eyes, frightful stiletto,
+and blood-sucking cavity.  There were true fins on its back and
+tail.
+
+"Have you a good seat?" asked Oceaxe, patting the creature's flank.
+"As I have to steer, let me jump on first."
+
+She pulled up her gown, then climbed up and sat astride the animal's
+back, just behind the mane, which she clutched.  Between her and the
+fin there was just room for Maskull.  He grasped the two flanks with
+his outer hands; his third, new arm pressed against Oceaxe's back,
+and for additional security he was compelled to encircle her waist
+with it.
+
+Directly he did so, he realised that he had been tricked, and that
+this ride had been planned for one purpose only--to inflame his
+desires.
+
+The third arm possessed a function of its own, of which hitherto he
+had been ignorant.  It was a developed magn.  But the stream of love
+which was communicated to it was no longer pure and noble--it was
+boiling, passionate, and torturing.  He gritted his teeth, and kept
+quiet, but Oceaxe had not plotted the adventure to remain unconscious
+of his feelings.  She looked around, with a golden, triumphant smile.
+"The ride will last some time, so hold on well!"  Her voice was soft
+like a flute, but rather malicious.
+
+Maskull grinned, and said nothing.  He dared not remove his arm.
+
+The shrowk straddled on to its legs.  It jerked itself forward, and
+rose slowly and uncouthly in the air.  They began to paddle upward
+toward the painted cliffs.  The motion was swaying, rocking, and
+sickening; the contact of the brute's slimy skin was disgusting.  All
+this, however, was merely, background to Maskull, as he sat there
+with closed eyes, holding on to Oceaxe.  In the front and centre of
+his consciousness was the knowledge that he was gripping a fair
+woman, and that her flesh was responding to his touch like a lovely
+harp.
+
+They climbed up and up.  He opened his eyes, and ventured to look
+around him.  By this time they were already level with the top of the
+outer rampart of precipices.  There now came in sight a wild
+archipelago of islands, with jagged outlines, emerging from a sea of
+air.  The islands were mountain summits; or, more accurately
+speaking, the country was a high tableland, fissured everywhere by
+narrow and apparently bottomless cracks.  These cracks were in some
+cases like canals, in others like lakes, in others merely holes in
+the ground, closed in all round.  The perpendicular sides of the
+islands--that is, the upper, visible parts of the innumerable cliff
+faces--were of bare rock, gaudily coloured; but the level surfaces
+were a tangle of wild plant life.  The taller trees alone were
+distinguishable from the shrowk's back.  They were of different
+shapes, and did not look ancient; they were slender and swaying but
+did not appear very graceful; they looked tough, wiry, and savage.
+
+As Maskull continued to explore the landscape, he forgot Oceaxe and
+his passion.  Other strange feelings came to the front.  The morning
+was gay and bright.  The sun scorched down, quickly-changing clouds
+sailed across the sky, the earth was vivid, wild, and lonely.  Yet he
+experienced no aesthetic sensations--he felt nothing but an intense
+longing for action and possession.  When he looked at anything, he
+immediately wanted to deal with it.  The atmosphere of the land
+seemed not free, but sticky; attraction and repulsion were its
+constituents.  Apart from this wish to play a personal part in what
+was going on around and beneath him, the scenery had no significance
+for him.
+
+So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp.  Oceaxe
+turned around to gaze at him.  Whether or not she was satisfied with
+what she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
+
+"Cold again so quickly, Maskull?"
+
+"What do you want?" he asked absently, still looking over the side.
+"It's extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this."
+
+"You wish to take a hand?"
+
+"I wish to get down."
+
+"Oh, we have a good way to go yet....  So you really feel different?"
+
+"Different from what?  What are you talking about?" said Maskull,
+still lost in abstraction.
+
+Oceaxe laughed again.  "It would be strange if we couldn't make a man
+of you, for the material is excellent."
+
+After that, she turned her back once more.
+
+The air islands differed from water islands in another way.  They
+were not on a plane surface, but sloped upward, like a succession of
+broken terraces, as the journey progressed.  The shrowk had hitherto
+been flying well above the ground; but now, when a new line of
+towering cliffs confronted them, Oceaxe did not urge the beast
+upward, but caused it to enter a narrow canyon, which intersected the
+mountains like a channel.  They were instantly plunged into deep
+shade.  The canal was not above thirty feet wide; the walls stretched
+upward on both sides for many hundred feet.  It was as cool as an ice
+chamber.  When Maskull attempted to plumb the chasm with his eyes, he
+saw nothing but black obscurity.
+
+"What is at the bottom?" he asked.
+
+"Death for you, if you go to look for it."
+
+"We know that.  I mean, is there any kind of life down there?"
+
+"Not that I have ever heard of," said Oceaxe, "but of course all
+things are possible."
+
+"I think very likely there is life," he returned thoughtfully.
+
+Her ironical laugh sounded out of the gloom.  "Shall we go down and
+see?"
+
+"You find that amusing?"
+
+"No, not that.  What I do find amusing is the big stranger with the
+beard, who is so keenly interested in everything except himself."
+
+Maskull then laughed too.  "I happen to be the only thing in Tormance
+which is not a novelty for me."
+
+"Yes, but I am a novelty for you."
+
+The channel went zigzagging its way through the belly of the
+mountain, and all the time they were gradually rising.
+
+"At least I have heard nothing like your voice before," said Maskull,
+who, since he had no longer anything to look at, was at last ready
+for conversation.
+
+"What's the matter with my voice?"
+
+"It's all that I can distinguish of you now; that's why I mentioned
+it."
+
+"Isn't it clear--don't I speak distinctly?"
+
+"Oh, it's clear enough, but--it's inappropriate."
+
+"Inappropriate?"
+
+"I won't explain further," said Maskull, "but whether you are
+speaking or laughing, your voice is by far the loveliest and
+strangest instrument I have ever listened to.  And yet I repeat, it
+is inappropriate."
+
+"You mean that my nature doesn't correspond?"
+
+He was just considering his reply, when their talk was abruptly
+broken off by a huge and terrifying, but not very loud sound rising
+up from the gulf directly underneath them.  It was a low, grinding,
+roaring thunder.
+
+"The ground is rising under us!" cried Oceaxe.
+
+"Shall we escape?"
+
+She made no answer, but urged the shrowk's flight upward, at such a
+steep gradient that they retained their seats with difficulty.  The
+floor of the canyon, upheaved by some mighty subterranean force,
+could be heard, and almost felt, coming up after them, like a
+gigantic landslip in the wrong direction.  The cliffs cracked, and
+fragments began to fall.  A hundred awful noises filled the air,
+growing louder and louder each second--splitting, hissing, cracking,
+grinding, booming, exploding, roaring.  When they had still fifty
+feet or so to go, to reach the top, a sort of dark, indefinite sea of
+broken rocks and soil appeared under their feet, ascending rapidly,
+with irresistible might, accompanied by the most horrible noises.
+The canal was filled up for two hundred yards, before and behind
+them.  Millions of tons of solid matter seemed to be raised.  The
+shrowk in its ascent was caught by the uplifted debris.  Beast and
+riders experienced in that moment all the horrors of an earthquake--
+they were rolled violently over, and thrown among the rocks and dirt.
+All was thunder, instability, motion, confusion.
+
+Before they had time to realise their position, they were in the
+sunlight.  The upheaval still continued.  In another minute or two
+the valley floor had formed a new mountain, a hundred feet or more
+higher than the old.  Then its movement ceased suddenly.  Every noise
+stopped, as if by magic; not a rock moved.  Oceaxe and Maskull picked
+themselves up and examined themselves for cuts and bruises.  The
+shrowk lay on its side, panting violently, and sweating with fright.
+
+"That was a nasty affair," said Maskull, flicking the dirt off his
+person.
+
+Oceaxe staunched a cut on her chin with a corner of her robe.
+
+"It might have been far worse....  I mean, it's bad enough to come up,
+but it's death to go down, and that happens just as often."
+
+"Whatever induces you to live in such a country?"
+
+"I don't know, Maskull.  Habit, I suppose.  I have often thought of
+moving out of it."
+
+"A good deal must be forgiven you for having to spend your life in a
+place like this, where one is obviously never safe from one minute to
+another."
+
+"You will learn by degrees," she answered, smiling.
+
+She looked hard at the monster, and it got heavily to its feet.
+
+"Get on again, Maskull!" she directed, climbing back to her perch.
+"We haven't too much time to waste."
+
+He obeyed.  They resumed their interrupted flight, this time over the
+mountains, and in full sunlight.  Maskull settled down again to his
+thoughts.  The peculiar atmosphere of the country continued to soak
+into his brain.  His will became so restless and uneasy that merely
+to sit there in inactivity was a torture.  He could scarcely endure
+not to be doing something.
+
+"How secretive you are, Maskull!" said Oceaxe quietly, without
+turning her head.
+
+"What secrets--what do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, I know perfectly well what's passing inside you.  Now I think it
+wouldn't be amiss to ask you--is friendship still enough?"
+
+"Oh, don't ask me anything," growled Maskull.  "I've far too many
+problems in my head already.  I only wish I could answer some of
+them."
+
+He stared stonily at the landscape.  The beast was winging its way
+toward a distant mountain, of singular shape.  It was an enormous
+natural quadrilateral pyramid, rising in great terraces and
+terminating in a broad, flat top, on which what looked like green
+snow still lingered.
+
+"What mountain is that?" he asked.
+
+"Disscourn.  The highest point in Ifdawn."
+
+"Are we going there?"
+
+"Why should we go there?  But if you were going on farther, it might
+be worth your while to pay a visit to the top.  It commands the whole
+land as far as the Sinking Sea and Swaylone's Island--and beyond.
+You can also see Alppain from it."
+
+"That's a sight I mean to see before I have finished."
+
+"Do you, Maskull?"  She turned around and put her hand on his wrist.
+"Stay with me, and one day we'll go to Disscourn together."
+
+He grunted unintelligibly.
+
+There were no signs of human existence in the country under their
+feet.  While Maskull was still grimly regarding it, a large tract of
+forest not far ahead, bearing many trees and rocks, suddenly subsided
+with an awful roar and crashed down into an invisible gulf.  What was
+solid land one minute became a clean-cut chasm the next.  He jumped
+violently up with the shock.  "This is frightful."
+
+Oceaxe remained unmoved.
+
+"Why, life here must be absolutely impossible," he went on, when he
+had somewhat recovered himself.  "A man would need nerves of steel....
+Is there no means at all of foreseeing a catastrophe like this?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose we wouldn't be alive if there weren't," replied
+Oceaxe, with composure.  "We are more or less clever at it--but that
+doesn't prevent our often getting caught."
+
+"You had better teach me the signs."
+
+"We'll have many things to go over together.  And among them, I
+expect, will be whether we are to stay in the land at all....  But
+first let us get home."
+
+"How far is it now?"
+
+"It is right in front of you," said Oceaxe, pointing with her
+forefinger.  "You can see it."
+
+He followed the direction of the finger and, after a few questions,
+made out the spot she was indicating.  It was a broad peninsula,
+about two miles distant.  Three of its sides rose sheer out of a lake
+of air, the bottom of which was invisible; its fourth was a
+bottleneck, joining it to the mainland.  It was overgrown with bright
+vegetation, distinct in the brilliant atmosphere.  A single tall
+tree, shooting up in the middle of the peninsula, dwarfed everything
+else; it was wide and shady with sea-green leaves.
+
+"I wonder if Crimtyphon is there," remarked Oceaxe.  "Can I see two
+figures, or am I mistaken?"
+
+"I also see something," said Maskull.
+
+In twenty minutes they were directly above the peninsula, at a height
+of about fifty feet.  The shrowk slackened speed, and came to earth
+on the mainland, exactly at the gateway of the isthmus.  They both
+descended--Maskull with aching thighs.
+
+"What shall we do with the monster?" asked Oceaxe.  Without waiting
+for a suggestion, she patted its hideous face with her hand.  "Fly
+away home!  I may want you some other time."
+
+It gave a stupid grunt, elevated itself on its legs again, and, after
+half running, half flying for a few yards, rose awkwardly into the
+air, and paddled away in the same direction from which they had come.
+They watched it out of sight, and then Oceaxe started to cross the
+neck of land, followed by Maskull.
+
+Branchspell's white rays beat down on them with pitiless force.  The
+sky had by degrees become cloudless, and the wind had dropped
+entirely.  The ground was a rich riot of vividly coloured ferns,
+shrubs, and grasses.  Through these could be seen here and there the
+golden chalky soil--and occasionally a glittering, white metallic
+boulder.  Everything looked extraordinary and barbaric.  Maskull was
+at last walking in the weird Ifdawn Marest which had created such
+strange feelings in him when seen from a distance....  And now he felt
+no wonder or curiosity at all, but only desired to meet human beings--
+so intense had grown his will.  He longed to test his powers on his
+fellow creatures, and nothing else seemed of the least importance to
+him.
+
+On the peninsula all was coolness and delicate shade.  It resembled a
+large copse, about two acres in extent.  In the heart of the tangle
+of small trees and undergrowth was a partially cleared space--
+perhaps the roots of the giant tree growing in the centre had killed
+off the smaller fry all around it.  By the side of the tree sparkled
+a little, bubbling fountain, whose water was iron-red.  The
+precipices on all sides, overhung with thorns, flowers, and creepers,
+invested the enclosure with an air of wild and charming seclusion--a
+mythological mountain god might have dwelt here.
+
+Maskull's restless eye left everything, to fall on the two men who
+formed the centre of the picture.
+
+One was reclining, in the ancient Grecian fashion of banqueters on a
+tall couch of mosses, sprinkled with flowers; he rested on one arm,
+and was eating a kind of plum, with calm enjoyment.  A pile of these
+plums lay on the couch beside him.  The over-spreading branches of
+the tree completely sheltered him from the sun.  His small, boyish
+form was clad in a rough skin, leaving his limbs naked.  Maskull
+could not tell from his face whether he were a young boy or a grown
+man.  The features were smooth, soft, and childish, their expression
+was seraphically tranquil; but his violet upper eye was sinister and
+adult.  His skin was of the colour of yellow ivory.  His long,
+curling hair matched his sorb--it was violet.  The second man was
+standing erect before the other, a few feet away from him.  He was
+short and muscular, his face was broad, bearded, and rather
+commonplace, but there was something terrible about his appearance.
+The features were distorted by a deep-seated look of pain, despair,
+and horror.
+
+Oceaxe, without pausing, strolled lightly and lazily up to the
+outermost shadows of the tree, some distance from the couch.
+
+"We have met with an uplift," she remarked carelessly, looking toward
+the youth.
+
+He eyed her, but said nothing.
+
+"How is your plant man getting on?"  Her tone was artificial but
+extremely beautiful.  While waiting for an answer, she sat down on
+the ground, her legs gracefully thrust under her body, and pulled
+down the skirt of her robe.  Maskull remained standing just behind
+her, with crossed arms.
+
+There was silence for a minute.
+
+"Why don't you answer your mistress, Sature?" said the boy on the
+couch, in a calm, treble voice.
+
+The man addressed did not alter his expression, but replied in a
+strangled tone, "I am getting on very well, Oceaxe.  There are
+already buds on my feet.  Tomorrow I hope to take root."
+
+Maskull felt a rising storm inside him.  He was perfectly aware that
+although these words were uttered by Sature, they were being dictated
+by the boy.
+
+"What he says is quite true," remarked the latter.  "Tomorrow roots
+will reach the ground, and in a few days they ought to be well
+established.  Then I shall set to work to convert his arms into
+branches, and his fingers into leaves.  It will take longer to
+transform his head into a crown, but still I hope--in fact I can
+almost promise that within a month you and I, Oceaxe, will be
+plucking and enjoying fruit from this new and remarkable tree."
+
+"I love these natural experiments," he concluded, putting out his
+hand for another plum.  "They thrill me."
+
+"This must be a joke," said Maskull, taking a step forward.
+
+The youth looked at him serenely.  He made no reply, but Maskull felt
+as if he were being thrust backward by an iron hand on his throat.
+
+"The morning's work is now concluded, Sature.  Come here again after
+Blodsombre.  After tonight you will remain here permanently, I
+expect, so you had better set to work to clear a patch of ground for
+your roots.  Never forget--however fresh and charming these plants
+appear to you now, in the future they will be your deadliest rivals
+and enemies.  Now you may go."
+
+The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight.
+Oceaxe yawned.
+
+Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall.  "Are you
+joking, or are you a devil?"
+
+"I am Crimtyphon.  I never joke.  For that epithet of yours, I will
+devise a new punishment for you."
+
+The duel of wills commenced without ceremony.  Oceaxe got up,
+stretched her beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to
+witness the struggle between her old lover and her new.  Crimtyphon
+smiled too; he reached out his hand for more fruit, but did not eat
+it.  Maskull's self-control broke down and he dashed at the boy,
+choking with red fury--his beard wagged and his face was crimson.
+When he realised with whom he had to deal, Crimtyphon left off
+smiling, slipped off the couch, and threw a terrible and malignant
+glare into his sorb.  Maskull staggered.  He gathered together all
+the brute force of his will, and by sheer weight continued his advance.
+The boy shrieked and ran behind the couch, trying to get away....
+His opposition suddenly collapsed.  Maskull stumbled forward,
+recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the high pile of mosses,
+to get at his antagonist.  He fell on top of him with all his bulk.
+Grasping his throat, he pulled his little head completely around,
+so that the neck was broken.  Crimtyphon immediately died.
+
+The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned.  Maskull
+viewed it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and
+wonder came into his own countenance.  In the moment of death
+Crimtyphon's face had undergone a startling and even shocking
+alteration.  Its personal character had wholly vanished, giving place
+to a vulgar, grinning mask which expressed nothing.
+
+He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had
+seen the brother of that expression.  It was identical with that on
+the face of the apparition at the seance, after Krag had dealt with
+it.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+TYDOMIN
+
+Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating
+the plums.
+
+"You see, you had to kill him, Maskull," she said, in a rather
+quizzical voice.
+
+He came away from the corpse and regarded her--still red, and still
+breathing hard.  "It's no joking matter.  You especially ought to
+keep quiet."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because he was your husband."
+
+"You think I ought to show grief--when I feel none?"
+
+"Don't pretend, woman!"
+
+Oceaxe smiled.  "From your manner one would think you were accusing
+me of some crime."
+
+Maskull literally snorted at her words.  "What, you live with filth--
+you live in the arms of a morbid monstrosity and then--"
+
+"Oh, now I grasp it," she said, in a tone of perfect detachment.
+
+"I'm glad."
+
+"Well, Maskull," she proceeded, after a pause, "and who gave you the
+right to rule my conduct?  Am I not mistress of my own person?"
+
+He looked at her with disgust, but said nothing.  There was another
+long interval of silence.
+
+"I never loved him," said Oceaxe at last, looking at the ground.
+
+"That makes it all the worse."
+
+"What does all this mean--what do you want?"
+
+"Nothing from you--absolutely nothing--thank heaven!"
+
+She gave a hard laugh.  "You come here with your foreign
+preconceptions and expect us all to bow down to them."
+
+"What preconceptions?"
+
+"Just because Crimtyphon's sports are strange to you, you murder
+him--and you would like to murder me."
+
+"Sports!  That diabolical cruelty."
+
+"Oh, you're sentimental!" said Oceaxe contemptuously.  "Why do you
+need to make such a fuss over that man?  Life is life, all the world
+over, and one form is as good as another.  He was only to be made a
+tree, like a million other trees.  If they can endure the life, why
+can't he?"
+
+"And this is Ifdawn morality!"
+
+Oceaxe began to grow angry.  "It's you who have peculiar ideas.  You
+rave about the beauty of flowers and trees--you think them divine.
+But when it's a question of taking on this divine, fresh, pure,
+enchanting loveliness yourself, in your own person, it immediately
+becomes a cruel and wicked degradation.  Here we have a strange
+riddle, in my opinion."
+
+"Oceaxe, you're a beautiful, heartless wild beast--nothing more.  If
+you weren't a woman--"
+
+"Well"--curling her lip--"let us hear what would happen if I
+weren't a woman?"
+
+Maskull bit his nails.
+
+"It doesn't matter.  I can't touch you--though there's certainly not
+the difference of a hair between you and your boy-husband.  For
+this you may thank my 'foreign preconceptions.'...  Farewell!"
+
+He turned to go.  Oceaxe's eyes slanted at him through their long
+lashes.
+
+"Where are you off to, Maskull?"
+
+"That's a matter of no importance, for wherever I go it must be a
+change for the better.  You walking whirlpools of crime!"
+
+"Wait a minute.  I only want to say this.  Blodsombre is just
+starting, and you had better stay here till the afternoon.  We can
+quickly put that body out of sight, and, as you seem to detest me so
+much, the place is big enough--we needn't talk, or even see each
+other."
+
+"I don't wish to breathe the same air."
+
+"Singular man!"  She was sitting erect and motionless, like a
+beautiful statue.  "And what of your wonderful interview with Surtur,
+and all the undone things which you set out to do?"
+
+"You aren't the one I shall speak to about that.  But"--he eyed her
+meditatively--"while I'm still here you can tell me this.  What's
+the meaning of the expression on that corpse's face?"
+
+"Is that another crime, Maskull?  All dead people look like that.
+Ought they not to?"
+
+"I once heard it called 'Crystalman's face.'"
+
+"Why not?  We are all daughters and sons of Crystalman.  It is
+doubtless the family resemblance."
+
+"It has also been told me that Surtur and Crystalman are one and the
+same."
+
+"You have wise and truthful acquaintances."
+
+"Then how could it have been Surtur whom I saw?" said Maskull, more
+to himself than to her.  "That apparition was something quite
+different."
+
+She dropped her mocking manner and, sliding imperceptibly toward him,
+gently pulled his arm.
+
+"You see--we have to talk.  Sit down beside me, and ask me your
+questions.  I'm not excessively smart, but I'll try to be of
+assistance."
+
+Maskull permitted himself to be dragged down with soft violence.  She
+bent toward him, as if confidentially, and contrived that her sweet,
+cool, feminine breath should fan his cheek.
+
+"Aren't you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull?  Then what
+does it matter who sent you?"
+
+"What can you possibly know of good and evil?"
+
+"Are you only instructing the initiated?"
+
+"Who am I, to instruct anybody?  However, you're quite right.  I wish
+to do what I can--not because I am qualified, but because I am
+here."
+
+Oceaxe's voice dropped to a whisper.  "You're a giant, both in body
+and soul.  What you want to do, you can do."
+
+"Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own
+ends?"
+
+She sighed.  "Don't you see how difficult you are making the
+conversation?  Let's talk about your work, not about ourselves."
+
+Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern
+sky.  It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills.
+While he was observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a
+disquieting nature, passed through him.  He looked at Oceaxe, and it
+struck him for the first time that he was being unnecessarily brutal
+to her.  He had forgotten that she was a woman, and defenceless.
+
+"Won't you stay?" she asked all of a sudden, quite openly and
+frankly.
+
+"Yes, I think I'll stay," he replied slowly.  "And another thing,
+Oceaxe--if I've misjudged your character, pray forgive me.  I'm a
+hasty, passionate man."
+
+"There are enough easygoing men.  Hard knocks are a good medicine for
+vicious hearts.  And you didn't misjudge my character, as far as you
+went--only, every woman has more than one character.  Don't you know
+that?"
+
+During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and
+both looked around, startled.  They saw a woman stepping slowly
+across the neck that separated them from the mainland.
+
+"Tydomin," muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice.  She
+immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.
+
+The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful.  She was
+no longer quite young.  Her face wore the composure of a woman who
+knows her way about the world.  It was intensely pale, and under its
+quiescence there just was a glimpse of something strange and
+dangerous.  It was curiously alluring, though not exactly beautiful.
+Her hair was clustering and boyish, reaching only to the neck.  It
+was of a strange indigo colour.  She was quaintly attired in a tunic
+and breeches, pieced together from the square, blue-green plates of
+some reptile.  Her small, ivory-white breasts were exposed.  Her sorb
+was black and sad--rather contemplative.
+
+Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided
+straight toward Crimtyphon's corpse.  When she arrived within a few
+feet of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.
+
+Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, "It's Crimtyphon's
+other wife, who lives under Disscourn.  She's a most dangerous woman.
+Be careful what you say.  If she asks you to do anything, refuse it
+outright."
+
+"The poor soul looks harmless enough."
+
+"Yes, she does--but the poor soul is quite capable of swallowing up
+Krag himself....  Now, play the man."
+
+The murmur of their voices seemed to attract Tydomin's notice, for
+she now slowly turned her eyes toward them.
+
+"Who killed him?" she demanded.
+
+Her voice was so soft, low, and refined, that Maskull hardly was able
+to catch the words.  The sounds, however, lingered in his ears, and
+curiously enough seemed to grow stronger, instead of fainter.
+
+Oceaxe whispered, "Don't say a word, leave it all to me."  Then she
+swung her body around to face Tydomin squarely, and said aloud, "I
+killed him."
+
+Tydomin's words by this time were ringing in Maskull's head like an
+actual physical sound.  There was no question of being able to ignore
+them; he had to make an open confession of his act, whatever the
+consequences might be.  Quietly taking Oceaxe by the shoulder and
+putting her behind him, he said in a low, but perfectly distinct
+voice, "It was I that killed Crimtyphon."
+
+Oceaxe looked both haughty and frightened.  "Maskull says that so as
+to shield me, as he thinks.  I require no shield, Maskull.  I killed
+him, Tydomin."
+
+"I believe you, Oceaxe.  You did murder him.  Not with your own
+strength, for you brought this man along for the purpose."
+
+Maskull took a couple of steps toward Tydomin.  "It's of little
+consequence who killed him, for he's better dead than alive, in my
+opinion.  Still, I did it.  Oceaxe had no hand in the affair."
+
+Tydomin appeared not to hear him--she looked beyond him at Oceaxe
+musingly.  "When you murdered him, didn't it occur to you that I
+would come here, to find out?"
+
+"I never once thought of you," replied Oceaxe, with an angry laugh.
+"Do you really imagine that I carry your image with me wherever I
+go?"
+
+"If someone were to murder your lover here, what would you do?"
+
+"Lying hypocrite!" Oceaxe spat out.  "You never were in love with
+Crimtyphon.  You always hated me, and now you think it an excellent
+opportunity to make it good... now that Crimtyphon's gone....  For
+we both know he would have made a footstool of you, if I had asked
+him.  He worshiped me, but he laughed at you.  He thought you ugly."
+
+Tydomin flashed a quick, gentle smile at Maskull.  "Is it necessary
+for you to listen to all this?"
+
+Without question, and feeling it the right thing to do, he walked
+away out of earshot.
+
+Tydomin approached Oceaxe.  "Perhaps because my beauty fades and I'm
+no longer young, I needed him all the more."
+
+Oceaxe gave a kind of snarl.  "Well, he's dead, and that's the end
+of it.  What are you going to do now, Tydomin?"
+
+The other woman smiled faintly and rather pathetically.  "There's
+nothing left to do, except mourn the dead.  You won't grudge me that
+last office?"
+
+"Do you want to stay here?" demanded Oceaxe suspiciously.
+
+"Yes, Oceaxe dear, I wish to be alone."
+
+"Then what is to become of us?"
+
+"I thought that you and your lover--what is his name?"
+
+"Maskull."
+
+"I thought that perhaps you two would go to Disscourn, and spend
+Blodsombre at my home."
+
+Oceaxe called out aloud to Maskull, "Will you come with me now to
+Disscourn?"
+
+"If you wish," returned Maskull.
+
+"Go first, Oceaxe.  I must question your friend about Crimtyphon's
+death.  I won't keep him."
+
+"Why don't you question me, rather?" demanded Oceaxe, looking up
+sharply.
+
+Tydomin gave the shadow of a smile.  "We know each other too well."
+
+"Play no tricks!" said Oceaxe, and she turned to go.
+
+"Surely you must be dreaming," said Tydomin.  "That's the way--
+unless you want to walk over the cliffside."
+
+The path Oceaxe had chosen led across the isthmus.  The direction
+which Tydomin proposed for her was over the edge of the precipice,
+into empty space.
+
+"Shaping!  I must be mad," cried Oceaxe, with a laugh.  And she
+obediently followed the other's finger.
+
+She walked straight on toward the edge of the abyss, twenty paces
+away.  Maskull pulled his beard around, and wondered what she was
+doing.  Tydomin remained standing with outstretched finger, watching
+her.  Without hesitation, without slackening her step once, Oceaxe
+strolled on--and when she had reached the extreme end of the land
+she still took one more step.
+
+Maskull saw her limbs wrench as she stumbled over the edge.  Her body
+disappeared, and as it did so an awful shriek sounded.
+
+Disillusionment had come to her an instant too late.  He tore himself
+out of his stupor, rushed to the edge of the cliff, threw himself on
+the ground recklessly, and looked over....  Oceaxe had vanished.
+
+He continued staring wildly down for several minutes, and then began
+to sob.  Tydomin came up to him, and he got to his feet.
+
+The blood kept rushing to his face and leaving it again.  It was some
+time before he could speak at all.  Then he brought out the words
+with difficulty.  "You shall pay for this, Tydomin.  But first I want
+to hear why you did it."
+
+"Hadn't I cause?" she asked, standing with downcast eyes.
+
+"Was it pure fiendishness?"
+
+"It was for Crimtyphon's sake."
+
+"She had nothing to do with that death.  I told you so."
+
+"You are loyal to her, and I'm loyal to him."
+
+"Loyal?  You've made a terrible blunder.  She wasn't my mistress.  I
+killed Crimtyphon for quite another reason.  She had absolutely no
+part in it."
+
+"Wasn't she your lover?" asked Tydomin slowly.
+
+"You've made a terrible mistake," repeated Maskull.  "I killed him
+because he was a wild beast.  She was as innocent of his death as you
+are."
+
+Tydomin's face took on a hard look.  "So you are guilty of two
+deaths."
+
+There was a dreadful silence.
+
+"Why couldn't you believe me?" asked Maskull, who was pale and
+sweating painfully.
+
+"Who gave you the right to kill him?" demanded Tydomin sternly.
+
+He said nothing, and perhaps did not hear her question.
+
+She sighed two or three times and began to stir restlessly.  "Since
+you murdered him, you must help me bury him."
+
+"What's to be done?  This is a most fearful crime."
+
+"You art a most fearful man.  Why did you come here, to do all this?
+What are we to you?"
+
+"Unfortunately you are right."
+
+Another pause ensued.
+
+"It's no use standing here," said Tydomin.  "Nothing can be done.  You
+must come with me."
+
+"Come with you?  Where to?"
+
+"To Disscourn.  There's a burning lake on the far side of it.  He
+always wished to be cast there after death.  We can do that after
+Blodsombre--in the meantime we must take him home."
+
+"You're a callous, heartless woman.  Why should he be buried when
+that poor girl must remain unburied?"
+
+"You know that's out of the question," replied Tydomin quietly.
+
+Maskull's eyes roamed about agitatedly, apparently seeing nothing.
+
+"We must do something," she continued.  "I shall go.  You can't wish
+to stay here alone?"
+
+"No, I couldn't stay here--and why should I want to?  You want me to
+carry the corpse?"
+
+"He can't carry himself, and you murdered him.  Perhaps it will ease
+your mind to carry it."
+
+"Ease my mind?" said Maskull, rather stupidly.
+
+"There's only one relief for remorse, and that's voluntary pain."
+
+"And have you no remorse?" he asked, fixing her with a heavy eye.
+
+"These crimes are yours, Maskull," she said in a low but incisive
+voice.
+
+They walked over to Crimtyphon's body, and Maskull hoisted it on to
+his shoulders.  It weighed heavier than he had thought.  Tydomin did
+not offer to assist him to adjust the ghastly burden.
+
+She crossed the isthmus, followed by Maskull.  Their path lay through
+sunshine and shadow.  Branchspell was blazing in a cloudless sky, the
+heat was insufferable--streams of sweat coursed down his face, and
+the corpse seemed to grow heavier and heavier.  Tydomin always walked
+in front of him.  His eyes were fastened in an unseeing stare on her
+white, womanish calves; he looked neither to right nor left.  His
+features grew sullen.  At the end of ten minutes he suddenly allowed
+his burden to slip off his shoulders on to the ground, where it lay
+sprawled every which way.  He called out to Tydomin.
+
+She quickly looked around.
+
+"Come here.  It has just occurred to me"--he laughed--"why should I
+be carrying this corpse--and why should I be following you at all?
+What surprises me is, why this has never struck me before."
+
+She at once came back to him.  "I suppose you're tired, Maskull.  Let
+us sit down.  Perhaps you have come a long way this morning?"
+
+"Oh, it's not tiredness, but a sudden gleam of sense.  Do you know of
+any reason why I should be acting as your porter?"  He laughed again,
+but nevertheless sat down on the ground beside her.
+
+Tydomin neither looked at him nor answered.  Her head was half bent,
+so as to face the northern sky, where the Alppain light was still
+glowing.  Maskull followed her gaze, and also watched the glow for a
+moment or two in silence.
+
+"Why don't you speak?" he asked at last.
+
+"What does that light suggest to you, Maskull?"
+
+"I'm not speaking of that light."
+
+"Doesn't it suggest anything at all?"
+
+"Perhaps it doesn't.  What does it matter?"
+
+"Not sacrifice?"
+
+Maskull grew sullen again.  "Sacrifice of what?  What do you mean?"
+
+"Hasn't it entered your head yet," said Tydomin, looking straight in
+front of her, and speaking in her delicate, hard manner, "that this
+adventure of yours will scarcely come to an end until you have made
+some sort of sacrifice?"
+
+He returned no answer, and she said nothing more.  In a few minutes'
+time Maskull got up of his own accord, and irreverently, and almost
+angrily, threw Crimtyphon's corpse over his shoulder again.
+
+"How far do we have to go?" he asked in a surly tone.
+
+"An hour's walk."
+
+"Lead on."
+
+"Still, this isn't the sacrifice I mean," said Tydomin quietly, as
+she went on in front.
+
+Almost immediately they reached more difficult ground.  They had to
+pass from peak to peak, as from island to island.  In some cases they
+were able to stride or jump across, but in others they had to make
+use of rude bridges of fallen timber.  It appeared to be a frequented
+path.  Underneath were the black, impenetrable abysses--on the
+surface were the glaring sunshine, the gay, painted rocks, the
+chaotic tangle of strange plants.  There were countless reptiles and
+insects.  The latter were thicker built than those of Earth--
+consequently still more disgusting, and some of them were of enormous
+size.  One monstrous insect, as large as a horse, stood right in the
+centre of their path without budging.  It was armour-plated, had jaws
+like scimitars, and underneath its body was a forest of legs.
+Tydomin gave one malignant look at it, and sent it crashing into the
+gulf.
+
+"What have I to offer, except my life?" Maskull suddenly broke out.
+"And what good is that?  It won't bring that poor girl back into the
+world."
+
+"Sacrifice is not for utility.  It's a penalty which we pay."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"The point is whether you can go on enjoying life, after what has
+happened."
+
+She waited for Maskull to come even with her.
+
+"Perhaps you imagine I'm not man enough--you imagine that because I
+allowed poor Oceaxe to die for me--"
+
+"She did die for you," said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic voice.
+
+"That would be a second blunder of yours," returned Maskull, just as
+firmly.  "I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I'm not in love with
+life."
+
+"Your life is not required."
+
+"Then I don't understand what you want, or what you are speaking
+about."
+
+"It's not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull.  That would be
+compliance on your part, but not sacrifice.  You must wait until you
+feel there's nothing else for you to do."
+
+"It's all very mysterious."
+
+The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful
+crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead.  It was
+accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they
+stood.  They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final
+disappearance of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in
+front of them.  Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with
+all its teeming animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic
+story.  The new chasm was cut, as if by a knife.  Beyond its farther
+edge the Alppain glow burned blue just over the horizon.
+
+"Now we shall have to make a detour," said Tydomin, halting.
+
+Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand.  "Listen to me, while
+I try to describe what I'm feeling.  When I saw that landslip,
+everything I have heard about the last destruction of the world came
+into my mind.  It seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it,
+and that the world were really falling to pieces.  Then, where the
+land was, we now have this empty, awful gulf--that's to say,
+nothing--and it seems to me as if our life will come to the same
+condition, where there was something there will be nothing.  But that
+terrible blue glare on the opposite side is exactly like the eye of
+fate.  It accuses us, and demands what we have made of our life,
+which is no more.  At the same time, it is grand and joyful.  The joy
+consists in this--that it is in our power to give freely what will
+later on be taken from us by force."
+
+Tydomin watched him attentively.  "Then your feeling is that your
+life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who
+asks?"
+
+"No, it goes beyond that.  I feel that the only thing worth living for
+is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.
+Understand me.  It isn't cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but
+heroism....  It's hard to explain."
+
+"Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull.  It's a
+heavy one, but that's what you seem to wish."
+
+"That is so.  In my present mood it can't be too heavy."
+
+"Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me.  Now that
+Crimtyphon's dead, I'm tired of being a woman."
+
+"I fail to comprehend."
+
+"Listen, then.  I wish to start a new existence in your body.  I wish
+to be a male.  I see it isn't worth while being a woman.  I mean to
+dedicate my own body to Crimtyphon.  I shall tie his body and mine
+together, and give them a common funeral in the burning lake.  That's
+the sacrifice I offer you.  As I said, it's a hard one."
+
+"So you do ask me to die.  Though how you can make use of my body is
+difficult to understand."
+
+"No, I don't ask you to die.  You will go on living."
+
+"How is it possible without a body?"
+
+Tydomin gazed at him earnestly.  "There are many such beings, even in
+your world.  There you call them spirits, apparitions, phantoms.
+They are in reality living wills, deprived of material bodies, always
+longing to act and enjoy, but quite unable to do so.  Are you noble-
+minded enough to accept such a state, do you think?"
+
+"If it's possible, I accept it," replied  Maskull quietly.  "Not in
+spite of its heaviness, but because of it.  But how is it possible?"
+
+"Undoubtedly there are very many things possible in our world of
+which you have no conception.  Now let us wait till we get home.  I
+don't hold you to your word, for unless it's a free sacrifice I will
+have nothing to do with it."
+
+"I am not a man who speaks lightly.  If you can perform this miracle,
+you have my consent, once for all."
+
+"Then we'll leave it like that for the present," said Tydomin sadly.
+
+They proceeded on their way.  Owing to the subsidence, Tydomin seemed
+rather doubtful at first as to the right road, but by making a long
+divergence they eventually got around to the other side of the newly
+formed chasm.  A little later on, in a narrow copse crowning a
+miniature, insulated peak, they fell in with a man.  He was resting
+himself against a tree, and looked tired, overheated, and despondent.
+He was young.  His beardless expression bore an expression of unusual
+sincerity, and in other respects he seemed a hardy, hardworking
+youth, of an intellectual type.  His hair was thick, short, and
+flaxen.  He possessed neither a sorb nor a third arm--so presumably
+he was not a native of Ifdawn.  His forehead, however, was disfigured
+by what looked like a haphazard assortment of eyes, eight in number,
+of different sizes and shapes.  They went in pairs, and whenever two
+were in use, it was indicated by a peculiar shining--the rest
+remained dull, until their turn came.  In addition to the upper eyes
+he had the two lower ones, but they were vacant and lifeless.  This
+extraordinary battery of eyes, alternatively alive and dead, gave the
+young man an appearance of almost alarming mental activity.  He was
+wearing nothing but a sort of skin kilt.  Maskull seemed somehow to
+recognise the face, though he had certainly never set eyes on it
+before.
+
+Tydomin suggested to him to set down the corpse, and both sat down to
+rest in the shade.
+
+"Question him, Maskull," she said, rather carelessly, jerking her
+head toward the stranger.
+
+Maskull sighed and asked aloud, from his seat on the ground, "What's
+your name, and where do you come from?"
+
+The man studied him for a few moments, first with one pair of eyes,
+then with another, then with a third.  He next turned his attention
+to Tydomin, who occupied him a still longer time.  He replied at
+last, in a dry, manly, nervous voice.  "I am Digrung.  I have arrived
+here from Matterplay."  His colour kept changing, and Maskull suddenly
+realised of whom he reminded him.  It was of Joiwind.
+
+"Perhaps you're going to Poolingdred, Digrung?" he inquired,
+interested.
+
+"As a matter of fact I am--if I can find my way out of this accursed
+country."
+
+"Possibly you are acquainted with Joiwind there?"
+
+"She's my sister.  I'm on my way to see her now.  Why, do you know
+her?"
+
+"I met her yesterday."
+
+"What is your name, then?"
+
+"Maskull."
+
+"I shall tell her I met you.  This will be our first meeting for four
+years.  Is she well, and happy?"
+
+"Both, as far as I could judge.  You know Panawe?"
+
+"Her husband--yes.  But where do you come from?  I've seen nothing
+like you before."
+
+"From another world.  Where is Matterplay?"
+
+"It's the first country one comes to beyond the Sinking Sea."
+
+"What is it like there--how do you amuse yourselves?  The same old
+murders and sudden deaths?"
+
+"Are you ill?" asked Digrung.  "Who is this woman, why are you
+following at her heels like a slave?  She looks insane to me.  What's
+that corpse--why are you dragging it around the country with you?"
+
+Tydomin smiled.  "I've already heard it said about Matterplay, that
+if one sows an answer there, a rich crop of questions immediately
+springs up.  But why do you make this unprovoked attack on me,
+Digrung?"
+
+"I don't attack you, woman, but I know you.  I see into you, and I
+see insanity.  That wouldn't matter, but I don't like to see a man of
+intelligence like Maskull caught in your filthy meshes."
+
+"I suppose even you clever Matterplay people sometimes misjudge
+character.  However, I don't mind.  Your opinion's nothing to me,
+Digrung.  You'd better answer his questions, Maskull.  Not for his
+own sake--but your feminine friend is sure to be curious about your
+having been seen carrying a dead man."
+
+Maskull's underlip shot out.  "Tell your sister nothing, Digrung.
+Don't mention my name at all.  I don't want her to know about this
+meeting of ours."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I don't wish it--isn't that enough?"
+
+Digrung looked impassive.
+
+"Thoughts and words," he said, "which don't correspond with the real
+events of the world are considered most shameful in Matterplay."
+
+"I'm not asking you to lie, only to keep silent."
+
+"To hide the truth is a special branch of lying.  I can't accede to
+your wish.  I must tell Joiwind everything, as far as I know it."
+
+Maskull got up, and Tydomin followed his example.
+
+She touched Digrung on the arm and gave him a strange look.  "The
+dead man is my husband, and Maskull murdered him.  Now you'll
+understand why he wishes you to hold your tongue."
+
+"I guessed there was some foul play," said Digrung.  "It doesn't
+matter--I can't falsify facts.  Joiwind must know."
+
+"You refuse to consider her feelings?" said Maskull, turning pale.
+
+"Feelings which flourish on illusions, and sicken and die on
+realities, aren't worth considering.  But Joiwind's are not of that
+kind."
+
+"If you decline to do what I ask, at least return home without seeing
+her; your sister will get very little pleasure out of the meeting
+when she hears your news."
+
+"What are these strange relations between you?" demanded Digrung,
+eying him with suddenly aroused suspicion.
+
+Maskull stared back in a sort of bewilderment.  "Good God!  You don't
+doubt your own sister.  That pure angel!"
+
+Tydomin caught hold of him delicately.  "I don't know Joiwind, but,
+whoever she is and whatever she's like, I know this--she's more
+fortunate in her friend than in her brother.  Now, if you really
+value her happiness, Maskull, you will have to take some firm step or
+other."
+
+"I mean to.  Digrung, I shall stop your journey."
+
+"If you intend a second murder, no doubt you are big enough."
+
+Maskull turned around to Tydomin and laughed.  "I seem to be leaving
+a wake of corpses behind me on this journey."
+
+"Why a corpse?  There's no need to kill him."
+
+"Thanks for that!" said Digrung dryly.  "All the same, some crime is
+about to burst.  I feel it."
+
+"What must I do, then?" asked Maskull.
+
+"It is not my business, and to tell the truth I am not very
+interested....  If I were in your place, Maskull, I would not hesitate
+long.  Don't you understand how to absorb these creatures, who set
+their feeble, obstinate wills against yours?"
+
+"That is a worse crime," said Maskull.
+
+"Who knows?  He will live, but he will tell no tales."
+
+Digrung laughed, but changed colour.  "I was right then.  The monster
+has sprung into the light of day."
+
+Maskull laid a hand on his shoulder.  "You have the choice, and we
+are not joking.  Do as I ask."
+
+"You have fallen low, Maskull.  But you are walking in a dream, and I
+can't talk to you.  As for you, woman--sin must be like a pleasant
+bath to you...."
+
+"There are strange ties between Maskull and myself; but you are a
+passer-by, a foreigner.  I care nothing for you."
+
+"Nevertheless, I shall not be frightened out of my plans, which are
+legitimate and right."
+
+"Do as you please," said Tydomin.  "If you come to grief, your
+thoughts will hardly have corresponded with the real events of the
+world, which is what you boast about.  It is no affair of mine."
+
+"I shall go on, and not back!" exclaimed Digrung, with angry
+emphasis.
+
+Tydomin threw a swift, evil smile at Maskull.  "Bear witness that I
+have tried to persuade this young man.  Now you must come to a quick
+decision in your own mind as to which is of the greatest importance,
+Digrung's happiness or Joiwind's.  Digrung won't allow you to
+preserve them both."
+
+"It won't take me long to decide.  Digrung, I gave you a last chance
+to change your mind."
+
+"As long as it's in my power I shall go on, and warn my sister
+against her criminal friends."
+
+Maskull again clutched at him, but this time with violence.
+Instructed in his actions by some new and horrible instinct, he
+pressed the young man tightly to his body with all three arms.  A
+feeling of wild, sweet delight immediately passed through him.  Then
+for the first time he comprehended the triumphant joys of
+"absorbing."  It satisfied the hunger of the will, exactly as food
+satisfies the hunger of the body.  Digrung proved feeble--he made
+little opposition.  His personality passed slowly and evenly into
+Maskull's.  The latter became strong and gorged.  The victim
+gradually became paler and limper, until Maskull held a corpse in his
+arms.  He dropped the body, and stood trembling.  He had committed
+his second crime.  He felt no immediate difference in his soul, but...
+
+Tydomin shed a sad smile on him, like winter sunshine.  He half
+expected her to speak, but she said nothing.  Instead, she made a
+sign to him to pick up Crimtyphon's corpse.  As he obeyed, he
+wondered why Digrung's dead face did not wear the frightful
+Crystalman mask.
+
+"Why hasn't he altered?" he muttered to himself.
+
+Tydomin heard him.  She kicked Digrung lightly with her little foot.
+"He isn't dead--that's why.  The expression you mean is waiting for
+your death."
+
+"Then is that my real character?"
+
+She laughed softly.  "You came here to carve a strange world, and now
+it appears you are carved yourself.  Oh, there's no doubt about it,
+Maskull.  You needn't stand there gaping.  You belong to Shaping,
+like the rest of us.  You are not a king, or a god."
+
+"Since when have I belonged to him?"
+
+"What does that matter?  Perhaps since you first breathed the air of
+Tormance, or perhaps since five minutes ago."
+
+Without waiting for his response, she set off through the copse, and
+strode on to the next island.  Maskull followed, physically
+distressed and looking very grave.
+
+The journey continued for half an hour longer, without incident.  The
+character of the scenery slowly changed.  The mountaintops became
+loftier and more widely separated from one another.  The gaps were
+filled with rolling, white clouds, which bathed the shores of the
+peaks like a mysterious sea.  To pass from island to island was hard
+work, the intervening spaces were so wide--Tydomin, however, knew
+the way.  The intense light, the violet-blue sky, the patches of
+vivid landscape, emerging from the white vapour-ocean, made a
+profound impression on Maskull's mind.  The glow of Alppain was
+hidden by the huge mass of Disscourn, which loomed up straight in
+front of them.
+
+The green snow on the top of the gigantic pyramid had by now
+completely melted away.  The black, gold, and crimson of its mighty
+cliffs stood out with terrific brilliance.  They were directly
+beneath the bulk of the mountain, which was not a mile away.  It did
+not appear dangerous to climb, but he was unaware on which side of it
+their destination lay.
+
+It was split from top to bottom by numerous straight fissures.  A few
+pale-green waterfalls descended here and there, like narrow,
+motionless threads.  The face of the mountain was rugged and bare.
+It was strewn with detached boulders, and great, jagged rocks
+projected everywhere like iron teeth.  Tydomin pointed to a small
+black hole near the base, which might be a cave.  "That is where I
+live."
+
+"You live here alone?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's an odd choice for a woman--and you are not unbeautiful,
+either."
+
+"A woman's life is over at twenty-five," she replied, sighing.  "And
+I am far older than that.  Ten years ago it would have been I who
+lived yonder, and not Oceaxe.  Then all this wouldn't have happened."
+
+A quarter of an hour later they stood within the mouth of the cave.
+It was ten feet high, and its interior was impenetrably black.
+
+"Put down the body in the entrance, out of the sun," directed
+Tydomin.  He did so.
+
+She cast a keenly scrutinising glance at him.  "Does your resolution
+still hold, Maskull?"
+
+"Why shouldn't it hold?  My brains are not feathers."
+
+"Follow me, then."
+
+They both stepped into the cave.  At that very moment a sickening
+crash, like heavy thunder just over their heads, set Maskull's
+weakened heart thumping violently.  An avalanche of boulders, stones,
+and dust, swept past the cave entrance from above.  If their going in
+had been delayed by a single minute, they would have been killed.
+
+Tydomin did not even look up.  She took his hand in hers, and started
+walking with him into the darkness.  The temperature became as cold
+as ice.  At the first bend the light from the outer world
+disappeared, leaving them in absolute blackness.  Maskull kept
+stumbling over the uneven ground, but she kept tight hold of him, and
+hurried him along.
+
+The tunnel seemed of interminable length.  Presently, however, the
+atmosphere changed--or such was his impression.  He was somehow led
+to imagine that they had come to a larger chamber.  Here Tydomin
+stopped, and then forced him down with quiet pressure.  His groping
+hand encountered stone and, by feeling it all over, he discovered
+that it was a sort of stone slab, or couch, raised a foot or eighteen
+inches from the ground.  She told him to lie down.
+
+"Has the time come?" asked Maskull.
+
+"Yes."
+
+He lay there waiting in the darkness, ignorant of what was going to
+happen.  He felt her hand clasping his.  Without perceiving any
+gradation, he lost all consciousness of his body; he was no longer
+able to feel his limbs or internal organs.  His mind remained active
+and alert.  Nothing particular appeared to be taking place.
+
+Then the chamber began to grow light, like very early morning.  He
+could see nothing, but the retina of his eyes was affected.  He
+fancied that he heard music, but while he was listening for it, it
+stopped.  The light grew stronger, the air grew warmer; he heard the
+confused sound of distant voices.
+
+Suddenly Tydomin gave his hand a powerful squeeze.  He heard someone
+scream faintly, and then the light leaped up, and he saw everything
+clearly.
+
+He was lying on a wooden couch, in a strangely decorated room,
+lighted by electricity.  His hand was being squeezed, not by Tydomin,
+but by a man dressed in the garments of civilisation, with whose face
+he was certainly familiar, but under what circumstances he could not
+recall.  Other people stood in the background--they too were vaguely
+known to him.  He sat up and began to smile, without any especial
+reason; and then stood upright.
+
+Everybody seemed to be watching him with anxiety and emotion--he
+wondered why.  Yet he felt that they were all acquaintances.  Two in
+particular he knew--the man at the farther end of the room, who
+paced restlessly backward  and forward, his face transfigured by
+stern, holy grandeur; and that other big, bearded man--who was
+himself.  Yes--he was looking at his own double.  But it was just as
+if a crime-riddled man of middle age were suddenly confronted with
+his own photograph as an earnest, idealistic youth.
+
+His other self spoke to him.  He heard the sounds, but did not
+comprehend the sense.  Then the door was abruptly flung open, and a
+short, brutish-looking individual leaped in.  He began to behave in
+an extraordinary manner to everyone around him; and after that came
+straight up to him--Maskull.  He spoke some words, but they were
+incomprehensible.  A terrible expression came over the newcomer's
+face, and he grasped his neck with a pair of hairy hands.  Maskull
+felt his bones bending and breaking, excruciating pains passed
+through all the nerves of his body, and he experienced a sense of
+impending death.  He cried out, and sank helplessly on the floor, in
+a heap.  The chamber and the company vanished--the light went out.
+
+Once more he found himself in the blackness of the cave.  He was this
+time lying on the ground, but Tydomin was still with him, holding his
+hand.  He was in horrible bodily agony, but this was only a setting
+for the despairing anguish that filled his mind.
+
+Tydomin addressed him in tones of gentle reproach.  "Why are you back
+so soon?  I've not had time yet.  You must return."
+
+He caught hold of her, and pulled himself up to his feet.  She gave a
+low scream, as though in pain.  "What does this mean--what are you
+doing, Maskull?"
+
+"Krag--" began Maskull, but the effort to produce his words choked
+him, so that he was obliged to stop.
+
+"Krag--what of Krag?  Tell me quickly what has happened.  Free my
+arm."
+
+He gripped her arm tighter.
+
+"Yes, I've seen Krag.  I'm awake."
+
+"Oh!  You are awake, awake."
+
+"And you must die," said Maskull, in an awful voice.
+
+"But why?  What has happened?..."
+
+"You must die, and I must kill you.  Because I am awake, and for no
+other reason.  You blood-stained dancing mistress!"
+
+Tydomin breathed hard for a little time.  Then she seemed suddenly to
+regain her self-possession.
+
+"You won't offer me violence, surely, in this black cave?"
+
+"No, the sun shall look on, for it is not a murder.  But rest assured
+that you must die--you must expiate your fearful crimes."
+
+"You have already said so, and I see you have the power.  You have
+escaped me.  It is very curious.  Well, then, Maskull, let us come
+outside.  I am not afraid.  But kill me courteously, for I have also
+been courteous to you.  I make no other supplication."
+
+
+
+Chapter 11
+
+ON DISSCOURN
+
+BY THE TIME that they regained the mouth of the cavern, Blodsombre
+was at its height.  In front of them the scenery sloped downward--a
+long succession of mountain islands in a sea of clouds.  Behind them
+the bright, stupendous crags of Disscourn loomed up for a thousand
+feet or more.  Maskull's eyes were red, and his face looked stupid;
+he was still holding the woman by the arm.  She made no attempt to
+speak, or to get away.  She seemed perfectly gentle and composed.
+
+After gazing at the country for along time in silence, he turned
+toward her.  "Whereabouts is the fiery lake you spoke of?"
+
+"It lies on the other side of the mountain.  But why do you ask?"
+
+"It is just as well if we have some way to walk.  I shall grow calmer,
+and that's what I want.  I wish you to understand that what is going
+to happen is not a murder, but an execution."
+
+"It will taste the same," said Tydomin.
+
+"When I have gone out of this country, I don't wish to feel that I
+have left a demon behind me, wandering at large.  That would not be
+fair to others.  So we will go to the lake, which promises an easy
+death for you."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.  "We must wait till Blodsombre is over."
+
+"Is this a time for luxurious feelings?  However hot it is now, we
+will both be cool by evening.  We must start at once."
+
+"Without doubt, you are the master, Maskull....  May I not carry
+Crimtyphon?"
+
+Maskull looked at her strangely.
+
+"I grudge no man his funeral."
+
+She painfully hoisted the body on her narrow shoulders, and they
+stepped out into the sunlight.  The heat struck them like a blow on
+the head.  Maskull moved aside, to allow her to precede him, but no
+compassion entered his heart.  He brooded over the wrongs the woman
+had done him.
+
+The way went along the south side of the great pyramid, near its
+base.  It was a rough road, clogged with boulders and crossed by
+cracks and water gullies; they could see the water, but could not get
+at it.  There was no shade.  Blisters formed on their skin, while all
+the water in their blood seemed to dry up.
+
+Maskull forgot his own tortures in his devil's delight at Tydomin's.
+"Sing me a song!" he called out presently.  "A characteristic one."
+
+She turned her head and gave him a long, peculiar look; then, without
+any sort of expostulation, started singing.  Her voice was low and
+weird.  The song was so extraordinary that he had to rub his eyes to
+ascertain whether he was awake or dreaming.  The slow surprises of
+the grotesque melody began to agitate him in a horrible fashion; the
+words were pure nonsense--or else their significance was too deep
+for him.
+
+"Where, in the name of all unholy things, did you acquire that stuff,
+woman?"
+
+Tydomin shed a sickly smile, while the corpse swayed about with
+ghastly jerks over her left shoulder.  She held it in position with
+her two left arms.  "It's a pity we could not have met as friends,
+Maskull.  I could have shown you a side of Tormance which now perhaps
+you will never see.  The wild, mad, side.  But now it's too late, and
+it doesn't matter."
+
+They turned the angle of the mountain, and started to traverse the
+western base.
+
+"Which is the quickest way out of this miserable land?" asked
+Maskull.
+
+"It is easiest to go to Sant."
+
+"Will we see it from anywhere?"
+
+"Yes, though it is a long way off."
+
+"Have you been there?"
+
+"I am a woman, and interdicted."
+
+"True.  I have heard something of the sort."
+
+"But don't ask me any more questions," said Tydomin, who was becoming
+faint.
+
+Maskull stopped at a little spring.  He himself drank, and then made
+a cup of his hand for the woman, so that she might not have to lay
+down her burden.  The gnawl water acted like magic--it seemed to
+replenish all the cells of his body as though they had been thirsty
+sponge pores, sucking up liquid.  Tydomin recovered her self-
+possession.
+
+About three-quarters of an hour later they worked around the second
+corner, and entered into full view of the north aspect of Disscourn.
+
+A hundred yards lower down the slope on which they were walking, the
+mountain ended abruptly in a chasm.  The air above it was filled with
+a sort of green haze, which trembled violently like the atmosphere
+immediately over a furnace.
+
+"The lake is underneath," said Tydomin.
+
+Maskull looked curiously about him.  Beyond the crater the country
+sloped away in a continuous descent to the skyline.  Behind them, a
+narrow path channelled its way up through the rocks toward the
+towering summit of the pyramid.  Miles away, in the north-east
+quarter, a long, flat-topped plateau raised its head far above all
+the surrounding country.  It was Sant--and there and then he made up
+his mind that that should be his destination that day.
+
+Tydomin meanwhile had walked straight to the gulf, and set down
+Crimtyphon's body on the edge.  In a minute or two, Maskull joined
+her; arrived at the brink, he immediately flung himself at full
+length on his chest, to see what could be seen of the lake of fire.
+A gust of hot, asphyxiating air smote his face and set him coughing,
+but he did not get up until he had stared his fill at the huge sea of
+green, molten lava, tossing and swirling at no great distance below,
+like a living will.
+
+A faint sound of drumming came up.  He listened intently, and as he
+did so his heart quickened and the black cares rolled away from his
+soul.  All the world and its accidents seemed at that moment false,
+and without meaning....
+
+He climbed abstractedly to his feet.  Tydomin was talking to her dead
+husband.  She was peering into the hideous face of ivory, and
+fondling his violet hair.  When she perceived Maskull, she hastily
+kissed the withered lips, and got up from her knees.  Lifting the
+corpse with all three arms, she staggered with it to the extreme edge
+of the gulf and, after an instant's hesitation, allowed it to drop
+into the lava.  It disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic
+splash came up.  That was Crimtyphon's funeral.
+
+"Now I am ready, Maskull."
+
+He did not answer, but stared past her.  Another figure was standing,
+erect and mournful, not far behind her.  It was Joiwind.  Her face
+was wan, and there was an accusing look in her eyes.  Maskull knew
+that it was a phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at
+Poolingdred.
+
+"Turn around, Tydomin," he said oddly, "and tell me what you see
+behind you."
+
+"I don't see anything," she answered, looking around.
+
+"But I see Joiwind."
+
+Just as he was speaking, the apparition vanished.
+
+"Now I present you with your life, Tydomin.  She wishes it."
+
+The woman fingered her chin thoughtfully.
+
+"I little expected I should ever be beholden for my life to one of my
+own sex--but so be it.  What really happened to you in my cavern?"
+
+"I really saw Krag."
+
+"Yes, some miracle must have taken place."  She suddenly shivered.
+"Come, let us leave this horrible spot.  I shall never come here
+again."
+
+"Yes," said Maskull, "it stinks of death and dying.  But where are we
+to go--what are we to do?  Take me to Sant.  I must get away from
+this hellish land."
+
+Tydomin remained standing, dull and hollow-eyed.  Then she gave an
+abrupt, bitter little laugh.  "We make our journey together in
+singular stages.  Rather than be alone, I'll come with you--but you
+know that if I set foot in Sant they will kill me."
+
+"At least set me on the way.  I wish to get there before night.  Is it
+possible?"
+
+"If you are willing to take risks with nature.  And why should you
+not take risks today?  Your luck holds.  But someday or other it
+won't hold--your luck."
+
+"Let us start," said Maskull.  "The luck I've had so far is nothing
+to brag about."
+
+Blodsombre was over when they set off; it was early afternoon, but
+the heat seemed more stifling than ever.  They made no more pretence
+at conversation; both were buried in their own painful thoughts.  The
+land fell away from Disscourn in all other directions, but toward
+Sant there was a gentle, persistent rise.  Its dark, distant plateau
+continued to dominate the landscape, and after walking for an hour
+they seemed none the nearer to it.  The air was stale and stagnant.
+
+By and by, an upright object, apparently the work of man, attracted
+Maskull's notice.  It was a slender tree stem, with the bark still
+on, imbedded in the stony ground.  From the upper end three branches
+sprang out, pointing aloft at a sharp angle.  They were stripped to
+twigs and leaves and, getting closer, he saw that they had been
+artificially fastened on, at equal distances from each other.
+
+As he stared at the object, a strange, sudden flush of confident
+vanity and self-sufficiency seemed to pass through him, but it was
+so momentary that he could be sure of nothing.
+
+"What may that be, Tydomin?"
+
+"It is Hator's Trifork."
+
+"And what is its purpose?"
+
+"It's a guide to Sant."
+
+"But who or what is Hator?"
+
+"Hator was the founder of Sant--many thousands of years ago.  He
+laid down the principles they all live by, and that trifork is his
+symbol.  When I was a little child my father told me the legends, but
+I've forgotten most of them."
+
+Maskull regarded it attentively.
+
+"Does it affect you in any way?"
+
+"And why should it do that?" she said, dropping her lip scornfully.
+"I am only a woman, and these are masculine mysteries."
+
+"A sort of gladness came over me," said Maskull, "but perhaps I am
+mistaken."
+
+They passed on.  The scenery gradually changed in character.  The
+solid parts of the land grew more continuous, the fissures became
+narrower and more infrequent.  There were now no more subsidences or
+upheavals.  The peculiar nature of the Ifdawn Marest appeared to be
+giving place to a different order of things.
+
+Later on, they encountered a flock of pale blue jellies floating in
+the air.  They were miniature animals.  Tydomin caught one in her
+hand and began to eat it, just as one eats a luscious pear plucked
+from a tree.  Maskull, who had fasted since early morning, was not
+slow in following her example.  A sort of electric vigour at once
+entered his limbs and body, his muscles regained their elasticity,
+his heart began to beat with hard, slow, strong throbs.
+
+"Food and body seem to agree well in this world," he remarked
+smiling.
+
+She glanced toward him.  "Perhaps the explanation is not in the food,
+but in your body."
+
+"I brought my body with me."
+
+"You brought your soul with you, but that's altering fast, too."
+
+In a copse they came across a short, wide tree, without leaves, but
+possessing a multitude of thin, flexible branches, like the tentacles
+of a cuttlefish.  Some of these branches were moving rapidly.  A
+furry animal, somewhat resembling a wildcat, leaped about among them
+in the most extraordinary way.  But the next minute Maskull was
+shocked to realise that the beast was not leaping at all, but was
+being thrown from branch to branch by the volition of the tree,
+exactly as an imprisoned mouse is thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
+
+He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
+
+"That's a gruesome reversal of roles, Tydomin."
+
+"One can see you're disgusted," she replied, stifling a yawn.  "But
+that is because you are a slave to words.  If you called that plant
+an animal, you would find its occupation perfectly natural and
+pleasing.  And why should you not call it an animal?"
+
+"I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
+shall go on listening to this sort of language."
+
+They trudged along for an hour or more without talking.  The day
+became overcast.  A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the
+sun changed into an immense ruddy disk which could be stared at
+without flinching.  A chill, damp wind blew against them.  Presently
+it grew still darker, the sun disappeared and, glancing first at his
+companion and then at himself, Maskull noticed that their skin and
+clothing were coated by a kind of green hoarfrost.
+
+The land was now completely solid.  About half a mile, in front of
+them, against a background of dark fog, a moving forest of tall
+waterspouts gyrated slowly and gracefully hither and thither.  They
+were green and self-luminous, and looked terrifying.  Tydomin
+explained that they were not waterspouts at all, but mobile columns
+of lightning.
+
+"Then they are dangerous?"
+
+"So we think," she answered, watching them closely.
+
+"Someone is wandering there who appears to have a different opinion."
+
+Among the spouts, and entirely encompassed by them, a man was walking
+with a slow, calm, composed gait, his back turned toward Maskull and
+Tydomin.  There was something unusual in his appearance--his form
+looked extraordinarily distinct, solid, and real.
+
+"If there's danger, he ought to be warned," said Maskull.
+
+"He who is always anxious to teach will learn nothing," returned the
+woman coolly.  She restrained Maskull by a pressure of the arm, and
+continued to watch.
+
+The base of one of the columns touched the man.  He remained
+unharmed, but turned sharply around, as if for the first time made
+aware of the proximity of these deadly waltzers.  Then he raised
+himself to his full height, and stretched both arms aloft above his
+head, like a diver.  He seemed to be addressing the columns.
+
+While they looked on, the electric spouts discharged themselves, with
+a series of loud explosions.  The stranger stood alone, uninjured.
+He dropped his arms.  The next moment he caught sight of the two, and
+stood still, waiting for them to come up.  The pictorial clarity of
+his person grew more and more noticeable as they approached; his body
+seemed to be composed of some substance heavier and denser than solid
+matter.
+
+Tydomin looked perplexed.
+
+"He must be a Sant man.  I have seen no one quite like him before.
+This is a day of days for me."
+
+"He must be an individual of great importance," murmured Maskull.
+
+They now came up to him.  He was tall, strong, and bearded, and was
+clothed in a shirt and breeches of skin.  Since turning his back to
+the wind, the green deposit on his face and limbs had changed to
+streaming moisture, through which his natural colour was visible; it
+was that of pale iron.  There was no third arm.  His face was harsh
+and frowning, and a projecting chin pushed the beard forward.  On his
+forehead there were two flat membranes, like rudimentary eyes, but no
+sorb.  These membranes were expressionless, but in some strange way
+seemed to add vigour to the stem eyes underneath.  When his glance
+rested on Maskull, the latter felt as though his brain were being
+thoroughly travelled through.  The man was middle-aged.
+
+His physical distinctness transcended nature.  By contrast with him,
+every object in the neighbourhood looked vague and blurred.
+Tydomin's person suddenly appeared faint, sketch-like, without
+significance, and Maskull realised that it was no better with
+himself.  A queer, quickening fire began running through his veins.
+
+He turned to the woman.  "If this man is going to Sant, I shall bear
+him company.  We can now part.  No doubt you will think it high
+time."
+
+"Let Tydomin come too."
+
+The words were delivered in a rough, foreign tongue, but were as
+intelligible to Maskull as if spoken in English.
+
+"You who know my name, also know my sex," said Tydomin quietly.  "It
+is death for me to enter Sant."
+
+"That is the old law.  I am the bearer of the new law."
+
+"Is it so--and will it be accepted?"
+
+"The old skin is cracking, the new skin has been silently forming
+underneath, the moment of sloughing has arrived."
+
+The storm gathered.  The green snow drove against them, as they stood
+talking, and it grew intensely cold.  None noticed it.
+
+"What is your name?" asked Maskull, with a beating heart.
+
+"My name, Maskull, is Spadevil.  You, a voyager across the dark ocean
+of space, shall be my first witness and follower.  You, Tydomin, a
+daughter of the despised sex, shall be my second."
+
+"The new law?  But what is it?"
+
+"Until eye sees, of what use it is for ear to hear? ....  Come, both
+of you, to me!"
+
+Tydomin went to him unhesitatingly.  Spadevil pressed his hand on her
+sorb and kept it there for a few minutes, while he closed his own
+eyes.  When he removed it, Maskull observed that the sorb was
+transformed into twin membranes like Spadevil's own.
+
+Tydomin looked dazed.  She glanced quietly about for a little while,
+apparently testing her new faculty.  Then the tears started to her
+eyes and, snatching up Spadevil's hand, she bent over and kissed it
+hurriedly many times.
+
+"My past has been bad," she said.  "Numbers have received harm from
+me, and none good.  I have killed and worse.  But now I can throw all
+that away, and laugh.  Nothing can now injure me.  Oh, Maskull, you
+and I have been fools together!"
+
+"Don't you repent your crimes?" asked Maskull.
+
+"Leave the past alone," said Spadevil, "it cannot be reshaped.  The
+future alone is ours.  It starts fresh and clean from this very
+minute.  Why do you hesitate, Maskull?  Are you afraid?"
+
+"What is the name of, those organs, and what is their function?"
+
+"They are probes, and they are the gates opening into a new world."
+
+Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.
+
+While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law
+quietly flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream
+of clean water which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive
+will.  The law was duty.
+
+
+
+Chapter 12
+
+SPADEVIL
+
+Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of
+their own, but only intensified and altered his other senses.  When
+he used his eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented
+themselves to him, but his judgment concerning them was different.
+Previously all external things had existed for him; now he existed
+for them.  According to whether they served his purpose or were in
+harmony with his nature, or otherwise, they had been pleasant or
+painful.  Now these words "pleasure" and "pain" simply had no
+meaning.
+
+The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted
+with his new mental outlook.  He smiled at them.
+
+"You were quite right, Tydomin," he said, in a bold, cheerful voice.
+"We have been fools.  So near the light all the time, and we never
+guessed it.  Always buried in the past or future--systematically
+ignoring the present--and now it turns out that apart from the
+present we have no life at all."
+
+"Thank Spadevil for it," she answered, more loudly than usual.
+
+Maskull looked at the man's dark, concrete form.  "Spadevil, now I
+mean to follow you to the end.  I can do nothing less."
+
+The severe face showed no sign of gratification--not a muscle
+relaxed.
+
+"Watch that you don't lose your gift," he said gruffly.
+
+Tydomin spoke.  "You promised that I should enter Sant with you."
+
+"Attach yourself to the truth, not to me.  For I may die before you,
+but the truth will accompany you to your death.  However, now let us
+journey together, all three of us."
+
+The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the
+fine, driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination.  He
+walked with a long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order
+to keep up with him.  The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the
+middle.  The fog was so dense that it was impossible to see a hundred
+yards ahead.  The ground was covered by the green snow.  The wind
+blew in gusts from the Sant highlands and was piercingly cold.
+
+"Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?" asked Maskull.
+
+"He that is not more than a man is nothing."
+
+"Where have you now come from?"
+
+"From brooding, Maskull.  Out of no other mother can truth be born.  I
+have brooded, and rejected; and I have brooded again.  Now, after
+many months' absence from Sant, the truth at last shines forth for me
+in its simple splendour, like an upturned diamond."
+
+"I see its shining," said Maskull.  "But how much does it owe to
+ancient Hator?"
+
+"Knowledge has its seasons.  The blossom was to Hator, the fruit is
+to me.  Hator also was a brooder--but now his followers do not
+brood.  In Sant all is icy selfishness, a living death.  They hate
+pleasure, and this hatred is the greatest pleasure to them."
+
+"But in what way have they fallen off from Hator's doctrines?"
+
+"For him, in his sullen purity of nature, all the world was a snare,
+a limed twig.  Knowing that pleasure was everywhere, a fierce,
+mocking enemy, crouching and waiting at every corner of the road of
+life, in order to kill with its sweet sting the naked grandeur of the
+soul, he shielded himself behind pain.  This also his followers do,
+but they do not do it for the sake of the soul, but for the sake of
+vanity and pride."
+
+"What is the Trifork?"
+
+"The stem, Maskull, is hatred of pleasure.  The first fork is
+disentanglement from the sweetness of the world.  The second fork is
+power over those who still writhe in the nets of illusion.  The third
+fork is the healthy glow of one who steps into ice-cold water."
+
+"From what land did Hator come?"
+
+"It is not said.  He lived in Ifdawn for a while.  There are many
+legends told of him while there."
+
+"We have a long way to go," said Tydomin.  "Relate some of these
+legends, Spadevil."
+
+The snow had ceased, the day brightened, Branchspell reappeared like
+a phantom sun, but bitter blasts of wind still swept over the plain.
+
+"In those days," said Spadevil, "there existed in Ifdawn a mountain
+island separated by wide spaces from the land around it.  A handsome
+girl, who knew sorcery, caused a bridge to be constructed across
+which men and women might pass to it.  Having by a false tale drawn
+Hator on to this rock, she pushed at the bridge with her foot until
+it tumbled into the depths below.  'You and I, Hator, are now
+together, and there is no means of separating.  I wish to see how long
+the famous frost man can withstand the breath, smiles and perfume of
+a girl.'  Hator said no word, either then or all that day.  He stood
+till sunset like a tree trunk, and thought of other things.  Then the
+girl grew passionate, and shook her curls.  She rose from where she
+was sitting she looked at him, and touched his arm; but he did not
+see her.  She looked at him, so that all the soul was in her eyes;
+and then she fell down dead.  Hator awoke from his thoughts, and saw
+her lying, still warm, at his feet, a corpse.  He passed to the
+mainland; but how, it is not related."
+
+Tydomin shuddered.  "You too have met your wicked woman, Spadevil;
+but your method is a nobler one."
+
+"Don't pity other women," said Spadevil, "but love the right.  Hator
+also once conversed with Shaping."
+
+"With the Maker of the World?" said Maskull thoughtfully.
+
+"With the Maker of Pleasure.  It is told how Shaping defended his
+world, and tried to force Hator to acknowledge loveliness and joy.
+But Hator, answering all his marvellous speeches in a few concise,
+iron words, showed how this joy and beauty was but another name for
+the bestiality of souls wallowing in luxury and sloth.  Shaping
+smiled, and said, 'How comes it that your wisdom is greater than that
+of the Master of wisdom?'  Hator said, 'My wisdom does not come from
+you, nor from your world, but from that other world, which you,
+Shaping, have vainly tried to imitate.'  Shaping replied, 'What, then,
+do you do in my world?'  Hator said, 'I am here falsely, and therefore
+I am subject to your false pleasures.  But I wrap myself in pain--
+not because it is good, but because I wish to keep myself as far from
+you as possible.  For pain is not yours, neither does it belong to
+the other world, but it is the shadow cast by your false pleasures.'
+Shaping then said, 'What is this faraway other world of which you say
+"This is so--this is not so?"  How happens it that you alone of all
+my creatures have knowledge of it?'  But Hator spat at his feet, and
+said, 'You lie, Shaping.  All have knowledge of it.  You, with your
+pretty toys, alone obscure it from our view.'  Shaping asked, 'What,
+then, am I?'  Hator answered, 'You are the dreamer of impossible
+dreams.'  And then the story goes that Shaping departed, ill pleased
+with what had been said."
+
+"What other world did Hator refer to?" asked Maskull.
+
+"One where grandeur reigns, Maskull, just as pleasure reigns here."
+
+"Whether grandeur or pleasure, it makes no difference," said Maskull.
+"The individual spirit that lives and wishes to live is mean and
+corrupt-natured."
+
+"Guard you your pride!" returned Spadevil.  "Do not make law for the
+universe and for all time, but for yourself and for this small, false
+life of yours."
+
+"In what shape did death come to that hard, unconquerable man?" asked
+Tydomin.
+
+"He lived to be old, but went upright and free-limbed to his last
+hour.  When he saw that death could not be staved off longer he
+determined to destroy himself.  He gathered his friends around him;
+not from vanity, but that they might see to what lengths the human
+soul can go in its perpetual warfare with the voluptuous body.
+Standing erect, without support, he died by withholding his breath."
+
+A silence followed, which lasted for perhaps an hour.  Their minds
+refused to acknowledge the icy winds, but the current of their
+thoughts became frozen.
+
+When Branchspell, however, shone out again, though with subdued
+power, Maskull's curiosity rose once more.  "Your fellow countrymen,
+then, Spadevil, are sick with self-love?"
+
+"The men of other countries," said Spadevil, "are the slaves of
+pleasure and desire, knowing it.  But the men of my country are the
+slaves of pleasure and desire, not knowing it."
+
+"And yet that proud pleasure, which rejoices in self-torture, has
+something noble in it."
+
+"He who studies himself at all is ignoble.  Only by despising soul as
+well as body can a man enter into true life."
+
+"On what grounds do they reject women?"
+
+"Inasmuch as a woman has ideal love, and cannot live for herself.
+Love for another is pleasure for the loved one, and therefore
+injurious to him."
+
+"A forest of false ideas is waiting for your axe," said Maskull.
+"But will they allow it?"
+
+"Spadevil knows, Maskull," said Tydomin, "that be it today or be it
+tomorrow, love can't be kept out of a land, even by the disciples of
+Hator."
+
+"Beware of love--beware of emotion!" exclaimed Spadevil.  "Love is
+but pleasure once removed.  Think not of pleasing others, but of
+serving them."
+
+"Forgive me, Spadevil, if I am still feminine."
+
+"Right has no sex.  So long, Tydomin, as you remember that you are a
+woman, so long you will not enter into divine apathy of soul."
+
+"But where there are no women, there are no children," said Maskull.
+"How came there to be all these generations of Hator men?"
+
+"Life breeds passion, passion breeds suffering, suffering breeds the
+yearning for relief from suffering.  Men throng to Sant from all
+parts, in order to have the scars of their souls healed."
+
+"In place of hatred of pleasure, which all can understand, what
+simple formula do you offer?"
+
+"Iron obedience to duty," answered Spadevil.
+
+"And if they ask 'How far is this consistent with hatred of
+pleasure?' what will your pronouncement be?"
+
+"I do not answer them, but I answer you, Maskull, who ask the
+question.  Hatred is passion, and all passion springs from the dark
+fires of self.  Do not hate pleasure at all, but pass it by on one
+side, calm and undisturbed."
+
+"What is the criterion of pleasure?  How can we always recognise it,
+in order to avoid it?"
+
+"Rigidly follow duty, and such questions will not arise."
+
+Later in the afternoon, Tydomin timidly placed her fingers on
+Spadevil's arm.
+
+"Fearful doubts are in my mind," she said.  "This expedition to Sant
+may turn out badly.  I have seen a vision of you, Spadevil, and myself
+lying dead and covered in blood, but Maskull was not there."
+
+"We may drop the torch, but it will not be extinguished, and others
+will raise it."
+
+"Show me a sign that you are not as other men--so that I may know
+that our blood will not be wasted."
+
+Spadevil regarded her sternly.  "I am not a magician.  I don't
+persuade the senses, but the soul.  Does your duty call you to Sant,
+Tydomin?  Then go there.  Does it not call you to Sant?  Then go no
+farther.  Is not this simple?  What signs are necessary?"
+
+"Did I not see you dispel those spouts of lightning?  No common man
+could have done that."
+
+"Who knows what any man can do?  This man can do one thing, that man
+can do another.  But what all men can do is their duty; and to open
+their eyes to this, I must go to Sant, and if necessary lay down my
+life.  Will you not still accompany me?"
+
+"Yes," said Tydomin, "I will follow you to the end.  It is all the
+more essential, because I keep on displeasing you with my remarks,
+and that means I have not yet learned my lesson properly."
+
+"Do not be humble, for humility is only self-judgment, and while we
+are thinking of self, we must be neglecting some action we could be
+planning or shaping in our mind."
+
+Tydomin continued to be uneasy and preoccupied.
+
+"Why was Maskull not in the picture?" she asked.
+
+"You dwell on this foreboding because you imagine it is tragical.
+There is nothing tragical in death, Tydomin, nor in life.  There is
+only right and wrong.  What arises from right or wrong action does
+not matter.  We are not gods, constructing a world, but simple men
+and women, doing our immediate duty.  We may die in Sant--so you
+have seen it; but the truth will go on living."
+
+"Spadevil, why do you choose Sant to start your work in?" asked
+Maskull.  "These men with fixed ideas seem to me the least likely of
+any to follow a new light."
+
+"Where a bad tree thrives, a good tree will flourish.  But where no
+tree at all can be found, nothing will grow."
+
+"I understand you," said Maskull.  "Here perhaps we are going to
+martyrdom, but elsewhere we should resemble men preaching to cattle."
+
+Shortly before sunset they arrived at the extremity of the upland
+plain, above which towered the black cliffs of the Sant Levels.  A
+dizzy, artificially constructed staircase, of more than a thousand
+steps of varying depth, twisting and forking in order to conform to
+the angles of the precipices, led to the world overhead.  In the
+place where they stood they were sheltered from the cutting winds.
+Branchspell, radiantly shining at last, but on the point of sinking,
+filled the cloudy sky with violent, lurid colors, some of the
+combinations of which were new to Maskull.  The circle of the horizon
+was so gigantic, that had he been suddenly carried back to Earth, he
+would by comparison have fancied himself to be moving beneath the
+dome of some little, closed-in cathedral.  He realised that he was on
+a foreign planet.  But he was not stirred or uplifted by the
+knowledge; he was conscious only of moral ideas.  Looking backward,
+he saw the plain, which for several miles past had been without
+vegetation, stretching back away to Disscourn.  So regular had been
+the ascent, and so great was the distance, that the huge pyramid
+looked nothing more than a slight swelling on the face of the earth.
+
+Spadevil stopped, and gazed over the landscape in silence.  In the
+evening sunlight his form looked more dense, dark, and real than ever
+before.  His features were set hard in grimness.
+
+He turned around to his companions.  "What is the greatest wonder, in
+all this wonderful scene?" he demanded.
+
+"Acquaint us," said Maskull.
+
+"All that you see is born from pleasure, and moves on, from pleasure
+to pleasure.  Nowhere is right to be found.  It is Shaping's world."
+
+"There is another wonder," said Tydomin, and she pointed her finger
+toward the sky overhead.
+
+A small cloud, so low down that it was perhaps not more than five
+hundred feet above them, was sailing along in front of the dark wall
+of cliff.  It was in the exact shape of an open human hand, with
+downward-pointing fingers.  It was stained crimson by the sun; and
+one or two tiny cloudlets beneath the fingers looked like falling
+drops of blood.
+
+"Who can doubt now that our death is close at hand?" said Tydomin.
+"I have been close to death twice today.  The first time I was ready,
+but now I am more ready, for I shall die side by side with the man
+who has given me my first happiness."
+
+"Do not think of death, but of right persistence," replied Spadevil.
+"I am not here to tremble before Shaping's portents; but to snatch
+men from him."
+
+He at once proceeded to lead the way up the staircase.  Tydomin gazed
+upward after him for a moment, with an odd, worshiping light in her
+eyes.  Then she followed him, the second of the party.  Maskull
+climbed last.  He was travel stained, unkempt, and very tired; but
+his soul was at peace.  As they steadily ascended the almost
+perpendicular stairs, the sun got higher in the sky.  Its light dyed
+their bodies a ruddy gold.
+
+They gained the top.  There they found rolling in front of them, as
+far as the eye could see, a barren desert of white sand, broken here
+and there by large, jagged masses of black rock.  Tracts of the sand
+were reddened by the sinking sun.  The vast expanse of sky was filled
+by evil-shaped clouds and wild colors.  The freezing wind, flurrying
+across the desert, drove the fine particles of sand painfully against
+their faces.
+
+"Where now do you take us?" asked Maskull.
+
+"He who guards the old wisdom of Sant must give up that wisdom to me,
+that I may change it.  What he says, others will say.  I go to find
+Maulger."
+
+"And where will you seek him, in this bare country?"
+
+Spadevil struck off toward the north unhesitatingly.
+
+"It is not so far," he said.  "It is his custom to be in that part
+where Sant overhangs the Wombflash Forest.  Perhaps he will be there,
+but I cannot say."
+
+Maskull glanced toward Tydomin.  Her sunken cheeks, and the dark
+circles beneath her eyes told of her extreme weariness.
+
+"The woman is tired, Spadevil," he said.
+
+She smiled, "It's but another step into the land of death.  I can
+manage it.  Give me your arm, Maskull."
+
+He put his arm around her waist, and supported her along that way.
+
+"The sun is now sinking," said Maskull.  "Will we get there before
+dark?"
+
+"Fear nothing, Maskull and Tydomin; this pain is eating up the evil
+in your nature.  The road you are walking cannot remain unwalked.  We
+shall arrive before dark."
+
+The sun then disappeared behind the far-distant ridges that formed
+the western boundary of the Ifdawn Marest.  The sky blazed up into
+more vivid colors.  The wind grew colder.
+
+They passed some pools of colourless gnawl water, round the banks of
+which were planted fruit trees.  Maskull ate some of the fruit.  It
+was hard, bitter, and astringent; he could not get rid of the taste,
+but he felt braced and invigorated by the downward-flowing juices.
+No other trees or shrubs were to be seen anywhere.  No animals
+appeared, no birds or insects.  It was a desolate land.
+
+A mile or two passed, when they again approached the edge of the
+plateau.  Far down, beneath their feet, the great Wombflash Forest
+began.  But daylight had vanished there; Maskull's eyes rested only
+on a vague darkness.  He faintly heard what sounded like the distant
+sighing of innumerable treetops.
+
+In the rapidly darkening twilight, they came abruptly on a man.  He
+was standing in a pool, on one leg.  A pile of boulders had hidden
+him from their view.  The water came as far up as his calf.  A
+trifork, similar to the one Maskull had seen on Disscourn, but
+smaller, had been stuck in the mud close by his hand.
+
+They stopped by the side of the pond, and waited.  Immediately he
+became aware of their presence, the man set down his other leg, and
+waded out of the water toward them, picking up his trifork in doing
+so.
+
+"This is not Maulger, but Catice," said Spadevil.
+
+"Maulger is dead," said Catice, speaking the same tongue as Spadevil,
+but with an even harsher accent, so that the tympanum of Maskull's
+ear was affected painfully.
+
+The latter saw before him a bowed, powerful individual, advanced in
+years.  He wore nothing but a scanty loincloth.  His trunk was long
+and heavy, but his legs were rather short.  His face was beardless,
+lemon-coloured, and anxious-looking.  It was disfigured by a number
+of longitudinal ruts, a quarter of an inch deep, the cavities of
+which seemed clogged with ancient dirt.  The hair of his head was
+black and sparse.  Instead of the twin membranous organs of Spadevil,
+he possessed but one; and this was in the centre of his brow.
+
+Spadevil's dark, solid person stood out from the rest like a reality
+among dreams.
+
+"Has the trifork passed to you?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes.  Why have you brought this woman to Sant?"
+
+"I have brought another thing to Sant.  I have brought the new faith."
+
+Catice stood motionless, and looked troubled.  "State it."
+
+"Shall I speak with many words, or few words?"
+
+"If you wish to say what is not, many words will not suffice.  If you
+wish to say what is, a few words will be enough."
+
+Spadevil frowned.
+
+"To hate pleasure brings pride with it.  Pride is a pleasure.  To
+kill pleasure, we must attach ourselves to duty.  While the mind is
+planning right action, it has no time to think of pleasure."
+
+"Is that the whole?" asked Catice.
+
+"The truth is simple, even for the simplest man."
+
+"Do you destroy Hator, and all his generations, with a single word?"
+
+"I destroy nature, and set up law."
+
+A long silence followed.
+
+"My probe is double," said Spadevil.  "Suffer me to double yours, and
+you will see as I see."
+
+"Come you here, you big man!" said Catice to Maskull.  Maskull
+advanced a step closer.
+
+"Do you follow Spadevil in his new faith?"
+
+"As far as death," exclaimed Maskull.
+
+Catice picked up a flint.  "With this stone I strike out one of your
+two probes.  When you have but one, you will see with me, and you
+will recollect with Spadevil.  Choose you then the superior faith,
+and I shall obey your choice."
+
+"Endure this little pain, Maskull, for the sake of future men," said
+Spadevil.
+
+"The pain is nothing," replied Maskull, "but I fear the result."
+
+"Permit me, although I am only a woman, to take his place, Catice,"
+said Tydomin, stretching out her hand.
+
+He struck at it violently with the flint, and gashed it from wrist to
+thumb; the pale carmine blood spouted up.  "What brings this kiss-
+lover to Sant?" he said.  "How does she presume to make the rules of
+life for the sons of Hator?"
+
+She bit her lip, and stepped back.  "Well then, Maskull, accept!  I
+certainly should not have played false to Spadevil; but you hardly
+can."
+
+"If he bids me, I must do it," said Maskull.  "But who knows what
+will come of it?"
+
+Spadevil spoke.  "Of all the descendants of Hator, Catice is the most
+wholehearted and sincere.  He will trample my truth underfoot,
+thinking me a demon sent by Shaping, to destroy the work of this
+land.  But a seed will escape, and my blood and yours, Tydomin, will
+wash it.  Then men will know that my destroying evil is their
+greatest good.  But none here will live to see that."
+
+Maskull now went quite close to Catice, and offered his head.  Catice
+raised his hand, and after holding the flint poised for a moment,
+brought it down with adroitness and force upon the left-hand probe.
+Maskull cried out with the pain.  The blood streamed down, and the
+function of the organ was destroyed.
+
+There was a pause, while he walked to and fro, trying to staunch the
+blood.
+
+"What now do you feel, Maskull?  What do you see?" inquired Tydomin
+anxiously.
+
+He stopped, and stared hard at her.  "I now see straight," he said
+slowly.
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+He continued to wipe the blood from his forehead.  He looked
+troubled.  "Henceforward, as long as I live, I shall fight with my
+nature, and refuse to feel pleasure.  And I advise you to do the
+same."
+
+Spadevil gazed at him sternly.  "Do you renounce my teaching?"
+
+Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay.  Spadevil's
+image-like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face
+he knew to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.
+
+"It is false."
+
+"Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?" demanded Tydomin.
+
+"I can't argue as yet," said Maskull.  "At this moment the world with
+its sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house.  I feel a loathing
+for everything in it, including myself.  I know no more."
+
+"Is there no duty?" asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.
+
+"It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of
+other people."
+
+Tydomin pulled at Spadevil's arm.  "Maskull has betrayed you, as he
+has so many others.  Let us go."
+
+He stood fast.  "You have changed quickly, Maskull."
+
+Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice.  "Why do men go on
+living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?"
+
+"Pain is the native air of Surtur's children.  To what other air do
+you wish to escape?"
+
+"Surtur's children?  Is not Surtur Shaping?"
+
+"It is the greatest of lies.  It is Shaping's masterpiece."
+
+"Answer, Maskull!" said Spadevil.  "Do you repudiate right action?"
+
+"Leave me alone.  Go back!  I am not thinking of you, and your ideas.
+I wish you no harm."
+
+The darkness came on fast.  There was another prolonged silence.
+
+Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff.  "The woman
+must return home," he said.
+
+"She was persuaded here, and did not come freely.  You, Spadevil,
+must die--backslider as you are!"
+
+Tydomin said quietly, "He has no power to enforce this.  Are you
+going to allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?"
+
+"It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from
+death.  Catice, I accept your judgment."
+
+Tydomin smiled.  "For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today,
+so I shall die with him."
+
+Catice said to Maskull, "Prove your sincerity.  Kill this man and his
+mistress, according to the laws of Hator."
+
+"I can't do that.  I have travelled in friendship with them."
+
+"You denied duty; and now you must do your duty," said Spadevil,
+calmly stroking his beard.  "Whatever law you accept, You must obey,
+without turning to right or left.  Your law commands that we must be
+stoned; and it will soon be dark."
+
+"Have you not even this amount of manhood?" exclaimed Tydomin.
+
+Maskull moved heavily.  "Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was
+forced on me."
+
+"Hator is looking on, and approving," replied Catice.
+
+Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side
+of the pool.  He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments
+of rock, the heaviest that he thought he could carry.  With these in
+his arms, he staggered back.
+
+He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath.
+When he could speak again, he said, "I have a bad heart for the
+business.  Is there no alternative?  Sleep here tonight, Spadevil,
+and in the morning go back to where you have come from.  No one shall
+harm you."
+
+Spadevil's ironic smile was lost in the gloom.
+
+"Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after that
+come back to Sant with other truths?  Come, waste no time, but choose
+the heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin."
+
+Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces.
+Spadevil confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.
+
+The huge stone hurtled through the air.  Its flight looked like a
+dark shadow.  It struck Spadevil full in the face, crushing his
+features, and breaking his neck.  He died instantaneously.
+
+Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.
+
+"Be very quick, Maskull, and don't let me keep him waiting."
+
+He panted, and raised the second stone.  She placed herself in front
+of Spadevil's body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.
+
+The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell.  Maskull
+went to her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his
+arms.  There she breathed out her last sighs.
+
+After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands,
+while he peered into the dead face.  The transition from its heroic,
+spiritual expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman
+came like a flash; but he saw it.
+
+He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.
+
+"Is that the true likeness of Shaping?"
+
+"It is Shaping stripped of illusion."
+
+"How comes this horrible world to exist?"
+
+Catice did not answer.
+
+"Who is Surtur?"
+
+"You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here."
+
+"I am wading through too much blood," said Maskull.  "Nothing good
+can come of it."
+
+"Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy."
+
+Maskull meditated.
+
+"Tell me, Catice.  If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you
+really have accepted his faith?"
+
+"He was a great-souled man," replied Catice.  "I see that the pride
+of our men is only another sprouting-out of pleasure.  Tomorrow I
+too shall leave Sant, to reflect on all this."
+
+Maskull shuddered.  "Then these two deaths were not a necessity, but
+a crime!"
+
+"His part was played and henceforward the woman would have dragged
+down his ideas, with her soft love and loyalty.  Regret nothing,
+stranger, but go away at once out of the land."
+
+"Tonight?  Where shall I go?"
+
+"To Wombflash, where you will meet the deepest minds.  I will put you
+on the way."
+
+He linked his arm in Maskull's, and they walked away into the night.
+For a mile or more they skirted the edge of the precipice.  The wind
+was searching, and drove grit into their faces.  Through the rifts of
+the clouds, stars, faint and brilliant, appeared.  Maskull saw no
+familiar constellations.  He wondered if the sun of earth was
+visible, and if so which one it was.
+
+They came to the head of a rough staircase, leading down the
+cliffside.  It resembled the one by which he had come up; but this
+descended to the Wombflash Forest.
+
+"That is your path," said Catice, "and I shall not come any
+farther."
+
+Maskull detained him.  "Say just this, before we part company--why
+does pleasure appear so shameful to us?"
+
+"Because in feeling pleasure, we forget our home."
+
+"And that is--"
+
+"Muspel," answered Catice.
+
+Having made this reply, he disengaged himself, and, turning his back,
+disappeared into the darkness.
+
+Maskull stumbled down the staircase as best he could.  He was tired,
+but contemptuous of his pains.  His uninjured probe began to
+discharge matter.  He lowered himself from step to step during what
+seemed an interminable time.  The rustling and sighing of the trees
+grew louder as he approached the bottom; the air became still and
+warm.
+
+He at last reached level ground.  Still attempting to proceed, he
+began to trip over roots, and to collide with tree trunks.  After
+this had happened a few times, he determined to go no farther that
+night.  He heaped together some dry leaves for a pillow, and
+immediately flung himself down to sleep.  Deep and heavy
+unconsciousness seized him almost instantly.
+
+
+
+Chapter 13
+
+THE WOMBFLASH FOREST
+
+He awoke to his third day on Tormance.  His limbs ached.  He lay on
+his side, looking stupidly at his surroundings.  The forest was like
+night, but that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to
+break and objects begin to be guessed at, rather than seen.  Two or
+three amazing shadowy shapes, as broad as houses, loomed up out of
+the twilight.  He did not realise that they were trees, until he
+turned over on his back and followed their course upward.  Far
+overhead, so high up that he dared not calculate the height, he saw
+their tops glittering in the sunlight, against a tiny patch of blue
+sky.
+
+Clouds of mist, rolling over the floor of the forest, kept
+interrupting his view.  In their silent passage they were like
+phantoms flitting among the trees.  The leaves underneath him were
+sodden, and heavy drops of moisture splashed onto his head from time
+to time.
+
+He continued lying there, trying to reconstruct the events of the
+preceding day.  His brain was lethargic and confused.  Something
+terrible had happened, but what it was he could not for a long time
+recollect.  Then suddenly there came before his eyes that ghastly
+closing scene at dusk on the Sant plateau--Spadevil's crushed and
+bloody features and Tydomin's dying sighs....  He shuddered
+convulsively, and felt sick.
+
+The peculiar moral outlook that had dictated these brutal murders had
+departed from him during the night, and now he recognised what he had
+done!  During the whole of the previous day he seemed to have been
+labouring under a series of heavy enchantments.  First Oceaxe had
+enslaved him, then Tydomin, then Spadevil, and lastly Catice.  They
+had forced him to murder and violate; he had guessed nothing, but had
+imagined that he was travelling as a free and enlightened stranger.
+What was this nightmare journey for--and would it continue, in the
+same way? ...
+
+The silence of the forest was so intense that he heard no sound
+except the pumping of blood through his arteries.
+
+Putting his hand to his face, he found that his remaining probe had
+disappeared and that he was in possession of three eyes.  The third
+eye was on his forehead, where the old sorb had been.  He could not
+guess its use.  He still had his third arm, but it was nerveless.
+
+Now he puzzled his head for a long time, trying unsuccessfully to
+recall that name which had been the last word spoken by Catice.
+
+He got up, with the intention of resuming his journey.  He had no
+toilet to make, and no meal to prepare.  The forest was tremendous.
+The nearest tree appeared to him to have a circumference of at least
+a hundred feet.  Other dim boles looked equally large.  But what gave
+the scene its aspect of immensity was the vast spaces separating tree
+from tree.  It was like some gigantic, supernatural hall in a life
+after death.  The lowest branches were fifty yards or more from the
+ground.  There was no underbrush; the soil was carpeted only by the
+dead, wet leaves.  He looked all around him, to find his direction,
+but the cliffs of Sant, which he had descended, were invisible--
+every way was like every other way, he had no idea which quarter to
+attack.  He grew frightened, and muttered to himself.  Craning his
+neck back, he stared upward and tried to discover the points of the
+compass from the direction of the sunlight, but it was impossible.
+
+While he was standing there, anxious and hesitating, he heard the
+drum taps.  The rhythmical beats proceeded from some distance off.
+The unseen drummer seemed to be marching through the forest, away
+from him.
+
+"Surtur!" he said, under his breath.  The next moment he marvelled at
+himself for uttering the name.  That mysterious being had not been in
+his thoughts, nor was there any ostensible connection between him and
+the drumming.
+
+He began to reflect--but in the meantime the sounds were travelling
+away.  Automatically he started walking in the same direction.  The
+drum beats had this peculiarity--though odd and mystical, there was
+nothing awe-inspiring in them, but on the contrary they reminded him
+of some place and some life with which he was perfectly familiar.
+Once again they caused all his other sense impressions to appear
+false.
+
+The sounds were intermittent.  They would go on for a minute, or for
+five minutes, and then cease for perhaps a quarter of an hour.
+Maskull followed them as well as he could.  He walked hard among the
+huge, indistinct trees, in the attempt to come up with the origin of
+the noise, but the same distance always seemed to separate them.  The
+forest from now onward descended.  The gradient was mostly gentle--
+about one foot in ten--but in some places it was much steeper, and
+in other parts again it was practically level ground for quite long
+stretches.  There were great swampy marshes, through which Maskull
+was obliged to splash.  It was a matter of indifference to him how
+wet he became--if only he could catch sight of that individual with
+the drum.  Mile after mile was covered, and still he was no nearer to
+doing so.
+
+The gloom of the forest settled down upon his spirits.  He felt
+despondent, tired, and savage.  He had not heard the drum beats for
+some while, and was half inclined to discontinue the pursuit.
+
+Passing around a great, columnar tree trunk, he almost stumbled
+against a man who was standing on the farther side.  He was leaning
+against the trunk with one hand, in an attitude of repose.  His other
+hand was resting on a staff.  Maskull stopped short and started at
+him.
+
+He was nearly naked, and of gigantic build.  He over-topped Maskull
+by a head.  His face and body were faintly phosphorescent.  His eyes--
+three in number--were pale green and luminous, shining like lamps.
+His skin was hairless, but the hair of his head was piled up in
+thick, black coils, and fastened like a woman's.  His features were
+absolutely tranquil, but a terrible, quiet energy seemed to lie just
+underneath the surface.
+
+Maskull addressed him.  "Did the drumming come from you?"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+He replied in a strange, strained, twisted voice.  Maskull gathered
+that the name he gave was "Dreamsinter."
+
+"What is that drumming?"
+
+"Surtur," said Dreamsinter.
+
+"Is it advisable for me to follow it?"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Perhaps he intends me to.  He brought me here from Earth."
+
+Dreamsinter caught hold of him, bent down, and peered into his face.
+"Not you, but Nightspore."
+
+This was the first time that Maskull had heard Nightspore's name
+since his arrival on the planet.  He was so astonished that he could
+frame no more questions.
+
+"Eat this," said Dreamsinter.  "Then we will chase the sound
+together."  He picked something up from the ground and handed it to
+Maskull.  He could not see distinctly, but it felt like a hard, round
+nut, of the size of a fist.
+
+"I can't crack it."
+
+Dreamsinter took it between his hands, and broke it into pieces.
+Maskull then ate some of the pulpy interior, which was intensely
+disagreeable.
+
+"What am I doing in Tormance, then?" he asked.
+
+"You came to steal Muspel-fire, to give a deeper life to men--never
+doubting if your soul could endure that burning."
+
+Maskull could hardly decipher the strangled words.
+
+"Muspel....  That's the name I've been trying to remember ever since
+I awoke."
+
+Dreamsinter suddenly turned his head sideways, and appeared to listen
+for something.  He motioned with his hand to Maskull to keep quiet.
+
+"Is it the drumming?"
+
+"Hush!  They come."
+
+He was looking toward the upper forest.  The now familiar drum rhythm
+was heard--this time accompanied by the tramp of marching feet.
+
+Maskull saw, marching through the trees and heading toward them,
+three men in single file separated from one another by only a yard or
+so.  They were travelling down hill at a swift pace, and looked
+neither to left nor right.  They were naked.  Their figures were
+shining against the black background of the forest with a pale,
+supernatural light--green and ghostly.  When they were abreast of
+him, about twenty feet off, he perceived who they were.  The first
+man was himself--Maskull.  The second was Krag.  The third man was
+Nightspore.  Their faces were grim and set.
+
+The source of the drumming was out of sight.  The sound appeared to
+come from some point in front of them.  Maskull and Dreamsinter put
+themselves in motion, to keep up with the swiftly moving marchers.
+At the same time a low, faint music began.
+
+Its rhythm stepped with the drum beats, but, unlike the latter, it
+did not seem to proceed from any particular quarter of the forest.
+It resembled the subjective music heard in dreams, which accompanies
+the dreamer everywhere, as a sort of natural atmosphere, rendering
+all his experiences emotional.  It seemed to issue from an unearthly
+orchestra, and was strongly troubled, pathetic and tragic.  Maskull
+marched, and listened; and as he listened, it grew louder and
+stormier.  But the pulse of the drum interpenetrated all the other
+sounds, like the quiet beating of reality.
+
+His emotion deepened.  He could not have said if minutes or hours
+were passing.  The spectral procession marched on, a little way
+ahead, on a path parallel with his own and Dreamsinter's.  The music
+pulsated violently.  Krag lifted his arm, and displayed a long,
+murderous-looking knife.  He sprang forward and, raising it over the
+phantom Maskull's back, stabbed him twice, leaving the knife in the
+wound the second time.  Maskull threw up his arms, and fell down
+dead.  Krag leaped into the forest and vanished from sight.
+Nightspore marched on alone, stern and unmoved.
+
+The music rose to crescendo.  The whole dim, gigantic forest was
+roaring with sound.  The tones came from all sides, from above, from
+the ground under their feet.  It was so grandly passionate that
+Maskull felt his soul loosening from its bodily envelope.
+
+He continued to follow Nightspore.  A strange brightness began to
+glow in front of them.  It was not daylight, but a radiance such as
+he had never seen before, and such as he could not have imagined to
+be possible.  Nightspore moved straight toward it.  Maskull felt his
+chest bursting.  The light flashed higher.  The awful harmonies of
+the music followed hard one upon another, like the waves of a wild,
+magic ocean....  His body was incapable of enduring such shocks, and
+all of a sudden he tumbled over in a faint that resembled death.
+
+
+
+Chapter 14
+
+POLECRAB
+
+The morning slowly passed.  Maskull made some convulsive movements,
+and opened his eyes.  He sat up, blinking.  All was night-like and
+silent in the forest.  The strange light had gone, the music had
+ceased, Dreamsinter had vanished.  He fingered his beard, clotted
+with Tydomin's blood, and fell into a deep muse.
+
+"According to Panawe and Catice, this forest contains wise men.
+Perhaps Dreamsinter was one.  Perhaps that vision I have just seen
+was a specimen of his wisdom.  It looked almost like an answer to my
+question....  I ought not to have asked about myself, but about
+Surtur.  Then I would have got a different answer.  I might have
+learned something... I might have seen him."
+
+He remained quiet and apathetic for a bit.
+
+"But I couldn't face that awful glare," he proceeded.  "It was
+bursting my body.  He warned me, too.  And so Surtur does really
+exist, and my journey stands for something.  But why am I here, and
+what can I do?  Who is Surtur?  Where is he to be found?"
+
+Something wild came into his eyes.
+
+"What did Dreamsinter mean by his 'Not you, but Nightspore'?  Am I a
+secondary character--is he regarded as important; and I as
+unimportant?  Where is Nightspore, and what is he doing?  Am I to
+wait for his time and pleasure--can I originate nothing?"
+
+He continued sitting up, with straight-extended legs.
+
+"I must make up my mind that this is a strange journey, and that the
+strangest things will happen in it.  It's no use making plans, for I
+can't see two steps ahead--everything is unknown.  But one thing's
+evident: nothing but the wildest audacity will carry me through, and
+I must sacrifice everything else to that.  And therefore if Surtur
+shows himself again, I shall go forward to meet him, even if it means
+death."
+
+Through the black, quiet aisles of the forest the drum beats came
+again.  The sound was a long way off and very faint.  It was like the
+last mutterings of thunder after a heavy storm.  Maskull listened,
+without getting up.  The drumming faded into silence, and did not
+return.
+
+He smiled queerly, and said aloud, "Thanks, Surtur!  I accept the
+omen."
+
+When he was about to get up, he found that the shrivelled skin that
+had been his third arm was flapping disconcertingly with every
+movement of his body.  He made perforations in it all around, as
+close to his chest as possible, with the fingernails of both hands;
+then he carefully twisted it off.  In that world of rapid growth and
+ungrowth he judged that the stump would soon disappear.  After that,
+he rose and peered into the darkness.
+
+The forest at that point sloped rather steeply and, without thinking
+twice about it, he took the downhill direction, never doubting it
+would bring him somewhere.  As soon as he started walking, his temper
+became gloomy and morose--he was shaken, tired, dirty, and languid
+with hunger; moreover, he realised that the walk was not going to be
+a short one.  Be that as it may, he determined to sit down no more
+until the whole dismal forest was at his back.
+
+One after another the shadowy, houselike trees were observed,
+avoided, and passed.  Far overhead the little patch of glowing sky
+was still always visible; otherwise he had no clue to the time of
+day.  He continued tramping sullenly down the slope for many damp,
+slippery miles--in some places through bogs.  When, presently, the
+twilight seemed to thin, he guessed that the open world was not far
+away.  The forest grew more palpable and grey, and now he saw its
+majesty better.  The tree trunks were like round towers, and so wide
+were the intervals that they resembled natural amphitheatres.  He
+could not make out the colour of the bark.  Everything he saw amazed
+him, but his admiration was of the growling, grudging kind.  The
+difference in light between the forest behind him and the forest
+ahead became so marked that he could no longer doubt that he was on
+the point of coming out.
+
+Real light was in front of him; looking back, he found he had a
+shadow.  The trunks acquired a reddish tint.  He quickened his pace.
+As the minutes went by, the bright patch ahead grew luminous and
+vivid; it had a tinge of blue.  He also imagined that he heard the
+sound of surf.
+
+All that part of the forest toward which he was moving became rich
+with colour.  The boles of the trees were of a deep, dark red; their
+leaves, high above his head, were ulfire-hued; the dead leaves on the
+ground were of a colour he could not name.  At the same time he
+discovered the use of his third eye.  By adding a third angle to his
+sight, every object he looked at stood out in greater relief.  The
+world looked less flat--more realistic and significant.  He had a
+stronger attraction toward his surroundings; he seemed somehow to
+lose his egotism, and to become free and thoughtful.
+
+Now through the last trees he saw full daylight.  Less than half a
+mile separated him from the border of the forest, and, eager to
+discover what lay beyond, he broke into a run.  He heard the surf
+louder.  It was a peculiar hissing sound that could proceed only from
+water, yet was unlike the sea.  Almost immediately he came within
+sight of an enormous horizon of dancing waves, which he knew must be
+the Sinking Sea.  He fell back into a quick walk, continuing to stare
+hard.  The wind that met him was hot, fresh and sweet.
+
+When he arrived at the final fringe of forest, which joined the wide
+sands of the shore without any change of level, he leaned with his
+back to a great tree and gazed his fill, motionless, at what lay in
+front of him.  The sands continued east and west in a straight line,
+broken only here and there by a few creeks.  They were of a brilliant
+orange colour, but there were patches of violet.  The forest appeared
+to stand sentinel over the shore for its entire length.  Everything
+else was sea and sky--he had never seen so much water.  The
+semicircle of the skyline was so vast that he might have imagined
+himself on a flat world, with a range of vision determined only by
+the power of his eye.  The sea was unlike any sea on Earth.  It
+resembled an immense liquid opal.  On a body colour of rich,
+magnificent emerald-green, flashes of red, yellow, and blue were
+everywhere shooting up and vanishing.  The wave motion was
+extraordinary.  Pinnacles of water were slowly formed until they
+attained a height of perhaps ten or twenty feet, when they would
+suddenly sink downward and outward, creating in their descent a
+series of concentric rings for long distances around them.  Quickly
+moving currents, like rivers in the sea, could be seen, racing away
+from land; they were of a darker green and bore no pinnacles.  Where
+the sea met the shore, the waves rushed over the sands far in, with
+almost sinister rapidity--accompanied by a weird, hissing, spitting
+sound, which was what Maskull had heard.  The green tongues rolled in
+without foam.
+
+About twenty miles distant, as he judged, directly opposite him, a
+long, low island stood up from the sea, black and not distinguished
+in outline.  It was Swaylone's Island.  Maskull was less interested in
+that than in the blue sunset that glowed behind its back.  Alppain
+had set, but the whole northern sky was plunged into the minor key by
+its afterlight.  Branchspell in the zenith was white and
+overpowering, the day was cloudless and terrifically hot; but where
+the blue sun had sunk, a sombre shadow seemed to overhang the world.
+Maskull had a feeling of disintegration--just as if two chemically
+distinct forces were simultaneously acting upon the cells of his
+body.  Since the afterglow of Alppain affected him like this, he
+thought it more than likely that he would never be able to face that
+sun itself, and go on living.  Still, some modification might happen
+to him that would make it possible.
+
+The sea tempted him.  He made up his mind to bathe, and at once
+walked toward the shore.  The instant he stepped outside the shadow
+line of the forest trees, the blinding rays of the sun beat down on
+him so savagely that for a few minutes he felt sick and his head
+swam.  He trod quickly across the sands.  The orange-coloured parts
+were nearly hot enough to roast food, he judged, but the violet parts
+were like fire itself.  He stepped on a patch in ignorance, and
+immediately jumped high into the air with a startled yell.
+
+The sea was voluptuously warm.  It would not bear his weight, so he
+determined to try swimming.  First of all he stripped off his skin
+garment, washed it thoroughly with sand and water, and laid it in the
+sun to dry.  Then he scrubbed himself as well as he could and washed
+out his beard and hair.  After that, he waded in a long way, until
+the water reached his breast, and took to swimming--avoiding the
+spouts as far as possible  He found it no pastime.  The water was
+everywhere of unequal density.  In some places he could swim, in
+others he could barely save himself from drowning, in others again he
+could not force himself beneath the surface at all.  There were no
+outward signs to show what the water ahead held in store for him.
+The whole business was most dangerous.
+
+He came out, feeling clean and invigorated.  For a time he walked up
+and down the sands, drying himself in the hot sunshine and looking
+around him.  He was a naked stranger in a huge, foreign, mystical
+world, and whichever way he turned, unknown and threatening forces
+were glaring at him.  The gigantic, white, withering Branchspell, the
+awful, body-changing Alppain, the beautiful, deadly, treacherous sea,
+the dark and eerie Swaylone's Island, the spirit-crushing forest out
+of which he had just escaped--to all these mighty powers,
+surrounding him on every side, what resources had he, a feeble,
+ignorant traveller to oppose, from a tiny planet on the other side of
+space, to avoid being utterly destroyed? ... Then he smiled to
+himself.  "I've already been here two days, and still I survive.  I
+have luck--and with that one can balance the universe.  But what is
+luck--a verbal expression, or a thing?"
+
+As he was putting on his skin, which was now dry, the answer came to
+him, and this time he was grave.  "Surtur brought me here, and Surtur
+is watching over me.  That is my 'luck.'...  But what is Surtur in
+this world? ... How is he able to protect me against the blind and
+ungovernable forces of nature?  Is he stronger than Nature? ..."
+
+Hungry as he was for food, he was hungrier still for human society,
+for he wished to inquire about all these things.  He asked himself
+which way he should turn his steps.  There were only two ways; along
+the shore, either east or west.  The nearest creek lay to the east,
+cutting the sands about a mile away.  He walked toward it.
+
+The forest face was forbidding and enormously high.  It was so
+squarely turned to the sea that it looked as though it had been
+planed by tools.  Maskull strode along in the shade of the trees, but
+kept his head constantly turned away from them, toward the sea--
+there it was more cheerful.  The creek, when he reached it, proved to
+be broad and flat-banked.  It was not a river, but an arm of the sea.
+Its still, dark green water curved around a bend out of sight, into
+the forest.  The trees on both banks overhung the water, so that it
+was completely in shadow.
+
+He went as far as the bend, beyond which another short reach
+appeared.  A man was sitting on a narrow shelf of bank, with his feet
+in the water.  He was clothed in a coarse, rough hide, which left his
+limbs bare.  He was short, thick, and sturdy, with short legs and a
+long, powerful arms, terminating in hands of an extraordinary size.
+He was oldish.  His face was plain, slablike, and expressionless; it
+was full of wrinkles, and walnut-coloured.  Both face and head were
+bald, and his skin was tough and leathery.  He seemed to be some sort
+of peasant, or fisherman; there was no trace in his face of thought
+for others, or delicacy of feeling.  He possessed three eyes, of
+different colors--jade-green, blue, and ulfire.
+
+In front of him, riding on the water, moored to the bank, was an
+elementary raft, consisting of the branches of trees, clumsily corded
+together.
+
+Maskull addressed him.  "Are you another of the wise men of the
+Wombflash Forest?"
+
+The man answered him in a gruff, husky voice, looking up as he did
+so.  "I'm a fisherman.  I know nothing about wisdom."
+
+"What name do you go by?"
+
+"Polecrab.  What's yours?"
+
+"Maskull.  If you're a fisherman, you ought to have fish.  I'm
+famishing."
+
+Polecrab grunted, and paused a minute before answering.
+
+"There's fish enough.  My dinner is cooking in the sands now.  It's
+easy enough to get you some more."
+
+Maskull found this a pleasant speech.
+
+"But how long will it take?" he asked.
+
+The man slid the palms of his hands together, producing a shrill,
+screeching noise.  He lifted his feet from the water, and clambered
+onto the bank.  In a minute or two a curious little beast came
+crawling up to his feet, turning its face and eyes up affectionately,
+like a dog.  It was about two feet long, and somewhat resembled a
+small seal, but had six legs, ending in strong claws.
+
+"Arg, go fish!" said Polecrab hoarsely.
+
+The animal immediately tumbled off the bank into the water.  It swam
+gracefully to the middle of the creek and made a pivotal dive beneath
+the surface, where it remained a great while.
+
+"Simple fishing," remarked Maskull.  "But what's the raft for?"
+
+"To go to sea with.  The best fish are out at sea.  These are
+eatable."
+
+"That arg seems a highly intelligent creature."
+
+Polecrab grunted again.  "I've trained close on a hundred of them.
+The bigheads learn best, but they're slow swimmers.  The narrowheads
+swim like eels, but can't be taught.  Now I've started interbreeding
+them--he's one of them."
+
+"Do you live here alone?"
+
+"No, I've got a wife and three boys.  My wife's sleeping somewhere,
+but where the lads are, Shaping knows."
+
+Maskull began to feel very much at home with this unsophisticated
+being.
+
+"The raft's all crazy," he remarked, staring at it.  "If you go far
+out in that, you've got more pluck than I have."
+
+"I've been to Matterplay on it," said Polecrab.
+
+The arg reappeared and started swimming to shore, but this time
+clumsily, as if it were bearing a heavy weight under the surface.
+When it landed at its master's feet, they saw that each set of claws
+was clutching a fish--six in all.  Polecrab took them from it.  He
+proceeded to cut off the heads and tails with a sharp-edged stone
+which he picked up; these he threw to the arg, which devoured them
+without any fuss.
+
+Polecrab beckoned to Maskull to follow him and, carrying the fish,
+walked toward the open shore, by the same way that he had come.  When
+they reached the sands, he sliced the fish, removed the entrails, and
+digging a shallow hole in a patch of violet sand, placed the
+remainder of the carcasses in it, and covered them over again.  Then
+he dug up his own dinner.  Maskull's nostrils quivered at the savoury
+smell, but he was not yet to dine.
+
+Polecrab, turning to go with the cooked fish in his hands, said,
+"These are mine, not yours.  When yours are done, you can come back
+and join me, supposing you want company."
+
+"How soon will that be?"
+
+"About twenty minutes," replied the fisherman, over his shoulder.
+
+Maskull sheltered himself in the shadows of the forest, and waited.
+When the time had approximately elapsed, he disinterred his meal,
+scorching his fingers in the operation, although it was only the
+surface of the sand which was so intensely hot.  Then he returned to
+Polecrab.
+
+In the warm, still air and cheerful shade of the inlet, they munched
+in silence, looking from their food to the sluggish water, and back
+again.  With every mouthful Maskull felt his strength returning.  He
+finished before Polecrab, who ate like a man for whom time has no
+value.  When he had done, he stood up.
+
+"Come and drink," he said, in his husky voice.
+
+Maskull looked at him inquiringly.
+
+The man led him a little way into the forest, and walked straight up
+to a certain tree.  At a convenient height in its trunk a hole had
+been tapped and plugged.  Polecrab removed the plug and put his mouth
+to the aperture, sucking for quite a long time, like a child at its
+mother's breast.  Maskull, watching him, imagined that he saw his
+eyes growing brighter.
+
+When his own turn came to drink, he found the juice of the tree
+somewhat like coconut milk in flavour, but intoxicating.  It was a
+new sort of intoxication, however, for neither his will not his
+emotions were excited, but only his intellect--and that only in a
+certain way.  His thoughts and images were not freed and loosened, but
+on the contrary kept labouring and swelling painfully, until they
+reached the full beauty of an aper�u, which would then flame up in
+his consciousness, burst, and vanish.  After that, the whole process
+started over again.  But there was never a moment when he was not
+perfectly cool, and master of his senses.  When each had drunk twice,
+Polecrab replugged the hole, and they returned to their bank.
+
+"Is it Blodsombre yet?" asked Maskull, sprawling on the ground, well
+content.
+
+Polecrab resumed his old upright sitting posture, with his feet in
+the water.  "Just beginning," was his hoarse response.
+
+"Then I must stay here till it's over....  Shall we talk?"
+
+"We can," said the other, without enthusiasm.
+
+Maskull glanced at him through half-closed lids, wondering if he were
+exactly what he seemed to be.  In his eyes he thought he detected a
+wise light.
+
+"Have you travelled much, Polecrab?"
+
+"Not what you would call travelling."
+
+"You tell me you've been to Matterplay--what kind of country is
+that?"
+
+"I don't know.  I went there to pick up flints."
+
+"What countries lie beyond it?"
+
+"Threal comes next, as you go north.  They say it's a land of
+mystics... I don't know."
+
+"Mystics?"
+
+"So I'm told....  Still farther north there's Lichstorm."
+
+"Now we're going far afield."
+
+"There are mountains there--and altogether it must be a very
+dangerous place, especially for a full-blooded man like you.  Take
+care of yourself."
+
+"This is rather premature, Polecrab.  How do you know I'm going
+there?"
+
+"As you've come from the south, I suppose you'll go north."
+
+"Well, that's right enough," said Maskull, staring hard at him.  "But
+how do you know I've come from the south?"
+
+"Well, then, perhaps you haven't--but there's a look of Ifdawn about
+you."
+
+"What kind of look?"
+
+"A tragical look," said Polecrab.  He never even glanced at Maskull,
+but was gazing at a fixed spot on the water with unblinking eyes.
+
+"What lies beyond Lichstorm?" asked Maskull, after a minute or two.
+
+"Barey, where you have two suns instead of one--but beyond that fact
+I know nothing about it....  Then comes the ocean."
+
+"And what's on the other side of the ocean?"
+
+"That you must find out for yourself, for I doubt if anybody has ever
+crossed it and come back."
+
+Maskull was silent for a little while.
+
+"How is it that your people are so unadventurous?  I seem to be the
+only one travelling from curiosity."
+
+"What do you mean by 'your people'?"
+
+"True--you don't know that I don't belong to your planet at all.
+I've come from another world, Polecrab."
+
+"What to find?"
+
+"I came here with Krag and Nightspore--to follow Surtur.  I must have
+fainted the moment I arrived.  When I sat up, it was night and the
+others had--vanished.  Since then I've been travelling at random."
+
+Polecrab scratched his nose.  "You haven't found Surtur yet?"
+
+"I've heard his drum taps frequently.  In the forest this morning I
+came quite close to him.  Then two days ago, in the Lusion Plain, I
+saw a vision--a being in man's shape, who called himself Surtur."
+
+"Well, maybe it was Surtur."
+
+"No, that's impossible," replied Maskull reflectively.  "It was
+Crystalman.  And it isn't a question of my suspecting it--I know
+it."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Because this is Crystalman's world, and Surtur's world is something
+quite different."
+
+"That's queer, then," said Polecrab.
+
+"Since I've come out of that forest," proceeded Maskull, talking half
+to himself, "a change has come over me, and I see things differently.
+Everything here looks much more solid and real in my eyes than in
+other places so much so that I can't entertain the least doubt of its
+existence.  It not only looks real, it is real--and on that I would
+stake my life....  But at the same time that it's real, it is false."
+
+"Like a dream?"
+
+"No--not at all like a dream, and that's just what I want to
+explain.  This world of yours--and perhaps of mine too, for that
+matter--doesn't give me the slightest impression of a dream, or an
+illusion, or anything of that sort.  I know it's really here at this
+moment, and it's exactly as we're seeing it, you and I.  Yet it's
+false.  It's false in this sense, Polecrab.  Side by side with it
+another world exists, and that other world is the true one, and this
+one is all false and deceitful, to the very core.  And so it occurs
+to me that reality and falseness are two words for the same thing."
+
+"Perhaps there is such another world," said Polecrab huskily.  "But
+did that vision also seem real and false to you?"
+
+"Very real, but not false then, for then I didn't understand all
+this.  But just because it was real, it couldn't have been Surtur,
+who has no connection with reality."
+
+"Didn't those drum taps sound real to you?"
+
+"I had to hear them with my ears, and so they sounded real to me.
+Still, they were somehow different, and they certainly came from
+Surtur.  If I didn't hear them correctly, that was my fault and not
+his."
+
+Polecrab growled a little.  "If Surtur chooses to speak to you in
+that fashion, it appears he's trying to say something."
+
+"What else can I think?  But, Polecrab, what's your opinion--is he
+calling me to the life after death?"
+
+The old man stirred uneasily.  "I'm a fisherman," he said, after a
+minute or two.  "I live by killing, and so does everybody.  This life
+seems to me all wrong.  So maybe life of any kind is wrong, and
+Surtur's world is not life at all, but something else."
+
+"Yes, but will death lead me to it, whatever it is?"
+
+"Ask the dead," said Polecrab, "and not a living man."
+
+Maskull continued.  "In the forest I heard music and saw a light,
+which could not have belonged to this world.  They were too strong
+for my senses, and I must have fainted for a long time.  There was a
+vision as well, in which I saw myself killed, while Nightspore walked
+on toward the light, alone."
+
+Polecrab uttered his grunt.  "You have enough to think over."
+
+A short silence ensued, which was broken by Maskull.
+
+"So strong is my sense of the untruth of this present life, that it
+may come to my putting an end to myself."  The fisherman remained
+quiet and immobile.
+
+Maskull lay on his stomach, propped his face on his hands, and stared
+at him.  "What do you think, Polecrab?  Is it possible for any man,
+while in the body, to gain a closer view of that other world than I
+have done?"
+
+"I am an ignorant man, stranger, so I can't say.  Perhaps there are
+many others like you who would gladly know."
+
+"Where?  I should like to meet them."
+
+"Do you think you were made of one stuff, and the rest of mankind of
+another stuff?"
+
+"I can't be so presumptuous.  Possibly all men are reaching out
+toward Muspel, in most cases without being aware of it."
+
+"In the wrong direction," said Polecrab.
+
+Maskull gave him a strange look.  "How so?"
+
+"I don't speak from my own wisdom," said Polecrab, "for I have none;
+but I have just now recalled what Broodviol once told me, when I was
+a young man, and he was an old one.  He said that Crystalman tries to
+turn all things into one, and that whichever way his shapes march, in
+order to escape from him, they find themselves again face to face
+with Crystalman, and are changed into new crystals.  But that this
+marching of shapes (which we call 'forking') springs from the
+unconscious desire to find Surtur, but is in the opposite direction
+to the right one.  For Surtur's world does not lie on this side of
+the one, which was the beginning of life, but on the other side; and
+to get to it we must repass through the one.  But this can only be by
+renouncing our self-life, and reuniting ourselves to the whole of
+Crystalman's world.  And when this has been done, it is only the
+first stage of the journey; though many good men imagine it to be the
+whole journey....  As far as I can remember, that is what Broodviol
+said, but perhaps, as I was then a young and ignorant man, I may have
+left out words which would explain his meaning better."
+
+Maskull, who had listened attentively to all this, remained
+thoughtful at the end.
+
+"It's plain enough," he said.  "But what did he mean by our reuniting
+ourselves to Crystalman's world?  If it is false, are we to make
+ourselves false as well?"
+
+"I didn't ask him that question, and you are as well qualified to
+answer it as I am."
+
+"He must have meant that, as it is, we are each of us living in a
+false, private world of our own, a world of dreams and appetites and
+distorted perceptions.  By embracing the great world we certainly
+lose nothing in truth and reality."
+
+Polecrab withdrew his feet from the water, stood up, yawned, and
+stretched his limbs.
+
+"I have told you all I know," he said in a surly voice.  "Now let me
+go to sleep."
+
+Maskull kept his eyes fixed on him, but made no reply.  The old man
+let himself down stiffly on to the ground, and prepared to rest.
+
+While he was still arranging his position to his liking, a footfall
+sounded behind the two men, coming from the direction of the forest.
+Maskull twisted his neck, and saw a woman approaching them.  He at
+once guessed that it was Polecrab's wife.  He sat up, but the
+fisherman did not stir.  The woman came and stood in front of them,
+looking down from what appeared a great height.
+
+Her dress was similar to her husband's, but covered her limbs more.
+She was young, tall, slender, and strikingly erect.  Her skin was
+lightly tanned, and she looked strong, but not at all peasantlike.
+Refinement was stamped all over her.  Her face had too much energy of
+expression for a woman, and she was not beautiful.  Her three great
+eyes kept flashing and glowing.  She had great masses of fine, yellow
+hair, coiled up and fastened, but so carelessly that some of the
+strands were flowing down her back.
+
+When she spoke, it was in a rather weak voice, but full of lights and
+shades, and somehow intense passionateness never seemed to be far
+away from it.
+
+"Forgiveness is asked for listening to your conversation," she said,
+addressing Maskull.  "I was resting behind the tree, and heard it
+all."
+
+He got up slowly.  "Are you Polecrab's wife?"
+
+"She is my wife," said Polecrab, "and her name is Gleameil.  Sit down
+again, stranger--and you too, wife, since you are here."
+
+They both obeyed.  "I heard everything," repeated Gleameil.  "But
+what I did not hear was where you are going to, Maskull, after you
+have left us."
+
+"I know no more than you do."
+
+"Listen, then.  There's only one place for you to go to, and that is
+Swaylone's Island.  I will ferry you across myself before sunset."
+
+"What shall I find there?"
+
+"He may go, wife," put in the old man hoarsely, "but I won't allow
+you to go.  I will take him over myself."
+
+"No, you have always put me off," said Gleameil, with some emotion.
+"This time I mean to go.  When Teargeld shines at night, and I sit on
+the shore here, listening to Earthrid's music travelling faintly
+across the sea, I am tortured--I can't endure it....  I have long
+since made up my mind to go to the island, and see what this music
+is.  If it's bad, if it kills me--well."
+
+"What have I to do with the man and his music, Gleameil?" demanded
+Maskull.
+
+"I think the music will answer all your questions better than
+Polecrab has done--and possibly in a way that will surprise you."
+
+"What kind of music can it be to travel all those miles across the
+sea?"
+
+"A peculiar kind, so we are told.  Not pleasant, but painful.  And
+the man that can play the instrument of Earthrid would be able to
+conjure up the most astonishing forms, which are not phantasms, but
+realities."
+
+"That may be so," growled Polecrab.  "But I have been to the island
+by daylight, and what did I find there?  Human bones, new and
+ancient.  Those are Earthrid's victims.  And you, wife, shall not
+go."
+
+"But will that music play tonight?" asked Maskull.
+
+"Yes," replied Gleameil, gazing at him intently.  "When Teargeld
+rises, which is our moon."
+
+"If Earthrid plays men to death, it appears to me that his own death
+is due.  In any case I should like to hear those sounds for myself.
+But as for taking you with me, Gleameil--women die too easily in
+Tormance.  I have only just now washed myself clean of the death blood
+of another woman."
+
+Gleameil laughed, but said nothing.
+
+"Now go to sleep," said Polecrab.  "When the time comes, I will take
+you across myself."
+
+He lay down again, and closed his eyes.  Maskull followed his
+example; but Gleameil remained sitting erect, with her legs under
+her.
+
+"Who was that other woman, Maskull?" she asked presently.
+
+He did not answer, but pretended to sleep.
+
+
+
+Chapter 15
+
+SWALONE'S ISLAND
+
+When he awoke, the day was not so bright, and he guessed it was late
+afternoon.  Polecrab and his wife were both on their feet, and
+another meal of fish had been cooked and was waiting for him.
+
+"Is it decided who is to go with me?" he asked, before sitting down.
+
+"I go," said Gleameil.
+
+"Do you agree, Polecrab?"
+
+The fisherman growled a little in his throat and motioned to the
+others to take their seats.  He took a mouthful before answering.
+
+"Something strong is attracting her, and I can't hold her back.  I
+don't think I shall see you again, wife, but the lads are now nearly
+old enough to fend for themselves."
+
+"Don't take dejected views," replied Gleameil sternly.  She was not
+eating.  "I shall come back, and make amends to you.  It's only for a
+night."
+
+Maskull gazed from one to the other in perplexity.  "Let me go alone.
+I would be sorry if anything happened."
+
+Gleameil shook her head.
+
+"Don't regard this as a woman's caprice," she said.  "Even if you
+hadn't passed this way, I would have heard that music soon.  I have a
+hunger for it."
+
+"Haven't you any such feeling, Polecrab?"
+
+"No.  A woman is a noble and sensitive creature, and there are
+attractions in nature too subtle for males.  Take her with you, since
+she is set on it.  Maybe she's right.  Perhaps Earthrid's music will
+answer your questions, and hers too."
+
+"What are your questions, Gleameil?"
+
+The woman shed a strange smile.  "You may be sure that a question
+which requires music for an answer can't be put into words."
+
+"If you are not back by the morning," remarked her husband, "I will
+know you are dead."
+
+The meal was finished in a constrained silence.  Polecrab wiped his
+mouth, and produced a seashell from a kind of pocket.
+
+"Will you say goodbye to the boys?  Shall I call them?"  She
+considered a moment.
+
+"Yes--yes, I must see them."
+
+He put the shell to his mouth, and blew; a loud, mournful noise
+passed through the air.
+
+A few minutes later there was a sound of scurrying footsteps, and the
+boys were seen emerging from the forest.  Maskull looked with
+curiosity at the first children he had seen on Tormance.  The oldest
+boy was carrying the youngest on his back, while the third trotted
+some distance behind.  The child was let down, and all the three
+formed a semicircle in front of Maskull, standing staring up at him
+with wide-open eyes.  Polecrab looked on stolidly, but Gleameil
+glanced away from them, with proudly raised head and a baffling
+expression.
+
+Maskull put the ages of the boys at about nine, seven, and five
+years, respectively; but he was calculating according to Earth time.
+The eldest was tall, slim, but strongly built.  He, like his
+brothers, was naked, and his skin from top to toe was ulfire-colored.
+His facial muscles indicated a wild and daring nature, and his eyes
+were like green fires.  The second showed promise of being a broad,
+powerful man.  His head was large and heavy, and drooped.  His face
+and skin were reddish.  His eyes were almost too sombre and
+penetrating for a child's.
+
+"That one," said Polecrab, pinching the boy's ear, "may perhaps grow
+up to be a second Broodviol."
+
+"Who was that?" demanded the boy, bending his head forward to hear
+the answer.
+
+"A big, old man, of marvellous wisdom.  He became wise by making up
+his mind never to ask questions, but to find things out for himself."
+
+"If I had not asked this question, I should not have known about
+him."
+
+"That would not have mattered," replied the father.
+
+The youngest child was paler and slighter than his brothers.  His
+face was mostly tranquil and expressionless, but it had this
+peculiarity about it, that every few minutes, without any apparent
+cause, it would wrinkle up and look perplexed.  At these times his
+eyes, which were of a tawny gold, seemed to contain secrets difficult
+to associate with one of his age.
+
+"He puzzles me," said Polecrab.  "He has a soul like sap, and he's
+interested in nothing.  He may turn out to be the most remarkable of
+the bunch."
+
+Maskull took the child in one hand, and lifted him as high as his
+head.  He took a good look at him, and set him down again.  The boy
+never changed countenance.
+
+"What do you make of him?" asked the fisherman.
+
+"It's on the tip of my tongue to say, but it just escapes me.  Let me
+drink again, and then I shall have it."
+
+"Go and drink, then."
+
+Maskull strode over to the tree, drank, and returned.  "In ages to
+come," he said, speaking deliberately, "he will be a grand and awful
+tradition.  A seer possibly, or even a divinity.  Watch over him
+well."
+
+The eldest boy looked scornful.  "I want to be none of those things.
+I would like to be like that big fellow."  And he pointed his finger
+at Maskull.
+
+He laughed, and showed his white teeth through his beard.  "Thanks
+for the compliments old warrior!" he said.
+
+"He's great and brawny" continued the boy, "and can hold his own with
+other men.  Can you hold me up with one arm, as you did that child?"
+
+Maskull complied.
+
+"That is being a man!" exclaimed the boy.  "Enough!" said Polecrab
+impatiently.  "I called you lads here to say goodbye to your mother.
+She is going away with this man.  I think she may not return, but we
+don't know."
+
+The second boy's face became suddenly inflamed.  "Is she going of her
+own choice?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," replied the father.
+
+"Then she is bad."  He brought the words out with such force and
+emphasis that they sounded like the crack of a whip.
+
+The old man cuffed him twice.  "Is it your mother you are speaking
+of?"
+
+The boy stood his ground, without change of expression, but said
+nothing.
+
+The youngest child spoke, for the first time.  "My mother will not
+come back, but she will die dancing."
+
+Polecrab and his wife looked at one another.
+
+"Where are you going to, Mother?" asked the eldest lad.
+
+Gleameil bent down, and kissed him.  "To the Island."
+
+"Well then, if you don't come back by tomorrow morning, I will go and
+look for you."
+
+Maskull grew more and more uneasy in his mind.  "This seems to me to
+be a man's journey," he said.  "I think it would be better for you
+not to come, Gleameil."
+
+"I am not to be dissuaded," she replied.
+
+He stroked his beard in perplexity.  "Is it time to start?"
+
+"It wants four hours to sunset, and we shall need all that."
+
+Maskull sighed.  "I'll go to the mouth of the creek, and wait there
+for you and the raft.  You will wish to make your farewells,
+Gleameil."
+
+He then clasped Polecrab by the hand.  "Adieu, fisherman!"
+
+"You have repaid me well for my answers," said the old man gruffly.
+"But it's not your fault, and in Shaping's world the worst things
+happen."
+
+The eldest boy came close to Maskull, and frowned at him.  "Farewell,
+big man!" he said.  "But guard my mother well, as well as you are
+well able to, or I shall follow you, and kill you."
+
+Maskull walked slowly along the creek bank till he came to the bend.
+The glorious sunshine, and the sparkling, brilliant sea then met his
+eyes again; and all melancholy was swept out of his mind.  He
+continued as far as the seashore, and issuing out of the shadows of
+the forest, strolled on to the sands, and sat down in the full
+sunlight.  The radiance of Alppain had long since disappeared.  He
+drank in the hot, invigorating wind, listened to the hissing waves,
+and stared over the coloured sea with its pinnacles and currents, at
+Swaylone's Island.
+
+"What music can that be, which tears a wife and mother away from all
+she loves the most?" he meditated.  "It sounds unholy.  Will it tell
+me what I want to know?  Can it?"
+
+In a little while he became aware of a movement behind him, and,
+turning his head, he saw the raft floating along the creek, toward
+the open sea.  Polecrab was standing upright, propelling it with a
+rude pole.  He passed by Maskull, without looking at him. or making
+any salutation, and proceeded out to sea.
+
+While he was wondering at this strange behaviour, Gleameil and the
+boys came in sight, walking along the bank of the inlet.  The eldest-
+born was holding her hand, and talking; and the other two were
+behind.  She was calm and smiling, but seemed abstracted.
+
+"What is your husband doing with the raft?" asked Maskull.
+
+"He's putting it in position and we shall wade out and join it," she
+answered, in her low-toned voice.
+
+"But how shall we make the island, without oars or sails?"
+
+"Don't you see that current running away from land?  See, he is
+approaching it.  That will take us straight there."
+
+"But how can you get back?"
+
+"There is a way; but we need not think of that today."
+
+"Why shouldn't I come too?" demanded the eldest boy.
+
+"Because the raft won't carry three.  Maskull is a heavy man."
+
+"It doesn't matter," said the boy.  "I know where there is wood for
+another raft.  As soon as you have gone, I shall set to work."
+
+Polecrab had by this time manoeuvred his flimsy craft to the position
+he desired, within a few yards of the current, which at that point
+made a sharp bend from the east.  He shouted out some words to his
+wife and Maskull.  Gleameil kissed her children convulsively, and
+broke down a little.  The eldest boy bit his lip till it bled, and
+tears glistened in his eyes; but the younger children stared wide-
+eyed, and displayed no emotion.
+
+Gleameil now walked into the sea, followed by Maskull.  The water
+covered first their ankles, then their knees, but when it came as
+high as their waists, they were close on the raft.  Polecrab let
+himself down into the water, and assisted his wife to climb over the
+side.  When she was up, she bent down and kissed him.  No words were
+exchanged.  Maskull scrambled up on to the front part of the raft.
+The woman sat cross-legged in the stem, and seized the pole.
+
+Polecrab shoved them off toward the current, while she worked her
+pole until they had got within its power.  The raft immediately began
+to travel swiftly away from land, with a smooth, swaying motion.
+
+The boys waved from the shore.  Gleameil responded; but Maskull
+turned his back squarely to land, and gazed ahead.  Polecrab was
+wading back to the shore.
+
+For upward of an hour Maskull did not change his position by an inch.
+No sound was heard but the splashing of the strange waves all around
+them, and the streamlike gurgle of the current, which threaded its
+way smoothly through the tossing, tumultuous sea.  From their pathway
+of safety, the beautiful dangers surrounding them were an
+exhilarating experience.  The air was fresh and clean, and the heat
+from Branchspell, now low in the west, was at last endurable.  The
+riot of sea colors had long since banished all sadness and anxiety
+from his heart.  Yet he felt such a grudge against the woman for
+selfishly forsaking those who should have been dear to her that he
+could not bring himself to begin a conversation.
+
+But when, over the now enlarged shape of the dark island, he caught
+sight of a long chain of lofty, distant mountains, glowing salmon-
+pink in the evening sunlight, he felt constrained to break the
+silence by inquiring what they were.
+
+"It is Lichstorm," said Gleameil.
+
+Maskull asked no questions about it; but in turning to address her,
+his eyes had rested on the rapidly receding Wombflash Forest, and he
+continued to stare at that.  They had travelled about eight miles,
+and now he could better estimate the enormous height of the trees.
+Overtopping them, far away, he saw Sant; and he fancied, but was not
+quite sure, that he could distinguish Disscourn as well.
+
+"Now that we are alone in a strange place," said Gleameil, averting
+her head, and looking down over the side of the raft into the water,
+"tell me what you thought of Polecrab."
+
+Maskull paused before answering.  "He seemed to me like a mountain
+wrapped in cloud.  You see the lower buttresses, and think that is
+all.  But then, high up, far above the clouds, you suddenly catch
+sight of more mountain--and even then it is not the top."
+
+"You read character well, and have great perception," remarked
+Gleameil quietly.  "Now say what I am."
+
+"In place of a human heart, you have a wild harp, and that's all I
+know about you."
+
+"What was that you said to my husband about two worlds?"
+
+"You heard."
+
+"Yes, I heard.  And I also am conscious of two worlds.  My husband
+and boys are real to me, and I love them fondly.  But there is
+another world for me, as there is for you, Maskull, and it makes my
+real world appear all false and vulgar."
+
+"Perhaps we are seeking the same thing.  But can it be right to
+satisfy our self-nature at the expense of other people?"
+
+"No, it's not right.  It is wrong, and base.  But in that other world
+these words have no meaning."
+
+There was a silence.
+
+"It's useless to discuss such topics," said Maskull.  "The choice is
+now out of our hands, and we must go where we are taken.  What I
+would rather speak about is what awaits us on the island."
+
+"I am ignorant--except that we shall find Earthrid there."
+
+"Who is Earthrid, and why is it called Swaylone's Island?"
+
+"They say Earthrid came from Threal, but I know nothing else about
+him.  As for Swaylone, if you like I will tell you his legend."
+
+"If you please," said Maskull.
+
+"In a far-back age," began Gleameil, "when the seas were hot, and
+clouds hung heavily over the earth, and life was rich with
+transformations, Swaylone came to this island, on which men had never
+before set foot, and began to play his music--the first music in
+Tormance.  Nightly, when the moon shone, people used to gather on
+this shore behind us, and listen to the faint, sweet strains floating
+from over the sea.  One night, Shaping (whom you call Crystalman) was
+passing this way in company with Krag.  They listened a while to the
+music, and Shaping said 'Have you heard more beautiful sounds?  This
+is my world and my music.'  Krag stamped with his foot, and laughed.
+'You must do better than that, if I am to admire it.  Let us pass
+over, and see this bungler at work.'  Shaping consented, and they
+passed over to the island.  Swaylone was not able to see their
+presence.  Shaping stood behind him, and breathed thoughts into his
+soul, so that his music became ten times lovelier, and people
+listening on that shore went mad with sick delight.  'Can any strains
+be nobler?' demanded Shaping.  Krag grinned and said, 'You are
+naturally effeminate.  Now let me try.'  Then he stood behind
+Swaylone, and shot ugly discords fast into his head.  His instrument
+was so cracked, that never since has it played right.  From that time
+forth Swaylone could utter only distorted music; yet it called to
+folk more than the other sort.  Many men crossed over to the island
+during his lifetime, to listen to the amazing tones, but none could
+endure them; all died.  After Swaylone's death, another musician took
+up the tale; and so the light has passed down from torch to torch,
+till now Earthrid bears it."
+
+"An interesting legend," commented Maskull.  "But who is Krag?"
+
+"They say that when the world was born, Krag was born with it--a
+spirit compounded of those vestiges of Muspel which Shaping did not
+know how to transform.  Thereafter nothing has gone right with the
+world, for he dogs Shaping's footsteps everywhere, and whatever the
+latter does, he undoes.  To love he joins death; to sex, shame; to
+intellect, madness; to virtue, cruelty; and to fair exteriors, bloody
+entrails.  These are Krag's actions, so the lovers of the world call
+him 'devil.'  They don't understand, Maskull, that without him the
+world would lose its beauty."
+
+"Krag and beauty!" exclaimed he, with a cynical smile.
+
+"Even so.  That same beauty which you and I are now voyaging to
+discover.  That beauty for whose sake I am renouncing husband,
+children, and happiness....  Did you imagine beauty to be pleasant?"
+
+"Surely."
+
+"That pleasant beauty is an insipid compound of Shaping.  To see
+beauty in its terrible purity, you must tear away the pleasure from
+it."
+
+"Do you say I am going to seek beauty, Gleameil?  Such an idea is far
+from my mind."
+
+She did not respond to his remark.  After waiting for a few minutes,
+to hear if she would speak again, he turned his back on her once
+more.  There was no more talk until they reached the island.
+
+The air had grown chill and damp by the time they approached its
+shores.  Branchspell was on the point of touching the sea.  The
+Island appeared to be some three or four miles in length.  There were
+first of all broad sands, then low, dark cliffs, and behind these a
+wilderness of insignificant, swelling hills, entirely devoid of
+vegetation.  The current bore them to within a hundred yards of the
+coast, when it made a sharp angle, and proceeded to skirt the length
+of the land.
+
+Gleameil jumped overboard, and began swimming to shore.  Maskull
+followed her example, and the raft, abandoned, was rapidly borne away
+by the current.  They soon touched ground, and were able to wade the
+rest of the way.  By the time they reached dry land, the sun had set.
+
+Gleameil made straight for the hills; and Maskull, after casting a
+single glance at the low, dim outline of the Wombflash Forest,
+followed her.  The cliffs were soon scrambled up.  Then the ascent
+was gentle and easy, while the rich, dry, brown mould was good to
+walk upon.
+
+A little way off, on their left, something white was shining.
+
+"You need not go to it," said the woman.  "It can be nothing else
+than one of those skeletons Polecrab talked about.  And look--there
+is another one over there!"
+
+"This brings it home!" remarked Maskull, smiling.
+
+"There is nothing comical in having died for beauty," said Gleameil,
+bending her brows at him.
+
+And when in the course of their walk he saw the innumerable human
+bones, from gleaming white to dirty yellow, lying scattered about, as
+if it were a naked graveyard among the hills, he agreed with her, and
+fell into a sombre mood.
+
+It was still light when they reached the highest point, and could set
+eyes on the other side.  The sea to the north of the island was in no
+way different from that which they had crossed, but its lively colors
+were fast becoming invisible.
+
+"That is Matterplay," said the woman, pointing her finger toward some
+low land on the horizon, which seemed to be even farther off than
+Wombflash.
+
+"I wonder how Digrung passed over," meditated Maskull.
+
+Not far away, in a hollow enclosed by a circle of little hills, they
+saw a small, circular lake, not more than half a mile in diameter.
+The sunset colors of the sky were reflected in its waters.
+
+"That must be Irontick," remarked Gleameil.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"I have heard that it's the instrument Earthrid plays on."
+
+"We are getting close," responded he.  "Let us go and investigate."
+
+When they drew nearer, they observed that a man was reclining on the
+farther side, in an attitude of sleep.
+
+"If that's not the man himself, who can it be?" said Maskull.  "Let's
+get across the water, if it will bear us; it will save time."
+
+He now assumed the lead, and took running strides down the slope
+which bounded the lake on that side.  Gleameil followed him with
+greater dignity, keeping her eyes fixed on the recumbent man as if
+fascinated.  When Maskull reached the water's edge, he tried it with
+one foot, to discover if it would carry his weight.  Something
+unusual in its appearance led him to have doubts.  It was a tranquil,
+dark, and beautifully reflecting sheet of water; it resembled a
+mirror of liquid metal.  Finding that it would bear him, and that
+nothing happened, he placed his second foot on its surface.
+Instantly he sustained a violent shock throughout his body, as from a
+powerful electric current; and he was hurled in a tumbled heap back
+on to the bank.
+
+He picked himself up, brushed the dirt off his person, and started
+walking around the lake.  Gleameil joined him, and they completed the
+half circuit together.  They came to the man, and Maskull prodded him
+with his foot.  He woke up, and blinked at them.
+
+His face was pale, weak, and vacant-looking, and had a disagreeable
+expression.  There were thin sprouts of black hair on his chin and
+head.  On his forehead, in place of a third eye, he possessed a
+perfectly circular organ, with elaborate convolutions, like an ear.
+He had an unpleasant smell.  He appeared to be of young middle age.
+
+"Wake up, man," said Maskull sharply, "and tell us if you are
+Earthrid."
+
+"What time is it?" counterquestioned the man.  "Does it want long to
+moonrise?"
+
+Without appearing to care about an answer, he sat up, and turning
+away from them, began to scoop up the loose soil with his hand, and
+to eat it halfheartedly.
+
+"Now, how can you eat that filth?" demanded Maskull, in disgust.
+
+"Don't be angry, Maskull," said Gleameil, laying hold of his arm, and
+flushing a little.  "It is Earthrid--the man who is to help us."
+
+"He has not said so."
+
+"I am Earthrid," said the other, in his weak and muffled voice,
+which, however, suddenly struck Maskull as being autocratic.  "What
+do you want here?  Or rather, you had better get away as quickly as
+you can, for it will be too late when Teargeld rises."
+
+"You need not explain," exclaimed Maskull.  "We know your reputation,
+and we have come to hear your music.  But what's that organ for on
+your forehead?"
+
+Earthrid glared, and smiled, and glared again.
+
+"That is for rhythm, which is what changes noise into music.  Don't
+stand and argue, but go away.  It is no pleasure to me to people the
+island with corpses.  They corrupt the air, and do nothing else."
+
+Darkness now crept swiftly on over the landscape.
+
+"You are rather bigmouthed," said Maskull coolly.  "But after we have
+heard you play, perhaps I shall adventure a tune myself."
+
+"You?  Are you a musician, then?  Do you even know what music is?"
+
+A flame danced in Gleameil's eyes.
+
+"Maskull thinks music reposes in the instrument," she said in her
+intense way.  "But it is in the soul of the Master."
+
+"Yes," said Earthrid, "but that is not all.  I will tell you what it
+is.  In Threal, where I was born and brought up, we learn the mystery
+of the Three in nature.  This world, which lies extended before us,
+has three directions.  Length is the line which shuts off what is,
+from what is not.  Breadth is the surface which shows us in what
+manner one thing of what-is, lives with another thing.  Depth is the
+path which leads from what-is, to our own body.  In music it is not
+otherwise.  Tone is existence, without which nothing at all can be.
+Symmetry and Numbers are the manner in which tones exist, one with
+another.  Emotion is the movement of our soul toward the wonderful
+world that is being created.  Now, men when they make music are
+accustomed to build beautiful tones, because of the delight they
+cause.  Therefore their music world is based on pleasure; its
+symmetry is regular and charming, its emotion is sweet and lovely....
+But my music is founded on painful tones; and thus its symmetry is
+wild, and difficult to discover; its emotion is bitter and terrible."
+
+"If I had not anticipated its being original, I would not have come
+here," said Maskull.  "Still, explain--why can't harsh tones have
+simple symmetry of form?  And why must they necessarily cause more
+profound emotions in us who listen?"
+
+"Pleasures may harmonise.  Pains must clash; and in the order of
+their clashing lies the symmetry.  The emotions follow the music,
+which is rough and earnest."
+
+"You may call it music," remarked Maskull thoughtfully, "but to me it
+bears a closer resemblance to actual life."
+
+"If Shaping's plans had gone straight, life would have been like that
+other sort of music.  He who seeks can find traces of that intention
+in the world of nature.  But as it has turned out, real life
+resembles my music and mine is the true music."
+
+"Shall we see living shapes?"
+
+"I don't know what my mood will be," returned Earthrid.  "But when I
+have finished, you shall adventure your tune, and produce whatever
+shapes you please--unless, indeed, the tune is out of your own big
+body."
+
+"The shocks you are preparing may kill us," said Gleameil, in a low,
+taut voice, "but we shall die, seeing beauty."
+
+Earthrid looked at her with a dignified expression.
+
+"Neither you, nor any other person, can endure the thoughts which I
+put into my music.  Still, you must have it your own way.  It needed
+a woman to call it 'beauty.'  But if this is beauty, what is
+ugliness?"
+
+"That I can tell you, Master," replied Gleameil, smiling at him.
+"Ugliness is old, stale life, while yours every night issues fresh
+from the womb of nature."
+
+Earthrid stared at her, without response.  "Teargeld is rising," he
+said at last.  "And now you shall see--though not for long."
+
+As the words left his mouth, the full moon peeped over the hills in
+the dark eastern sky.  They watched it in silence, and soon it was
+wholly up.  It was larger than the moon of Earth, and seemed nearer.
+Its shadowy parts stood out in just as strong relief, but somehow it
+did not give Maskull the impression of being a dead world.
+Branchspell shone on the whole of it, but Alppain only on a part.
+The broad crescent that reflected Branchspell's rays alone was white
+and brilliant; but the part that was illuminated by both suns shone
+with a greenish radiance that had almost solar power, and yet was
+cold and cheerless.  On gazing at that combined light, he felt the
+same sense of disintegration that the afterglow of Alppain had always
+caused in him; but now the feeling was not physical, but merely
+aesthetic.  The moon did not appear romantic to him, but disturbing
+and mystical.
+
+Earthrid rose, and stood quietly for a minute.  In the bright
+moonlight, his face seemed to have undergone a change.  It lost its
+loose, weak, disagreeable look, and acquired a sort of crafty
+grandeur.  He clapped his hands together meditatively two or three
+times, and walked up and down.  The others stood together, watching
+him.
+
+Then he sat down by the side of the lake, and, leaning on his side,
+placed his right hand, open palm downward, on the ground, at the same
+time stretching out his right leg, so that the foot was in contact
+with the water.
+
+While Maskull was in the act of staring at him and at the lake, he
+felt a stabbing sensation right through his heart, as though he had
+been pierced by a rapier.  He barely recovered himself from falling,
+and as he did so he saw that a spout had formed on the water, and was
+now subsiding again.  The next moment he was knocked down by a
+violent blow in the mouth, delivered by an invisible hand.  He picked
+himself up; and observed that a second spout had formed.  No sooner
+was he on his legs, than a hideous pain hammered away inside his
+brain, as if caused by a malignant tumour.  In his agony, he stumbled
+and fell again; this time on the arm Krag had wounded.  All his other
+mishaps were forgotten in this one, which half stunned him.  It
+lasted only a moment, and then sudden relief came, and he found that
+Earthrid's rough music had lost its power over him.
+
+He saw him still stretched in the same position.  Spouts were coming
+thick and fast on the lake, which was full of lively motion.  But
+Gleameil was not on her legs.  She was lying on the ground, in a
+heap, without moving.  Her attitude was ugly, and he guessed she was
+dead.  When he reached her, he discovered that she was dead.  In what
+state of mind she had died, he did not know, for her face wore the
+vulgar Crystalman grin.  The whole tragedy had not lasted five
+minutes.
+
+He went over to Earthrid and dragged him forcibly away from his
+playing.
+
+"You have been as good as your word, musician," he said.  "Gleameil
+is dead."
+
+Earthrid tried to collect his scattered senses.
+
+"I warned her," he replied, sitting up.  "Did I not beg her to go
+away?  But she died very easily.  She did not wait for the beauty she
+spoke about.  She heard nothing of the passion, nor even of the
+rhythm.  Neither have you."
+
+Maskull looked down at him in indignation, but said nothing.
+
+"You should not have interrupted me," went on Earthrid.  "When I am
+playing, nothing else is of importance.  I might have lost the thread
+of my ideas.  Fortunately, I never forget.  I shall start over again."
+
+"If music is to continue, in the presence of the dead, I play next."
+
+The man glanced up quickly.
+
+"That can't be."
+
+"It must be," said Maskull decisively.  "I prefer playing to
+listening.  Another reason is that you will have every night, but I
+have only tonight."
+
+Earthrid clenched and unclenched his fist, and began to turn pale.
+"With your recklessness, you are likely to kill us both.  Irontick
+belongs to me, and until you have learned how to play, you would only
+break the instrument."
+
+"Well, then, I will break it; but I am going to try."
+
+The musician jumped to his feet and confronted him.  "Do you intend to
+take it from me by violence?"
+
+"Keep calm!  You will have the same choice that you offered us.  I
+shall give you time to go away somewhere."
+
+"How will that serve me, if you spoil my lake?  You don't understand
+what you are doing."
+
+"Go, or stay!" responded Maskull.  "I give you till the water gets
+smooth again.  After that, I begin playing."
+
+Earthrid kept swallowing.  He glanced at the lake and back to
+Maskull.
+
+"Do you swear it?"
+
+"How long that will take, you know better than I; but till then you
+are safe."
+
+Earthrid cast him a look of malice, hesitated for an instant, and
+then moved away, and started to climb the nearest hill.  Halfway up
+he glanced over his shoulder apprehensively, as if to see what was
+happening.  In another minute or so, he had disappeared over the
+crest, travelling in the direction of the shore that faced
+Matterplay.
+
+Later, when the water was once more tranquil.  Maskull sat down by
+its edge, in imitation of Earthrid's attitude.  He knew neither how
+to set about producing his music, nor what would come of it.  But
+audacious projects entered his brain and he willed to create physical
+shapes--and, above all, one shape, that of Surtur.
+
+Before putting his foot to the water, he turned things over a little
+in his mind.
+
+He said, "What themes are in common music, shapes  are in this music.
+The composer does not find his theme by picking out single notes; but
+the whole theme flashes into his mind by inspiration.  So it must be
+with shapes.  When I start playing, if I am worth anything, the
+undivided ideas will pass from my unconscious mind to this lake, and
+then, reflected back in the dimensions of reality, I shall be for the
+first time made acquainted with them.  So it must be."
+
+The instant his foot touched the water, he felt his thoughts flowing
+from him.  He did not know what they were, but the mere act of
+flowing created a sensation of joyful mastery.  With this was
+curiosity to learn what they would prove to be.  Spouts formed on the
+lake in increasing numbers, but he experienced no pain.  His
+thoughts, which he knew to be music, did not issue from him in a
+steady, unbroken stream, but in great, rough gushes, succeeding
+intervals of quiescence.  When these gushes came, the whole lake
+broke out in an eruption of spouts.
+
+He realised that the ideas passing from him did not arise in his
+intellect, but had their source in the fathomless depths of his will.
+He could not decide what character they should have, but he was able
+to force them out, or retard them, by the exercise of his volition.
+
+At first nothing changed around him.  Then the moon grew dimmer, and
+a strange, new radiance began to illuminate the landscape.  It
+increased so imperceptibly that it was some time before he recognised
+it as the Muspel-light which he had seen in the Wombflash Forest.  He
+could not give it a colour, or a name, but it filled him with a sort
+of stern and sacred awe.  He called up the resources of his powerful
+will.  The spouts thickened like a forest, and many of them were
+twenty feet high.  Teargeld looked faint and pale; the radiance
+became intense; but it cast no shadows.  The wind got up, but where
+Maskull was sitting, it was calm.  Shortly afterward it began to
+shriek and whistle, like a full gale.  He saw no shapes, and
+redoubled his efforts.
+
+His ideas were now rushing out onto the lake so furiously that his
+whole soul was possessed by exhilaration and defiance.  But still he
+did not know their nature.  A huge spout shot up and at the same
+moment the hills began to crack and break.  Great masses of loose
+soil were erupted from their bowels, and in the next period of
+quietness, he saw that the landscape had altered.  Still the
+mysterious light intensified.  The moon disappeared entirely.  The
+noise of the unseen tempest was terrifying, but Maskull played
+heroically on, trying to urge out ideas which would take shape.  The
+hillsides were cleft with chasms.  The water escaping from the tops
+of the spouts, swamped the land; but where he was, it was dry.
+
+The radiance grew terrible.  It was everywhere, but Maskull fancied
+that it was far brighter in one particular quarter.  He thought that
+it was becoming localised, preparatory to contracting into a solid
+form.  He strained and strained....
+
+Immediately afterward the bottom of the lake subsided.  Its waters
+fell through, and his instrument was broken.
+
+The Muspel-light vanished.  The moon shone out again, but Maskull
+could not see it.  After that unearthly shining, he seemed to himself
+to be in total blackness.  The screaming wind ceased; there was a
+dead silence.  His thoughts finished flowing toward the lake, and his
+foot no longer touched water, but hung in space.
+
+He was too stunned by the suddenness of the change to either think or
+feel.  While he was still lying dazed, a vast explosion occurred in
+the newly opened depths beneath the lakebed.  The water in its
+descent had met fire.  Maskull was lifted bodily in the air, many
+yards high, and came down heavily.  He lost consciousness....
+
+
+
+When he came to his senses again, he saw everything.  Teargeld was
+gleaming brilliantly.  He was lying by the side of the old lake, but
+it was now a crater, to the bottom of which his eyes could not
+penetrate.  The hills encircling it were torn, as if by heavy
+gunfire.  A few thunderclouds were floating in the air at no great
+height, from which branched lightning descended to the earth
+incessantly, accompanied by alarming and singular crashes.
+
+He got on his legs, and tested his actions.  Finding that he was
+uninjured, he first of all viewed the crater at closer quarters, and
+then started to walk painfully toward the northern shore.
+
+When he had attained the crest above the lake, the landscape sloped
+gently down for two miles to the sea.  Everywhere he passed through
+traces of his rough work.  The country was carved into scarps,
+grooves, channels, and craters.  He arrived at the line of low cliffs
+overlooking the beach, and found that these also were partly broken
+down by landslips.  He got down onto the sand and stood looking over
+the moonlit, agitated sea, wondering how he could contrive to escape
+from this island of failure.
+
+Then he saw Earthrid's body, lying quite close to him.  It was on its
+back.  Both legs had been violently torn off and he could not see
+them anywhere.  Earthrid's teeth were buried in the flesh of his
+right forearm, indicating that the man had died in unreasoning
+physical agony.  The skin gleamed green in the moonlight, but it was
+stained by darker discolourations, which were wounds.  The sand about
+him was dyed by the pool of blood which had long since filtered
+through.
+
+Maskull left the corpse in dismay, and walked a long way along the
+sweet-smelling shore.  Sitting down on a rock, he waited for
+daybreak.
+
+
+
+Chapter 16
+
+LEEHALLFAE
+
+At midnight, when Teargeld was in the south, throwing his shadow
+straight toward the sea and making everything nearly as bright as
+day, he saw a great tree floating in the water, not far out.  It was
+thirty feet out of the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must
+have been enormously deep and wide.  It was drifting along the coast,
+through the heavy seas.  Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few
+minutes.  Then it dawned on him that it might be a good thing to
+investigate its nature.  Without stopping to weigh the danger, he
+immediately swam out, caught hold of the lowest branch, and swung
+himself up.
+
+He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
+terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head.  He made
+his way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were
+covered with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed.  Arriving
+at the crown, he found that it actually was a sort of head, for there
+were membranes like rudimentary eyes all the way around it, denoting
+some form of low intelligence.
+
+At that moment the tree touched bottom, though some way from the
+shore, and began to bump heavily.  To steady himself, Maskull put his
+hand out, and, in doing so, accidentally covered some of the
+membranes.  The tree sheered off the land, as if by an act of will.
+When it was steady again, Maskull removed his hand; they at once
+drifted back to shore.  He thought a bit, and then started
+experimenting with the eyelike membranes.  It was as he had guessed--
+these eyes were stimulated by the light of the moon, and whichever
+way the light came from, the tree would travel.
+
+A rather defiant smile crossed Maskull's face as it struck him that
+it might be possible to navigate this huge plant-animal as far as
+Matterplay.  He lost no time in putting the conception into
+execution.  Tearing off some of the long, tough leaves, he bound up
+all the membranes except the ones that faced the north.  The tree
+instantly left the island, and definitely put out to sea.  It
+travelled due north.  It was not moving at more than a mile an hour,
+however, while Matterplay was possibly forty miles distant.
+
+The great spout waves fell against the trunk with mighty thuds; the
+breaking seas hissed through the lower branches--Maskull rested high
+and dry, but was more than a little apprehensive about their slow
+rate of progress.  Presently he sighted a current racing along toward
+the north-west, and that put another idea into his head.  He began to
+juggle with the membranes again, and before long had succeeded in
+piloting his tree into the fast-running stream.  As soon as they were
+fairly in its rapids, he blinded the crown entirely, and
+thenceforward the current acted in the double capacity of road and
+steed.
+
+Maskull made himself secure among the branches and slept for the
+remainder of the night.
+
+When his eyes opened again, the island was out of sight.  Teargeld
+was setting in the western sea.  The sky in the east was bright with
+the colours of the approaching day.  The air was cool and fresh; the
+light over the sea was beautiful, gleaming, and mysterious.  Land--
+probably Matterplay--lay ahead, a long, dark line of low cliffs,
+perhaps a mile away.  The current no longer ran toward the shore, but
+began to skirt the coast without drawing any closer to it.  As soon
+as Maskull realised the fact, he manoeuvred the tree out of its
+channel and started drifting it inshore.  The eastern sky blazed up
+suddenly with violent dyes, and the outer rim of Branchspell lifted
+itself above the sea.  The moon had already sunk.
+
+The shore loomed nearer and nearer.  In physical character it was
+like Swaylone's Island--the same wide sands, small cliffs, and
+rounded, insignificant hills inland, without vegetation.  In the
+early-morning sunlight, however, it looked romantic.  Maskull,
+hollow-eyed and morose, cared nothing for all that, but the moment
+the tree grounded, clambered swiftly down through the branches and
+dropped into the sea.  By the time he had swam ashore, the white,
+stupendous sun was high above the horizon.
+
+He walked along the sands toward the east for a considerable
+distance, without having any special intention in his mind.  He
+thought he would go on until he came to some creek or valley, and
+then turn up it.  The sun's rays were cheering, and began to relieve
+him of his oppressive night weight.  After strolling along the beach
+for about a mile, he was stopped by a broad stream that flowed into
+the sea out of a kind of natural gateway in the line of cliffs.  Its
+water was of a beautiful, limpid green, all filled with bubbles.  So
+ice-cold, aerated, and enticing did it look that he flung himself
+face downward on the ground and took a prolonged draught.  When he
+got up again his eyes started to play pranks--they became
+alternately blurted and clear....  It may have been pure imagination,
+but he fancied that Digrung was moving inside him.
+
+He followed the bank of the stream through the gap in the cliffs, and
+then for the first time saw the real Matterplay.  A valley appeared,
+like a jewel enveloped by naked rock.  All the hill country was bare
+and lifeless, but this valley lying in the heart of it was extremely
+fertile; he had never seen such fertility.  It wound up among the
+hills, and all that he was looking at was its broad lower end.  The
+floor of the valley was about half a mile wide; the stream that ran
+down its middle was nearly a hundred feet across, but was exceedingly
+shallow--in most places not more than a few inches deep.  The sides
+of the valley were about seventy feet high, but very sloping; they
+were clothed from top to bottom with little, bright-leaved trees--
+not of varied tints of one colour, like Earth trees, but of widely
+diverse colours, most of which were brilliant and positive.
+
+The floor itself was like a magician's garden.  Densely interwoven
+trees, shrubs, and parasitical climbers fought everywhere for
+possession of it.  The forms were strange and grotesque, and each one
+seemed different; the colours of leaf, flower, sexual organs, and
+stem were equally peculiar--all the different combinations of the
+five primary colours of Tormance seemed to be represented, and the
+result, for Maskull was a sort of eye chaos.  So rank was the
+vegetation that he could not fight his way through it; he was obliged
+to take to the riverbed.  The contact of the water created an odd
+tingling sensation throughout his body, like a mild electric shock.
+There were no birds, but a few extraordinary-looking winged
+reptiles of small size kept crossing the valley from hill to hill.
+Swarms of flying insects clustered around him, threatening mischief,
+but in the end it turned out that his blood was disagreeable to them.
+for he was not bitten once.  Repulsive crawling creatures resembling
+centipedes, scorpions, snakes, and so forth were in myriads on the
+banks of the stream, but they also made no attempt to use their
+weapons on his bare legs and feet, as he passed through them into the
+water....  Presently however, he was confronted in midstream by a
+hideous monster, of the size of a pony, but resembling in shape--if
+it resembled anything--a sea crustacean; and then he came to a halt.
+They stared at one another, the beast with wicked eyes, Maskull with
+cool and wary ones.  While he was staring, a singular thing happened
+to him.
+
+His eyes blurred again.  But when in a minute or two this blurring
+passed away and he saw clearly once more, his vision had changed in
+character.  He was looking right through the animal's body and could
+distinguish all its interior parts.  The outer crust, however, and
+all the hard tissues were misty and semi-transparent; through them a
+luminous network of blood-red veins and arteries stood out in
+startling distinctness.  The hard parts faded away to nothingness,
+and the blood system alone was left.  Not even the fleshy ducts
+remained.  The naked blood alone was visible, flowing this way and
+that like a fiery, liquid skeleton, in the shape of the monster.
+Then this blood began to change too.  Instead of a continuous liquid
+stream, Maskull perceived that it was composed of a million
+individual points.  The red colour had been an illusion caused by the
+rapid motion of the points; he now saw clearly that they resembled
+minute suns in their scintillating brightness.  They seemed like a
+double drift of stars, streaming through space.  One drift was
+travelling toward a fixed point in the centre, while the other was
+moving away from it.  He recognised the former as the veins of the
+beast, the latter as the arteries, and the fixed point as the heart.
+
+While he was still looking, lost in amazement, the starry network
+went out suddenly like an extinguished flame.  Where the crustacean
+had stood, there was nothing.  Yet through this "nothing" he could
+not see the landscape.  Something was standing there that intercepted
+the light, though it possessed neither shape, colour, nor substance.
+And now the object, which could no longer be perceived by vision,
+began to be felt by emotion.  A delightful, springlike sense of
+rising sap, of quickening pulses of love, adventure, mystery, beauty,
+femininity--took possession of his being, and, strangely enough, he
+identified it with the monster.  Why that invisible brute should
+cause him to feel young, sexual, and audacious, he did not ask
+himself, for he was fully occupied with the effect.  But it was as if
+flesh, bones, and blood had been discarded, and he were face to face
+with naked Life itself, which slowly passed into his own body.
+
+The sensations died away.  There was a brief interval, and then the
+streaming, starlike skeleton rose up again out of space.  It changed
+to the red-blood system.  The hard parts of the body reappeared, with
+more and more distinctness, and at the same time the network of blood
+grew fainter.  Presently the interior parts were entirely concealed
+by the crust--the creature stood opposite Maskull in its old
+formidable ugliness, hard, painted, and concrete.
+
+Disliking something about him, the crustacean turned aside and
+stumbled awkwardly away on its six legs, with laborious and repulsive
+movements, toward the other bank of the stream.
+
+Maskull's apathy left him after this adventure.  He became uneasy and
+thoughtful.  He imagined that he was beginning to see things through
+Digrung's eyes, and that there were strange troubles immediately
+ahead.  The next time his eyes started to blur, he fought it down
+with his will, and nothing happened.
+
+The valley ascended with many windings toward the hills.  It narrowed
+considerably, and the wooded slopes on either side grew steeper and
+higher.  The stream shrunk to about twenty feet across, but it was
+deeper--it was alive with motion, music, and bubbles.  The electric
+sensations caused by its water became more pronounced, almost
+disagreeably so; but there was nowhere else to walk.  With its
+deafening confusion of sounds from the multitude of living creatures,
+the little valley resembled a vast conversation hall of Nature.  The
+life was still more prolific than before; every square foot of space
+was a tangle of struggling wills, both animal and vegetable.  For a
+naturalist it would have been paradise, for no two shapes were alike,
+and all were fantastic, with individual character.
+
+It looked as if life forms were being coined so fast by Nature that
+there was not physical room for all.  Nevertheless it was not as on
+Earth, where a hundred seeds are scattered in order that one may be
+sown.  Here the young forms seemed to survive, while, to find
+accommodation for them, the old ones perished; everywhere he looked
+they were withering and dying, without any ostensible cause--they
+were simply being killed by new life.
+
+Other creatures sported so wildly, in front of his very eyes, that
+they became of different "kingdoms" altogether.  For example, a fruit
+was lying on the ground, of the size and shape of a lemon, but with a
+tougher skin.  He picked it up, intending to eat the contained pulp;
+but inside it was a fully formed young tree, just on the point of
+bursting its shell.  Maskull threw it away upstream.  It floated back
+toward him; by the time he was even with it, its downward motion had
+stopped and it was swimming against the current.  He fished it out
+and discovered that it had sprouted six rudimentary legs.
+
+Maskull sang no paeans of praise in honour of the gloriously
+overcrowded valley.  On the contrary, he felt deeply cynical and
+depressed.  He thought that the unseen power--whether it was called
+Nature, Life, Will, or God--that was so frantic to rush forward and
+occupy this small, vulgar, contemptible world, could not possess very
+high aims and was not worth much.  How this sordid struggle for an
+hour or two of physical existence could ever be regarded as a deeply
+earnest and important business was beyond his comprehension The
+atmosphere choked him, he longed for air and space.  Thrusting his
+way through to the side of the ravine, he began to climb the
+overhanging cliff, swinging his way up from tree to tree.
+
+When he arrived at the top, Branchspell beat down on him with such
+brutal, white intensity that he saw that there was no staying there.
+He looked around, to ascertain what part of the country he had come
+to.  He had travelled about ten miles from the sea, as the crow
+flies.  The bare, undulating wolds sloped straight down toward it;
+the water glittered in the distance; and on the horizon he was just
+able to make out Swaylone's Island.  Looking north, the land
+continued sloping upward as far as he could see.  Over the crest--
+that is to say, some miles away--a line of black, fantastic-shaped
+rocks of quite another character showed themselves; this was probably
+Threal.  Behind these again, against the sky, perhaps fifty or even a
+hundred miles off, were the peaks of Lichstorm, most of them covered
+with greenish snow that glittered in the sunlight.
+
+They were stupendously high and of weird contours.  Most of them were
+conical to the top, but from the top, great masses of mountain
+balanced themselves at what looked like impossible angles--
+overhanging without apparent support.  A land like that promised
+something new, he thought: extraordinary inhabitants.  The idea took
+shape in his mind to go there, and to travel as swiftly as possible,
+it might even be feasible to get there before sunset.  It was less
+the mountains themselves that attracted him than the country which
+lay beyond--the prospect of setting eyes on the blue sun, which he
+judged to be the wonder of wonders in Tormance.
+
+The direct route was over the hills, but that was out of the
+question, because of the killing heat and the absence of shade.  He
+guessed, however, that the valley would not take him far out of his
+way, and decided to keep to that for the time being, much as he hated
+and feared it.  Into the hotbed of life, therefore, he once more
+swung himself.
+
+Once down, he continued to follow the windings of the valley for
+several miles through sunlight and shadow.  The path became
+increasingly difficult.  The cliffs closed in on either side until
+they were less than a hundred yards apart, while the bed of the
+ravine was blocked by boulders, great and small, so that the little
+stream, which was now diminished to the proportions of a brook, had
+to come down where and how it could.  The forms of life grew
+stranger.  Pure plants and pure animals disappeared by degrees, and
+their place was filled by singular creatures that seemed to partake
+of both characters.  They had limbs, faces, will, and intelligence,
+but they remained for the greater part of their time rooted in the
+ground by preference, and they fed only on soil and air.  Maskull saw
+no sexual organs and failed to understand how the young came into
+existence.
+
+Then he witnessed an astonishing sight.  A large and fully developed
+plant-animal appeared suddenly in front of him, out of empty space.
+He could not believe his eyes, but stared at the creature for a long
+time in amazement.  It went on calmly moving and burrowing before
+him, as thought it had been there all its life.  Giving up the
+puzzle, Maskull resumed his striding from rock to rock up the gorge,
+and then, quietly and without warning, the same phenomenon occurred
+again.  No longer could he doubt than he was seeing miracles--that
+Nature was precipitating its shapes into the world without making use
+of the medium of parentage....  No solution of the problem presented
+itself.
+
+The brook too had altered in character.  A trembling radiance came up
+from its green water, like some imprisoned force escaping into the
+air.  He had not walked in it for some time; now he did so, to test
+its quality.  He felt new life entering his body, from his feet
+upward; it resembled a slowly moving cordial, rather than mere heat.
+The sensation was quite new in his experience, yet he knew by
+instinct what it was.  The energy emitted by the brook was ascending
+his body neither as friend nor foe but simply because it happened to
+be the direct road to its objective elsewhere.  But, although it had
+no hostile intentions, it was likely to prove a rough traveller--he
+was clearly conscious that its passage through his body threatened to
+bring about some physical transformation, unless he could do
+something to prevent it.  Leaping quickly out of the water, he leaned
+against a rock, tightened his muscles, and braced himself against the
+impending charge.  At that very moment the blurring again attacked
+his sight, and, while he was guarding against that, his forehead
+sprouted out into a galaxy of new eyes.  He put his hand up and
+counted six, in addition to his old ones.
+
+The danger was past and Maskull laughed, congratulating himself on
+having got off so easily.  Then he wondered what the new organs were
+for--whether they were a good or a bad thing.  He had not taken a
+dozen steps up the ravine before he found out.  Just as he was in the
+act of jumping down from the top of a boulder, his vision altered and
+he came to an automatic standstill.  He was perceiving two worlds
+simultaneously.  With his own eyes he saw the gorge as before, with
+its rocks, brook, plant-animals, sunshine, and shadows.  But with
+his acquired eyes he saw differently.  All the details of the valley
+were visible, but the light seemed turned down, and everything
+appeared faint, hard, and uncoloured.  The sun was obscured by masses
+of cloud which filled the whole sky.  This vapour was in violent and
+almost living motion.  It was thick in extension, but thin in
+texture; some parts, however, were far denser than others, as the
+particles were crushed together or swept apart by the motion.  The
+green sparks from the brook, when closely watched, could be
+distinguished individually, each one wavering up toward the clouds,
+but the moment they got within them a fearful struggle seemed to
+begin.  The spark endeavoured to escape through to the upper air,
+while the clouds concentrated around it whichever way it darted,
+trying to create so dense a prison that further movement would be
+impossible.  As far as Maskull could detect, most of the sparks
+succeeded eventually in finding their way out after frantic efforts;
+but one that he was looking at was caught, and what happened was
+this.  A complete ring of cloud surrounded it, and, in spite of its
+furious leaps and flashes in all directions--as if it were a live,
+savage creature caught in a net--nowhere could it find an opening,
+but it dragged the enveloping cloud stuff with it, wherever it went.
+The vapours continued to thicken around it, until they resembled the
+black, heavy, compressed sky masses seen before a bad thunderstorm.
+Then the green spark, which was still visible in the interior, ceased
+its efforts, and remained for a time quite quiescent.  The cloud
+shape went on consolidating itself, and became nearly spherical; as
+it grew heavier and stiller, it started slowly to descend toward the
+valley floor.  When it was directly opposite Maskull, with its lower
+end only a few feet off the ground, its motion stopped altogether and
+there was a complete pause for at least two minutes.  Suddenly, like
+a stab of forked lightning, the great cloud shot together, became
+small, indented, and coloured, and as a plant-animal started walking
+around on legs and rooting up the ground in search of food.  The
+concluding stage of the phenomenon he witnessed with his normal
+eyesight.  It showed him the creature's appearing miraculously out of
+nowhere.
+
+Maskull was shaken.  His cynicism dropped from him and gave place to
+curiosity and awe.  "That was exactly like the birth of a thought,"
+he said to himself, "but who was the thinker?  Some great Living Mind
+is at work in this spot.  He has intelligence, for all his shapes are
+different, and he has character, for all belong to the same general
+type....  If I'm not wrong, and if it's the force called Shaping or
+Crystalman, I've seen enough to make me want to find out something
+more about him....  It would be ridiculous to go on to other riddles
+before I have solved these."
+
+A voice called out to him from behind, and, turning around, he saw a
+human figure hastening toward him from some distance down the ravine.
+It looked more like a man than a woman.  He was rather tall, but
+nimble, and was clothed in a dark, frocklike garment that reached
+from the neck to below the knees.  Around his head was rolled a
+turban.  Maskull waited for him, and when he was nearer went a little
+way to meet him.
+
+Then he experienced another surprise, for this person, although
+clearly a human being, was neither man nor woman, nor anything
+between the two, but was unmistakably of a third positive sex, which
+was remarkable to behold and difficult to understand.  In order to
+translate into words the sexual impression produced in Maskull's mind
+by the stranger's physical aspect, it is necessary to coin a new
+pronoun, for none in earthly use would be applicable.  Instead of
+"he," "she," or "it," therefore "ae" will be used.
+
+He found himself incapable of grasping at first why the bodily
+peculiarities of this being should strike him as springing from sex,
+and not from race, and yet there was no doubt about the fact itself.
+Body, face, and eyes were absolutely neither male nor female, but
+something quite different.  Just as one can distinguish a man from a
+woman at the first glance by some indefinable difference of
+expression and atmospheres altogether apart from the contour of the
+figure, so the stranger was separated in appearance from both.  As
+with men and women, the whole person expressed a latent sensuality,
+which gave body and face alike their peculiar character....  Maskull
+decided that it was love--but what love--love for whom? it was
+neither the shame-carrying passion of a male, nor the deep-rooted
+instinct of a female to obey her destiny.  It was as real and
+irresistible as these, but quite different.
+
+As he continued staring into those strange, archaic eyes, he had an
+intuitive feeling that aer lover was no other than Shaping himself.
+it came to him that the design of this love was not the continuance
+of the race but the immortality on earth of the individual.  No
+children were produced by the act; the lover aerself was the eternal
+child.  Further, ae sought like a man, but received like a woman.
+All these things were dimly and confusedly expressed by this
+extraordinary being, who seemed to have dropped out of another age,
+when creation was different.
+
+Of all the weird personalities Maskull had so far met in Tormance,
+this one struck him as infinitely the most foreign--that is, the
+farthest removed from him in spiritual structure.  If they were to
+live together for a hundred years, they could never be companions.
+
+Maskull pulled himself out of his trancelike meditations and, viewing
+the newcomer in greater detail, tried with his understanding to
+account for the marvellous things told him by his intuitions.  Ae
+possessed broad shoulders and big bones, and was without female
+breasts, and so far ae resembled a man.  But the bones were so flat
+and angular that aer flesh presented something of the character of a
+crystal, having plane surfaces in place of curves.  The body looked
+as if it had not been ground down by the sea of ages into smooth and
+rounded regularity but had sprung together in angles and facets as
+the result of a single, sudden idea.  The face too was broken and
+irregular.  With his racial prejudices, Maskull found little beauty
+in it, yet beauty there was, though neither of a masculine nor of a
+feminine type, for it had the three essentials of beauty: character,
+intelligence, and repose.  The skin was copper-coloured and strangely
+luminous, as if lighted from within.  The face was beardless, but the
+hair of the head was as long as a woman's, and, dressed in a single
+plait, fell down behind as far as the ankles.  Ae possessed only two
+eyes.  That part of the turban which went across the forehead
+protruded so far in front that it evidently concealed some organ.
+
+Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age.  The frame appeared
+active, vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the
+eyes were powerful and alert--ae might well be in early youth.
+Nevertheless, the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of
+unbelievable ancientness came upon him--aer real youth seemed as far
+away as the view observed through a reversed telescope.
+
+At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
+conversing with a dream.  "To what sex do you belong?" he asked.
+
+The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but
+was oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great
+distance.
+
+"Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world
+was peopled by 'phaens.'  I think I am the only survivor of all those
+beings who were then passing through Faceny's mind."
+
+"Faceny?"
+
+"Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman.  The superficial names
+invented by a race of superficial creatures."
+
+"What's your own name?"
+
+"Leehallfae."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Leehallfae.  And yours is Maskull.  I read in your mind that you have
+just come through some wonderful adventures.  You seem to possess
+extraordinary luck.  If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use
+of it."
+
+"Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit? ... But never
+mind that now.  It is your sex that interests me.  How do you satisfy
+your desires?"
+
+Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on aer brow.  "With that I
+gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
+valleys.  The streams spring direct from Faceny.  My whole life has
+been spent trying to find Faceny himself.  I've hunted so long that
+if I were to state the number of years you would believe I lied."
+
+Maskull looked at the phaen slowly.  "In Ifdawn I met someone else
+from Matterplay--a young man called Digrung.  I absorbed him."
+
+"You can't be telling me this out of vanity."
+
+"It was a fearful crime.  What will come of it?"
+
+Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile.  "In Matterplay he will
+stir inside you, for he smells the air.  Already you have his
+eyes....  I knew him....  Take care of yourself, or something more
+startling may happen.  Keep out of the water."
+
+"This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen."
+
+"Don't torment yourself about Digrung.  The valleys belong by right
+to the phaens--the men here are interlopers.  It is a good work to
+remove them."
+
+Maskull continued thoughtful.  "I say no more, but I see I will have
+to be cautious.  What did you mean about my helping you with my
+luck?"
+
+"Your luck is fast weakening, but it may still be strong enough to
+serve me.  Together we will search for Threal."
+
+"Search for Threal--why, is it so hard to find?"
+
+"I have told you that my whole life has been spent in the quest."
+
+"You said Faceny, Leehallfae."
+
+The phaen gazed at him with queer, ancient eyes, and smiled again.
+"This stream, Maskull, like every other life stream in Matterplay,
+has its source in Faceny.  But as all these streams issue out from
+Threal, it is in Threal that we must look for Faceny."
+
+"But what's to prevent your finding Threal?  Surely it's a well-known
+country?"
+
+"It lies underground.  Its communications with the upper world are
+few, and where they are, no one that I have ever spoken to knows.  I
+have scoured the valleys and the hills.  I have been to the very gates
+of Lichstorm.  I am old, so that your aged men would appear newborn
+infants beside me, but I am as far from Threal as when I was a green
+youth, dwelling among a throng of fellow phaens."
+
+"Then, if my luck is good, yours is very bad....  But when you have
+found Faceny, what do you gain?"
+
+Leehallfae looked at him in silence.  The smile faded from aer face,
+and its place was taken by such a look of unearthly pain and sorrow
+that Maskull had no need to press his question.  Ae was consumed by
+the grief and yearning of a lover eternally separated from the loved
+one, the scents and traces of whose person were always present.  This
+passion stamped her features at that moment with a wild, stern,
+spiritual beauty, far transcending any beauty of woman or man.
+
+But the expression vanished suddenly, and then the abrupt contrast
+showed Maskull the real Leehallfae.  Aer sensuality was solitary, but
+vulgar--it was like the heroism of a lonely nature, pursuing animal
+aims with untiring persistence.
+
+He looked at the phaen askance, and drummed his fingers against his
+thigh.  "Well, we will go together.  We may find something, and in
+any case I shan't be sorry to converse with such a singular
+individual as yourself."
+
+"But I should warn you, Maskull.  You and I are of different
+creations.  A phaen's body contains the whole of life, a man's body
+contains only the half of life--the other half is in woman.  Faceny
+may be too strong a draught for your body to endure....  Do you not
+feel this?"
+
+"I am dull with my different feelings.  I must take what precautions
+I can, and chance the rest."  He bent down, and, taking hold of the
+phaen's thin and ragged robe, tore off a broad strip, which he
+proceeded to swathe in folds around his forehead.  "I'm not forgetting
+your advice, Leehallfae.  I would not like to start the walk as
+Maskull and finish it as Digrung."
+
+The phaen gave a twisted grin, and they began to move upstream.  The
+road was difficult.  They had to stride from boulder to boulder, and
+found it warm work.  Occasionally a worse obstacle presented itself,
+which they could surmount only by climbing.  There was no more
+conversation for a long time.  Maskull, as far as possible, adopted
+his companion's counsel to avoid the water, but here and there he was
+forced to set foot in it.  The second or third time he did so, he
+felt a sudden agony in his arm, where it had been wounded by Krag.
+His eyes grew joyful; his fears vanished; and he began deliberately
+to tread the stream.
+
+Leehallfae stroked aer chin and watched him with screwed-up eyes,
+trying to comprehend what had happened.  "Is your luck speaking to
+you, Maskull, or what is the matter?"
+
+"Listen.  You are a being of antique experience, and ought to know,
+if anyone does.  What is Muspel?"
+
+The phaen's face was blank.  "I don't know the name."
+
+"It is another world of some sort."
+
+"That cannot be.  There is only this one world--Faceny's."
+
+Maskull came up to aer, linked arms, and began to talk.  "I'm glad I
+fell in with you, Leehallfae, for this valley and everything
+connected with it need a lot of explaining.  For example, in this
+spot there are hardly any organic forms left--why have they all
+disappeared?  You call this brook a 'life stream,' yet the nearer its
+source we get, the less life it produces.  A mile or two lower down
+we had those spontaneous plant-animals appearing out of nowhere,
+while right down by the sea, plants and animals were tumbling over
+one another.  Now, if all this is connected in some mysterious way or
+other with your Faceny, it seems to me he must have a most
+paradoxical nature.  His essence doesn't start creating shapes until
+it has become thoroughly weakened and watered....  But perhaps both of
+us are talking nonsense."
+
+Leehallfae shook aer head.  "Everything hangs together.  The stream
+is life, and it is throwing off sparks of life all the time.  When
+these sparks are caught and imprisoned by matter, they become living
+shapes.  The nearer the stream is to its source, the more terrible
+and vigorous is its life.  You'll see for yourself when we reach the
+head of the valley that there are no living shapes there at all.
+That means that there is no kind of matter tough enough to capture
+and hold the terrible sparks that are to be found there.  Lower down
+the stream, most of the sparks are vigorous enough to escape to the
+upper air, but some are held when they are a little way up, and
+these burst suddenly into shapes.  I myself am of this nature.  Lower
+down still, toward the sea, the stream has lost a great part of its
+vital power and the sparks are lazy and sluggish.  They spread out,
+rather than rise into the air.  There is hardly any kind of matter,
+however delicate, that is incapable of capturing these feeble sparks,
+and they are captured in multitudes--that accounts for the
+innumerable living shapes you see there.  But not only that--the
+sparks are passed from one body to another by way of generation, and
+can never hope to cease being so until they are worn out by decay.
+Lowest of all, you have the Sinking Sea itself.  There the degenerate
+and enfeebled life of the Matterplay streams has for its body the
+whole sea.  So weak is it's power that it can't succeed in creating
+any shapes at all but you can see its ceaseless, futile attempts to
+do so, in those spouts."
+
+"So the slow development of men and women is due to the feebleness of
+the life germ in their case?"
+
+"Exactly.  It can't attain all its desires at once.  And now you can
+see how immeasurably superior are the phaens, who spring
+spontaneously from the more electric and vigorous sparks."
+
+"But where does the matter come from that imprisons these sparks?"
+
+"When life dies, it becomes matter.  Matter itself dies, but its
+place is constantly taken by new matter."
+
+"But if life comes from Faceny, how can it die at all?"
+
+"Life is the thoughts of Faceny, and once these thoughts have left
+his brain they are nothing--mere dying embers."
+
+"This is a cheerless philosophy," said Maskull.  "But who is Faceny
+himself, then, and why does he think at all?"
+
+Leehallfae gave another wrinkled smile.  "That I'll explain too.
+Faceny is of this nature.  He faces Nothingness in all directions.
+He has no back and no sides, but is all face; and this face is his
+shape.  It must necessarily be so, for nothing else can exist between
+him and Nothingness.  His face is all eyes, for he eternally
+contemplates Nothingness.  He draws his inspirations from it; in no
+other way could he feel himself.  For the same reason, phaens and
+even men love to be in empty places and vast solitudes, for each one
+is a little Faceny."
+
+"That rings true," said Maskull.
+
+"Thoughts flow perpetually from Faceny's face backward.  Since his
+face is on all sides, however, they flow into his interior.  A
+draught of thought thus continuously flows from Nothingness to the
+inside of Faceny, which is the world.  The thoughts become shapes,
+and people the world.  This outer world, therefore, which is lying
+all around us, is not outside at all, as it happens, but inside.  The
+visible universe is like a gigantic stomach, and the real outside of
+the world we shall never see."
+
+Maskull pondered deeply for a while.
+
+"Leehallfae, I fail to see what you personally have to hope for,
+since you are nothing more than a discarded, dying thought."
+
+"Have you never loved a woman?" asked the phaen, regarding him
+fixedly.
+
+"Perhaps I have."
+
+"When you loved, did you have no high moments?"
+
+"That's asking the same question in other words."
+
+"In those moments you were approaching Faceny.  If you could have
+drawn nearer still, would you not have done so?"
+
+"I would, regardless of the consequences."
+
+"Even if you personally had nothing to hope for?"
+
+"But I would have that to hope for."
+
+Leehallfae walked on in silence.
+
+"A man is the half of Life," ae broke out suddenly.  "A woman is the
+other half of life, but a phaen is the whole of life.  Moreover, when
+life becomes split into halves, something else has dropped out of it--
+something that belongs only to the whole.  Between your love and
+mine there is no comparison.  If even your sluggish blood is drawn to
+Faceny, without stopping to ask what will come of it, how do you
+suppose it is with me?"
+
+"I don't question the genuineness of your passion," replied Maskull,
+"but it's a pity you can't see your way to carry it forward into the
+next world."
+
+Leehallfae gave a distorted grin, expressing heaven knows what
+emotion.  "Men think what they like, but phaens are so made that they
+can see the world only as it really is."
+
+That ended the conversation.
+
+The sun was high in the sky, and they appeared to be approaching the
+head of the ravine.  Its walls had still further closed in and,
+except at those moments when Branchspell was directly behind them,
+they strode along all the time in deep shade; but still it was
+disagreeably hot and relaxing.  All life had ceased.  A beautiful,
+fantastic spectacle was presented by the cliff faces, the rocky
+ground, and the boulders that choked the entire width of the gorge.
+They were a snow-white crystalline limestone, heavily scored by veins
+of bright, gleaming blue.  The rivulet was no longer green, but a
+clear, transparent crystal.  Its noise was musical, and altogether it
+looked most romantic and charming, but Leehallfae seemed to find
+something else in it--aer features grew more and more set and
+tortured.
+
+About half an hour after all the other life forms had vanished,
+another plant-animal was precipitated out of space, in front of their
+eyes.  It was as tall as Maskull himself, and had a brilliant and
+vigorous appearance, as befitted a creature just out of Nature's
+mint.  It started to walk about; but hardly had it done so when it
+burst silently asunder.  Nothing remained of it--the whole body
+disappeared instantaneously into the same invisible mist from which
+it had sprung.
+
+"That bears out what you said," commented Maskull, turning rather
+pale.
+
+"Yes," answered Leehallfae, "we have now come to the region of
+terrible life."
+
+"Then, since you're right in this, I must believe all that you've
+been telling me."
+
+As he uttered the words, they were just turning a bend of the ravine.
+There now loomed up straight ahead a perpendicular cliff about three
+hundred feet in height, composed of white, marbled rock.  It was the
+head of the valley, and beyond it they could not proceed.
+
+"In return for my wisdom," said the phaen, "you will now lend me your
+luck."
+
+They walked up to the base of the cliff, and Maskull looked at it
+reflectively.  It was possible to climb it, but the ascent would be
+difficult.  The now tiny brook issued from a hole in the rock only a
+few feet up.  Apart from its musical running, not a sound was to be
+beard.  The floor of the gorge was in shadow, but about halfway up
+the precipice the sun was shining.
+
+"What do you want me to do?" demanded Maskull.  "Everything is now in
+your hands, and I have no suggestions to make.  Now it's your luck
+that must help us."
+
+Maskull continued gazing up a little while longer.  "We had better
+wait till the afternoon, Leehallfae.  I'll probably have to climb to
+the top, but it's too hot at present--and besides, I'm tired.  I'll
+snatch a few hours' sleep.  After that, we'll see."
+
+Leehallfae seemed annoyed, but raised no opposition.
+
+
+
+Chapter 17
+
+CORPANG
+
+Maskull did not awaken till long after Blodsombre.  Leehallfae was
+standing by his side, looking down at him.  It was doubtful whether
+ae had slept at all.
+
+"What time is it?" Maskull asked, rubbing his eyes and sitting up.
+
+"The day is passing," was the vague reply.
+
+Maskull got on to his feet, and gazed up at the cliff.  "Now I'm
+going to climb that.  No need for both of us to risk our necks, so
+you wait here, and if I find anything on top I'll call you."
+
+Ale phaen glanced at him strangely.  "There's nothing up there except
+a bare hillside.  I've been there often.  Have you anything special
+in mind?"
+
+"Heights often bring me inspiration.  Sit down, and wait."
+
+Refreshed by his sleep, Maskull immediately attacked the face of the
+cliff, and took the first twenty feet at a single rush.  Then it grew
+precipitous, and the ascent demanded greater circumspection and
+intelligence.  There were few hand-  or footholds: he had to reflect
+before every step.  On the other hand, it was sound rock, and he was
+no novice at the sport.  Branchspell glared full on the wall, so that
+it half blinded him with its glittering whiteness.
+
+After many doubts and pauses he drew near the top.  He was hot,
+sweating copiously, and rather dizzy.  To reach a ledge he caught
+hold of two projecting rocks, one with each hand, at the same time
+scrambling upward, his legs between the rocks.  The left-hand rock,
+which was the larger of the two, became dislodged by his weight, and,
+flying like a huge, dark shadow past his head, crashed down with a
+terrifying sound to the foot of the precipice, followed by an
+avalanche of smaller stones.  Maskull steadied himself as well as he
+could, but it was some moments before he dared to look down behind
+him.
+
+At first he could not distinguish Leehallfae.  Then he caught sight
+of legs and hindquarters a few feet up the cliff from the bottom.  He
+perceived that the phaen had aer head in a cavity and was
+scrutinising something, and waited for aer to reappear.
+
+Ae emerged, looked up to Maskull, and called out in aer hornlike
+voice, "The entrance is here!"
+
+"I'm coming down!" roared Maskull.  "Wait for me!"
+
+He descended swiftly--without taking too much care, for he thought
+he recognised his "luck" in this discovery--and within twenty
+minutes was standing beside the phaen.
+
+"What happened?"
+
+"The rock you dislodged struck this other rock just above the spring.
+It tore it out of its bed.  See--now there's room for us to get in!"
+
+"Don't get excited!" said Maskull.  "It's a remarkable accident, but
+we have plenty of time.  Let me look."
+
+He peered into the hole, which was large enough to admit a big man
+without stooping.  Contrasted with the daylight outside it was dark,
+yet a peculiar glow pervaded the place, and he could see well enough.
+A rock tunnel went straight forward into the bowels of the hill, out
+of sight.  The valley brook did not flow along the floor of this
+tunnel, as he had expected, but came up as a spring just inside the
+entrance.
+
+"Well Leehallfae, not much need to deliberate, eh?  Still, observe
+that your stream parts company with us here."
+
+As he turned around for an answer he noticed that his companion was
+trembling from head to foot.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?"
+
+Leehallfae pressed a hand to aer heart.  "The stream leaves us, but
+what makes the stream what it is continues with us.  Faceny is
+there."
+
+"But surely you don't expect to see him in person?  Why are you
+shaking?"
+
+"Perhaps it will be too much for me after all."
+
+"Why?  How is it affecting you?"
+
+The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm's length,
+endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes.  "Faceny's thoughts
+are obscure.  I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he grants
+to you what he denies to me."
+
+"What does he grant to me?"
+
+"To see him, and go on living.  I shall die.  But it's immaterial.
+Tomorrow both of us will be dead."
+
+Maskull impatiently shook himself free.  "Your sensations may be
+reliable in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?"
+
+"Life is flaming up inside you," replied Leehallfae, shaking aer
+head.  "But after it has reached its climax--perhaps tonight--it
+will sink rapidly and you'll die tomorrow.  As for me, if I enter
+Threal I shan't come out again.  A smell of death is being wafted to
+me out of this hole."
+
+"You talk like a frightened man.  I smell nothing."
+
+"I am not frightened," said Leehallfae quietly--ae had been
+gradually recovering aer tranquillity--"but when one has lived as
+long as I have, it is a serious matter to die.  Every year one puts
+out new roots."
+
+"Decide what you're going to do," said Maskull with a touch of
+contempt, "for I'm going in at once."
+
+The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after
+that walked into the cavern without another word.  Maskull,
+scratching his head, followed close at aer heels.
+
+The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere
+altered.  Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear
+and refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts.
+The daylight disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel.  After
+that, Maskull could not say where the light came from.  The air
+itself must have been luminous, for though it was as light as full
+moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae cast a shadow.  Another
+peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of the tunnel and
+their own bodies appeared colourless.  Everything was black and
+white, like a lunar landscape.  This intensified the solemn, funereal
+feelings created by the atmosphere.
+
+After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to
+widen out.  The roof was high above their heads, and six men could
+have walked side by side.  Leehallfae was visibly weakening.  Ae
+dragged aerself along slowly and painfully, with sunken head.
+
+Maskull caught hold of aer.  "You can't go on like that.  Better let
+me take you back."
+
+The phaen smiled, and staggered.  "I'm dying."
+
+"Don't talk like that.  It's only a passing indisposition.  Let me
+take you back to the daylight."
+
+"No, help me forward.  I wish to see Faceny."
+
+"The sick must have their way," said Maskull.  Lifting aer bodily in
+his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or so.
+They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of
+which he had never set eyes upon before.
+
+"Set me down!" directed Leehallfae feebly.  "Here I'll die."
+
+Maskull obeyed, and laid aer down at full length on the rocky ground.
+The phaen raised aerself with difficulty on one arm, and stared with
+fast-glazing eyes at the mystic landscape.
+
+Maskull looked too, and what he saw was a vast, undulating plain,
+lighted as if by the moon--but there was of course no moon, and
+there were no shadows.  He made out running streams in the distance.
+Beside them were trees of a peculiar kind; they were rooted in the
+ground, but the branches also were aerial roots, and there were no
+leaves.  No other plants could be seen.  The soil was soft, porous
+rock, resembling pumice.  Beyond a mile or two in any direction the
+light merged into obscurity.  At their back a great rocky wall
+extended on either hand; but it was not square like a wall, but full
+of bays and promontories like an indented line of sea cliffs.  The
+roof of this huge underworld was out of sight.  Here and there a
+mighty shaft of naked rock, fantastically weathered, towered aloft
+into the gloom, doubtless serving to support the roof.  There were no
+colours--every detail of the landscape was black, white, or grey.
+The scene appeared so still, so solemn and religious, that all his
+feelings quieted down to absolute tranquillity.
+
+Leehallfae fell back suddenly.  Maskull dropped on his knees, and
+helplessly watched the last flickerings of aer spirit, going out like
+a candle in foul air.  Death came....  He closed the eyes.  The awful
+grin of Crystalman immediately fastened upon the phaen's dead
+features.
+
+While Maskull was still kneeling, he became conscious of someone
+standing beside him.  He looked up quickly and saw a man, but did not
+at once rise.
+
+"Another phaen dead," said the newcomer in a grave, toneless, and
+intellectual voice.
+
+Maskull got up.
+
+The man was short and thickset but emaciated.  His forehead was not
+disfigured by any organs.  He was middle-aged.  The features were
+energetic and rather coarse--yet it seemed to Maskull as though a
+pure, hard life had done something toward refining them.  His
+sanguine eyes carried a twisted, puzzled look; some unanswerable
+problem was apparently in the forefront of his brain.  His face was
+hairless; the hair of his head was short and manly; his brow was
+wide.  He was clothed in a black, sleeveless robe, and bore a long
+staff in his hand.  There was an air of cleanness and austerity about
+the whole man that was attractive.
+
+He went on speaking dispassionately to Maskull, and, while doing so,
+kept passing his hand reflectively over his cheeks and chin.  "They
+all find their way here to die.  They come from Matterplay.  There
+they live to an incredible age.  Partly on that account, and partly
+because of their spontaneous origin, they regard themselves as the
+favoured children of Faceny.  But when they come here to find him,
+they die at once."
+
+"I think this one is the last of the race.  But whom do I speak to?"
+
+"I am Corpang.  Who are you, where do you come from, and what are you
+doing here?"
+
+"My name is Maskull.  My home is on the other side of the universe.
+As for what I am doing here--I accompanied Leehallfae, that phaen,
+from Matterplay."
+
+"But a man doesn't accompany a phaen out of friendship.  What do you
+want in Threal?"
+
+"Then this is Threal?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Maskull remained silent.
+
+Corpang studied his face with rough, curious eyes.  "Are you
+ignorant, or merely reticent, Maskull?"
+
+"I came here to ask questions, and not to answer them."
+
+The stillness of the place was almost oppressive.  Not a breeze
+stirred, and not a sound came through the air.  Their voices had been
+lowered, as though they were in a cathedral.
+
+"Then do you want my society, or not?" asked Corpang.
+
+"Yes, if you can fit in with my mood, which is--not to talk about
+myself."
+
+"But you must at least tell me where you want to go to."
+
+"I want to see what is to be seen here, and then go on to Lichstorm."
+
+"I can guide you through, if that's all you want.  Come, let us
+start."
+
+"First let's do our duty and bury the dead, if possible."
+
+"Turn around," directed Corpang.
+
+Maskull looked around quickly.  Leehallfae's body had disappeared.
+
+"What does this mean--what has happened?"
+
+"The body has returned to whence it came.  There was nowhere here for
+it to be, so it has vanished.  No burial will be required."
+
+"Was the phaen an illusion, then?"
+
+"In no sense."
+
+"Well, explain quickly, then, what has taken place.  I seem to be
+going mad."
+
+"There's nothing unintelligible in it, if you'll only listen calmly.
+The phaen belonged, body and soul, to the outside, visible world--to
+Faceny.  This underworld is not Faceny's world, but Thire's, and
+Faceny's creatures cannot breathe its atmosphere.  As this applies
+not only to whole bodies, but even to the last particles of bodies,
+the phaen has dissolved into Nothingness."
+
+"But don't you and I belong to the outside world too?"
+
+"We belong to all three worlds."
+
+"What three worlds--what do you mean?"
+
+"There are three worlds," said Corpang composedly.  "The first is
+Faceny's, the second is Amfuse's, the third is Thire's.  From him
+Threal gets it name."
+
+"But this is mere nomenclature.  In what sense are there three
+worlds?"
+
+Corpang passed his hand over his forehead.  "All this we can discuss
+as we go along.  It's a torment to me to be standing still."
+
+Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae's body had lain,
+quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance.  He could
+scarcely tear himself away from the place, so mysterious was it.  Not
+until Corpang called to him a second time did he make up his mind to
+follow him.
+
+They set off from the rock wall straight across the airlit plain,
+directing their course toward the nearest trees.  The subdued light,
+the absence of shadows, the massive shafts, springing grey-white out
+of the jetlike ground, the fantastic trees, the absence of a sky, the
+deathly silence, the knowledge that he was underground--the
+combination of all these things predisposed Maskull's mind to
+mysticism, and he prepared himself with some anxiety to hear
+Corpang's explanation of the land and its wonders.  He already began
+to grasp that the reality of the outside world and the reality of
+this world were two quite different things.
+
+"In what sense are there three worlds?" he demanded, repeating his
+former question.
+
+Corpang smote the end of his staff on the ground.  "First of all,
+Maskull, what is your motive for asking?  If it's mere intellectual
+curiosity, tell me, for we mustn't play with awful matters."
+
+"No, it isn't that," said Maskull slowly.  "I'm not a student.  My
+journey is no holiday tour."
+
+"Isn't there blood on your soul?" asked Corpang, eying him intently.
+
+The blood rose steadily to Maskull's face, but in that light it
+caused it to appear black.
+
+"Unfortunately there is, and not a little."
+
+The other's face was all wrinkles, but he made no comment.
+
+"And so you see," went on Maskull, with a short laugh, "I'm in the
+very best condition for receiving your instruction."
+
+Corpang still paused.  "Underneath your crimes I see a man," he said,
+after a few minutes.  "On that account, and because we are commanded
+to help one another, I won't leave you at present, though I little
+thought to be walking with a murderer....  Now to your question....
+Whatever a man sees with his eyes, Maskull, he sees in three ways--
+length, breadth, depth.  Length is existence, breadth is relation,
+depth is feeling."
+
+"Something of the sort was told me by Earthrid, the musician, who
+came from Threal."
+
+"I don't know him.  What else did he tell you?"
+
+"He went on to apply it to music.  Continue, and pardon the
+interruption."
+
+"These three states of perception are the three worlds.  Existence is
+Faceny's world, relation is Amfuse's world, feeling is Thire's
+world."
+
+"Can't we come down to hard facts?" said Maskull, frowning.  "I
+understand no more than I did before what you mean by three worlds."
+
+"There are no harder facts than the ones I am giving you.  The first
+world is visible, tangible Nature.  It was created by Faceny out of
+nothingness, and therefore we call it Existence."
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"The second world is Love--by which I don't mean lust.  Without
+love, every individual would be entirely self-centred and unable
+deliberately to act on others.  Without love, there would be no
+sympathy--not even hatred, anger, or revenge would be possible.
+These are all imperfect and distorted forms of pure love.
+Interpenetrating Faceny's world of Nature, therefore, we have
+Amfuse's world of Love, or Relation."
+
+"What grounds have you for assuming that this so-called second world
+is not contained in the first?"
+
+"They are contradictory.  A natural man lives for himself; a lover
+lives for others."
+
+"It may be so.  It's rather mystical.  But go on--who is Thire?"
+
+"Length and breadth together without depth give flatness.  Life and
+love without feeling produce shallow, superficial natures.  Feeling
+is the need of men to stretch out toward their creator."
+
+"You mean prayer and worship?"
+
+"I mean intimacy with Thire.  This feeling is not to be found in
+either the first or second world, therefore it is a third world.
+Just as depth is the line between object and subject, feeling is the
+line between Thire and man."
+
+"But what is Thire himself?"
+
+"Thire is the afterworld."
+
+"I still don't understand," said Maskull.  "Do you believe in three
+separate gods, or are these merely three ways of regarding one God?"
+
+"There are three gods, for they are mutually antagonistic.  Yet they
+are somehow united."
+
+Maskull reflected a while.  "How have you arrived at these
+conclusions?"
+
+"None other are possible in Threal, Maskull."
+
+"Why in Threal--what is there peculiar here?"
+
+"I will show you presently."
+
+They walked on for above a mile in silence, while Maskull digested
+what had been said.  When they came to the first trees, which grew
+along the banks of a small stream of transparent water, Corpang
+halted.
+
+"That bandage around your forehead has long been unnecessary,"
+he remarked.
+
+Maskull removed it.  He found that the line of his brow was smooth
+and uninterrupted, as it had never yet been since his arrival in
+Tormance.
+
+"How has this come about--and how did you know it?"
+
+"They were Faceny's organs.  They have vanished, just as the phaen's
+body vanished."
+
+Maskull kept rubbing his forehead.  "I feel more human without them.
+But why isn't the rest of my body affected?"
+
+"Because its living will contains the element of Thire."
+
+"Why are we stopping here?"
+
+Corpang broke off the tip of one of the aerial roots of a tree, and
+proffered it to him.  "Eat this, Maskull."
+
+"For food, or something else?"
+
+"Food for body and soul."
+
+Maskull bit into the root.  It was white and hard; its white sap was
+bleeding.  It had no taste, but after eating it, he experienced a
+change of perception.  The landscape, without alteration of light or
+outline, became several degrees more stern and sacred.  When he
+looked at Corpang he was impressed by his aspect of Gothic awfulness,
+but the perplexed expression was still in his eyes.
+
+"Do you spend all your time here, Corpang?"
+
+"Occasionally I go above, but not often."
+
+"What fastens you to this gloomy world?"
+
+"The search for Thire."
+
+"Then it's still a search?"
+
+"Let us walk on."
+
+As they resumed their journey across the dim, gradually rising plain,
+the conversation became even more earnest in character than before.
+"Although I was not born here," proceeded Corpang, "I've lived here
+for twenty-five years, and during all that time I have been drawing
+nearer to Thire, as I hope.  But there is this peculiarity about it--
+the first stages are richer in fruit and more promising than the
+later ones.  The longer a man seeks Thire, the more he seems to
+absent himself.  In the beginning he is felt and known, sometimes as
+a shape, sometimes as a voice, sometimes an overpowering emotion.
+Later on all is dry, dark, and harsh in the soul.  Then you would
+think that Thire was a million miles off."
+
+"How do you explain that?"
+
+"When everything is darkest, he may be nearest, Maskull."
+
+"But this is troubling you?"
+
+"My days are spent in torture."
+
+"You still persist, though?  This day darkness can't be the ultimate
+state?"
+
+"My questions will be answered."
+
+A silence ensued.
+
+"What do you propose to show me?" asked Maskull.
+
+"The land is about to grow wilder.  I am taking you to the Three
+Figures, which were carved and erected by an earlier race of men.
+There, we will pray."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"If you are truehearted, you will see things you will not easily
+forget."
+
+They had been walking slightly uphill in a sort of trough between two
+parallel, gently sloping downs.  The trough now deepened, while the
+hills on either side grew steeper.  They were in an ascending valley
+and, as it curved this way and that, the landscape was shut off from
+view.  They came to a little spring, bubbling up from the ground.  It
+formed a trickling brook, which was unlike all other brooks in that
+it was flowing up the valley instead of down.  Before long it was
+joined by other miniature rivulets, so that in the end it became a
+fair-sized stream.  Maskull kept looking at it, and puckering his
+forehead.
+
+"Nature has other laws here, it seems?"
+
+"Nothing can exist here that is not a compound of the three worlds."
+
+"Yet the water is flowing somewhere."
+
+"I can't explain it, but there are three wills in it."
+
+"Is there no such thing as pure Thire-matter?"
+
+"Thire cannot exist without Amfuse, and Amfuse cannot exist without
+Faceny."
+
+Maskull thought this over for some minutes.  "That must be so," he
+said at last.  "Without life there can be no love, and without love
+there can be no religious feeling."
+
+In the half light of the land, the tops of the hills containing the
+valley presently attained such a height that they could not be seen.
+The sides were steep and craggy, while the bed of the valley grew
+narrower at every step.  Not a living organism was visible.  All was
+unnatural and sepulchral.
+
+Maskull said, "I feel as if I were dead, and walking in another
+world."
+
+"I still do not know what you are doing here," answered Corpang.
+
+"Why should I go on making a mystery of it?  I came to find Surtur."
+
+"That name I've heard--but under what circumstances?"
+
+"You forget?"
+
+Corpang walked along, his eyes fixed on the ground, obviously
+troubled.  "Who is Surtur?"
+
+Maskull shook his head, and said nothing.
+
+The valley shortly afterward narrowed, so that the two men, touching
+fingertips in the middle, could have placed their free hands on the
+rock walls on either side.  It threatened to terminate in a cul-de-
+sac, but just when the road seemed least promising, and they were
+shut in by cliffs on all sides, a hitherto unperceived bend brought
+them suddenly into the open.  They emerged through a mere crack in
+the line of precipices.
+
+A sort of huge natural corridor was running along at right angles to
+the way they had come; both ends faded into obscurity after a few
+hundred yards.  Right down the centre of this corridor ran a chasm
+with perpendicular sides; its width varied from thirty to a hundred
+feet, but its bottom could not be seen.  On both sides of the chasm,
+facing one another, were platforms of rock, twenty feet or so in
+width; they too proceeded in both directions out of sight.  Maskull
+and Corpang emerged onto one of these platforms.  The shelf opposite
+was a few feet higher than that on which they stood.  The platforms
+were backed by a double line of lofty and unclimbable cliffs, whose
+tops were invisible.
+
+The stream, which had accompanied them through the gap, went straight
+forward, but, instead of descending the wall of the chasm as a
+waterfall, it crossed from side to side like a liquid bridge.  It
+then disappeared through a cleft in the cliffs on the opposite side.
+
+To Maskull's mind, however, even more wonderful than this unnatural
+phenomenon was the absence of shadows, which was more noticeable here
+than on the open plain.  It made the place look like a hall of
+phantoms.
+
+Corpang, without delay, led the way along the shelf to the left.
+When they had walked about a mile, the gulf widened to two hundred
+feet.  Three large rocks loomed up on the ledge opposite; they
+resembled three upright giants, standing motionless side by side on
+the extreme edge of the chasm.  Corpang and Maskull drew nearer, and
+then Maskull saw that they were statues.  Each was about thirty feet
+high, and the workmanship was of the rudest.  They represented naked
+men, but the limbs and trunks had been barely chipped into shape--
+the faces alone had had care bestowed on them, and even these faces
+were merely generalised.  It was obviously the work of primitive
+artists.  The statues stood erect with knees closed and arms hanging
+straight down their sides.  All three were exactly alike.
+
+As soon as they were directly opposite, Corpang halted.
+
+"Is this a representation of your three Beings?" asked Maskull, awed
+by the spectacle in spite of his constitutional audacity.
+
+"Ask no questions, but kneel," replied Corpang.  He dropped onto his
+own knees, but Maskull remained standing.
+
+Corpang covered his eyes with one hand, and prayed silently.  After a
+few minutes the light sensibly faded.  Then Maskull knelt as well,
+but he continued looking.
+
+It grew darker and darker, until all was like the blackest night.
+Sight and sound no longer existed; he was alone with his own spirit.
+
+Then one of the three Colossi came slowly into sight again.  But it
+had ceased to be a statue--it was a living person.  Out of the
+blackness of space a gigantic head and chest emerged, illuminated by
+a mystic, rosy glow, like a mountain peak bathed by the rising sun.
+As the light grew stronger Maskull saw that the flesh was translucent
+and that the glow came from within.  The limbs of the apparition were
+wreathed in mist.
+
+Before long the features of the face stood out distinctly.  It was
+that of a beardless youth of twenty years.  It possessed the beauty
+of a girl and the daring force of a man; it bore a mocking, cryptic
+smile.  Maskull felt the fresh, mysterious thrill of mingled pain and
+rapture of one who awakes from a deep sleep in midwinter and sees the
+gleaming, dark, delicate colours of the half-dawn.  The vision
+smiled, kept still, and looked beyond him.  He began to shudder, with
+delight--and many emotions.  As he gazed, his poetic sensibility
+acquired such a nervous and indefinable character that he could
+endure it no more; he burst into tears.
+
+When he looked up again the image had nearly disappeared, and in a
+few moments more he was plunged back into total darkness.
+
+Shortly afterward a second statue reappeared.  It too was
+transfigured into a living form, but Maskull was unable to see the
+details of its face and body, because of the brightness of the light
+that radiated from them.  This light, which started as pale gold,
+ended as flaming golden fire.  It illumined the whole underground
+landscape.  The rock ledges, the cliffs, himself and Corpang on their
+knees, the two unlighted statues--all appeared as if in sunlight,
+and the shadows were black and strongly defined.  The light carried
+heat with it, but a singular heat.  Maskull was unaware of any rise
+in temperature, but he felt his heart melting to womanish softness.
+His male arrogance and egotism faded imperceptibly away; his
+personality seemed to disappear.  What was left behind was not
+freedom of spirit or lightheartedness, but a passionate and nearly
+savage mental state of pity and distress.  He felt a tormenting
+desire to serve.  All this came from the heat of the statue, and was
+without an object.  He glanced anxiously around him, and fastened his
+eyes on Corpang.  He put a hand on his shoulder and aroused him from
+his praying.
+
+"You must know what I am feeling, Corpang."
+
+Corpang smiled sweetly, but said nothing.
+
+"I care nothing for my own affairs any more.  How can I help you?"
+
+"So much the better for you, Maskull, if you respond so quickly to
+the invisible worlds."
+
+As soon as he had spoken, the figure began to vanish, and the light
+to die away from the landscape.  Maskull's emotion slowly subsided,
+but it was not until he was once more in complete darkness that he
+became master of himself again.  Then he felt ashamed of his boyish
+exhibition of enthusiasm, and thought ruefully that there must be
+something wanting in his character.  He got up onto his feet.
+
+The very moment that he arose, a man's voice sounded, not a yard from
+his ear.  It was hardly raised above a whisper, but he could
+distinguish that it was not Corpang's.  As he listened he was unable
+to prevent himself from physically trembling.
+
+"Maskull, you are to die," said the unseen speaker.
+
+"Who is speaking?"
+
+"You have only a few hours of life left.  Don't trifle the time
+away."
+
+Maskull could bring nothing out.
+
+"You have despised life," went on the low-toned voice.  "Do you
+really imagine that this mighty world has no meaning, and that life
+is a joke?"
+
+"What must I do?"
+
+"Repent your murders, commit no fresh ones, pay honour to..."
+
+The voice died away.  Maskull waited in silence for it to speak
+again.  All remained still, however, and the speaker appeared to have
+taken his departure.  Supernatural horror seized him; he fell into a
+sort of catalepsy.
+
+At that moment he saw one of the statues fading away, from a pale,
+white glow to darkness.  He had not previously seen it shining.
+
+In a few more minutes the normal light of the land returned.  Corpang
+got up, and shook him out of his trance.
+
+Maskull looked around, but saw no third person.  "Whose statue was
+the last?" he demanded.
+
+"Did you hear me speaking?"
+
+"I heard your voice, but no one else's."
+
+"I've just had my death foretold, so I suppose I have not long to
+live.  Leehallfae prophesied the same thing."
+
+Corpang shook his head.  "What value do you set on life?" he asked.
+
+"Very little.  But it's a fearful thing all the same."
+
+"Your death is?"
+
+"No, but this warning."
+
+They stopped talking.  A profound silence reigned.  Neither of the
+two men seemed to know what to do next, or where to go.  Then both of
+them heard the sound of drumming.  It was slow, emphatic, and
+impressive, a long way off and not loud, but against the background
+of quietness, very marked.  It appeared to come from some point out
+of sight, to the left of where they were standing, but on the same
+rock shelf.  Maskull's heart beat quickly.
+
+"What can that sound be?" asked Corpang, peering into the obscurity.
+
+"It is Surtur."
+
+"Once again, who is Surtur?"
+
+Maskull clutched his arm and pressed him to silence.  A strange
+radiance was in the air, in the direction of the drumming.  It
+increased in intensity and gradually occupied the whole scene.
+Things were no longer seen by Thire's light, but by this new light.
+It cast no shadows.
+
+Corpang's nostrils swelled, and he held himself more proudly.  "What
+fire is that?"
+
+"It is Muspel-light."
+
+They both glanced instinctively at the three statues.  In the strange
+glow they had undergone a change.  The face of each figure was
+clothed in the sordid and horrible Crystalman mask.
+
+Corpang cried out and put his hand over his eyes.  "What can this
+mean?" he asked a minute later.
+
+"It must mean that life is wrong, and the creator of life too,
+whether he is one person or three."
+
+Corpang looked again, like a man trying to accustom himself to a
+shocking sight.  "Dare we believe this?"
+
+"You must," replied Maskull.  "You have always served the highest,
+and you must continue to do so.  It has simply turned out that Thire
+is not the highest."
+
+Corpang's face became swollen with a kind of coarse anger.  "Life is
+clearly false--I have been seeking Thire for a lifetime, and now I
+find--this."
+
+"You have nothing to reproach yourself with.  Crystalman has had
+eternity to practice his cunning in, so it's no wonder if a man can't
+see straight, even with the best intentions.  What have you decided
+to do?"
+
+"The drumming seems to be moving away.  Will you follow it, Maskull?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But where will it take us?"
+
+"Perhaps out of Threal altogether."
+
+"It sounds to me more real than reality," said Corpang.  "Tell me,
+who is Surtur?"
+
+"Surtur's world, or Muspel, we are told, is the original of which
+this world is a distorted copy.  Crystalman is life, but Surtur is
+other than life."
+
+"How do you know this?"
+
+"It has sprung together somehow--from inspiration, from experience,
+from conversation with the wise men of your planet.  Every hour it
+grows truer for me and takes a more definite shape."
+
+Corpang stood up squarely, facing the three Figures with a harsh,
+energetic countenance, stamped all over with resolution.  "I believe
+you, Maskull.  No better proof is required than that.  Thire is not
+the highest; he is even in a certain sense the lowest.  Nothing but
+the thoroughly false and base could stoop to such deceits....  I am
+coming with you--but don't play the traitor.  These signs may be for
+you, and not for me at all, and if you leave me--"
+
+"I make no promises.  I don't ask you to come with me.  If you prefer
+to stay in your little world, or if you have any doubts about it, you
+had better not come."
+
+"Don't talk like that.  I shall never forget your service to me...
+Let us make haste, or we shall lose the sound."
+
+Corpang started off more eagerly than Maskull.  They walked fast in
+the direction of the drumming.  For upward of two miles the path went
+along the ledge without any change of level.  The mysterious radiance
+gradually departed, and was replaced by the normal light of Threal.
+The rhythmical beats continued, but a very long way ahead--neither
+was able to diminish the distance.
+
+"What kind of man are you?" Corpang suddenly broke out.
+
+"In what respect?"
+
+"How do you come to be on such terms with the Invisible?  How is it
+that I've never had this experience before I met you, in spite of my
+never-ending prayers and mortifications?  In what way are you
+superior to me?"
+
+"To hear voices perhaps can't be made a profession," replied Maskull.
+"I have a simple and unoccupied mind--that may be why I sometimes
+hear things that up to the present you have not been able to."
+
+Corpang darkened, and kept silent; and then Maskull saw through to
+his pride.
+
+The ledge presently began to rise.  They were high above the platform
+on the opposite side of the gulf.  The road then curved sharply to
+the right, and they passed over the abyss and the other ledge as by a
+bridge, coming out upon the top of the opposite cliffs.  A new line
+of precipices immediately confronted them.  They followed the
+drumming along the base of these heights, but as they were passing
+the mouth of a large cave the sound came from its recesses, and they
+turned their steps inward.
+
+"This leads to the outer world," remarked Corpang.  "I've
+occasionally been there by this passage."
+
+"Then that's where it is taking us, no doubt.  I confess I shan't be
+sorry to see sunlight once more."
+
+"Can you find time to think of sunlight?" asked Corpang with a rough
+smile.
+
+"I love the sun, and perhaps I'm rather lacking in the spirit of a
+zealot."
+
+"Yet, for all that, you may get there before me."
+
+"Don't be bitter," said Maskull.  "I'll tell you another thing.
+Muspel can't be willed, for the simple reason that Muspel does not
+concern the will.  To will is a property of this world."
+
+"Then what is your journey for?"
+
+"It's one thing to walk to a destination, and to linger over the
+walk, and quite another to run there at top speed."
+
+"Perhaps I'm not so easily deceived as you think," said Corpang with
+another smile.
+
+The light persisted in the cave.  The path narrowed and became a
+steep ascent.  Then the angle became one of forty-five degrees, and
+they had to climb.  The tunnel grew so confined that Maskull was
+reminded of the confined dreams of his childhood.
+
+Not long afterward, daylight appeared.  They hastened to complete the
+last stage.  Maskull rushed out first into the world of colours and,
+all dirty and bleeding from numerous scratches, stood blinking on a
+hillside, bathed in the brilliant late-afternoon sunshine.  Corpang
+followed closely at his heels, He was obliged to shield his eyes with
+his hands for a few minutes, so unaccustomed was he to Branchspell's
+blinding rays.
+
+"The drum beats have stopped!" he exclaimed suddenly.
+
+"You can't expect music all the time," answered Maskull dryly.  "We
+mustn't be luxurious."
+
+"But now we have no guide.  We're no better off than before."
+
+"Well, Tormance is a big place.  But I have an infallible rule,
+Corpang.  As I come from the south, I always go due north."
+
+"That will take us to Lichstorm."
+
+Maskull gazed at the fantastically piled rocks all around them.  "I
+saw these rocks from Matterplay.  The mountains look as far off now
+as they did them, and there's not much of the day left.  How far is
+Lichstorm from here?"
+
+Corpang looked away to the distant range.  "I don't know, but unless
+a miracle happens we shan't get there tonight."
+
+"I have a feeling," said Maskull, "that we shall not only get there
+tonight, but that tonight will be the most important in my life."
+
+And he sat down passively to rest.
+
+
+
+Chapter 18
+
+HAUNTE
+
+While Maskull sat, Corpang walked restlessly to and fro, swinging his
+arms.  He had lost his staff.  His face was inflamed with suppressed
+impatience, which accentuated its natural coarseness.  At last he
+stopped short in front of Maskull and looked down at him.  "What do
+you intend to do?"
+
+Maskull glanced up and idly waved his hand toward the distant
+mountains.  "Since we can't walk, we must wait."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"I don't know... How's this, though?  Those peaks have changed
+colour, from red to green."
+
+"Yes, the lich wind is travelling this way."
+
+"The lich wind?"
+
+"It's the atmosphere of Lichstorm.  It always clings to the
+mountains, but when the wind blows from the north it comes as far as
+Threal."
+
+"It's a sort of fog, then?"
+
+"A peculiar sort, for they say it excites the sexual passions."
+
+"So we are to have lovemaking," said Maskull, laughing.
+
+"Perhaps you won't find it so joyous," replied Corpang a little
+grimly.
+
+"But tell me--these peaks, how do they preserve their balance?"
+
+Corpang gazed at the distant, overhanging summits, which were fast
+fading into obscurity.
+
+"Passion keeps them from falling."
+
+Maskull laughed again; he was feeling a strange disturbance of
+spirit.  "What, the love of rock for rock?"
+
+"It is comical, but true."
+
+"We'll take a closer peep at them presently.  Beyond the mountains is
+Barey, is it not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And then the Ocean.  But what is the name of that Ocean?"
+
+"That is told only to those who die beside it."
+
+"Is the secret so precious, Corpang?"
+
+Branchspell was nearing the horizon in the west; there were more than
+two hours of daylight remaining.  The air all around them became
+murky.  It was a thin mist, neither damp nor cold.  The Lichstorm
+Range now appeared only as a blur on the sky.  The air was electric
+and tingling, and was exciting in its effect.  Maskull felt a sort of
+emotional inflammation, as though a very slight external cause would
+serve to overturn his self-control.  Corpang stood silent with a
+mouth like iron.
+
+Maskull kept looking toward a high pile of rocks in the vicinity.
+
+"That seems to me a good watchtower.  Perhaps we shall see something
+from the top."
+
+Without waiting for his companion's opinion, he began to scramble up
+the tower, and in a few minutes was standing on the summit.  Corpang
+joined him.
+
+From their viewpoint they saw the whole countryside sloping down to
+the sea, which appeared as a mere flash of far-off, glittering water.
+Leaving all that, however, Maskull's eyes immediately fastened
+themselves on a small, boat-shaped object, about two miles away,
+which was travelling rapidly toward them, suspended only a few feet
+in the air.
+
+"What do you make of that?" he asked in a tone of astonishment.
+
+Corpang shook his head and said nothing.
+
+Within two minutes the flying object, whatever it was, had diminished
+the distance between them by one half.  It resembled a boat more and
+more, but its flight was erratic, rather than smooth; its nose was
+continually jerking upward and downward, and from side to side.
+Maskull now made out a man sitting in the stern, and what looked like
+a large dead animal lying amidships.  As the aerial craft drew
+nearer, he observed a thick, blue haze underneath it, and a similar
+haze behind, but the front, facing them, was clear.
+
+"Here must be what we are waiting for, Corpang.  But what on earth
+carries it?"
+
+He stroked his beard contemplatively, and then, fearing that they had
+not been seen, stepped onto the highest rock, bellowed loudly, and
+made wild motions with his arm.  The flying-boat, which was only a
+few hundred yards distant, slightly altered its course, now heading
+toward them in a way that left no doubt that the steersman had
+detected their presence.
+
+The boat slackened speed until it was travelling no faster than a
+walking man, but the irregularity of its movements continued.  It was
+shaped rather queerly.  About twenty feet long, its straight sides
+tapered off from a flat bow, four feet broad, to a sharp-angled
+stern.  The flat bottom was not above ten feet from the ground.  It
+was undecked, and carried only one living occupant; the other object
+they had distinguished was really the carcass of an animal, of about
+the size of a large sheep.  The blue haze trailing behind the boat
+appeared to emanate from the glittering point of a short upright pole
+fastened in the stem.  When the craft was within a few feet of them,
+and they were looking down at it in wonder from above, the man
+removed this pole and covered the brightly shining tip with a cap.
+The forward motion then ceased altogether, and the boat began to
+drift hither and thither, but still it remained suspended in the air,
+while the haze underneath persisted.  Finally the broad side came
+gently up against the pile of rocks on which they were standing.  The
+steersman jumped ashore and immediately clambered up to meet them.
+
+Maskull offered him a hand, but he refused it disdainfully.  He was a
+young man, of middle height.  He wore a close-fitting fur garment.
+His limbs were quite ordinary, but his trunk was disproportionately
+long, and he had the biggest and deepest chest that Maskull had ever
+seen in a man.  His hairless face was sharp, pointed, and ugly, with
+protruding teeth, and a spiteful, grinning expression.  His eyes and
+brows sloped upward.  On his forehead was an organ which looked as
+though it had been mutilated--it was a mere disagreeable stump of
+flesh.  His hair was short and thin.  Maskull could not name the
+colour of his skin, but it seemed to stand in the same relation to
+jale as green to red.
+
+Once up, the stranger stood for a minute or two, scrutinising the two
+companions through half-closed lids, all the time smiling insolently.
+Maskull was all eagerness to exchange words, but did not care to be
+the first to speak.  Corpang stood moodily, a little in the
+background.
+
+"What men are you?" demanded the aerial navigator at last.  His voice
+was extremely loud, and possessed a most unpleasant timbre.  It
+sounded to Maskull like a large volume of air trying to force its way
+through a narrow orifice.
+
+"I am Maskull; my friend is Corpang.  He comes from Threal, but where
+I come from, don't ask."
+
+"I am Haunte, from Sarclash."
+
+"Where may that be?"
+
+"Half an hour ago I could have shown it to you, but now it has got
+too murky.  It is a mountain in Lichstorm."
+
+"Are you returning there now?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And how long will it take to get there in that boat?"
+
+"Two--three hours."
+
+"Will it accommodate us too?"
+
+"What, are you for Lichstorm as well?  What can you want there?"
+
+"To see the sights," responded Maskull with twinkling eyes.  "But
+first of all, to dine.  I can't remember having eaten all day.  You
+seem to have been hunting to some purpose, so we won't lack for
+food."
+
+Haunte eyed him quizzically.  "You certainly don't lack impudence.
+However, I'm a man of that sort myself, and it is the sort I prefer.
+Your friend, now, would probably rather starve than ask a meal of a
+stranger.  He looks to me just like a bewildered toad dragged up out
+of a dark hole."
+
+Maskull took Corpang's arm, and constrained him to silence.
+
+"Where have you been hunting, Haunte?"
+
+"Matterplay.  I had the worst luck--I speared one wold horse, and
+there it lies."
+
+"What is Lichstorm like?"
+
+"There are men there, and there are women there, but there are no
+men-women, as with you."
+
+"What do you call men-women?"
+
+"Persons of mixed sex, like yourself.  In Lichstorm the sexes are
+pure."
+
+"I have always regarded myself as a man."
+
+"Very likely you have; but the test is, do you hate and fear women?"
+
+"Why, do you?"
+
+Haunte grinned and showed his teeth.  "Things are different in
+Lichstorm....  So you want to see the sights?"
+
+"I confess I am curious to see your women, for example, after what
+you say."
+
+"Then I'll introduce you to Sullenbode."
+
+He paused a moment after making this remark, and then suddenly
+uttered a great, bass laugh, so that his chest shook.
+
+"Let us share the joke," said Maskull.
+
+"Oh, you'll understand it later."
+
+"If you play pranks with me, I won't stand on ceremony with you."
+
+Haunte laughed again.  "I won't be the one to play pranks.
+Sullenbode will be deeply obliged to me.  If I don't visit her myself
+as often as she would like, I'm always glad to serve her in other
+ways....  Well, you shall have your boat ride."
+
+Maskull rubbed his nose doubtfully.  "If the sexes hate one another
+in your land, is it because passion is weaker, or stronger?"
+
+"In other parts of the world there is soft passion, but in Lichstorm
+there is hard passion."
+
+"But what do you call hard passion?"
+
+"Where men are called to women by pain, and not pleasure."
+
+"I intend to understand, before I've finished."
+
+"Yes," answered Haunte, with a taunting look, "it would be a pity to
+let the chance slip, since you're going to Lichstorm."
+
+It was now Corpang's turn to take Maskull by the arm.  "This journey
+will end badly."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Your goal was Muspel a short while ago; now it is women."
+
+"Let me alone," said Maskull.  "Give luck a slack rein.  What brought
+this boat here?"
+
+"What is this talk about Muspel?" demanded Haunte.
+
+Corpang caught his shoulder roughly, and stared straight into his
+eyes.  "What do you know?"
+
+"Not much, but something, perhaps.  Ask me at supper.  Now it is high
+time to start.  Navigating the mountains by night isn't child's play,
+let me tell you."
+
+"I shall not forget," said Corpang.
+
+Maskull gazed down at the boat.  "Are we to get in?"
+
+"Gently, my friend.  It's only canework and skin."
+
+"First of all, you might enlighten me as to how you have contrived to
+dispense with the laws of gravitation."
+
+Haunte smiled sarcastically.  "A secret in your ear, Maskull.  All
+laws are female.  A true male is an outlaw--outside the law."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"The great body of the earth is continually giving out female
+particles, and the male parts of rocks and living bodies are equally
+continually trying to reach them.  That's gravitation."
+
+"Then how do you manage with your boat?"
+
+"My two male stones do the work.  The one underneath the boat
+prevents it from falling to the ground; the one in the stem shuts it
+off from solid objects in the rear.  The only part of the boat
+attracted by any part of the earth is the bow, for that's the only
+part the light of the male stones does not fall on.  So in that
+direction the boat travels."
+
+"And what are these wondrous male stones?"
+
+"They really are male stones.  There is nothing female in them; they
+are showering out male sparks all the time.  These sparks devour all
+the female particles rising from the earth.  No female particles are
+left over to attract the male parts of the boat, and so they are not
+in the least attracted in that direction."
+
+Maskull ruminated for a minute.
+
+"With your hunting, and boatbuilding, and science, you seem a very
+handy, skilful fellow, Haunte....  But the sun's sinking, and we'd
+better start."
+
+"Get down first, then, and shift that carcass farther forward.  Then
+you and your gloomy friend can sit amidships."
+
+Maskull immediately climbed down, and dropped himself into the boat;
+but then he received a surprise.  The moment he stood on the frail
+bottom, still clinging to the rock, not only did his weight entirely
+disappear, as though he were floating in some heavy medium, like salt
+water, but the rock he held onto drew him, as by a mild current of
+electricity, and he was able to withdraw his hands only with
+difficulty.
+
+After the first moment's shock, he quietly accepted the new order of
+things, and set about shifting the carcass.  Since there was no
+weight in the boat this was effected without any great labour.
+Corpang then descended.  The astonishing physical change had no power
+to disturb his settled composure, which was founded on moral ideas.
+Haunte came last; grasping the staff which held the upper male stone,
+he proceeded to erect it, after removing the cap.  Maskull then
+obtained his first near view of the mysterious light, which, by
+counteracting the forces of Nature, acted indirectly not only as
+elevator but as motive force.  In the last ruddy gleams of the great
+sun, its rays were obscured, and it looked little more impressive
+than an extremely brilliant, scintillating blue-white jewel, but its
+power could be gauged by the visible, coloured mist that it threw out
+for many yards around.
+
+The steering was effected by means of a shutter attached by a cord to
+the top of the staff, which could be so manipulated that any segment
+of the male stone's rays, or all the rays, or none at all, could be
+shut off at will.  No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial
+vessel quietly detached itself from the rock to which it had been
+drawn, and passed slowly forward in the direction of the mountains.
+Branchspell sank below the horizon.  The gathering mist blotted out
+everything outside a radius of a few miles.  The air grew cool and
+fresh.
+
+Soon the rock masses ceased on the great, rising plain.  Haunte
+withdrew the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
+
+"You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,"
+exclaimed Maskull.  "I would have thought it impossible."
+
+Haunte grunted.  "You will have to take risks, and think yourself
+fortunate if you come off with nothing worse than a cracked skull.
+But one thing I can tell you--if you go on disturbing me with your
+chitchat we shan't get as far as the mountains."
+
+Thereafter Maskull was silent.
+
+The twilight deepened; the murk grew denser.  There was little to
+look at, but much to feel.  The motion of the boat, which was due to
+the never-ending struggle between the male stones and the force of
+gravitation, resembled in an exaggerated fashion the violent tossing
+of a small craft on a choppy sea.  The two passengers became unhappy.
+Haunte, from his seat in the stern, gazed at them sardonically with
+one eye.  The darkness now came on rapidly.
+
+About ninety minutes after the commencement of the voyage they
+arrived at the foothills of Lichstorm.  They began to mount.  There
+was no daylight left to see by.  Beneath them, however, on both sides
+of them and in the rear, the landscape was lighted up for a
+considerable distance by the now vivid blue rays of the twin male
+stones.  Ahead, where these rays did not shine, Haunte was guided by
+the self-luminous nature of the rocks, grass, and trees.  These were
+faintly phosphorescent; the vegetation shone out more strongly than
+the soil.
+
+The moon was not shining and there were no stars; Maskull therefore
+inferred that the upper atmosphere was dense with mist.  Once or
+twice, from his sensations of choking, he thought that they were
+entering a fogbank, but it was a strange kind of fog, for it had the
+effect of doubling the intensity of every light in front of them.
+Whenever this happened, nightmare feelings attacked him; he
+experienced transitory, unreasoning fright and horror.
+
+Now they passed high above the valley that separated the foothills
+from the mountains themselves.  The boat began an ascent of many
+thousands of feet and, as the cliffs were near, Haunte had to
+manoeuvre carefully with the rear light in order to keep clear of
+them.  Maskull watched the delicacy of his movements, not without
+admiration.  A long time went by.  It grew much colder; the air was
+damp and drafty.  The fog began to deposit something like snow on
+their persons.  Maskull kept sweating with terror, not because of the
+danger they were in, but because of the cloud banks that continued to
+envelop them.
+
+They cleared the first line of precipices.  Still mounting, but this
+time with a forward motion, as could be seen by the vapours
+illuminated by the male stones through which they passed, they were
+soon altogether out of sight of solid ground.  Suddenly and quite
+unexpectedly the moon broke through.  In the upper atmosphere thick
+masses of fog were seen crawling hither and thither, broken in many
+places by thin rifts of sky, through one of which Teargeld was
+shining.  Below them, to their left, a gigantic peak, glittering with
+green ice, showed itself for a few seconds, and was then swallowed up
+again.  All the rest of the world was hidden by the mist.  The moon
+went in again.  Maskull had seen quite enough to make him long for
+the aerial voyage to end.
+
+The light from the male stones presently illuminated the face of a
+new cliff.  It was grand, rugged, and perpendicular.  Upward,
+downward, and on both sides, it faded imperceptibly into the night.
+After coasting it a little way, they observed a shelf of rock jutting
+out.  It was square, measuring about a dozen feet each way.  Green
+snow covered it to a depth of some inches.  Immediately behind it was
+a dark slit in the rock, which promised to be the mouth of a cave.
+
+Haunte skilfully landed the boat on this platform.  Standing up, he
+raised the staff bearing the keel light and lowered the other; then
+removed both male stones, which he continued to hold in his hand.
+His face was thrown into strong relief by the vivid, sparkling blue-
+white rays.  It looked rather surly.
+
+"Do we get out?" inquired Maskull.
+
+"Yes.  I live here."
+
+"Thanks for the successful end of a dangerous journey."
+
+"Yes, it has been touch-and-go."
+
+Corpang jumped onto the platform.  He was smiling coarsely.  "There
+has been no danger, for our destinies lie elsewhere.  You are merely
+a ferryman, Haunte."
+
+"Is that so?" returned Haunte, with a most unpleasant laugh.  "I
+thought I was carrying men, not gods."
+
+"Where are we?" asked Maskull.  As he spoke, he got out, but Haunte
+remained standing a minute in the boat.
+
+"This is Sarclash--the second highest mountain in the land."
+
+"Which is the highest, then?"
+
+"Adage.  Between Sarclash and Adage there is a long ridge--very
+difficult in places.  About halfway along the ridge, at the lowest
+point, lies the top of the Mornstab Pass, which goes through to
+Barey.  Now you know the lay of the land."
+
+"Does the woman Sullenbode live near here?"
+
+"Near enough."  Haunte grinned.
+
+He leaped out of the boat and, pushing past the others without
+ceremony, walked straight into the cave.
+
+Maskull followed, with Corpang at his heels.  A few stone steps led
+to a doorway, curtained by the skin of some large beast.  Their host
+pushed his way in, never offering to hold the skin aside for them.
+Maskull made no comment, but grabbed it with his fist and tugged it
+away from its fastenings to the ground.  Haunte looked at the skin,
+and then stared hard at Maskull with his disagreeable smile, but
+neither said anything.
+
+The place in which they found themselves was a large oblong cavern,
+with walls, floor, and ceiling of natural rock.  There were two
+doorways: that by which they had entered, and another of smaller size
+directly opposite.  The cave was cold and cheerless; a damp draft
+passed from door to door.  Many skins of wild animals lay scattered
+on the ground.  A number of lumps of sun-dried flesh were hanging on
+a string along the wall, and a few bulging liquor skins reposed in a
+corner.  There were tusks, horns, and bones everywhere.  Resting
+against the wall were two short hunting spears, having beautiful
+crystal heads.
+
+Haunte set down the two male stones on the ground, near the farther
+door; their light illuminated the whole cave.  He then walked over to
+the meat and, snatching a large piece, began to gnaw it ravenously.
+
+"Are we invited to the feast?" asked Maskull.
+
+Haunte pointed to the hanging flesh and to the liquor skins, but did
+not pause in his chewing.
+
+"Where's a cup?" inquired Maskull, lifting one of the skins.
+
+Haunte indicated a clay goblet lying on the floor.  Maskull picked it
+up, undid the neck of the skin, and, resting it under his arm, filled
+the cup.  Tasting the liquor, he discovered it to be raw spirit.  He
+tossed off the draught, and then felt much better.
+
+The second cupful he proffered to Corpang.  The latter took a single
+sip, swallowed it, and then passed the cup back without a word.  He
+refused to drink again, as long as they were in the cave.  Maskull
+finished the cup, and began to throw off care.
+
+Going to the meat line, he took down a large double handful, and sat
+down on a pile of skins to eat at his ease.  The flesh was tough and
+coarse, but he had never tasted anything sweeter.  He could not
+understand the flavour, which was not surprising in a world of
+strange animals.  The meal proceeded in silence.  Corpang ate
+sparingly, standing up, and afterward lay down on a bundle of furs.
+His bold eyes watched all the movements of the other two.  Haunte had
+not drunk as yet.
+
+At last Maskull concluded his meal.  He emptied another cup, sighed
+pleasantly, and prepared to talk.
+
+"Now explain further about your women, Haunte."
+
+Haunte fetched another skin of liquor and a second cup.  He tore off
+the string with his teeth, and poured out and drank cup after cup in
+quick succession.  Then he sat down, crossed his legs, and turned to
+Maskull.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"So they are objectionable?"
+
+"They are deadly."
+
+"Deadly?  In what way can they possibly be deadly?"
+
+"You will learn.  I was watching you in the boat, Maskull.  You had
+some bad feelings, eh?"
+
+"I don't conceal it.  There were times when I felt as if I were
+struggling with a nightmare.  What caused it?"
+
+"The female atmosphere of Lichstorm.  Sexual passion."
+
+"I had no passion."
+
+"That was passion--the first stage.  Nature tickles your people into
+marriage, but it tortures us.  Wait till you get outside.  You'll
+have a return of those sensations--only ten times worse.  The drink
+you've had will see to that....  How do you suppose it will all end?"
+
+"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you questions."
+
+Haunte laughed loudly.  "Sullenbode."
+
+"You mean it will end in my seeking Sullenbode?"
+
+"But what will come of it, Maskull?  What will she give you?  Sweet,
+fainting, white-armed, feminine voluptuousness?"
+
+Maskull coolly drank another cup.  "And why should she give all that
+to a passerby?"
+
+"Well, as a matter of fact, she hasn't it to give.  No, what she will
+give you, and what you'll accept from her, because you can't help it,
+is--anguish, insanity, possibly death."
+
+"You may be talking sense, but it sounds like raving to me.  Why
+should I accept insanity and death?"
+
+"Because your passion will force you to."
+
+"What about yourself?" Maskull asked, biting his nails.
+
+"Oh, I have my male stones.  I am immune."
+
+"Is that all that prevents you from being like other men?"
+
+"Yes, but don't attempt any tricks, Maskull."
+
+Maskull went on drinking steadily, and said nothing for a time.  "So
+men and women here are hostile to each other, and love is unknown?"
+he proceeded at last.
+
+"That magic word....  Shall I tell you what love is, Maskull?  Love
+between male and female is impossible.  When Maskull loves a woman,
+it is Maskull's female ancestors who are loving her.  But here in
+this land the men are pure males.  They have drawn nothing from the
+female side."
+
+"Where do the male stones come from?"
+
+"Oh, they are not freaks.  There must be whole beds of the stuff
+somewhere.  It is all that prevents the world from being a pure
+female world.  It would be one big mass of heavy sweetness, without
+individual shapes."
+
+"Yet this same sweetness is torturing to men?"
+
+"The life of an absolute male is fierce.  An excess of life is
+dangerous to the body.  How can it be anything else than torturing?"
+
+Corpang now sat up suddenly, and addressed Haunte.  "I remind you of
+your promise to tell about Muspel."
+
+Haunte regarded him with a malevolent smile.  "Ha!  The underground
+man has come to life."
+
+"Yes, tell us," put in Maskull carelessly.
+
+Haunte drank, and laughed a little.  "Well, the tale's short, and
+hardly worth telling, but since you're interested....  A stranger came
+here five years ago, inquiring after Muspel-light.  His name was
+Lodd.  He came from the east.  He came up to me one bright morning in
+summer, outside this very cave.  If you ask me to describe him--I
+can't imagine a second man like him.  He looked so proud, noble,
+superior, that I felt my own blood to be dirty by comparison.  You
+can guess I don't have this feeling for everyone.  Now that I am
+recalling him, he was not so much superior as different.  I was so
+impressed that I rose and talked to him standing.  He inquired the
+direction of the mountain Adage.  He went on to say, 'They say
+Muspel-light is sometimes seen there.  What do you know of such a
+thing?'  I told him the truth--that I knew nothing about it, and then
+he went on, 'Well, I am going to Adage.  And tell those who come
+after me on the same errand that they had better do the same thing.'
+That was the whole conversation.  He started on his way, and I've
+never seen him or heard of him since."
+
+"So you didn't have the curiosity to follow him?"
+
+"No, because the moment he had turned his back all my interest in the
+man somehow seemed to vanish."
+
+"Probably because he was useless to you."
+
+Corpang glanced at Maskull.  "Our road is marked out for us."
+
+"So it would appear," said Maskull indifferently.
+
+The talk flagged for a time.  Maskull felt the silence oppressive,
+and grew restless.
+
+"What do you call the colour of your skin, Haunte, as I saw it in
+daylight?  It struck me as strange."
+
+"Dolm," said Haunte.
+
+"A compound of ulfire and blue," explained Corpang.
+
+"Now I know.  These colours are puzzling for a stranger."
+
+"What colours have you in your world?" asked Corpang.
+
+"Only three primary ones, but here you seem to have five, though how
+it comes about I can't imagine."
+
+"There are two sets of three primary colours here," said Corpang,
+"but as one of the colours--blue--is identical in both sets,
+altogether there are five primary colours."
+
+"Why two sets?"
+
+"Produced by the two suns.  Branchspell produces blue, yellow, and
+red; Alppain, ulfire, blue, and jale."
+
+"It's remarkable that explanation has never occurred to me before."
+
+"So here you have another illustration of the necessary trinity of
+nature.  Blue is existence.  It is darkness seen through light; a
+contrasting of existence and nothingness.  Yellow is relation.  In
+yellow light we see the relation of objects in the clearest way.  Red
+is feeling.  When we see red, we are thrown back on our personal
+feelings....  As regards the Alppain colours, blue stands in the
+middle and is therefore not existence, but relation.  Ulfire is
+existence; so it must be a different sort of existence."
+
+Haunte yawned.  "There are marvellous philosophers in your
+underground hole."
+
+Maskull got up and looked about him.
+
+"Where does that other door lead to?"
+
+"Better explore," said Haunte.
+
+Maskull took him at his word, and strolled across the cave, flinging
+the curtain aside and disappearing into the night.  Haunte rose
+abruptly and hurried after him.
+
+Corpang too got to his feet.  He went over to the untouched spirit
+skins, untied the necks, and allowed the contents to gush out on to
+the floor.  Next he took the hunting spears, and snapped off the
+points between his hands.  Before he had time to resume his seat,
+Haunte and Maskull reappeared.  The host's quick, shifty eyes at once
+took in what had happened.  He smiled, and turned pale.
+
+"You haven't been idle, friend."
+
+Corpang fixed Haunte with his bold, heavy gaze.  "I thought it well
+to draw your teeth."
+
+Maskull burst out laughing.  "The toad's come into the light to some
+purpose, Haunte.  Who would have expected it?"
+
+Haunte, after staring hard at Corpang for two or three minutes,
+suddenly uttered a strange cry, like an evil spirit, and flung
+himself upon him.  The two men began to wrestle like wildcats.  They
+were as often on the floor as on their legs, and Maskull could not
+see who was getting the better of it.  He made no attempt to separate
+them.  A thought came into his head and, snatching up the two male
+stones, he ran with them, laughing, through the upper doorway, into
+the open night air.
+
+The door overlooked an abyss on another face of the mountain.  A
+narrow ledge, sprinkled with green snow, wound along the cliff to the
+right; it was the only available path.  He pitched the pebbles over
+the edge of the chasm.  Although hard and heavy in his hand, they
+sank more like feathers than stones, and left a long trail of vapour
+behind.  While Maskull was still watching them disappear, Haunte came
+rushing out of the cavern, followed by Corpang.  He gripped Maskull's
+arm excitedly.
+
+"What in Krag's name have you done?"
+
+"Overboard they have gone," replied Maskull, renewing his laughter.
+
+"You accursed madman!"
+
+Haunte's luminous colour came and went, just as though his internal
+light were breathing.  Then he grew suddenly calm, by a supreme
+exertion of his will.
+
+"You know this kills me?"
+
+"Haven't you been doing your best this last hour to make me ripe for
+Sullenbode?  Well then, cheer up, and join the pleasure party!"
+
+"You say it as a joke, but it is the miserable truth."
+
+Haunte's jeering malevolence had completely vanished.  He looked a
+sick man--yet somehow his face had become nobler.
+
+"I would be very sorry for you, Haunte, if it did not entail my being
+also very sorry for myself.  We are now all three together on the
+same errand--which doesn't appear to have struck you yet."
+
+"But why this errand at all?" asked Corpang quietly.  "Can't you men
+exercise self-control till you have arrived out of danger?"
+
+Haunte fixed him with wild eyes.  "No.  The phantoms come trooping in
+on me already."
+
+He sat down moodily, but the next minute was up again.
+
+"And I cannot wait.... the game is started."
+
+Soon afterward, by silent consent, they began to walk the ledge,
+Haunte in front.  It was narrow, ascending, and slippery, so that
+extreme caution was demanded.  The way was lighted by the self-
+luminous snow and rocks.
+
+When they had covered about half a mile, Maskull, who went second of
+the party, staggered, caught the cliff, and finally sat down.
+
+"The drink works.  My old sensations are returning, but worse."
+
+Haunte turned back.  "Then you are a doomed man."
+
+Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation,
+imagined that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless,
+supernatural being, who was trying to clasp him.  He was filled with
+horror, trembled violently, yet could not move a limb.  Sweat tumbled
+off his face in great drops.  The waking nightmare lasted a long
+time, but during that space it kept coming and going.  At one moment
+the vision seemed on the point of departing; the next it almost took
+shape--which he knew would be his death.  Suddenly it vanished
+altogether--he was free.  A fresh spring breeze fanned his face; he
+heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet bird; and it seemed to
+him as if a poem had shot together in his soul.  Such flashing,
+heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all his life!
+Almost immediately that too vanished.
+
+Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly,
+like one who has been visited by an angel.
+
+"Your colour changed to white," said Corpang.  "What happened?"
+
+"I passed through torture to love," replied Maskull simply.
+
+He stood up.  Haunte gazed at him sombrely.  "Will you not describe
+that passage?"
+
+Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully.  "When I was in Matterplay,
+I saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured,
+living animals.  In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now
+seemed to consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of
+joy.  The joy would not have been possible without the preliminary
+nightmare.  It is not accidental; Nature intends it so.  The truth
+has just flashed through my brain....  You men of Lichstorm don't go
+far enough.  You stop at the pangs, Without realising that they are
+birth pangs."
+
+"If this is true, you are a great pioneer," muttered Haunte.
+
+"How does this sensation differ from common love?" interrogated
+Corpang.
+
+"This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness."
+
+Corpang fingered his chin awhile.  "The Lichstorm men, however, will
+never reach this stage, for they are too masculine."
+
+Haunte turned pale.  "Why should we alone suffer?"
+
+"Nature is freakish and cruel, and doesn't act according to
+justice....  Follow us, Haunte, and escape from it all."
+
+"I'll see," muttered Haunte.  "Perhaps I will."
+
+"Have we far to go, to Sullenbode?" inquired Maskull.
+
+"No, her home's under the hanging cap of Sarclash."
+
+"What is to happen tonight?"  Maskull spoke to himself, but Haunte
+answered him.
+
+"Don't expect anything pleasant, in spite of what has just occurred.
+She is not a woman, but a mass of pure sex.  Your passion will draw
+her out into human shape, but only for a moment.  If the change were
+permanent, you would have endowed her with a soul."
+
+"Perhaps the change might be made permanent."
+
+"To do that, it is not enough to desire her; she must desire you as
+well.  But why should she desire you?"
+
+"Nothing turns out as one expects," said Maskull, shaking his head.
+"We had better get on again."
+
+They resumed the journey.  The ledge still rose, but, on turning a
+corner of the cliff, Haunte quitted it and began to climb a steep
+gully, which mounted directly to the upper heights.  Here they were
+compelled to use both hands and feet.  Maskull thought all the while
+of nothing but the overwhelming sweetness he had just experienced.
+
+The flat ground on top was dry and springy.  There was no more snow,
+and bright plants appeared.  Haunte turned sharply to the left.
+
+"This must be under the cap," said Maskull.
+
+"It is; and within five minutes you will see Sullenbode."
+
+When he spoke his words, Maskull's lips surprised him by their tender
+sensitiveness.  Their action against each other sent thrills
+throughout his body.
+
+The grass shone dimly.  A huge tree, with glowing branches, came into
+sight.  It bore a multitude of red fruit, like hanging lanterns, but
+no leaves.  Underneath this tree Sullenbode was sitting.  Her
+beautiful light--a mingling of jale and white--gleamed softly
+through the darkness.  She sat erect, on crossed legs, asleep.  She
+was clothed in a singular skin garment, which started as a cloak
+thrown over one shoulder, and ended as loose breeches terminating
+above the knees.  Her forearms were lightly folded, and in one hand
+she held a half-eaten fruit.
+
+Maskull stood over her and looked down, deeply interested.  He
+thought he had never seen anything half so feminine.  Her flesh was
+almost melting in its softness.  So undeveloped were the facial
+organs that they looked scarcely human; only the lips were full,
+pouting, and expressive.  In their richness, these lips seemed like a
+splash of vivid will on a background of slumbering protoplasm.  Her
+hair was undressed.  Its colour could not be distinguished.  It was
+long and tangled, and had been tucked into her garment behind, for
+convenience.
+
+Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly
+agitated.  Maskull's heart was hammering away under his chest.
+Haunte pulled him, and said, "My head feels as if it were being torn
+from my shoulders."
+
+"What can that mean?"
+
+"Yet there's a horrible joy in it," added Haunte, with a sickly
+smile.
+
+He put his hand on the woman's shoulder.  She awoke softly, glanced
+up at them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit.  Maskull did
+not imagine that she had intelligence enough to speak.  Haunte
+suddenly dropped on his knees, and kissed her lips.
+
+She did not repulse him.  During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull
+noticed with a shock that her face was altering.  The features
+emerged from their indistinctness and became human, and almost
+powerful.  The smile faded, a scowl took its place.  She thrust
+Haunte away, rose to her feet, and stared beneath bent brows at the
+three men, each one in turn.  Maskull came last; his face she studied
+for quite a long time, but nothing indicated what she thought.
+
+Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning.  She
+suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time,
+he fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in
+contact with an electric wire.  The back of his head struck the
+ground, and he lay there motionless.
+
+Corpang sprang forward to his assistance.  But, when he saw what had
+happened, he left him where he was.
+
+"Maskull, come here quickly!"
+
+The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte's skin, as Maskull bent
+over.  The man was dead.  His face was unrecognisable.  The head had
+been split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with
+strange-coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow
+from an axe.
+
+"This couldn't be from the fall," said Maskull.
+
+"No, Sullenbode did it."
+
+Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman.  She had resumed her
+former attitude on the ground.  The momentary intelligence had
+vanished from her face, and she was again smiling.
+
+
+
+Chapter 19
+
+SULLENBODE
+
+Sullenbode's naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the
+clothed part of her person was invisible.  Maskull watched her
+senseless, smiling face, and shivered.  Strange feelings ran through
+his body.
+
+Corpang spoke out of the night.  "She looks like an evil spirit
+filled with deadliness."
+
+"It was like deliberately kissing lightning."
+
+"Haunte was insane with passion."
+
+"So am I," said Maskull quietly.  "My body seems full of rocks, all
+grinding against one another."
+
+"This is what I was afraid of."
+
+"It appears I shall have to kiss her too."
+
+Corpang pulled his arm.  "Have you lost all manliness?"
+
+But Maskull impatiently shook himself free.  He plucked nervously at
+his beard, and stared at Sullenbode.  His lips kept twitching.  After
+this had gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the
+woman, and lifted her bodily in his arms.  Setting her upright
+against the rugged tree trunk, he kissed her.
+
+A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame.  He thought that it
+was death, and lost consciousness.
+
+When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder
+with one hand at arm's length, searching his face with gloomy eyes.
+At first he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had
+kissed, but another.  Then he gradually realised that her face was
+identical with that which Haunte's action had called into existence.
+A great calmness came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.
+
+Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul.  Her skin was firm,
+her features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of
+power.  She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and
+movements.  Her face was not beautiful.  It was long, and palely
+lighted, while the mouth crossed the lower half like a gash of fire.
+The lips were as voluptuous as before.  Her brows were heavy.  There
+was nothing vulgar in her--she looked the kingliest of all women.
+She appeared not more than twenty-five.
+
+Growing tired, apparently, of his scrutiny, she pushed him a little
+way and allowed her arm to drop, at the same time curving her mouth
+into a long, bowlike smile.  "Whom have I to thank for this gift of
+life?"
+
+Her voice was rich, slow, and odd.  Maskull felt himself in a dream.
+
+"My name is Maskull."
+
+She motioned to him to come a step nearer.  "Listen, Maskull.  Man
+after man has drawn me into the world, but they could not keep me
+there, for I did not wish it.  But now you have drawn me into it for
+all time, for good or evil."
+
+Maskull stretched a hand toward the now invisible corpse, and said
+quietly, "What have you to say about him?"
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+"Haunte."
+
+"So that was Haunte.  The news will travel far and wide.  He was a
+famous man."
+
+"It's a horrible affair.  I can't think that you killed him
+deliberately."
+
+"We women are endowed with terrible power, but it is our only
+protection.  We do not want these visits; we loathe them."
+
+"I might have died, too."
+
+"You came together?"
+
+"There were three of us.  Corpang still stands over there."
+
+"I see a faintly glimmering form.  What do you want of me, Corpang?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Then go away, and leave me with Maskull."
+
+"No need, Corpang.  I am coming with you."
+
+"This is not that pleasure, then?" demanded the low, earnest voice,
+out of the darkness.
+
+"No, that pleasure has not returned."
+
+Sullenbode gripped his arm hard.  "What pleasure are you speaking
+of?"
+
+"A presentiment of love, which I felt not long ago."
+
+"But what do you feel now?"
+
+"Calm and free."
+
+Sullenbode's face seemed like a pallid mask, hiding a slow, swelling
+sea of elemental passions.  "I do not know how it will end, Maskull,
+but we will still keep together a little.  Where are you going?"
+
+"To Adage," said Corpang, stepping forward.
+
+"But why?"
+
+"We are following the steps of Lodd, who went there years ago, to
+find Muspel-light."
+
+"It's the light of another world."
+
+"The quest is grand.  But cannot women see that light?"
+
+"On one condition," said Corpang.  "They must forget their sex.
+Womanhood and love belong to life, while Muspel is above life."
+
+"I give you all other men," said Sullenbode.  "Maskull is mine."
+
+"No. I am not here to help Maskull to a lover but to remind him of
+the existence of nobler things."
+
+"You are a good man.  But you two alone will never strike the road to
+Adage."
+
+"Are you acquainted with it?"
+
+Again the woman gripped Maskull's arm.  "What is love--which Corpang
+despises?"
+
+Maskull looked at her attentively.  Sullenbode went on, "Love is that
+which is perfectly willing to disappear and become nothing, for the
+sake of the beloved."
+
+Corpang wrinkled his forehead.  "A magnanimous female lover is new in
+my experience."
+
+Maskull put him aside with his hand, and said to Sullenbode, "Are you
+contemplating a sacrifice?"
+
+She gazed at her feet, and smiled.  "What does it matter what my
+thoughts are?  Tell me, are you starting at once, or do you mean to
+rest first?  It's a rough road to Adage."
+
+"What's in your mind?" demanded Maskull.
+
+"I will guide you a little.  When we reach the ridge between Sarclash
+and Adage, perhaps I shall turn back."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then if the moon shines perhaps you will arrive before daybreak, but
+if it is dark it's hardly likely."
+
+"That's not what I meant.  What will become of you after we have
+parted company?"
+
+"I shall return somewhere--perhaps here."
+
+Maskull went close up to her, in order to study her face better.
+"Shall you sink back into--the old state?"
+
+"No, Maskull, thank heaven."
+
+"Then how will you live?"
+
+Sullenbode calmly removed the hand which he had placed on her arm.
+There was a sort of swirling flame in her eyes.  "And who said I
+would go on living?"
+
+Maskull blinked at her in bewilderment.  A few moments passed before
+he spoke again.  "You women are a sacrificing lot.  You know I can't
+leave you like this."
+
+Their eyes met.  Neither withdrew them, and neither felt embarrassed.
+
+"You will always be the most generous of men, Maskull.  Now let us
+go....  Corpang is a single-minded personage, and the least we
+others--who aren't so single-minded--can do is to help him to his
+destination.  We mustn't inquire whether the destination of single-
+minded men is as a rule worth arriving at."
+
+"If it is good for Maskull, it will be good for me."
+
+"Well, no vessel can hold more than its appointed measure."
+
+Corpang gave a wry smile.  "During your long sleep you appear to have
+picked up wisdom."
+
+"Yes, Corpang, I have met many men, and explored many minds."
+
+As they moved off, Maskull remembered Haunte.
+
+"Can we not bury that poor fellow?"
+
+"By this time tomorrow we shall need burial ourselves.  But I do not
+include Corpang."
+
+"We have no tools, so you must have your way.  You killed him, but I
+am the real murderer.  I stole his protecting light."
+
+"Surely that death is balanced by the life you have given me."  They
+left the spot in the direction opposite to that by which the three
+men had arrived.  After a few steps, they came to green snow again.
+At the same time the flat ground ended, and they started to traverse
+a steep, pathless mountain slope.  The snow and rocks glimmered,
+their own bodies shone; otherwise everything was dark.  The mists
+swirled around them, but Maskull had no more nightmares.  The breeze
+was cold, pure, and steady.  They walked in file, Sullenbode leading;
+her movements were slow and fascinating.  Corpang came last.  His
+stern eyes saw nothing ahead but an alluring girl and a half-
+infatuated man.
+
+For a long time they continued crossing the rough and rocky slope,
+maintaining a slightly upward course.  The angle was so steep that a
+false step would have been fatal.  The high ground was on their
+right.  After a while, the hillside on the left hand changed to level
+ground, and they seemed to have joined another spur of the mountain.
+The ascending slope on the right hand persisted for a few hundred
+yards more.  Then Sullenbode bore sharply to the left, and they found
+level ground all around them.
+
+"We are on the ridge," announced the woman, halting.
+
+The others came up to her, and at the same instant the moon burst
+through the clouds, illuminating the whole scene.
+
+Maskull uttered a cry.  The wild, noble, lonely beauty of the view
+was quite unexpected.  Teargeld was high in the sky to their left,
+shining down on them from behind.  Straight in front, like an
+enormously wide, smoothly descending road, lay the great ridge which
+went on to Adage, though Adage itself was out of sight.  It was never
+less than two hundred yards wide.  It was covered with green snow, in
+some places entirely, but in other places the naked rocks showed
+through like black teeth.  From where they stood they were unable to
+see the sides of the ridge, or what lay underneath.  On the right
+hand, which was north, the landscape was blurred and indistinct.
+There were no peaks there; it was the distant, low-lying land of
+Barey.  But on the left hand appeared a whole forest of mighty
+pinnacles, near and far, as far as the eye could see in moonlight.
+All glittered green, and all possessed the extraordinary hanging caps
+that characterised the Lichstorm range.  These caps were of fantastic
+shapes, and each one was different.  The valley directly opposite
+them was filled with rolling mist.
+
+Sarclash was a mighty mountain mass in the shape of a horseshoe.  Its
+two ends pointed west, and were separated from each other by a mile
+or more of empty space.  The northern end became the ridge on which
+they stood.  The southern end was the long line of cliffs on that
+part of the mountain where Haunte's cave was situated.  The
+connecting curve was the steep slope they had just traversed.  One
+peak of Sarclash was invisible.
+
+In the south-west many mountains raised their heads.  In addition, a
+few summits, which must have been of extraordinary height, appeared
+over the south side of the horseshoe.
+
+Maskull turned round to put a question to Sullenbode, but when he saw
+her for the first time in moonlight the words he had framed died on
+his lips.  The gashlike mouth no longer dominated her other features,
+and the face, pale as ivory and most femininely shaped, suddenly
+became almost beautiful.  The lips were a long, womanish curve of
+rose-red.  Her hair was a dark maroon.  Maskull was greatly
+disturbed; he thought that she resembled a spirit, rather than a
+woman.
+
+"What puzzles you?" she asked, smiling.
+
+"Nothing.  But I would like to see you by sunlight."
+
+"Perhaps you never will."
+
+"Your life must be most solitary."
+
+She explored his features with her black, slow-gleaming eyes.  "Why
+do you fear to speak your feelings, Maskull?"
+
+"Things seem to open up before me like a sunrise, but what it means I
+can't say."
+
+Sullenbode laughed outright.  "It assuredly does not mean the
+approach of night."
+
+Corpang, who had been staring steadily along the ridge, here abruptly
+broke in.  "The road is plain now, Maskull.  If you wish it, I'll go
+on alone."
+
+"No, we'll go on together.  Sullenbode will accompany us."
+
+"A little way," said the woman, "but not to Adage, to pit my strength
+against unseen powers.  That light is not for me.  I know how to
+renounce love, but I will never be a traitor to it."
+
+"Who knows what we shall find on Adage, or what will happen?  Corpang
+is as ignorant as myself."
+
+Corpang looked him full in the face.  "Maskull, you are quite well
+aware that you never dare approach that awful fire in the society of
+a beautiful woman."
+
+Maskull gave an uneasy laugh.  "What Corpang doesn't tell you,
+Sullenbode, is that I am far better acquainted with Muspel-light than
+he, and that, but for a chance meeting with me, he would still be
+saying his prayers in Threal."
+
+"Still, what he says must be true," she replied, looking from one to
+the other.
+
+"And so I am not to be allowed to--"
+
+"So long as I am with you, I shall urge you onward, and not backward,
+Maskull."
+
+"We need not quarrel yet," he remarked, with a forced smile.  "No
+doubt things will straighten themselves out."
+
+Sullenbode began kicking the snow about with her foot.  "I picked up
+another piece of wisdom in my sleep, Corpang."
+
+"Tell it to me, then."
+
+"Men who live by laws and rules are parasites.  Others shed their
+strength to bring these laws out of nothing into the light of day,
+but the law-abiders live at their ease--they have conquered nothing
+for themselves."
+
+"It is given to some to discover, and to others to preserve and
+perfect.  You cannot condemn me for wishing Maskull well."
+
+"No, but a child cannot lead a thunderstorm."
+
+They started walking again along the centre of the ridge.  All three
+were abreast, Sullenbode in the middle.
+
+The road descended by an easy gradient, and was for a long distance
+comparatively smooth.  The freezing point seemed higher than on
+Earth, for the few inches of snow through which they trudged felt
+almost warm to their naked feet.  Maskull's soles were by now like
+tough hides.  The moonlit snow was green and dazzling.  Their
+slanting, abbreviated shadows were sharply defined, and red-black in
+colour.  Maskull, who walked on Sullenbode's right hand, looked
+constantly to the left, toward the galaxy of glorious distant peaks.
+
+"You cannot belong to this world," said the woman.  "Men of your
+stamp are not to be looked for here."
+
+"No, I have come here from Earth."
+
+"Is that larger than our world?"
+
+"Smaller, I think.  Small, and overcrowded with men and women.  With
+all those people, confusion would result but for orderly laws, and
+therefore the laws are of iron.  As adventure would be impossible
+without encroaching on these laws, there is no longer any spirit of
+adventure among the Earthmen.  Everything is safe, vulgar, and
+completed."
+
+"Do men hate women there, and women men?"
+
+"No, the meeting of the sexes is sweet, though shameful.  So poignant
+is the sweetness that the accompanying shame is ignored, with open
+eyes.  There is no hatred, or only among a few eccentric persons."
+
+"That shame surely must be the rudiment of our Lichstorm passion.
+But now say--why did you come here?"
+
+"To meet with new experiences, perhaps.  The old ones no longer
+interested me."
+
+"How long have you been in this world?"
+
+"This is the end of my fourth day."
+
+"Then tell me what you have seen and done during those four days.
+You cannot have been inactive."
+
+"Great misfortunes have happened to me."
+
+He proceeded briefly to relate everything that had taken place from
+the moment of his first awakening in the scarlet desert.  Sullenbode
+listened, with half-closed eyes, nodding her head from time to time.
+only twice did she interrupt him.  After his description of Tydomin's
+death, she said, speaking in a low voice--"None of us women ought by
+right of nature to fall short of Tydomin in sacrifice.  For that one
+act of hers, I almost love her, although she brought evil to your
+door."  Again, speaking of Gleameil, she remarked, "That grand-souled
+girl I admire the most of all.  She listened to her inner voice, and
+to nothing else besides.  Which of us others is strong enough for
+that?"
+
+When his tale was quite over, Sullenbode said, "Does it not strike
+you, Maskull, that these women you have met have been far nobler than
+the men?"
+
+"I recognise that.  We men often sacrifice ourselves, but only for a
+substantial cause.  For you women almost any cause will serve.  You
+love the sacrifice for its own sake, and that is because you are
+naturally noble."
+
+Turning her head a little, she threw him a smile so proud, yet so
+sweet, that he was struck into silence.
+
+They tramped on quietly for some distance, and then he said, "Now you
+understand the sort of man I am.  Much brutality, more weakness,
+scant pity for anyone--Oh, it has been a bloody journey!"
+
+She laid her hand on his arm.  "I, for one, would not have it less
+rugged."
+
+"Nothing good can be said of my crimes."
+
+"To me you seem like a lonely giant, searching for you know not
+what....  The grandest that life holds....  You at least have no cause
+to look up to women."
+
+"Thanks, Sullenbode!" he responded, with a troubled smile.
+
+"When Maskull passes, let people watch.  Everyone is thrown out of
+your road.  You go on, looking neither to right nor left."
+
+"Take care that you are not thrown as well," said Corpang gravely.
+
+"Maskull shall do with me whatever he pleases, old skull!  And for
+whatever he does, I will thank him....  In place of a heart you have
+a bag of loose dust.  Someone has described love to you.  You have
+had it described to you.  You have heard that it is a small, fearful,
+selfish joy.  It is not that--it is wild, and scornful, and sportive,
+and bloody....  How should you know."
+
+"Selfishness has far too many disguises."
+
+"If a woman wills to give up all, what can there be selfish in that?"
+
+"Only do not deceive yourself.  Act decisively, or fate will be too
+swift for you both."
+
+Sullenbode studied him through her lashes.  "Do you mean death--his
+death as well as mine?"
+
+"You go too far, Corpang," said Maskull, turning a shade darker.  "I
+don't accept you as the arbiter of our fortunes."
+
+"If honest counsel is disagreeable to you, let me go on ahead."
+
+The woman detained him with her slow, light fingers.  "I wish you to
+stay with us."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I think you may know what you are talking about.  I don't wish to
+bring harm to Maskull.  Presently I'll leave you."
+
+"That will be best," said Corpang.
+
+Maskull looked angry.  "I shall decide--Sullenbode, whether you go
+on, or back, I stay with you.  My mind is made up."
+
+An expression of joyousness overspread her face, in spite of her
+efforts to conceal it.  "Why do you scowl at me, Maskull?"
+
+He returned no answer, but continued walking onward with puckered
+brows.  After a dozen paces or so, he halted abruptly.  "Wait,
+Sullenbode!"
+
+The others came to a standstill.  Corpang looked puzzled, but the
+woman smiled.  Maskull, without a word, bent over and kissed her
+lips.  Then he relinquished her body, and turned around to Corpang.
+
+"How do you, in your great wisdom, interpret that kiss?"
+
+"It requires no great wisdom to interpret kisses, Maskull."
+
+"Hereafter, never dare to come between us.  Sullenbode belongs to
+me."
+
+"Then I say no more; but you are a fated man."
+
+From that time forward he spoke not another word to either of the
+others.
+
+A heavy gleam appeared in the woman's eyes.  "Now things are changed,
+Maskull.  Where are you taking me?"
+
+"Choose, you."
+
+"The man I love must complete his journey.  I won't have it otherwise.
+You shall not stand lower than Corpang."
+
+"Where you go, I will go."
+
+"And I--as long as your love endures, I will accompany you even to
+Adage."
+
+"Do you doubt its lasting?"
+
+"I wish not to....  Now I will tell you what I refused to tell you
+before.  The term of your love is the term of my life.  When you love
+me no longer, I must die."
+
+"And why?" asked Maskull slowly.
+
+"Yes, that's the responsibility you incurred when you kissed me for
+the first time.  I never meant to tell you."
+
+"Do you mean that if I had gone on alone, you would have died?"
+
+"I have no other life but what you give me."
+
+He gazed at her mournfully, without attempting to reply, and then
+slowly placed his arms around her body.  During this embrace he
+turned very pale, but Sullenbode grew as white as chalk.
+
+A few minutes later the journey toward Adage was resumed.
+
+They had been walking for two hours.  Teargeld was higher in the sky
+and nearer the south.  They had descended many hundred feet, and the
+character of the ridge began to alter for the worse.  The thin snow
+disappeared, and gave way to moist, boggy ground.  It was all little
+grassy hillocks and marshes.  They began to slip about and become
+draggled with mud.  Conversation ceased; Sullenbode led the way, and
+the men followed in her tracks.  The southern half of the landscape
+grew grander.  The greenish light of the brilliant moon, shining on
+the multitude of snow-green peaks, caused it to appear like a
+spectral world.  Their nearest neighbour towered high above them on
+the other side of the valley, due south, some five miles distant.  It
+was a slender, inaccessible, dizzy spire of black rock, the angles of
+which were too steep to retain snow.  A great upward-curving horn
+of rock sprang out from its topmost pinnacle.  For a long time it
+constituted their clues landmark.
+
+The whole ridge gradually became saturated with moisture.  The
+surface soil was spongy, and rested on impermeable rock; it breathed
+in the damp mists by night, and breathed them out again by day, under
+Branchspell's rays.  The walking grew first unpleasant, then
+difficult, and finally dangerous.  None of the party could
+distinguish firm ground from bog.  Sullenbode sank up to her waist in
+a pit of slime; Maskull rescued her, but after this incident took the
+lead himself.  Corpang was the next to meet with trouble.  Exploring
+a new path for himself, he tumbled into liquid mud up to his
+shoulders, and narrowly escaped a filthy death.  After Maskull had
+got him out, at great personal risk, they proceeded once more; but
+now the scramble changed from bad to worse.  Each step had to be
+thoroughly tested before weight was put upon it, and even so the test
+frequently failed.  All of them went in so often, that in the end
+they no longer resembled human beings, but walking pillars plastered
+from top to toe with black filth.  The hardest work fell to Maskull.
+He not only had the exhausting task of beating the way, but was
+continually called upon to help his companions out of their
+difficulties.  Without him they could not have got through.
+
+After a peculiarly evil patch, they paused to recruit their strength.
+Corpang's breathing was difficult, Sullenbode was quiet, listless,
+and depressed.
+
+Maskull gazed at them doubtfully.  "Does this continue?" he inquired.
+
+"No. I think," replied the woman, "we can't be far from the Mornstab
+Pass.  After that we shall begin to climb again, and then the road
+will improve perhaps."
+
+"Can you have been here before?"
+
+"Once I have been to the Pass, but it was not so bad then."
+
+"You are tired out, Sullenbode."
+
+"What of it?" she replied, smiling faintly.  "When one has a terrible
+lover, one must pay the price."
+
+"We cannot get there tonight, so let us stop at the first shelter we
+come too."
+
+"I leave it to you."
+
+He paced up and down, while the others sat.  "Do you regret
+anything?" he demanded suddenly.
+
+"No, Maskull, nothing.  I regret nothing."
+
+"Your feelings are unchanged?"
+
+"Love can't go back--it can only go on."
+
+"Yes, eternally on.  It is so."
+
+"No, I don't mean that.  There is a climax, but when the climax has
+been reached, love if it still wants to ascend must turn to
+sacrifice."
+
+"That's a dreadful creed," he said in a low voice, turning pale
+beneath his coating of mud.
+
+"Perhaps my nature is discordant....  I am tired.  I don't know what I
+feel."
+
+In a few minutes they were on their feet again, and the journey
+recommenced.  Within half an hour they had reached the Mornstab Pass.
+
+The ground here was drier; the broken land to the north served to
+drain off the moisture of the soil.  Sullenbode led them to the
+northern edge of the ridge, to show them the nature of the country.
+The pass was nothing but a gigantic landslip on both sides of the
+ridge, where it was the lowest above the underlying land.  A series
+of huge broken terraces of earth and rock descended toward Barey.
+They were overgrown with stunted vegetation.  It was quite possible
+to get down to the lowlands that way, but rather difficult.  On
+either side of the landslip, to cast and west, the ridge came down in
+a long line of sheer, terrific cliffs.  A low haze concealed Barey
+from view.  Complete stillness was in the air, broken only by the
+distant thundering of an invisible waterfall.
+
+Maskull and Sullenbode sat down on a boulder, facing the open
+country.  The moon was directly behind them, high up.  It was almost
+as light as an Earth day.
+
+"Tonight is like life," said Sullenbode.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"So lovely above and around us, so foul underfoot."
+
+Maskull sighed.  "Poor girl, you are unhappy."
+
+"And you--are you happy?"
+
+He thought a while, and then replied--"No.  No, I'm not happy.  Love
+is not happiness."
+
+"What is it, Maskull?"
+
+"Restlessness--unshed tears--thoughts too grand for our soul to
+think..."
+
+"Yes," said Sullenbode.
+
+After a time she asked, "Why were we created, just to live for a few
+years and then disappear?"
+
+"We are told that we shall live again."
+
+"Yes, Maskull?"
+
+"Perhaps in Muspel," he added thoughtfully.
+
+"What kind of life will that be?"
+
+"Surely we shall meet again.  Love is too wonderful and mysterious a
+thing to remain uncompleted."
+
+She gave a slight shiver, and turned away from him.  "This dream is
+untrue.  Love is completed here."
+
+"How can that be, when sooner or later it is brutally interrupted by
+Fate?"
+
+"It is completed by anguish....  Oh, why must it always be enjoyment
+for us?  Can't we suffer--can't we go on suffering, forever and
+ever?  Maskull, until love crushes our spirit, finally and without
+remedy, we don't begin to feel ourselves."
+
+Maskull gazed at her with a troubled expression.  "Can the memory of
+love be worth more than its presence and reality?"
+
+"You don't understand.  Those pangs are more precious than all the
+rest beside."  She caught at him.  "Oh, if you could only see inside
+my mind, Maskull!  You would see strange things....  I can't explain.
+It is all confused, even to myself....  This love is quite different
+from what I thought."
+
+He sighed again.  "Love is a strong drink.  Perhaps it is too strong
+for human beings.  And I think that it overtures our reason in
+different ways."
+
+They remained sitting side by side, staring straight before them with
+unseeing eyes.
+
+"It doesn't matter," said Sullenbode at last, with a smile, getting
+up.  "Soon it will be ended, one way or another.  Come, let us be
+off!"
+
+Maskull too got up.
+
+"Where's Corpang?" he asked listlessly.
+
+They both looked across the ridge in the direction of Adage.  At the
+point where they stood it was nearly a mile wide.  It sloped
+perceptibly toward the southern edge, giving all the earth the
+appearance of a heavy list.  Toward the west the ground continued
+level for a thousand yards, but then a high, sloping, grassy hill
+went right across the ridge from side to side, like a vast billow on
+the verge of breaking.  It shut out all further view beyond.  The
+whole crest of this hill, from one end to the other, was crowned by a
+long row of enormous stone posts, shining brightly in the moonlight
+against a background of dark sky.  There were about thirty in all,
+and they were placed at such regular intervals that there was little
+doubt that they had been set there by human hands.  Some were
+perpendicular, but others dipped so much that an aspect of extreme
+antiquity was given to the entire colonnade.  Corpang was seen
+climbing the hill, not far from the top.
+
+"He wishes to arrive," said Maskull, watching the energetic ascent
+with a rather cynical smile.
+
+"The heavens won't open for Corpang," returned Sullenbode.  "He need
+not be in such a hurry....  What do these pillars seem like to you?"
+
+"They might be the entrance to some mighty temple.  Who can have
+planted them there?"
+
+She did not answer.  They watched Corpang gain the summit of the
+hill, and disappear through the line of posts.
+
+Maskull turned again to Sullenbode.  "Now we two are alone in a
+lonely world."
+
+She regarded him steadily.  "Our last night on this earth must be a
+grand one.  I am ready to go on."
+
+"I don't think you are fit to go on.  It will be better to go down
+the pass a little, and find shelter."
+
+She half smiled.  "We won't study our poor bodies tonight.  I mean you
+to go to Adage, Maskull."
+
+"Then at all events let us rest first, for it must be a long,
+terrible climb, and who knows what hardships we shall meet?"
+
+She walked a step or two forward, half turned, and held out her hand
+to him.  "Come, Maskull!"
+
+When they had covered half the distance that separated them from the
+foot of the hill, Maskull heard the drum taps.  They came from behind
+the hill, and were loud, sharp, almost explosive.  He glanced at
+Sullenbode, but she appeared to hear nothing.  A minute later the
+whole sky behind and above the long chain of stone posts on the crest
+of the hill began to be illuminated by a strange radiance.  The
+moonlight in that quarter faded; the posts stood out black on a
+background of fire.  It was the light of Muspel.  As the moments
+passed, it grew more and more vivid, peculiar, and awful.  It was of
+no colour, and resembled nothing--it was supernatural and
+indescribable.  Maskull's spirit swelled.  He stood fast, with
+expanded nostrils and terrible eyes.
+
+Sullenbode touched him lightly.
+
+"What do you see, Maskull?"
+
+"Muspel-light."
+
+"I see nothing."
+
+The light shot up, until Maskull scarcely knew where he stood.  It
+burned with a fiercer and stranger glare than ever before.  He forgot
+the existence of Sullenbode.  The drum beats grew deafeningly loud.
+Each beat was like a rip of startling thunder, crashing through the
+sky and making the air tremble.  Presently the crashes coalesced, and
+one continuous roar of thunder rocked the world.  But the rhythm
+persisted--the four beats, with the third accented, still came
+pulsing through the atmosphere, only now against a background of
+thunder, and not of silence.
+
+Maskull's heart beat wildly.  His body was like a prison.  He longed
+to throw it off, to spring up and become incorporated with the
+sublime universe which was beginning to unveil itself.
+
+Sullenbode suddenly enfolded him in her arms, and kissed him--
+passionately, again and again.  He made no response; he was unaware
+of what she was doing.  She unclasped him and, with bent head and
+streaming eyes, went noiselessly away.  She started to go back toward
+the Mornstab Pass.
+
+A few minutes afterward the radiance began to fade.  The thunder died
+down.  The moonlight reappeared, the stone posts and the hillside
+were again bright.  In a short time the supernatural light had
+entirely vanished, but the drum taps still sounded faintly, a muffled
+rhythm, from behind the hill.  Maskull started violently, and stared
+around him like a suddenly awakened sleeper.
+
+He saw Sullenbode walking slowly away from him, a few hundred yards
+off.  At that sight, death entered his heart.  He ran after her,
+calling out....  She did not look around.  When he had lessened the
+distance between them by a half, he saw her suddenly stumble and
+fall.  She did not get up again, but lay motionless where she fell.
+
+He flew toward her, and bent over her body.  His worst fears were
+realised.  Life had departed.
+
+Beneath its coating of mud, her face bore the vulgar, ghastly
+Crystalman grin, but Maskull saw nothing of it.  She had never
+appeared so beautiful to him as at that moment.
+
+He remained beside her for a long time, on his knees.  He wept--but,
+between his fits of weeping, he raised his head from time to time,
+and listened to the distant drum beats.
+
+An hour passed--two hours.  Teargeld was now in the south-west.
+Maskull lifted Sullenbode's dead body on to his shoulders, and
+started to walk toward the Pass.  He cared no more for Muspel.  He
+intended to look for water in which to wash the corpse of his
+beloved, and earth in which to bury her.
+
+When he had reached the boulder overlooking the landslip, on which
+they had sat together, he lowered his burden, and, placing the dead
+girl on the stone, seated himself beside her for a time, gazing over
+toward Barey.
+
+After that, he commenced his descent of the Mornstab Pass.
+
+
+
+Chapter 20
+
+BAREY
+
+The day had already dawned, but it was not yet sunrise when Maskull
+awoke from his miserable sleep.  He sat up and yawned feebly.  The
+air was cool and sweet.  Far away down the landslip a bird was
+singing; the song consisted of only two notes, but it was so
+plaintive and heartbreaking that he scarcely knew how to endure it.
+
+The eastern sky was a delicate green, crossed by a long, thin band of
+chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon.  The atmosphere was blue-
+tinted, mysterious, and hazy.  Neither Sarclash nor Adage was
+visible.
+
+The saddle of the Pass was five hundred feet above him; he had
+descended that distance overnight.  The landslip continued downward,
+like a huge flying staircase, to the upper slopes of Barey, which lay
+perhaps fifteen hundred feet beneath.  The surface of the Pass was
+rough, and the angle was excessively steep, though not precipitous.
+It was above a mile across.  On each side of it, east and west, the
+dark walls of the ridge descended sheer.  At the point where the pass
+sprang outward they were two thousand feet from top to bottom, but as
+the ridge went upward, on the one hand toward Adage, on the other
+toward Sarclash, they attained almost unbelievable heights.  Despite
+the great breadth and solidity of the pass, Maskull felt as though he
+were suspended in midair.
+
+The patch of broken, rich, brown soil observable not far away marked
+Sullenbode's grave.  He had interred her by the light of the moon,
+with a long, flat stone for a spade.  A little lower down, the white
+steam of a hot spring was curling about in the twilight.  From where
+he sat he was unable to see the pool into which the spring ultimately
+flowed, but it was in that pool that he had last night washed first
+of all the dead girl's body, and then his own.
+
+He got up, yawned again, stretched himself, and looked around him
+dully.  For a long time he eyed the grave.  The half-darkness changed
+by imperceptible degrees to full day; the sun was about to appear.
+The sky was nearly cloudless.  The whole wonderful extent of the
+mighty ridge behind him began to emerge from the morning mist...
+there was a part of Sarclash, and the ice-green crest of gigantic
+Adage itself, which he could only take in by throwing his head right
+back.
+
+He gazed at everything in weary apathy, like a lost soul.  All his
+desires were gone forever; he wished to go nowhere, and to do
+nothing.  He thought he would go to Barey.
+
+He went to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes.  Sitting
+beside it, watching the bubbles, was Krag.
+
+Maskull thought that he was dreaming.  The man was clothed in a skin
+shirt and breeches.  His face was stem, yellow, and ugly.  He eyed
+Maskull without smiling or getting up.
+
+"Where in the devil's name have you come from, Krag?"
+
+"The great point is, I am here."
+
+"Where's Nightspore?"
+
+"Not far away."
+
+"It seems a hundred years since I saw you.  Why did you two leave me
+in such a damnable fashion?"
+
+"You were strong enough to get through alone."
+
+"So it turned out, but how were you to know? ....  Anyway, you've
+timed it well.  It seems I am to die today."
+
+Krag scowled.  "You will die this morning."
+
+"If I am to, I shall.  But where have you heard it from?"
+
+"You are ripe for it.  You have run through the gamut.  What else is
+there to live for?"
+
+"Nothing," said Maskull, uttering a short laugh.  "I am quite ready.
+I have failed in everything.  I only wondered how you knew....  So now
+you've come to rejoin me.  Where are we going?"
+
+"Through Barey."
+
+"And what about Nightspore?"
+
+Krag jumped to his feet with clumsy agility.  "We won't wait for him.
+He'll be there as soon as we shall."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"At our destination....  Come!  The sun's rising."
+
+As they started clambering down the pass side by side, Branchspell,
+huge and white, leaped fiercely into the sky.  All the delicacy of
+the dawn vanished, and another vulgar day began.  They passed some
+trees and plants, the leaves of which were all curled up, as if in
+sleep.
+
+Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
+
+"How is it the sunshine doesn't open them?"
+
+"Branchspell is a second night to them.  Their day is Alppain."
+
+"How long will it be before that sun rises?"
+
+"Some time yet."
+
+"Shall I live to see it, do you think?"
+
+"Do you want to?"
+
+"At one time I did, but now I'm indifferent."
+
+"Keep in that humour, and you'll do well.  Once for all, there's
+nothing worth seeing on Tormance."
+
+After a few minutes Maskull said, "Why did we come here, then?"
+
+"To follow Surtur."
+
+"True.  But where is he?"
+
+"Closer at hand than you think, perhaps."
+
+"Do you know that he is regarded as a god here, Krag?...  There is
+supernatural fire, too, which I have been led to believe is somehow
+connected with him....  Why do you keep up the mystery?  Who and what
+is Surtur?"
+
+"Don't disturb yourself about that.  You will never know."
+
+"Do you know?"
+
+"I know," snarled Krag.
+
+"The devil here is called Krag,"  went on Maskull, peering into his
+face.
+
+"As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil."
+
+"Here we are, talking face to face, two men together....  What am I to
+believe of you?"
+
+"Believe your senses.  The real devil is Crystalman."
+
+They continued descending the landslip.  The sun's rays had grown
+insufferably hot.  In front of them, down below in the far distance,
+Maskull saw water and land intermingled.  It appeared that they were
+travelling toward a lake district.
+
+"What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
+Krag?  What happened to the torpedo?"
+
+"You're just about on the same mental level as a man who sees a
+brand-new palace, and asks what has become of the scaffolding."
+
+"What palace have you been building, then?"
+
+"We have not been idle," said Krag.  "While you have been murdering
+and lovemaking, we have had our work."
+
+"And how have you been made acquainted with my actions?"
+
+"Oh, you're an open book.  Now you've got a mortal heart wound on
+account of a woman you knew for six hours."
+
+Maskull turned pale.  "Sneer away, Krag!  If you lived with a woman
+for six hundred years and saw her die, that would never touch your
+leather heart.  You haven't even the feelings of an insect."
+
+"Behold the child defending its toys!" said Krag, grinning faintly.
+
+Maskull stopped short.  "What do you want with me, and why did you
+bring me here?"
+
+"It's no use stopping, even for the sake of theatrical effect," said
+Krag, pulling him into motion again.  "The distance has got to be
+covered, however often we pull up."
+
+When he touched him, Maskull felt a terrible shooting pain through
+his heart.
+
+"I can't go on regarding you as a man, Krag.  You're something more
+than a man--whether good or evil, I can't say."
+
+Krag looked yellow and formidable.  He did not reply to Maskull's
+remark, but after a pause said, "So you've been trying to find Surtur
+on your own account, during the intervals between killing and
+fondling?"
+
+"What was that drumming?" demanded Maskull.
+
+"You needn't look so important.  We know you had your ear to the
+keyhole.  But you could join the assembly, the music was not playing
+for you, my friend."
+
+Maskull smiled rather bitterly.  "At all events, I listen through no
+more keyholes.  I have finished with life.  I belong to nobody and
+nothing any more, from this time forward."
+
+"Brave Words, brave words!  We shall see.  Perhaps Crystalman will
+make one more attempt on you.  There is still time for one more."
+
+"Now I don't understand you."
+
+"You think you are thoroughly disillusioned, don't you?  Well, that
+may prove to be the last and strongest illusion of all."
+
+The conversation ceased.  They reached the foot of the landslip an
+hour later.  Branchspell was steadily mounting the cloudless sky.  It
+was approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question whether or not
+it would clear its peak.  The heat was sweltering.  The long,
+massive, saucer-shaped ridge behind them, with its terrific
+precipices, was glowing with bright morning colours.  Adage, towering
+up many thousands of feet higher still, guarded the end of it like a
+lonely Colossus.  In front of them, starting from where they stood,
+was a cool and enchanting wilderness of little lakes and forests.
+The water of the lakes was dark green; the forests were asleep,
+waiting for the rising of Alppain.
+
+"Are we now in Barey?" asked Maskull.
+
+"Yes--and there is one of the natives."
+
+There was an ugly glint in his eye as he spoke the words, but Maskull
+did not see it.
+
+A man was leaning in the shade against one of the first trees,
+apparently waiting for them to come up.  He was small, dark, and
+beardless, and was still in early manhood.  He was clothed in a dark
+blue, loosely flowing robe, and wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat.  His
+face, which was not disfigured by any special organs, was pale,
+earnest, and grave, yet somehow remarkably pleasing.
+
+Before a word was spoken, he warmly grasped Maskull's hand, but even
+while he was in the act of doing so he threw a queer frown at Krag.
+The latter responded with a scowling grin.
+
+When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a vibrating
+baritone, but it was at the same time strangely womanish in its
+modulations and variety of tone.
+
+"I've been waiting for you here since sunrise," he said.  "Welcome to
+Barey, Maskull!  Let's hope you'll forget your sorrows here, you
+over-tested man."
+
+Maskull stared at him, not without friendliness.  "What made you
+expect me, and how do you know my name?"
+
+The stranger smiled, which made his face very handsome.  "I'm
+Gangnet.  I know most things."
+
+"Haven't you a greeting for me too--Gangnet?" asked Krag, thrusting
+his forbidding features almost into the other's face.
+
+"I know you, Krag.  There are few places where you are welcome."
+
+"And I know you, Gangnet--you man-woman....  Well, we are here
+together, and you must make what you can of it.  We are going down to
+the Ocean."
+
+The smile faded from Gangnet's face.  "I can't drive you away, Krag--
+but I can make you the unwelcome third."
+
+Krag threw back his head, and gave a loud, grating laugh.  "That
+bargain suits me all right.  As long as I have the substance, you may
+have the shadow, and much good may it do you."
+
+"Now that it's all arranged so satisfactorily," said Maskull, with a
+hard smile, "permit me to say that I don't desire any society at all
+at present....  You take too much for granted, Krag.  You have played
+the false friend once already....  I presume I'm a free agent?"
+
+"To be a free man, one must have a universe of one's own," said Krag,
+with a jeering look.  "What do you say, Gangnet--is this a free
+world?"
+
+"Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man's privilege,"
+returned Gangnet tranquilly.  "Maskull is quite within his rights,
+and if you'll engage to leave him I'll do the same."
+
+"Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won't get rid
+of me so easily.  Be easy on that point, Maskull."
+
+"It doesn't matter," muttered Maskull.  "Let everyone join in the
+procession.  In a few hours I shall finally be free, anyhow, if what
+they say is true."
+
+"I'll lead the way," said Gangnet.  "You don't know this country, of
+course, Maskull.  When we get to the flat lands some miles farther
+down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must
+walk, I fear."
+
+"Yes, you fear--you fear!" broke out Krag, in a highpitched,
+scraping voice.  "You eternal loller!"
+
+Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement.  There
+seemed to be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated
+an intimate previous acquaintance.
+
+They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for
+a mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that
+flowed beside it.  The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured
+leaves were all folded.  There was no underbrush--they walked on
+clean, brown earth, A distant waterfall sounded.  They were in shade,
+but the air was pleasantly warm.  There were no insects to irritate
+them.  The bright lake outside looked cool and poetic.
+
+Gangnet pressed Maskull's arm affectionately.  "If the bringing of
+you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would
+have brought you, and not to the scarlet desert.  Then you would have
+escaped the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to
+you."
+
+"And what then, Gangnet?  The dark spots would have existed all the
+same."
+
+"You could have seen them afterward.  It makes all the difference
+whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through
+the shadows."
+
+"A clear eye is the best.  Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly
+prefer to know it as it really is."
+
+"The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman.  These are Crystalman's
+thoughts, which you see around you.  He is nothing but Beauty and
+Pleasantness.  Even Krag won't have the effrontery to deny that."
+
+"It's very nice here," said Krag, looking around him malignantly.
+"One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to complete it."
+
+Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet.  "Last night, when I was
+struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight--then I thought
+the world beautiful."
+
+"Poor Sullenbode!" said Gangnet sighing.
+
+"What!  You knew her?"
+
+"I know her through you.  By mourning for a noble woman, you show
+your own nobility.  I think all women are noble."
+
+"There may be millions of noble women, but there's only one
+Sullenbode."
+
+"If Sullenbode can exist," said Gangnet, "the world cannot be a bad
+place."
+
+"Change the subject....  The world's hard and cruel, and I am thankful
+to be leaving it."
+
+"On one point, though, you both agree," said Krag, smiling evilly.
+"Pleasure is good, and the cessation of pleasure is bad."
+
+Gangnet glanced at him coldly.  "We know your peculiar theories,
+Krag.  You are very fond of them, but they are unworkable.  The world
+could not go on being, without pleasure."
+
+"So Gangnet thinks!" jeered Krag.
+
+They came to the end of the wood, and found themselves overlooking a
+little cliff.  At the foot of it, about fifty feet below, a fresh
+series of lakes and forests commenced.  Barey appeared to be one big
+mountain slope, built by nature into terraces.  The lake along whose
+border they had been travelling was not banked at the end, but
+overflowed to the lower level in half a dozen beautiful, threadlike
+falls, white and throwing off spray.  The cliff was not
+perpendicular, and the men found it easy to negotiate.
+
+At the  base they entered another wood.  Here it was much denser, and
+they had nothing but trees all around them.  A clear brook rippled
+through the heart of it; they followed its bank.
+
+"It has occurred to me," said Maskull, addressing Gangnet, "that
+Alppain may be my death.  Is that so?"
+
+"These trees don't fear Alppain, so why should you?  Alppain is a
+wonderful, life-bringing sun."
+
+"The reason I ask is--I've seen its afterglow, and it produced such
+violent sensations that a very little more would have proved too
+much."
+
+"Because the forces were evenly balanced.  When you see Alppain
+itself, it will reign supreme, and there will be no more struggling
+of wills inside you."
+
+"And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull," said Krag, grinning,
+"is Crystalman's trump card."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"You'll see.  You'll renounce the world so eagerly that you'll want
+to stay in the world merely to enjoy your sensations."
+
+Gangnet smiled.  "Krag, you see, is hard to please.  You must neither
+enjoy, nor renounce.  What are you to do?"
+
+Maskull turned toward Krag.  "It's very odd, but I don't understand
+your creed even yet.  Are you recommending suicide?"
+
+Krag seemed to grow sallower and more repulsive every minute.  "What,
+because they have left off stroking you?" he exclaimed, laughing and
+showing his discoloured teeth.
+
+"Whoever you are, and whatever you want," said Maskull, "you seem
+very certain of yourself."
+
+"Yes, you would like me to blush and stammer like a booby, wouldn't
+you!  That would be an excellent way of destroying lies."
+
+Gangnet glanced toward the foot of one of the trees.  He stooped and
+picked up two or three objects that resembled eggs.
+
+"To eat?" asked Maskull, accepting the offered gift.
+
+"Yes, eat them; you must be hungry.  I want none myself, and one
+mustn't insult Krag by offering him a pleasure--especially such a
+low pleasure."
+
+Maskull knocked the ends off two of the eggs, and swallowed the
+liquid contents.  They tasted rather alcoholic.  Krag snatched the
+remaining, egg out of his hand and flung it against a tree trunk,
+where it broke and stuck, a splash of slime.
+
+"I don't wait to be asked, Gangnet....  Say, is there a filthier sight
+than a smashed pleasure?"
+
+Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull's arm.
+
+After they had alternately walked through forests and descended
+cliffs and slopes for upward of two hours, the landscape altered.  A
+steep mountainside commenced and continued for at least a couple of
+miles, during which space the land must have dropped nearly four
+thousand feet, at a practically uniform gradient.  Maskull had seen
+nothing like this immense slide of country anywhere.  The hill slope
+carried an enormous forest on its back.  This forest, however, was
+different from those they had hitherto passed through.  The leaves of
+the trees were curled in sleep, but the boughs were so close and
+numerous that, but for the fact that they were translucent, the rays
+of the sun would have been completely intercepted.  As it was, the
+whole forest was flooded with light, and this light, being tinged
+with the colour of the branches, was a soft and lovely rose.  So gay,
+feminine, and dawnlike was the illumination, that Maskull's spirits
+immediately started to rise, although he did not wish it.
+
+He checked himself, sighed, and grew pensive.
+
+"What a place for languishing eyes and necks of ivory, Maskull!"
+rasped Krag mockingly.  "Why isn't Sullenbode here?"
+
+Maskull gripped him roughly and flung him against the nearest tree.
+Krag recovered himself, and burst into a roaring laugh, seeming not a
+whit discomposed.
+
+"Still what I said--was it true or untrue?"
+
+Maskull gazed at him sternly.  "You seem to regard yourself as a
+necessary evil.  I'm under no obligation to go on with you any
+farther.  I think we had better part."
+
+Krag turned to Gangnet with an air of grotesque mock earnestness.
+
+"What do you say--do we part when Maskull pleases, or when I
+please?"
+
+"Keep your temper, Maskull," said Gangnet, showing Krag his back.  "I
+know the man better than you do.  Now that he has fastened onto you
+there's only one way of making him lose his hold, by ignoring him.
+Despise him--say nothing to him, don't answer his questions.  If you
+refuse to recognise his existence, he is as good as not here."
+
+"I'm beginning to be tired of it all," said Maskull.  "It seems as if
+I shall add one more to my murders, before I have finished."
+
+"I smell murder in the air," exclaimed Krag, pretending to sniff.
+"But whose?"
+
+"Do as I say, Maskull.  To bandy words with him is to throw oil on
+fire."
+
+"I'll say no more to anyone....  When do we get out of this accursed
+forest?"
+
+"It's some way yet, but when we're once out we can take to the water,
+and you will be able to rest, and think."
+
+"And brood comfortably over your sufferings," added Krag.
+
+None of the three men said anything more until they emerged into the
+open day.  The slope of the forest was so steep that they were forced
+to run, rather than walk, and this would have prevented any
+conversation, even if they had otherwise felt inclined toward it.  In
+less than half an hour they were through.  A flat, open landscape lay
+stretched in front of them as far as they could see.
+
+Three parts of this country consisted of smooth water.  It was a
+succession of large, low-shored lakes, divided by narrow strips of
+tree-covered land.  The lake immediately before them had its small
+end to the forest.  It was there about a third of a mile wide.  The
+water at the sides and end was shallow, and choked with dolm-colored
+rushes; but in the middle, beginning a few yards from the shore,
+there was a perceptible current away from them.  In view of this
+current, it was difficult to decide whether it was a lake or a river.
+Some little floating islands were in the shallows.
+
+"Is it here that we take to the water?" inquired Maskull.
+
+"Yes, here," answered Gangnet.
+
+"But how?"
+
+"One of those islands will serve.  It only needs to move it into the
+stream."
+
+Maskull frowned.  "Where will it carry us to?"
+
+"Come, get on, get on!" said Krag, laughing uncouthly.  "The
+morning's wearing away, and you have to die before noon.  We are
+going to the Ocean."
+
+"If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?"
+
+"Gangnet will murder you."
+
+"You lie!" said Gangnet.  "I wish Maskull nothing but good."
+
+"At all events, he will be the cause of your death.  But what does it
+matter?  The great point is you are quitting this futile world....
+Well, Gangnet, I see you're as slack as ever.  I suppose I must do the
+work."
+
+He jumped into the lake and began to run through the shallow water,
+splashing it about.  When he came to the nearest island, the water
+was up to his thighs.  The island was lozenge-shaped, and about
+fifteen feet from end to end.  It was composed of a sort of light
+brown peat; there was no form of living vegetation on its surface.
+Krag went behind it, and started shoving it toward the current,
+apparently without having unduly to exert himself.  When it was
+within the influence of the stream the others waded out to him, and
+all three climbed on.
+
+The voyage began.  The current was not travelling at more than two
+miles an hour.  The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and
+there was no shade or prospect of shade.  Maskull sat down near the
+edge, and periodically splashed water over his head.  Gangnet sat on
+his haunches next to him.  Krag paced up and down with short, quick
+steps, like an animal in a cage.  The lake widened out more and more,
+and the width of the stream increased in proportion, until they
+seemed to themselves to be floating on the bosom of some broad,
+flowing estuary.
+
+Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet's hat, crushing it
+together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
+
+"Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?" he asked with a
+harsh guffaw--"Show Maskull your face.  Perhaps he has seen it
+somewhere."
+
+Gangnet did remind Maskull of someone, but he could not say of whom.
+His dark hair curled down to his neck, his brow was wide, lofty, and
+noble, and there was an air of serious sweetness about the whole man
+that was strangely appealing to the feelings.
+
+"Let Maskull judge," he said with proud composure, "whether I have
+anything to be ashamed of."
+
+"There can be nothing but magnificent thoughts in that head,"
+muttered Maskull, staring hard at him.
+
+"A capital valuation.  Gangnet is the king of poets.  But what
+happens when poets try to carry through practical enterprises?"
+
+"What enterprises?" asked Maskull, in astonishment.
+
+"What have you got on hand, Gangnet?  Tell Maskull."
+
+"There are two forms of practical activity," replied Gangnet calmly.
+"One may either build up, or destroy."
+
+"No, there's a third species.  One may steal--and not even know one
+is stealing.  One may take the purse and leave the money."
+
+Maskull raised his eyebrows.  "Where have you two met before?"
+
+"I'm paying Gangnet a visit today, Maskull but once upon a time
+Gangnet paid me a visit."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In my home--whatever that is.  Gangnet is a common thief."
+
+"You are speaking in riddles, and I don't understand you.  I don't
+know either of you, but it's clear that if Gangnet is a poet, you're
+a buffoon.  Must you go on talking?  I want to be quiet."
+
+Krag laughed, but said no more.  Presently he lay down at full
+length, with his face to the sun, and in a few minutes was fast
+asleep, and snoring disagreeably.  Maskull kept glancing over at his
+yellow, repulsive face with strong disfavour.
+
+Two hours passed.  The land on either side was more than a mile
+distant.  In front of them there was no land at all.  Behind them,
+the Lichstorm Mountains were blotted out from view by a haze that had
+gathered together.  The sky ahead, just above the horizon, began to
+be of a strange colour.  It was an intense jale-blue.  The whole
+northern atmosphere was stained with ulfire.
+
+Maskull's mind grew disturbed.  "Alppain is rising, Gangnet."
+
+Gangnet smiled wistfully.  "It begins to trouble you?"
+
+"It is so solemn--tragical, almost--yet it recalls me to Earth.
+Life was no longer important--but this is important."
+
+"Daylight is night to this other daylight.  Within half an hour you
+will be like a man who has stepped from a dark forest into the open
+day.  Then you will ask yourself how you could have been blind."
+
+The two men went on watching the blue sunrise.  The entire sky in the
+north, halfway up to the zenith, was streaked with extraordinary
+colours, among which jale and dolm predominated.  Just as the
+principal character of an ordinary dawn is mystery, the outstanding
+character of this dawn was wildness.  It did not baffle the
+understanding, but the heart.  Maskull felt no inarticulate craving
+to seize and perpetuate the sunrise, and make it his own.  Instead of
+that, it agitated and tormented him, like the opening bars of a
+supernatural symphony.
+
+When he looked back to the south, Branchspell's day had lost its
+glare, and he could gaze at the immense white sun without flinching.
+He instinctively turned to the north again, as one turns from
+darkness to light.
+
+"If those were Crystalman's thoughts that you showed me before,
+Gangnet, these must be his feelings.  I mean it literally.  What I am
+feeling now, he must have felt before me."
+
+"He is all feeling, Maskull--don't you understand that?"
+
+Maskull was feeding greedily on the spectacle before him; he did not
+reply.  His face was set like a rock, but his eyes were dim with the
+beginning of tears.  The sky blazed deeper and deeper; it was obvious
+that Alppain was about to lift itself above the sea.  The island had
+by this time floated past the mouth of the estuary.  On three sides
+they were surrounded by water.  The haze crept up behind them and
+shut out all sight of land.  Krag was still sleeping--an ugly,
+wrinkled monstrosity.
+
+Maskull looked over the side at the flowing water.  It had lost its
+dark green colour, and was now of a perfect crystal transparency.
+
+"Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then nothing remains except my death."
+
+"Don't think of death, but life."
+
+"It's growing brighter--at the same time, more sombre, Krag seems to
+be fading away...."
+
+"There is Alppain!" said Gangnet, touching his arm.
+
+The deep, glowing disk of the blue sun peeped above the sea.  Maskull
+was struck to silence.  He was hardly so much looking, as feeling.
+His emotions were unutterable.  His soul seemed too strong for his
+body.  The great blue orb rose rapidly out of the water, like an
+awful eye watching him.... it shot above the sea with a bound, and
+Alppain's day commenced.
+
+"What do you feel?"  Gangnet still held his arm.
+
+"I have set myself against the Infinite," muttered Maskull.
+
+Suddenly his chaos of passions sprang together, and a wonderful idea
+swept through his whole being, accompanied by the intensest joy.
+
+"Why, Gangnet--I am nothing."
+
+"No, you are nothing."
+
+The mist closed in all around them.  Nothing was visible except the
+two suns, and a few feet of sea.  The shadows of the three men cast
+by Alppain were not black, but were composed of white daylight.
+
+"Then nothing can hurt me," said Maskull with a peculiar smile.
+
+Gangnet smiled too.  "How could it?"
+
+"I have lost my will; I feel as if some foul tumour had been scraped
+away, leaving me clean and free."
+
+"Do you now understand life, Maskull?"
+
+Gangnet's face was transfigured with an extraordinary spiritual
+beauty; he looked as if he had descended from heaven.
+
+"I understand nothing, except that I have no self any more.  But this
+is life."
+
+"Is Gangnet expatiating on his famous blue sun?" said a jeering voice
+above them.  Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his feet.
+
+They both rose.  At the same moment the gathering mist began to
+obscure Alppain's disk, changing it from blue to a vivid jale.
+
+"What do you want with us, Krag?" asked Maskull with simple
+composure.
+
+Krag looked at him strangely for a few seconds.  The water lapped
+around them.
+
+"Don't you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?"
+
+Maskull made no response.  Krag rested an arm lightly on his
+shoulder, and suddenly he felt sick and faint.  He sank to the
+ground, near the edge of the island raft.  His heart was thumping
+heavily and queerly; its beating reminded him of the drum taps.  He
+gazed languidly at the rippling water, and it seemed to him as if he
+could see right through it... away, away down... to a strange
+fire....
+
+The water disappeared.  The two suns were extinguished.  The island
+was transformed into a cloud, and Maskull--alone on it--was
+floating through the atmosphere....  Down below, it was all fire--
+the fire of Muspel.  The light mounted higher and higher, until it
+filled the whole world....
+
+He floated toward an immense perpendicular cliff of black rock,
+without top or bottom.  Halfway up it Krag, suspended in midair, was
+dealing terrific blows at a blood-red spot with a huge hammer.  The
+rhythmical, clanging sounds were hideous.
+
+Presently Maskull made out that these sounds were the familiar drum
+beats.  "What are you doing, Krag?" he asked.
+
+Krag suspended his work, and turned around.
+
+"Beating on Your heart, Maskull," was his grinning response.
+
+The cliff and Krag vanished.  Maskull saw Gangnet struggling in the
+air--but it was not Gangnet--it was Crystalman.  He seemed to be
+trying to escape from the Muspel-fire, which kept surrounding and
+licking him, whichever way he turned.  He was screaming....  The fire
+caught him.  He shrieked horribly.  Maskull caught one glimpse of a
+vulgar, slobbering face--and then that too disappeared.
+
+He opened his eyes.  The floating island was still faintly
+illuminated by Alppain.  Krag was standing by his side, but Gangnet
+was no longer there.
+
+"What is this Ocean called?" asked Maskull, bringing out the words
+with difficulty.
+
+"Surtur's Ocean."
+
+Maskull nodded, and kept quiet for some time.  He rested his face on
+his arm.  "Where's Nightspore?" he asked suddenly.
+
+Krag bent over him with a grave expression.  "You are Nightspore."
+
+The dying man closed his eyes, and smiled.
+
+Opening them again, a few moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
+"Who are you?"
+
+Krag maintained a gloomy silence.
+
+Shortly afterward a frightful pang passed through Maskull's heart,
+and he died immediately.
+
+Krag turned his head around.  "The night is really past at last,
+Nightspore....  The day is here."
+
+Nightspore gazed long and earnestly at Maskull's body.  "Why was all
+this necessary?"
+
+"Ask Crystalman," replied Krag sternly.  "His world is no joke.  He
+has a strong clutch--but I have a stronger... Maskull was his, but
+Nightspore is mine."
+
+
+
+Chapter 21
+
+MUSPEL
+
+The fog thickened so that the two suns wholly disappeared, and all
+grew as black as night.  Nightspore could no longer see his
+companion.  The water lapped gently against the side of the island
+raft.
+
+"You say the night is past," said Nightspore.  "But the night is
+still here.  Am I dead, or alive?"
+
+"You are still in Crystalman's world, but you belong to it no more.
+We are approaching Muspel."
+
+Nightspore felt a strong, silent throbbing of the air--a rhythmical
+pulsation, in four-four time.  "There is the drumming," he exclaimed.
+
+"Do you understand it, or have you forgotten?"
+
+"I half understand it, but I'm all confused."
+
+"It's evident Crystalman has dug his claws into you pretty deeply,"
+said Krag.  "The sound comes from Muspel, but the rhythm is caused by
+its travelling through Crystalman's atmosphere.  His nature is rhythm
+as he loves to call it--or dull, deadly repetition, as I name it."
+
+"I remember," said Nightspore, biting his nails in the dark.
+
+The throbbing became audible; it now sounded like a distant drum.  A
+small patch of strange light in the far distance, straight ahead of
+them, began faintly to illuminate the floating island and the glassy
+sea around it.
+
+"Do all men escape from that ghastly world, or only I, and a few like
+me?" asked Nightspore.
+
+"If all escaped, I shouldn't sweat, my friend... There's hard work,
+and anguish, and the risk of total death, waiting for us yonder."
+
+Nightspore's heart sank.  "Have I not yet finished, then?"
+
+"If you wish it.  You have got through.  But will you wish it?"
+
+The drumming grew loud and painful.  The light resolved itself into a
+tiny oblong of mysterious brightness in a huge wall of night.  Krag's
+grim and rocklike features were revealed.
+
+"I can't face rebirth," said Nightspore.  "The horror of death is
+nothing to it."
+
+"You will choose."
+
+"I can do nothing.  Crystalman is too powerful.  I barely escaped with--
+my own soul."
+
+"You are still stupid with Earth fumes, and see nothing straight,"
+said Krag.
+
+Nightspore made no reply, but seemed to be trying to recall
+something.  The water around them was so still, colourless, and
+transparent, that they scarcely seemed to be borne up by liquid
+matter at all.  Maskull's corpse had disappeared.
+
+The drumming was now like the clanging of iron.  The oblong patch of
+light grew much bigger; it burned, fierce and wild.  The darkness
+above, below, and on either side of it, began to shape itself into
+the semblance of a huge, black wall, without bounds.
+
+"Is that really a wall we are coming to?"
+
+"You will soon find out.  What you see is Muspel, and that light is
+the gate you have to enter."
+
+Nightspore's heart beat wildly.
+
+"Shall I remember?" he muttered.
+
+"Yes, you'll remember."
+
+"Accompany me, Krag, or I shall be lost."
+
+"There is nothing for me to do in there.  I shall wait outside for
+you."
+
+"You are returning to the struggle?" demanded Nightspore, gnawing his
+fingertips.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I dare not."
+
+The thunderous clangor of the rhythmical beats struck on his head
+like actual blows.  The light glared so vividly that he was no longer
+able to look at it.  It had the startling irregularity of continuous
+lightning, but it possessed this further peculiarity--that it seemed
+somehow to give out not actual light, but emotion, seen as light.
+They continued to approach the wall of darkness, straight toward the
+door.  The glasslike water flowed right against it, its surface
+reaching up almost to the threshold.
+
+They could not speak any more; the noise was too deafening.
+
+In a few minutes they were before the gateway.  Nightspore turned his
+back and hid his eyes in his two hands, but even then he was blinded
+by the light.  So passionate were his feelings that his body seemed
+to enlarge itself.  At every frightful beat of sound, he quivered
+violently.
+
+The entrance was doorless.  Krag jumped onto the rocky platform and
+pulled Nightspore after him.
+
+Once through the gateway, the light vanished.  The rhythmical sound--
+blows totally ceased.  Nightspore dropped his hands....  All was dark
+and quiet as an opened tomb.  But the air was filled with grim,
+burning passion, which was to light and sound what light itself is to
+opaque colour.
+
+Nightspore pressed his hand to his heart.  "I don't know if I can
+endure it," he said, looking toward Krag.  He felt his person far
+more vividly and distinctly than if he had been able to see him.
+
+"Go in, and lose no time, Nightspore....  Time here is more precious
+than on earth.  We can't squander the minutes.  There are terrible
+and tragic affairs to attend to, which won't wait for us... Go in at
+once.  Stop for nothing."
+
+"Where shall I go to?" muttered Nightspore.  "I have forgotten
+everything."
+
+"Enter, enter!  There is only one way.  You can't mistake it."
+
+"Why do you bid me go in, if I am to come out again?"
+
+"To have your wounds healed."
+
+Almost before the words had left his mouth, Krag sprang back on to
+the island raft.  Nightspore involuntarily started after him, but at
+once recovered himself and remained standing where he was.  Krag was
+completely invisible; everything outside was black night.
+
+The moment he had gone, a feeling shot up in Nightspore's heart like
+a thousand trumpets.
+
+Straight in front of him, almost at his feet, was the lower end of a
+steep, narrow, circular flight of stone steps.  There was no other
+way forward.
+
+He put his foot on the bottom stair, at the same time peering aloft.
+He saw nothing, yet as he proceeded upward every inch of the way was
+perceptible to his inner feelings.  The staircase was cold, dismal,
+and deserted, but it seemed to him, in his exaltation of soul, like a
+ladder to heaven.
+
+After he had mounted a dozen steps or so, he paused to take breath.
+Each step was increasingly difficult to ascend; he felt as though he
+were carrying a heavy man on his shoulders.  It struck a familiar
+chord in his mind.  He went on and, ten stairs higher up, came to a
+window set in a high embrasure.
+
+On to this he clambered, and looked through.  The window was of a
+sort of glass, but he could see nothing.  Coming to him, however,
+from the world outside, a disturbance of the atmosphere struck his
+senses, causing his blood to run cold.  At one moment it resembled a
+low, mocking, vulgar laugh, travelling from the ends of the earth; at
+the next it was like a rhythmical vibration of the air--the silent,
+continuous throbbing of some mighty engine.  The two sensations were
+identical, yet different.  They seemed to be related in the same
+manner as soul and body.  After feeling them for a long time,
+Nightspore got down from the embrasure, and continued his ascent,
+having meanwhile grown very serious.
+
+The climbing became still more laborious, and he was forced to stop
+at every third or fourth step, to rest his muscles and regain breath.
+When he had mounted another twenty stairs in this way, he came to a
+second window.  Again he saw nothing.  The laughing disturbance of
+the air, too, had ceased; but the atmospheric throb was now twice as
+distinct as before, and its rhythm had become double.  There were two
+separate pulses; one was in the time of a march, the other in the
+time of a waltz.  The first was bitter and petrifying to feel, but
+the second was gay, enervating, and horrible.
+
+Nightspore spent little time at that window, for he felt that he was
+on the eve of a great discovery, and that something far more
+important awaited him higher up.  He proceeded aloft.  The ascent
+grew more and more exhausting, so much so that he had frequently to
+sit down, utterly crushed by his own dead weight.  Still, he got to
+the third window.
+
+He climbed into the embrasure.  His feelings translated themselves
+into vision, and he saw a sight that caused him to turn pale.  A
+gigantic, self-luminous sphere was hanging in the sky, occupying
+nearly the whole of it.  This sphere was composed entirely of two
+kinds of active beings.  There were a myriad of tiny green
+corpuscles, varying in size from the very small to the almost
+indiscernible.  They were not green, but he somehow saw them so.
+They were all striving in one direction--toward himself, toward
+Muspel, but were too feeble and miniature to make any headway.  Their
+action produced the marching rhythm he had previously felt, but this
+rhythm was not intrinsic in the corpuscles themselves, but was a
+consequence of the obstruction they met with.  And, surrounding these
+atoms of life and light, were far larger whirls of white light that
+gyrated hither and thither, carrying the green corpuscles with them
+wherever they desired.  Their whirling motion was accompanied by the
+waltzing rhythm.  It seemed to Nightspore that the green atoms were
+not only being danced about against their will but were suffering
+excruciating shame and degradation in consequence.  The larger ones
+were steadier than the extremely small, a few were even almost
+stationary, and one was advancing in the direction it wished to go.
+
+He turned his back to the window, buried his face in his hands, and
+searched in the dim recesses of his memory for an explanation of what
+he had just seen.  Nothing came straight, but horror and wrath began
+to take possession of him.
+
+On his way upward to the next window, invisible fingers seemed to him
+to be squeezing his heart and twisting it about here and there; but
+he never dreamed of turning back.  His mood was so grim that he did
+not once permit himself to pause.  Such was his physical distress by
+the time that he had clambered into the recess, that for several
+minutes he could see nothing at all--the world seemed to be spinning
+round him rapidly.
+
+When at last he looked, he saw the same sphere as before, but now all
+was changed on it.  It was a world of rocks, minerals, water, plants,
+animals, and men.  He saw the whole world at one view, yet everything
+was so magnified that he could distinguish the smallest details of
+life.  In the interior of every individual, of every aggregate of
+individuals, of every chemical atom, he clearly perceived the
+presence of the green corpuscles.  But, according to the degree of
+dignity of the life form, they were fragmentary or comparatively
+large.  In the crystal, for example, the green, imprisoned life was
+so minute as to be scarcely visible; in some men it was hardly
+bigger; but in other men and women it was twenty or a hundred times
+greater.  But, great or small, it played an important part in every
+individual.  It appeared as if the whirls of white light, which were
+the individuals, and plainly showed themselves beneath the enveloping
+bodies, were delighted with existence and wished only to enjoy it,
+but the green corpuscles were in a condition of eternal discontent,
+yet, blind and not knowing which way to turn for liberation, kept
+changing form, as though breaking a new path, by way of experiment.
+Whenever the old grotesque became metamorphosed into the new
+grotesque, it was in every case the direct work of the green atoms,
+trying to escape toward Muspel, but encountering immediate
+opposition.  These subdivided sparks of living, fiery spirit were
+hopelessly imprisoned in a ghastly mush of soft pleasure.  They were
+being effeminated and corrupted--that is to say, absorbed in the
+foul, sickly enveloping forms.
+
+Nightspore felt a sickening shame in his soul as he looked on at that
+spectacle.  His exaltation had long since vanished.  He bit his
+nails, and understood why Krag was waiting for him below.
+
+He mounted slowly to the fifth window.  The pressure of air against
+him was as strong as a full gale, divested of violence and
+irregularity, so that he was not for an instant suffered to relax his
+efforts.  Nevertheless, not a breath stirred.
+
+Looking through the window, he was startled by a new sight.  The
+sphere was still there, but between it and the Muspel-world in which
+he was standing he perceived a dim, vast shadow, without any
+distinguishable shape, but somehow throwing out a scent of disgusting
+sweetness.  Nightspore knew that it was Crystalman.  A flood of
+fierce light--but it was not light, but passion--was streaming all
+the time from Muspel to the Shadow, and through it.  When, however,
+it emerged on the other side, which was the sphere, the light was
+altered in character.  It became split, as by a prism, into the two
+forms of life which he had previously seen--the green corpuscles and
+the whirls.  What had been fiery spirit but a moment ago was now a
+disgusting mass of crawling, wriggling individuals, each whirl of
+pleasure-seeking will having, as nucleus, a fragmentary spark of
+living green fire.  Nightspore recollected the back rays of
+Starkness, and it flashed across him with the certainty of truth that
+the green sparks were the back rays, and the whirls the forward rays,
+of Muspel.  The former were trying desperately to return to their
+place of origin, but were overpowered by the brute force of the
+latter, which wished only to remain where they were.  The individual
+whirls were jostling and fighting with, and even devouring, each
+other.  This created pain, but, whatever pain they felt, it was
+always pleasure that they sought.  Sometimes the green sparks were
+strong enough for a moment to move a little way in the direction of
+Muspel; the whirls would then accept the movement, not only without
+demur, but with pride and pleasure, as if it were their own handiwork--
+but they never saw beyond the Shadow, they thought that they were
+travelling toward it.  The instant the direct movement wearied them,
+as contrary to their whirling nature, they fell again to killing,
+dancing, and loving.
+
+Nightspore had a foreknowledge that the sixth window would prove to
+be the last.  Nothing would have kept him from ascending to it, for
+he guessed that the nature of Crystalman himself would there become
+manifest.  Every step upward was like a bloody life-and-death
+struggle.  The stairs nailed him to the ground; the air pressure
+caused blood to gush from his nose and ears; his head clanged like an
+iron bell.  When he had fought his way up a dozen steps, he found
+himself suddenly at the top; the staircase terminated in a small,
+bare chamber of cold stone, possessing a single window.  On the other
+side of the apartment another short flight of stairs mounted through
+a trap, apparently to the roof of the building.  Before ascending
+these stairs, Nightspore hastened to the window and stared out.
+
+The shadow form of Crystalman had drawn much closer to him, and
+filled the whole sky, but it was not a shadow of darkness, but a
+bright shadow.  It had neither shape, nor colour, yet it in some way
+suggested the delicate tints of early morning.  It was so nebulous
+that the sphere could be clearly distinguished through it; in
+extension, however, it was thick.  The sweet smell emanating from it
+was strong, loathsome, and terrible; it seemed to spring from a sort
+of loose, mocking slime inexpressibly vulgar and ignorant.
+
+The spirit stream from Muspel flashed with complexity and variety.
+It was not below individuality, but above it.  It was not the One, or
+the Many, but something else far beyond either.  It approached
+Crystalman, and entered his body--if that bright mist could be
+called a body.  It passed right through him, and the passage caused
+him the most exquisite pleasure.  The Muspel-stream was Crystalman's
+food.  The stream emerged from the other side on to the sphere, in a
+double condition.  Part of it reappeared intrinsically unaltered, but
+shivered into a million fragments.  These were the green corpuscles.
+In passing through Crystalman they had escaped absorption by reason
+of their extreme minuteness.  The other part of the stream had not
+escaped.  Its fire had been abstracted, its cement was withdrawn,
+and, after being fouled and softened by the horrible sweetness of the
+host, it broke into individuals, which were the whirls of living
+will.
+
+Nightspore shuddered.  He comprehended at last how the whole world of
+will was doomed to eternal anguish in order that one Being might feel
+joy.
+
+Presently he set foot on the final flight leading to the roof; for he
+remembered vaguely that now only that remained.
+
+Halfway up, he fainted--but when he recovered consciousness he
+persisted as though nothing had happened to him.  As soon as his head
+was above the trap, breathing the free air, he had the same physical
+sensation as a man stepping out of water.  He pulled his body up, and
+stood expectantly on the stone-floored roof, looking round for his
+first glimpse of Muspel.
+
+There was nothing.
+
+He was standing upon the top of a tower, measuring not above fifteen
+feet each way.  Darkness was all around him.  He sat down on the
+stone parapet, with a sinking heart; a heavy foreboding possessed
+him.
+
+Suddenly, without seeing or hearing anything, he had the distinct
+impression that the darkness around him, on all four sides, was
+grinning....  As soon as that happened, he understood that he was
+wholly surrounded by Crystalman's world, and that Muspel consisted of
+himself and the stone tower on which he was sitting..
+
+Fire flashed in his heart....  Millions upon millions of grotesque,
+vulgar, ridiculous, sweetened individuals--once Spirit--were
+calling out from their degradation and agony for salvation from
+Muspel....  To answer that cry there was only himself... and Krag
+waiting below... and Surtur--But where was Surtur?
+
+The truth forced itself on him in all its cold, brutal reality.
+Muspel was no all-powerful Universe, tolerating from pure
+indifference the existence side by side with it of another false
+world, which had no right to be.  Muspel was fighting for its life--
+against all that is most shameful and frightful--against sin
+masquerading as eternal beauty, against baseness masquerading as
+Nature, against the Devil masquerading as God....
+
+Now he understood everything.  The moral combat was no mock one, no
+Valhalla, where warriors are cut to pieces by day and feast by night;
+but a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death--namely,
+spiritual death--inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel....  By
+what means could he hold back from this horrible war!
+
+During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self--the
+corruption of his life on Earth--were scorched out of Nightspore's
+soul, perhaps not for the first time.
+
+After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend.  Without warning,
+a strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world.  Starting in
+awful mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery
+that he could not doubt for a moment whence it originated.  It was
+the voice of Crystalman.
+
+Krag was waiting for him on the island raft.  He threw a stern glance
+at Nightspore.
+
+"Have you seen everything?"
+
+"The struggle is hopeless," muttered Nightspore.
+
+"Did I not say I am the stronger?"
+
+"You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier."
+
+"I am the stronger and the mightier.  Crystalman's Empire is but a
+shadow on the face of Muspel.  But nothing will be done without the
+bloodiest blows....  What do you mean to do?"
+
+Nightspore looked at him strangely.  "Are you not Surtur, Krag?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yes," said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise.  "But what
+is your name on Earth?"
+
+"It is pain."
+
+"That, too, I must have known."
+
+He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the
+raft.  Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Voyage to Arcturus, by Lindsay
+
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