to pieces by day and feast by night;
but a grim death struggle in which what is worse than death--namely,
spiritual death--inevitably awaited the vanquished of Muspel.... By what
means could he hold back from this horrible war!

During those moments of anguish, all thoughts of Self--the corruption of
his life on Earth--were scorched out of Nightspore's soul, perhaps not
for the first time.

After sitting a long time, he prepared to descend. Without warning, a
strange, wailing cry swept over the face of the world. Starting in awful
mystery, it ended with such a note of low and sordid mockery that he
could not doubt for a moment whence it originated. It was the voice of
Crystalman.

Krag was waiting for him on the island raft. He threw a stern glance at
Nightspore.

"Have you seen everything?"

"The struggle is hopeless," muttered Nightspore.

"Did I not say I am the stronger?"

"You may be the stronger, but he is the mightier."

"I am the stronger and the mightier. Crystalman's Empire is but a shadow
on the face of Muspel. But nothing will be done without the bloodiest
blows.... What do you mean to do?"

Nightspore looked at him strangely. "Are you not Surtur, Krag?"

"Yes."

"Yes," said Nightspore in a slow voice, without surprise. "But what is
your name on Earth?"

"It is pain."

"That, too, I must have known."

He was silent for a few minutes; then he stepped quietly onto the raft.
Krag pushed off, and they proceeded into the darkness.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS ***

***** This file should be named 1329.txt or 1329.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/1329/

Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if