et haze was beginning to spread.

In the center where the light was thickest, something like a gyroscope
appeared to be revolving. Out of the gyroscope something was beginning
to project--that infernal tube of Lucius Tode. And Jim knew that in
the heart of the flame that enormous, distorted face of Lucius Tode
would again be visible.

The human nervous system can only endure a certain amount of impact.
The sight of that ghastly flame, already condensing into a violet
pillar, was more than Jim could stand. He dragged old Parrish to his
feet and started off with him into the thickest part of the
undergrowth.

A fearful scream behind him stopped him at the very edge of the scrub.
He looked back, still supporting the half-conscious old man in his
arms. The violet flame was shooting up in a straight pillar, the whole
central portion of the pool was dry, and the waters were heaped up all
around it.

From the slightly elevated spot where Jim stood, he could see Tode
holding Lucille in his arms in the very heart of the fire, which threw
a pale, fluorescent light over their faces. Tode was wearing a spotted
skin, like that of a leopard, and Lucille was in the blue frock that
she had worn when Jim and she had dinner together two evenings
before.

Jim dropped old Parrish, shouted in answer, and dashed back like a
madman down the slope into the solid wall of water.

* * * * *

He fought his way desperately through that wall, which seemed of the
consistency of soft rubber or treacle, as if some subtle change had
taken place in its molecular isomers. It adhered to him without
wetting him, and he plunged through it, hearing Lucille cry out again,
and yet again.

And now he was through, and once more struggling over the viscid
surface of the pond. Behind him he heard old Parrish blundering, and
screeching at the top of his voice, but he paid no attention to him.

He could see Lucille more clearly, and the large, hazy outlines of
Tode's features were beginning to assume the proper proportions. There
was a diabolical leer upon Tode's face, unchanged during the five
years since Jim had seen him last, except that it had become more
evil, more powerful. The enormous and distorted face that Jim had seen
had been simply due to the presence of some refracting medium.

The pillar of violet light was thinning, spreading out over the pool,
but Jim could now see the scene more clearly than before, even a