r end of the bed--long arms
stretched over her feet--slender dark hands clenching and unclenching.
The detail of it cut into Skag, like a spear of keen pain through
chaos. Returned away--it was intolerable.

. . . An arm fell about Skag's shoulders.

"Brother?" Roderick Deal's fathomless eyes drew Skag's and held them
while he spoke: "We are leaving you to be alone with her--at the last!"

The arm gripped as he added:

"You are to know this--we will not fail you, now!" and he was gone.
They were all gone.

Faint tones of the fever bird, ascending, came from far out. Other
tones, descending, came from greater distances within. . . . She will
not speak again!

Bhanah touched his sleeve.

"My Master!" The man's nearness of spirit, as he spoke, vibrated into
Skag and roused him to something different, something clearer. "A
mystic from the Vindha mountains has but just reached this place. They
are very powerful, having great knowledge. This man is blood-kin to
her. Give me permission and I will call him."

Skag looked into Bhanah's eyes, finding the ancient friendship there;
then he said only one word:

"Hurry!"

Bhanah leaped away across the lawn and Skag turned to stand by Carlin's
side.

The silence seemed absolute now; the whiteness absolute. He remembered
that she had gone down into shadows. He bent his head toward her
breast and looked down.

. . . Sense of time was gone--even the endlessness of it. Sense of
whiteness was gone. His vision wakened, as he groped through deepening
shadows, on and on--till they turned to utter blackness. In that utter
blackness appeared a thread of pure blue; he traced it back up till it
entered Carlin's body. There, it was not blue any more, but a faint
glow of high white light centred in her breast and shed--like
moonlight--through all her person.

The heart of his heart called to her. . . . There was no answer.

. . . He became aware that a tall slender man stood at his side; but it
did not disturb him. The man wore long straight robes of camel's hair.
The sense of him was strength. At last he spoke:

"Son, why do you call to her? She cannot come back--of herself. You
cannot fetch her back."

"Why?" breathed Skag. "I ought to be able to."

"No," the man said kindly, "you are not able to--I am not able to--no
created being is able to."

The man emphasised the word created.

"What can?" Skag asked.

"First you must learn not to depend on yo