over
which flowed torrents of pale molten gold.

The Pit blazed.

There followed an appalling tensity; a prodigious gathering of force;
a panic stirring concentration of energy. Thicker fell the clouds of
sparkling atoms--higher rose the yellow flood.

Ventnor cried out. I could not hear him, but I read his purpose--and
so did Drake. Up on his broad shoulders he swung Ruth as though she had
been a child. Back through the throbbing veils we ran; passed out of
them.

"Back!" shouted Ventnor. "Back as far as you can!"

On we raced; we reached the gateway of the cliffs; we dashed on and
on--up the shining roadway toward the blue globe now a scant mile before
us; ran sobbing, panting--ran, we knew, for our lives.

Out of the Pit came a sound--I cannot describe it!

An unutterably desolate, dreadful wail of despair, it shuddered past us
like the groaning of a broken-hearted star--anguished and awesome.

It died. There rushed upon us a sea of that incredible loneliness, that
longing for extinction that had assailed us in the haunted hollow where
first we had seen Norhala. But its billows were resistless, invincible.
Beneath them we fell; were torn by desire for swift death.

Dimly, through fainting eyes, I saw a dazzling brilliancy fill the sky;
heard with dying ears a chaotic, blasting roar. A wave of air thicker
than water caught us up, hurled us hundreds of yards forward. It dropped
us; in its wake rushed another wave, withering, scorching.

It raced over us. Scorching though it was, within its heat was
energizing, revivifying force; something that slew the deadly despair
and fed the fading fires of life.

I staggered to my feet; looked back. The veils were gone. The precipice
walled gateway they had curtained was filled with a Plutonic glare as
though it opened into the incandescent heart of a volcano.

Ventnor clutched my shoulder, spun me around. He pointed to the sapphire
house, started to run to it. Far ahead I saw Drake, the body of the girl
clasped to his breast. The heat became blasting, insupportable; my lungs
burned.

Over the sky above the canyon streaked a serpentine chain of lightnings.
A sudden cyclonic gust swept the cleft, whirling us like leaves toward
the Pit.

I threw myself upon my face, clutching at the smooth rock. A volley of
thunder burst--but not the thunder of the Metal Monster or its Hordes;
no, the bellowing of the levins of our own earth.

And the wind was cold; it bathed th