answer to us, beating steadily in
the night; and when we questioned afresh, we knew that they in the
Lesser Redoubt had caught the beat of the Master-Word, and so made
reply; though it had not been they who had made the previous talk, which
we had sought to test by the Word. And then they would make
contradiction of all that had been spoken so cunningly; so that we knew
the Monsters and Forces had sought to tempt some from the safety of the
Redoubt. Yet, was this no new thing, as I have made to hint; saving that
it grew now to a greater persistence, and there was a loathsome cunning
in the using of this new knowledge to the making of wicked and false
messages by those evil things of the Night Land. And it told to us, as I
have made remark, how that those Monsters and Forces had a full
awaredness of the speech between the Pyramids; yet could they have no
power to say the Master-Word; so had we some test left, and a way to
sure knowledge of what made talk in the night.

And all that I have told should bring to those of this Age something of
the yet unbegotten terror of that; and a quiet and sound thankfulness to
God, that we suffer not as humanity shall yet suffer.

But, for all this, let it not be thought that they of that Age accounted
it as suffering; but as no more than the usual of human existence. And
by this may we know that we can meet all circumstances, and use
ourselves to them and live through them wisely, if we be but prudent and
consider means of invention.

And through all the Night Land there was an extraordinary awakening
among the Monsters and Forces; so that the instruments made constant
note of greater powers at work out there in the darkness; and the
Monstruwacans were busied recording, and keeping a very strict watch.
And so was there at all that time a sense of difference and awakening,
and of wonders about, and to come.

And from The Country Whence Comes The Great Laughter, the Laughter
sounded constant ... as it were an uncomfortable and heart-shaking
voice-thunder rolling thence over the Lands, out from the unknown East.
And the Pit of the Red Smoke filled all the Deep Valley with redness, so
that the smoke rose above the edge, and hid the bases of the Towers upon
the far side.

And the Giants could be seen plentiful around the Kilns to the East; and
from the Kilns great belches of fire; though the meaning of it, as of
all else, we could not say; but only the cause.

And from the Mountain O