idea of smashing the window and calling
loudly to Zarlah. The skin tore from the flesh like paper at the fury of
my efforts, and I freed my hands at last, only to find that my arms hung
lifeless at my side.

In a frenzy of grief and despair at my utter helplessness, I fell on my
knees, crying aloud, "Oh, my God! Save her from this awful death!"

A sudden gloom filled the car, and, struggling to my feet, I found that
we had entered the belt of semi-darkness that covers the polar caps in
their winter season. Our doom was near at hand--nothing could save
Zarlah now, and only by swerving my car around instantly and returning
could I preserve myself. But life was nought to me without Zarlah--I
preferred death to such an empty existence. Condemned by Fate to be
separated in life, we would meet death together.

I could dimly see Zarlah's car outlined against the white snow beyond,
but, even as I stood now helplessly and silently awaiting the end, a
dark line rapidly spread over this field of white. Beyond, all was
black, and as this sharp-cut boundary line rapidly approached Zarlah's
car, my blood froze in my veins, for in this vast area of bare black
rock I recognized the terrible power of the North Repelling Pole. There
was another moment in which my heart refused to beat, then a groan of
great anguish escaped my lips, as Zarlah's car was hurled upwards into
space with frightful velocity.

Shutting my eyes I awaited death. For an instant it seemed to me that I
heard Zarlah's voice call to me in clear accents, then came a terrific
shock which hurled me to the far end of the aerenoid, amid a confusion
of furniture, books, and instruments that had been torn from their
fastenings. Frozen into a state of utter helplessness, my senses fast
leaving me, I lay unable to extricate myself from the heavy mass.

In this comatose condition I remained totally ignorant of the lapse of
time, until, feeling the terrible pressure diminish, I opened my eyes
and dreamily beheld the heavy instruments and pieces of furniture move
gently away, and bump against one another as they floated lightly about
within the car.

Relieved of the great weight, I now breathed more freely. My senses grew
clearer, and soon I became conscious of a loud hissing noise close at
hand. Drowsily I turned my head in the direction of the sound, and
discovered that it came from the door in the side of the aerenoid. In an
instant the full faculty of my senses returned