other
cube; it was now a scant twenty paces ahead; it seemed to be stopping.
Ventnor was leaning forward, quivering with eagerness.

"Ruth!" he called. "Ruth--are you all right?"

Slowly she turned to us--my heart gave a great leap, then seemed
to stop. For her sweet face was touched with that same unearthly
tranquillity which was Norhala's; in her brown eyes was a shadow of that
passionless spirit brooding in Norhala's own; her voice as she answered
held within it more than echo of Norhala's faint, far-off golden
chiming.

"Yes," she sighed; "yes, Martin--have no fear for me--"

And turned from us, gazing forward once more with the woman and as
silent as she.

I glanced covertly at Ventnor, at Drake--had I imagined, or had they
too seen? Then I knew they had seen, for Ventnor's face was white to the
lips, and Drake's jaw was set, his teeth clenched, his eyes blazing with
anger.

"What's she doing to Ruth--you saw her face," he gritted, half
inarticulately.

"Ruth!" There was anguish in Ventnor's cry.

She did not turn again. It was as though she had not heard him.

The cubes were now not five yards apart. Drake gathered himself;
strained to loosen his feet from the shining surface, making ready to
leap when they should draw close enough. His great chest swelled with
his effort, the muscles of his neck knotted, sweat steamed down his
face.

"No use," he gasped, "no use, Goodwin. It's like trying to lift yourself
by your boot-straps--like a fly stuck in molasses."

"Ruth," cried Ventnor once more.

As though it had been a signal the block darted forward, resuming the
distance it had formerly maintained between us.

The vanguard of the Metal Things began to race. With an incredible speed
they fled into, were lost in an instant within, the luminous distances.

The cube that bore the woman and girl accelerated; flew faster and
faster onward. And as swiftly our own followed it. The lustrous walls
flowed by, dizzily.

We had swept over toward the right wall of the cleft and were gliding
over a broad ledge. This ledge was, I judged, all of a hundred feet in
width. From it the floor of the place was dropping rapidly.

The opposite precipices were slowly drawing closer. After us flowed the
flanking host.

Steadily our ledge arose and the floor of the canyon dropped. Now we
were twenty feet above it, now thirty. And the character of the cliffs
was changing. Veins of quartz shone under the metallic plating