When they returned to the house, the were all in and
the door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag was not
there. Maskull all over the house, matches in every
room—at the end of the he was to that the man
they were had not his nose the premises.
Groping their way into the library, they sat in the total darkness
to wait, for nothing else to be done. Maskull his pipe, and
began to drink the of the whisky. Through the open window
sounded in their ears the of the sea at the of
the cliffs.
“Krag must be in the tower after all,” Maskull, the
silence.
“Yes, he is ready.”
“I he doesn’t us to join him there. It was my
powers—but why, knows. The stairs must have a magnetic of
some sort.”
“It is Tormantic gravity,” Nightspore.
“I you—or, rather, I don’t—but it doesn’t matter.”
He on in silence, occasionally taking a of the
neat liquor. “Who is Surtur?” he abruptly.
“We others are and bunglers, but he is a master.”
Maskull this. “I you are right, for though I know nothing
about him his name has an on me.... Are you
personally with him?”
“I must be... I forget...” Nightspore in a voice.
Maskull looked up, surprised, but make nothing out in the
blackness of the room.
“Do you know so many men that you can 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 door slammed, and a light, quick footstep
was up the stairs. Maskull got up, with a heart.
Krag appeared on the of the door, in his hand a feebly
glimmering lantern. A was on his head, and he looked and
forbidding. After the two friends for a moment or so, he
strode into the room and the on the table. Its light
hardly to the walls.
“You have got here, then, Maskull?”
“So it seems—but I shan’t thank you for your hospitality, for it has
been by its absence.”
Krag the remark. “Are you to start?”
“By all means—when you are. It is not so here.”
Krag him critically. “I you about in the tower.
You couldn’t up, it seems.”
“It looks like an obstacle, for Nightspore me that the start
takes place from the top.”
“But your other are all removed?”
“So far, Krag, that I now an open mind. I am 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 to the gravitation
of Tormance?”
“Then I repeat, it’s an obstacle, for I can’t up.”
Krag about in his pockets, and at length produced a knife.
“Remove your coat, and roll up your shirt sleeve,” he directed.
“Do you to make an with that?”
“Yes, and don’t start difficulties, the is certain, but
you can’t possibly it beforehand.”
“Still, a cut with a pocket-knife—” Maskull, laughing.
“It will answer, Maskull,” Nightspore.
“Then your arm too, you of the universe,” said Krag.
“Let us see what your blood is of.”
Nightspore obeyed.
Krag out the big of the knife, and a careless and
almost at Maskull’s upper arm. The was deep, and
blood freely.
“Do I it up?” asked Maskull, with pain.
Krag on the wound. “Pull your shirt down, it won’t any more.”
He then his attention to Nightspore, who his operation
with indifference. Krag the knife on the floor.
An agony, from the wound, started to through
Maskull’s body, and he to he would not have to
faint, but it almost immediately, and then he nothing but
a in the arm, just to make life one
long discomfort.
“That’s finished,” said Krag. “Now you can me.”
Picking up the lantern, he walked toward the door. The others hastened
after him, to take of the light, and a moment later their
footsteps, the stairs, through the
deserted house. Krag waited till they were out, and then the
front door after them with such that the shook.
While they were walking across to the tower, Maskull his
arm. “I a voice up those stairs.”
“What did it say?”
“That I am to go, but Nightspore is to return.”
Krag smiled. “The is 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 the thing was to
be mentioned.”
“It is not a thing to voices,” said Krag, “but you mustn’t for
a minute that all is wise that comes to you out of the night
world.”
When they had at the open of the tower, he immediately
set on the step of the and ran up,
bearing the lantern. Maskull him with some trepidation, in view
of his previous painful on these stairs, but when, after the
first half-dozen steps, he that he was still breathing
freely, his to and astonishment, and he have
chattered like a girl.
At the window Krag ahead without stopping, but
Maskull into the embrasure, in order to his acquaintance
with the of the Arcturian group. The had lost
its magic property. It had a common of glass, through which
the ordinary sky appeared.
The climb continued, and at the second and third he again
mounted and out, but still the common 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 in darkness. When he was near the top, he
saw yellow light through the of a half-opened door. His
companions were just a small room, off from the
staircase by planking; it was and
contained nothing of interest. The was on a
table.
Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity. “Are we at the
top?”
“Except for the over our heads,” Krag.
“Why didn’t that window magnify, as it did in the
evening?”
“Oh, you missed your opportunity,” said Krag, grinning. “If you had
finished your climb then, you would have heart-expanding sights.
From the window, for example, you would have Tormance like a
continent in relief; from the you would have 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 of yours. For the same
reason that you have now been able to the stairs, there was no
necessity to stop and at en route.”
“Very well,” said Maskull, not what he meant. “But
is this Surtur’s den?”
“He has time here.”
“I wish you would this individual, Krag. We may not
get another chance.”
“What I said about the also to Surtur. There’s no need
to waste time over him, you are going on
to the reality.”
“Then let us go.” He pressed his wearily.
“Do we strip?” asked Nightspore.
“Naturally,” answered Krag, and he to tear off his with
slow, movements.
“Why?” Maskull, following, however, the example of the other
two men.
Krag his chest, which was with thick hairs, like an
ape’s. “Who what the Tormance fashions are like? We may sprout
limbs—I don’t say we shall.”
“A-ha!” Maskull, in the middle of his undressing.
Krag him on the back. “New organs possible, Maskull. You
like that?”
The three men as nature them. Maskull’s rose fast, as
the moment of near.
“A drink to success!” Krag, a bottle and breaking
its off his fingers. There were no glasses, but he poured
the amber-coloured into some cups.
Perceiving that the others drank, Maskull off his cupful. It was
as if he had a of liquid electricity.... Krag dropped
onto the and rolled around on his back, kicking his in the
air. He to Maskull on top of him, and a little horseplay
went on the two. Nightspore took no part in it, but walked to
and fro, like a animal.
Suddenly, from out-of-doors, there came a single prolonged, piercing
wail, such as a might be to utter. It abruptly,
and was not repeated.
“What’s that?” called out Maskull, himself from
Krag.
Krag with laughter. “A Scottish trying to the
bagpipes of its earth life—in of our departure.”
Nightspore to Krag. “Maskull will sleep the journey?”
“And you too, if you wish, my friend. I am pilot, and you
passengers can yourselves as you please.”
“Are we off at last?” asked Maskull.
“Yes, you are about to 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 hours.”
“Then you that Surtur is already there?”
“Surtur is where he is. He is a great traveller.”
“Won’t I see him?”
Krag up to him and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t 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 friend.”
*****
He the way up a iron ladder, through a to the
flat above. When they were up, he on a small electric
torch.
Maskull with the of that was to them
through the whole of visible space. It was long,
eight wide, and eight high; the the Arcturian rays
was in front, the car behind. The nose of the was directed
toward the south-eastern sky. The whole machine rested upon a flat
platform, about four above the level of the roof, so as to
encounter no on starting its flight.
Krag the light on to the door of the car, to them to
enter. Before doing so, Maskull once again at the
gigantic, far-distant star, which was to be their sun from now onward.
He frowned, slightly, and got in Nightspore. Krag
clambered past them onto his pilot’s seat. He the flashlight
through the open door, which was then closed, fastened, and
screwed up.
He the starting lever. The from its
platform, and passed slowly away from the tower, seaward. Its
speed sensibly, though not excessively, until the approximate
limits of the earth’s were reached. Krag then the
speed valve, and the car on its way with a more nearly
approaching that of than of light.
Maskull had no opportunity of through the the
rapidly of the heavens. An drowsiness
oppressed him. He opened his a dozen times, but on the
thirteenth attempt he failed. From that time he slept heavily.
The bored, left Nightspore’s face. The
alterations in the of the sky to not the least
interest for him.
Krag sat with his hand on the lever, with his
phosphorescent and gauges.
