tly concealed some
organ.

Maskull found it impossible to compute aer age. The frame appeared
active, vigorous, and healthy, the skin was clear and glowing; the eyes
were powerful and alert--ae might well be in early youth. Nevertheless,
the longer Maskull gazed, the more an impression of unbelievable
ancientness came upon him--aer real youth seemed as far away as the view
observed through a reversed telescope.

At last he addressed the stranger, though it was just as if he were
conversing with a dream. "To what sex do you belong?" he asked.

The voice in which the reply came was neither manly nor womanly, but was
oddly suggestive of a mystical forest horn, heard from a great distance.

"Nowadays there are men and women, but in the olden times the world was
peopled by 'phaens.' I think I am the only survivor of all those beings
who were then passing through Faceny's mind."

"Faceny?"

"Who is now miscalled Shaping or Crystalman. The superficial names
invented by a race of superficial creatures."

"What's your own name?"

"Leehallfae."

"What?"

"Leehallfae. And yours is Maskull. I read in your mind that you have
just come through some wonderful adventures. You seem to possess
extraordinary luck. If it lasts long enough, perhaps I can make use of
it."

"Do you think that my luck exists for your benefit?... But never mind
that now. It is your sex that interests me. How do you satisfy your
desires?"

Leehallfae pointed to the concealed organ on aer brow. "With that I
gather life from the streams that flow in all the hundred Matterplay
valleys. The streams spring direct from Faceny. My whole life has been
spent trying to find Faceny himself. I've hunted so long that if I were
to state the number of years you would believe I lied."

Maskull looked at the phaen slowly. "In Ifdawn I met someone else from
Matterplay--a young man called Digrung. I absorbed him."

"You can't be telling me this out of vanity."

"It was a fearful crime. What will come of it?"

Leehallfae gave a curious, wrinkled smile. "In Matterplay he will stir
inside you, for he smells the air. Already you have his eyes.... I knew
him.... Take care of yourself, or something more startling may happen.
Keep out of the water."

"This seems to me a terrible valley, in which anything may happen."

"Don't torment yourself about Digrung. The valleys belong by right to
the phaens--the men here are interlopers. It is a good work to remove
them."