e clamor was lessened, muffled. Of course, it came to me, it
was the veils.

I wondered why--for whatever the quality of the radiant mists, their
purpose certainly had to do with concentration of the magnetic flux. The
deadening of the noise must be accidental, could have nothing to do with
their actual use; for sound is an air vibration solely. No--it must be a
secondary effect. The Metal Monster was as heedless of clamor as it was
of heat or cold--

"We've got to see," Ventnor broke the chain of thought. "We've got to
get through and see what's happening. Win or lose--we've got to KNOW."

"Cut off your sleeve, as I did," he motioned to Drake. "Tie her ankles.
We'll carry her."

Quickly it was done. Ruth's light body swinging between brother and
lover, we moved forward into the mists; we crept cautiously through
their dead silences.

Passed out and fell back into them from a searing chaos of light,
chaotic tumult.

From the slackened grip of Ventnor and Drake the body of Ruth dropped
while we three stood blinded, deafened, fighting for recovery. Ruth
twisted, rolled toward the brink; Ventnor threw himself upon her, held
her fast.

Dragging her, crawling on our knees, we crept forward; we stopped when
the thinning of the mists permitted us to see through them yet still
interposed a curtaining which, though tenuous, dimmed the intolerable
brilliancy that filled the Pit, muffled its din to a degree we could
bear.

I peered through them--and nerve and muscle were locked in the grip of
a paralyzing awe. I felt then as one would feel set close to warring
regiments of stars, made witness to the death-throes of a universe, or
swept through space and held above the whirling coils of Andromeda's
nebula to watch its birth agonies of nascent suns.

These are no figures of speech, no hyperboles--speck as our whole
planet would be in Andromeda's vast loom, pinprick as was the Pit to
the cyclone craters of our own sun, within the cliff-cupped walls of the
valley was a tangible, struggling living force akin to that which
dwells within the nebula and the star; a cosmic spirit transcending all
dimensions and thrusting its confines out into the infinite; a sentient
emanation of the infinite itself.

Nor was its voice less unearthly. It used the shell of the earth valley
for its trumpetings, its clangors--but as one hears in the murmurings
of the fluted conch the great voice of ocean, its whispering and
its roarings, so he