t
_thing_ which I cannot comprehend hovers before me. It has many colors,
but mostly there is the orange of the mountains. It hangs in the air,
and from the portion nearest me grow dark trees as round as myself and
as tall. There is a great redness above, that opens like the Katus
flower, exposing the ivory white from which puffs the Tongue of Death.
Beyond this I cannot see well, but ever so high are two gigantic caverns
from which the Winds of the Legends blow--and suck. As dangerous as the
Katus, by Dal! Alternately they crush me to the ground, then threaten to
tear me from it and hurl me away."

_My nose was the cavern from which issued the horrifying wind. I noticed
that my breath distressed the little man as I leaned over to stare at
him, so drew back._

_Upstairs, the visor buzzed. Before answering, so that I would not lose
the little man, I very gingerly pinched his shirt with the tongs, and
lifted him to the table._

"My breath! I am shot into the heavens like Milo and his rocket! I
traverse a frightful distance! Everything changes constantly. A million
miles below is chaos. This world is mad! A giant landscape passes
beneath me, so weird I cannot describe it. I--I cannot understand. Only
my heart trembles within me. Neither Science nor the gods can help or
comfort in this awful world of Greatness!

"We stop. I hang motionless in the air. The ground beneath is utterly
insane. But I see vast uncovered veins of rare metal--and crystal,
precious crystal, enough to cover the mightiest Temple we could build!
Oh, that Mortia were so blessed! In all this terrifying world, the
richness of the crystal and the marvelous metal do redeem.

"Men!----I see ... I believe it is a temple! It is incredibly tall, of
black foundation and red spire, but it is weathered, leaning as if to
fall--and very bare. The people cannot love their Gods as we--or else
there is the Hunger.... But the gods may enlighten this world, too, and
if lowered, I will make for it. A sacred Temple should be a
haven--friends! I descend."

_The little man's eye had caught my scissors and a glass ruler as I
suspended him above my desk. They were his exposed vein of metal and the
precious crystal. I was searching for something to secure him. In the
last second before I lowered him, his heart swelled at the sight of the
"Temple"--my red and black pen slanting upward from the desk holder._

_A stamp lying on my desk was an inspiration. I licked it, turne