bright stars, like small moons in size,
appeared in close conjunction; and near them a more minute planetary
object, as brilliant as Venus and with an observable disk. One of the
suns shone with a glaring white light; the other was a weird and awful
blue. Their light, though almost solar in intensity, did not illuminate
the interior of the tower.

Maskull knew at once that the system of spheres at which he was gazing
was what is known to astronomy as the star Arcturus.... He had seen the
sight before, through Krag's glass, but then the scale had been smaller,
the colors of the twin suns had not appeared in their naked reality....
These colors seemed to him most marvellous, as if, in seeing them
through earth eyes, he was not seeing them correctly.... But it was
at Tormance that he stared the longest and the most earnestly. On that
mysterious and terrible earth, countless millions of miles distant, it
had been promised him that he would set foot, even though he might leave
his bones there. The strange creatures that he was to behold and touch
were already living, at this very moment.

A low, sighing whisper sounded in his ear, from not more than a yard
away. "Don't you understand, Maskull, that you are only an instrument,
to be used and then broken? Nightspore is asleep now, but when he wakes
you must die. You will go, but he will return."

Maskull hastily struck another match, with trembling fingers. No one was
in sight, and all was quiet as the tomb.

The voice did not sound again. After waiting a few minutes, he
redescended to the foot of the tower. On gaining the open air, his
sensation of weight was instantly removed, but he continued panting and
palpitating, like a man who has lifted a far too heavy load.

Nightspore's dark form came forward. "Was Krag there?"

"If he was. I didn't see him. But I heard someone speak."

"Was it Krag?"

"It was not Krag--but a voice warned me against you."

"Yes, you will hear these voices too," said Nightspore enigmatically.

Chapter 5. THE NIGHT OF DEPARTURE

When they returned to the house, the windows were all in darkness and
the door was ajar, just as they had left it; Krag presumably was not
there. Maskull went all over the house, striking matches in every
room--at the end of the examination he was ready to swear that the man
they were expecting had not even stuck his nose inside the premises.
Groping their way into the library, they sat down in the total darkn