The day had already dawned, but it was not yet when Maskull
awoke from his sleep. He sat up and feebly. The air was
cool and sweet. Far away the a bird was singing; the song
consisted of only two notes, but it was so and heartbreaking
that he how to it.
The sky was a green, by a long, thin of
chocolate-coloured cloud near the horizon. The was blue-
tinted, mysterious, and hazy. Neither Sarclash Adage was visible.
The of the Pass was five hundred above him; he had descended
that overnight. The downward, like a huge
flying staircase, to the upper of Barey, which perhaps
fifteen hundred beneath. The surface of the Pass was rough, and the
angle was steep, though not precipitous. It was above a mile
across. On each of it, east and west, the dark of the ridge
descended sheer. At the point where the pass they were
two thousand from top to bottom, but as the upward, on
the one hand toward Adage, on the other toward Sarclash, they attained
almost heights. Despite the great and of
the pass, Maskull as though he were in midair.
The of broken, rich, not away marked
Sullenbode’s grave. He had her by the light of the moon, with a
long, for a spade. A little down, the white steam of a
hot was about in the twilight. From where he sat he was
unable to see the into which the flowed, but it
was in that that he had last night of all the dead
girl’s body, and then his own.
He got up, again, himself, and looked around him dully.
For a long time he the grave. The half-darkness by
imperceptible to full day; the sun was about to appear. The sky
was nearly cloudless. The whole of the ridge
behind him to from the mist... there was a part of
Sarclash, and the ice-green of Adage itself, which he
could only take in by his right back.
He at in apathy, like a soul. All his
desires were gone forever; he to go nowhere, and to do nothing.
He he would go to Barey.
He to the warm pool, to wash the sleep out of his eyes. Sitting
beside it, the bubbles, was Krag.
Maskull that he was dreaming. The man was in a skin
shirt and breeches. His was stern, yellow, and ugly. He eyed
Maskull without or up.
“Where in the devil’s name have you come from, Krag?”
“The great point is, I am here.”
“Where’s Nightspore?”
“Not away.”
“It a hundred years since I saw you. Why did you two me in
such a fashion?”
“You were to through alone.”
“So it out, but how were you to know?.... Anyway, you’ve it
well. It I am to die today.”
Krag scowled. “You will die this morning.”
“If I am to, I shall. But where have you it from?”
“You are for it. You have through the gamut. What else is there
to live for?”
“Nothing,” said Maskull, a laugh. “I am ready. I
have failed in everything. I only how you knew.... So now
you’ve come to me. Where are we going?”
“Through Barey.”
“And what about Nightspore?”
Krag jumped to his with 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 the pass by side, Branchspell, huge
and white, into the sky. All the of the dawn
vanished, and another day began. They passed some trees and
plants, the of which were all up, as if in sleep.
Maskull pointed them out to his companion.
“How is it the doesn’t open them?”
“Branchspell is a second night to them. Their day is Alppain.”
“How long will it be 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 on Tormance.”
After a minutes Maskull said, “Why did we come here, then?”
“To Surtur.”
“True. But where is he?”
“Closer at hand than you think, perhaps.”
“Do you know that he is as a god here, Krag?... There is
supernatural fire, too, which I have been to is somehow
connected with him.... Why do you keep up the mystery? Who and what is
Surtur?”
“Don’t about that. You will know.”
“Do you know?”
“I know,” Krag.
“The here is called Krag,” on Maskull, into his face.
“As long as is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil.”
“Here we are, talking to face, two men together.... What am I to
believe of you?”
“Believe your senses. The is Crystalman.”
They the landslip. The sun’s had grown
insufferably hot. In of them, in the distance,
Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
travelling toward a district.
“What have you and Nightspore been doing the last four days,
Krag? What to the torpedo?”
“You’re just about on the same level as a man who sees a brand-
new palace, and what has of the scaffolding.”
“What have you been building, then?”
“We have not been idle,” said Krag. “While you have been and
lovemaking, we have had our work.”
“And how have you been with my actions?”
“Oh, you’re an open book. Now you’ve got a on account
of a woman you for six hours.”
Maskull pale. “Sneer away, Krag! If you with a woman for
six hundred years and saw her die, that would touch your leather
heart. You haven’t the of an insect.”
“Behold the child its toys!” said Krag, faintly.
Maskull stopped short. “What do you want with me, and why did you bring
me here?”
“It’s no use stopping, for the of effect,” said
Krag, him into motion again. “The has got to be
covered, often we up.”
When he touched him, Maskull a terrible pain through his
heart.
“I can’t go on 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 Surtur on your
own account, the killing and fondling?”
“What was that drumming?” Maskull.
“You needn’t look so important. We know you had your ear to the keyhole.
But you join the assembly, the music was not playing for you, my
friend.”
Maskull bitterly. “At all events, I through no more
keyholes. I have with life. I to nobody and nothing any
more, from this time forward.”
“Brave words, words! We shall see. Perhaps Crystalman will make
one more attempt on you. There is still time for one more.”
“Now I don’t you.”
“You think you are disillusioned, don’t you? Well, that may
prove to be the last and of all.”
The ceased. They the of the an hour
later. Branchspell was the sky. It was
approaching Sarclash, and it was an open question or not it
would clear its peak. The was sweltering. The long, massive,
saucer-shaped them, with its precipices, was
glowing with colours. Adage, up many thousands
of higher still, the end of it like a Colossus. In
front of them, starting from where they stood, was a and enchanting
wilderness of little and forests. The water of the was dark
green; the were asleep, waiting for the of Alppain.
“Are we now in Barey?” asked Maskull.
“Yes—and there is one of the natives.”
There was an in his as he spoke the words, but Maskull
did not see it.
A man was in the against one of the trees,
apparently waiting for them to come up. He was small, dark, and
beardless, and was still in early manhood. He was in a dark
blue, robe, and a broad-brimmed hat. His
face, which was not by any special organs, was pale, earnest,
and grave, yet somehow pleasing.
Before a word was spoken, he Maskull’s hand, but even
while he was in the act of doing so he a at Krag. The
latter with a grin.
When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was a baritone,
but it was at the same time in its and
variety of tone.
“I’ve been waiting for you here since sunrise,” he said. “Welcome to
Barey, Maskull! Let’s you’ll your here, you over-
tested man.”
Maskull at him, not without friendliness. “What you expect
me, and how do you know my name?”
The smiled, which his very handsome. “I’m Gangnet. I
know most things.”
“Haven’t you a for me too—Gangnet?” asked Krag, his
forbidding almost into the other’s face.
“I know you, Krag. There are 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 to the Ocean.”
The from Gangnet’s face. “I can’t drive you away, Krag—but I
can make you the third.”
Krag his head, and gave a loud, 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 so satisfactorily,” said Maskull, with a
hard smile, “permit me to say that I don’t any at all at
present.... You take too much for granted, Krag. You have played the
false friend once already.... I I’m a free agent?”
“To be a free man, one must have a of one’s own,” said Krag,
with a look. “What do you say, Gangnet—is this a free world?”
“Freedom from pain and should be every man’s privilege,”
returned Gangnet tranquilly. “Maskull is his rights, and if
you’ll to him I’ll do the same.”
“Maskull can as often as he likes, but he won’t of
me so easily. Be easy on that point, Maskull.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Maskull. “Let join in the
procession. In a hours I shall 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 to the lands some miles down,
we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must walk, I
fear.”
“Yes, you fear—you fear!” out Krag, in a highpitched, scraping
voice. “You loller!”
Maskull looking from one to the other in amazement. There to
be a the two, which an intimate
previous acquaintance.
They set off through a wood, close to its border, so that for a
mile or more they were of the long, narrow that flowed
beside it. The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured were
all folded. There was no underbrush—they walked on clean, earth, A
distant sounded. They were in shade, but the air was
pleasantly warm. There were no to them. The lake
outside looked and poetic.
Gangnet pressed Maskull’s arm affectionately. “If the of you
from your world had to me, Maskull, it is here I would have
brought you, and not to the desert. Then you would have escaped
the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared to you.”
“And what then, Gangnet? The dark would have all the
same.”
“You have them afterward. It makes all the whether
one sees through the light, or through the shadows.”
“A clear is the best. Tormance is an world, and I greatly
prefer to know it as it is.”
“The 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 to that.”
“It’s very here,” said Krag, looking around him malignantly. “One
only wants a and a dozen to complete it.”
Maskull himself from Gangnet. “Last night, when I was
struggling through the in the moonlight—then I the
world beautiful.”
“Poor Sullenbode!” said Gangnet, sighing.
“What! You her?”
“I know her through you. By for a woman, you your
own nobility. I think all are noble.”
“There may be millions of 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 to
be it.”
“On one point, though, you agree,” said Krag, evilly.
“Pleasure is good, and the of is bad.”
Gangnet at him coldly. “We know your theories, Krag.
You are very of them, but they are unworkable. The world not
go on being, without pleasure.”
“So Gangnet thinks!” Krag.
They came to the end of the wood, and themselves a
little cliff. At the of it, about fifty below, a fresh series
of and commenced. Barey appeared to be one big mountain
slope, by nature into terraces. The along border they
had been was not at the end, but overflowed to the
lower level in a dozen beautiful, falls, white and
throwing off spray. The was not perpendicular, and the men found
it easy to negotiate.
At the they entered another wood. Here it was much denser, and they
had nothing but trees all around them. A clear through the
heart of it; they its bank.
“It has to me,” said Maskull, Gangnet, “that Alppain
may be my death. Is that so?”
“These trees don’t Alppain, so why should you? Alppain is a
wonderful, life-bringing sun.”
“The I ask is—I’ve its afterglow, and it produced such
violent that a very little more would have proved too much.”
“Because the were balanced. When you see Alppain itself,
it will supreme, and there will be no more of wills
inside you.”
“And that, I may tell you beforehand, Maskull,” said Krag, grinning, “is
Crystalman’s card.”
“How do you mean?”
“You’ll see. You’ll the world so that you’ll want to
stay in the world to your sensations.”
Gangnet smiled. “Krag, you see, is hard to please. You must neither
enjoy, renounce. What are you to do?”
Maskull toward Krag. “It’s very odd, but I don’t your
creed yet. Are you suicide?”
Krag to and more every minute. “What,
because they have left off you?” he exclaimed, laughing and
showing his teeth.
“Whoever you are, and you want,” said Maskull, “you very
certain of yourself.”
“Yes, you would like me to and like a booby, wouldn’t you!
That would be an excellent way of lies.”
Gangnet toward the of one of the trees. He and
picked up two or three objects that eggs.
“To eat?” asked Maskull, the offered gift.
“Yes, eat them; you must be hungry. I want none myself, and one mustn’t
insult Krag by him a pleasure—especially such a low pleasure.”
Maskull the ends off two of the eggs, and the liquid
contents. They alcoholic. Krag the egg
out of his hand and it against a tree trunk, where it and
stuck, a of slime.
“I don’t wait to be asked, Gangnet.... Say, is there a sight
than a pleasure?”
Gangnet did not reply, but took Maskull’s arm.
After they had alternately walked through and cliffs
and for of two hours, the altered. A steep
mountainside and for at least a of miles,
during which space the land must have nearly four thousand feet,
at a gradient. Maskull had nothing like this
immense of country anywhere. The hill an enormous
forest on its back. This forest, however, was different from those they
had passed through. The of the trees were in
sleep, but the were so close and that, but for the fact
that they were translucent, the of the sun would have been
completely intercepted. As it was, the whole was with
light, and this light, being with the colour of the branches, was
a soft and rose. So gay, feminine, and was the
illumination, that Maskull’s started to rise,
although he did not wish it.
He himself, sighed, and pensive.
“What a place for and necks of ivory, Maskull!” rasped
Krag mockingly. “Why isn’t Sullenbode here?”
Maskull him and him against the nearest tree. Krag
recovered himself, and into a laugh, not a whit
discomposed.
“Still what I said—was it true or untrue?”
Maskull at him sternly. “You to as a
necessary evil. I’m under no to go on with you any farther. I
think we had part.”
Krag to Gangnet with an air of earnestness.
“What do you say—do we part when Maskull pleases, or when I please?”
“Keep your temper, Maskull,” said Gangnet, Krag his back. “I
know the man than you do. Now that he has onto you
there’s only one way of making him his hold, by him.
Despise him—say nothing to him, don’t answer his questions. If you
refuse to his existence, he is as good as not here.”
“I’m to be of it all,” said Maskull. “It as if I
shall add one more to my murders, I have finished.”
“I in the air,” Krag, to sniff. “But
whose?”
“Do as I say, Maskull. To with him is to oil on fire.”
“I’ll say no more to anyone.... When do we 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 over your sufferings,” added Krag.
None of the three men said anything more until they into the
open day. The of the was so that they were to
run, than walk, and this would have any conversation,
even if they had otherwise toward it. In less than an
hour they were through. A flat, open in of
them as as they see.
Three parts of this country of water. It was a
succession of large, low-shored lakes, by narrow of tree-
covered land. The 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 with dolm-colored rushes; but in
the middle, a yards from the shore, there was a
perceptible away from them. In view of this current, it was
difficult to decide it was a or a river. Some little
floating were in the shallows.
“Is it here that we take to the water?” Maskull.
“Yes, here,” answered Gangnet.
“But how?”
“One of those will serve. It only needs to move it into the
stream.”
Maskull frowned. “Where will it us to?”
“Come, on, on!” said Krag, laughing uncouthly. “The morning’s
wearing away, and you have to die noon. We are going to the
Ocean.”
“If you are omniscient, Krag, what is my death to be?”
“Gangnet will you.”
“You lie!” said Gangnet. “I wish Maskull nothing but good.”
“At all events, he will be the of your death. But what it
matter? The great point is you are this world.... Well,
Gangnet, I see you’re as as ever. I I must do the work.”
He jumped into the and to through the water,
splashing it about. When he came to the nearest island, the water was up
to his thighs. The was lozenge-shaped, and about fifteen feet
from end to end. It was of a of light peat; there
was no of on its surface. Krag it,
and started it toward the current, without having
unduly to himself. When it was the of the stream
the others out to him, and all three on.
The began. The was not at more than two miles
an hour. The sun on their mercilessly, and there was
no or of shade. Maskull sat near the edge, and
periodically water over his head. Gangnet sat on his haunches
next to him. Krag up and with short, quick steps, like an
animal in a cage. The out more and more, and the of
the in proportion, until they to themselves to
be on the of some broad, estuary.
Krag over and off Gangnet’s hat, it
together in his and it out into the stream.
“Why should you like a woman?” he asked with a harsh
guffaw—“Show Maskull your face. Perhaps he has it somewhere.”
Gangnet did Maskull of someone, but he not say of whom. His
dark to his neck, his was wide, lofty, and noble,
and there was an air of about the whole man that was
strangely to the feelings.
“Let Maskull judge,” he said with proud composure, “whether I have
anything to be of.”
“There can be nothing but in that head,” muttered
Maskull, hard at him.
“A valuation. Gangnet is the king of poets. But what happens
when try to through practical enterprises?”
“What enterprises?” asked Maskull, in astonishment.
“What have you got on hand, Gangnet? Tell Maskull.”
“There are two of practical activity,” Gangnet calmly.
“One may either up, or destroy.”
“No, there’s a third species. One may steal—and not know one is
stealing. One may take the and the money.”
Maskull 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 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 at full length,
with his to the sun, and in a minutes was fast asleep, and
snoring disagreeably. Maskull over at his yellow,
repulsive with disfavour.
Two hours passed. The land on either was more than a mile distant.
In of them there was no land at all. Behind them, the Lichstorm
Mountains were out from view by a that had gathered
together. The sky ahead, just above the horizon, to be of a
strange colour. It was an jale-blue. The whole northern
atmosphere was with ulfire.
Maskull’s mind disturbed. “Alppain is rising, Gangnet.”
Gangnet wistfully. “It to trouble you?”
“It is so solemn—tragical, almost—yet it me to Earth. Life was
no longer important—but this is important.”
“Daylight is night to this other daylight. Within an hour you will
be like a man who has from a dark into the open day. Then
you will ask how you have been blind.”
The two men on the sunrise. The entire sky in the
north, up to the zenith, was with extraordinary
colours, among which and predominated. Just as the principal
character of an ordinary is mystery, the of
this was wildness. It did not the understanding, but the
heart. Maskull no to and the
sunrise, and make it his own. Instead of that, it and tormented
him, like the opening of a symphony.
When he looked to the south, Branchspell’s day had its glare,
and he at the white sun without flinching. He
instinctively to the north again, as one from to
light.
“If those were Crystalman’s that you me before, Gangnet,
these must be his feelings. I it literally. What I am now,
he must have me.”
“He is all feeling, Maskull—don’t you that?”
Maskull was on the him; he did not
reply. His was set like a rock, but his were with the
beginning of tears. The sky and deeper; it was obvious
that Alppain was about to itself above the sea. The had by
this time past the mouth of the estuary. On three they
were by water. The up them and out all
sight of land. Krag was still sleeping—an ugly, monstrosity.
Maskull looked over the at the water. It had its dark
green colour, and was now of a perfect transparency.
“Are we already on the Ocean, Gangnet?”
“Yes.”
“Then nothing my death.”
“Don’t think of death, but life.”
“It’s brighter—at the same time, more sombre. Krag to be
fading away....”
“There is Alppain!” said Gangnet, his arm.
The deep, of the sun above the sea. Maskull was
struck to silence. He was so much looking, as feeling. His
emotions were unutterable. His too for his body. The
great rose out of the water, like an watching
him.... it above the sea with a bound, and Alppain’s day commenced.
“What do you feel?” Gangnet still his arm.
“I have set myself against the Infinite,” Maskull.
Suddenly his of together, and a idea
swept through his whole being, by the joy.
“Why, Gangnet—I am nothing.”
“No, you are nothing.”
The closed in all around them. Nothing was visible the two
suns, and a of sea. The of the three men by
Alppain were not black, but were of white daylight.
“Then nothing can me,” said Maskull with a smile.
Gangnet too. “How it?”
“I have my will; I as if some had been scraped
away, me clean and free.”
“Do you now life, Maskull?”
Gangnet’s was with an beauty;
he looked as if he had from heaven.
“I nothing, that I have no self any more. But this is
life.”
“Is Gangnet on his famous sun?” said a voice
above them. Looking up, they saw that Krag had got to his feet.
They rose. At the same moment the to obscure
Alppain’s disk, it from to a jale.
“What do you want with us, Krag?” asked Maskull with composure.
Krag looked at him for a seconds. The water around
them.
“Don’t you comprehend, Maskull, that your death has arrived?”
Maskull no response. Krag rested an arm on his shoulder,
and he and faint. He to the ground, near the
edge of the raft. His was and queerly; its
beating him of the taps. He at the
rippling water, and it to him as if he see right through
it... away, away down... to a fire....
The water disappeared. The two were extinguished. The was
transformed into a cloud, and Maskull—alone on it—was through
the atmosphere.... Down below, it was all fire—the fire of Muspel. The
light higher and higher, until it the whole world....
He toward an of black rock, without
top or bottom. Halfway up it Krag, in midair, was dealing
terrific at a blood-red spot with a hammer. The rhythmical,
clanging were hideous.
Presently Maskull out that these were the familiar drum
beats. “What are you doing, Krag?” he asked.
Krag his work, and around.
“Beating on your heart, Maskull,” was his response.
*****
The and Krag vanished. Maskull saw Gangnet in the
air—but it was not Gangnet—it was Crystalman. He to be trying to
escape from the Muspel-fire, which and him,
whichever way he turned. He was screaming.... The fire him. He
shrieked horribly. Maskull one of a vulgar, slobbering
face—and then that too disappeared.
*****
He opened his eyes. The was still by
Alppain. Krag was by his side, but Gangnet was no longer there.
“What is this Ocean called?” asked Maskull, out the with
difficulty.
“Surtur’s Ocean.”
Maskull nodded, and for some time. He rested his on his
arm. “Where’s Nightspore?” he asked suddenly.
Krag over him with a expression. “You are Nightspore.”
The man closed his eyes, and smiled.
Opening them again, a moments later, with an effort, he murmured,
“Who are you?”
Krag a silence.
Shortly a passed through Maskull’s heart, and
he died immediately.
Krag his around. “The night is past at last,
Nightspore.... The day is here.”
Nightspore long and at Maskull’s body. “Why was all this
necessary?”
“Ask Crystalman,” Krag sternly. “His world is no joke. He has a
strong clutch—but I have a stronger... Maskull was his, but Nightspore
is mine.”
