hole bodies as they gratefully imbibed it.

* * * * *

In their wanderings, in which Sarka was a faun and Jaska a nymph, they
talked together in a language which only these two comprehended--a
language which dealt in figures of speech, a language which depended
upon handclasps for periods, glances of the eyes for commas, and the
singing of their hearts for complete understanding.

Then a cool breeze, cool by comparison, caressed their pain-distorted
cheeks, and the Gnomes came in, found them lying there, and clucked
endlessly as though wondering what to do with them.

From hand to tiny hand, their feet serving as hands, the Gnomes passed
garments--garments of the Gens of Dalis, and clothed again the two
whom the Place of the Blue Light had all but slain. Of that ghastly
experiment Sarka retained but one real memory....

That bluish light, in the midst of the abyss, shifting and swaying
like blue serpents swimming in Hades ... that bluish light of the
Cone, which he had broken up for a brief moment by the use of his ray
director. Was this bluish light in the abyss the source of the light
in the Cone? If one were to destroy it at its source....

The two regained consciousness completely as the triangular door
closed behind Sarka and Jaska and the Gnomes, and they were taken into
the refreshing coolness of the tunnel, led back again in the direction
of the room where they had seen the Radiant Woman. Both Jaska and
Sarka noticed that they were clothed in new clothing, and a shy blush
tinged the cheeks of Jaska as her eyes met those of Sarka.

* * * * *

This time they entered the vast chamber of radiance behind the first
triangular door, and were forced to their knees to do obeisance to the
Radiant Woman, who sat on a gleaming yellow stone for dais! The guards
who forced Sarka and Jaska to their knees, were clothed in the green
of the Gens of Dalis, and Dalis himself, his face stern, but bearing
no sign of recognition of these two, stood at the right hand of the
Radiant Woman!

"You come to us as spies," the thought of the Radiant Woman impinged
upon the brains of Sarka and of Jaska, "and as spies you should be
given to the Cone. But if you swear eternal allegiance to me, to obey
me in all things, to forego your allegiance to Earth, your lives will
be spared! What say you?"

Boldly Sarka stared into the almost opaque eyes of the woman. Then his
glance