s abruptly changed to a thin whining
note so high in pitch that it seemed the nearly soundless ghost of a
metallic scream. With the change in sound Blake became aware of a new
and astounding change in his surroundings.

The walls and roof of the station seemed closing in upon him as though
he were growing in size at an incredible rate. The next moment he shot
through the roof, hurtling on and upward with the velocity of a rocket.
The sensation was one that his reeling brain could not even grasp. His
body seemed to be inside every stone, iron bar, and lump of earth, yet
at the same time every exterior object seemed _within_ his body. It was
an eery chaos of a dozen different dimensions blending to form a Space
in which there was no known dimension.

As they flashed on out to the surface Blake had one hazy glimpse of
Manhattan's glowing lights spread all about them. Then the speed of
their progress leaped into a new and terrible acceleration that blotted
out every tangible sensation from Blake's brain.

Time and Space alike seemed to vanish as their hurtling flight sent them
rocketing on for distances inconceivably vast through a bleak and
appalling Nothingness, where neither sight nor sound existed.

Then abruptly the speed of their flight seemed to be lessening.
Sensation returned to Blake. He again heard the thin high-pitched
metallic wail, now swiftly deepening to the familiar growl of rolling
bass. He again noted the presence of the glowing green ribbons of the
net that still encircled them.

* * * * *

A blindingly brilliant purple mist was now closing in upon them from
every direction, bringing with it a nameless and agonizing force that
seemed to be shaking the very atoms in Blake's body asunder. Then they
dropped swiftly down out of the purple mists, and the strange agony at
once vanished. Blake felt their downward progress come to an end with
the gentle arrival of his feet upon firm ground.

The encircling net of green flame glowed dazzlingly brighter for a brief
moment, then swiftly vanished into thin air, while the mutter of bass
vibrations simultaneously died away into silence. Blake staggered and
nearly fell as the sudden release from the net's strands again left his
body free.

He looked down at Helen as she stood huddled close beside him, still in
the shelter of his arms. The girl's face was white with terror as she
looked back up at him.

"Bob, what happened--and