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