d battles front to front? Before the Eyes men and women have
died or lost reason, or fled across half the world, broken by fear. What
are the wars of man with man, compared with a man's battle against the
Unknown? I honor you! I salute you! But--soldier alone on the forbidden
Frontier, go! Join your fellows in the world alloted to you; live, nor
seek to tread where mankind is not sent."

"How can there be wrong in facing a situation that I did not cause?"

"There is no wrong. There is danger."

"What danger?" I persisted.

"Can you ask me?" she retorted with a hint of impatience. "You who have
felt Its grope toward your inner spirit?"

I shuddered, remembering the brush of those antennae, exploring,
examining! But I persisted, beyond my every-day nature. Her speech was
for me like that liquor distilled from honey that inflamed the Norsemen
to war fury.

"You say I came off victor," I reminded her.

"Yes. But can you conquer again, and again, and again? Will you not feel
strength fail, health break, madness creep close? Will you not be worn
down by the Thing that knows no weariness and fall its prey at last?"

"It will come--often?"

"Until one conquers, It will come."

I forced away a qualm of panic.

"How can you know?" I demanded.

"Ask me not. I do know."

"But, look here!" I argued. "If as you say, this creature was not meant
to meet mankind, how can It come after me this way?"

She seemed to pause, finally answering with reluctance:

"Because, two centuries ago one of the race of man here broke through
the awful Barrier that rears a wall between human kind and those dark
forms of life to which It belongs. For know that a human will to evil
can force a breach in that Barrier, which those on the other side never
could pass without such aid."

I neither understood nor believed. At least, I told myself that I did
not believe her wild, legendary explanation of the nightmare Thing that
visited me. I did not want to believe. Neither did I wish to offend her
by saying so!

"You will go," she presently mistook my silence for surrender. "You are
wise as well as brave. Good go with you! Good walk beside you in that
happy world where you live!"

"Wait!" I cried sharply. Her voice had seemed to recede from me, a
retreating whisper at the last word. "No! I will not go. I must--I will
know more of you. You are no phantom. Who are you? Where--when can I see
you in daylight?"

"Never."

"Why not?"

"I c