heart; but yet was not free to come to food nor to
slumber, the both of which I did sorely need; for I had slept neither
eat for a weariful time, as you do know. But first I must go further off
from the House, and afterwards come to some fire-hole, that I should dry
myself and get warmth again into my body, which was bitter cold.

And now that I had come unto the Northward of the House of Silence,
there came to me a great Wonder, which bred in me a mighty Hope and
Gladness. For as I did go among the bushes, there broke sudden all
around me in the aether, the low and solemn beat of the Master-Word. And
the throb of the Word was utter weak; so that one moment I did say unto
myself that I heard, and in a moment that I did not; yet had I no proper
doubt in my heart.

And I reasoned with myself, and with a great shaking of excitement and
expectation upon me, that the Master-Word came not from the Great
Pyramid, which should have power to send it as a Great Force across the
everlasting Night; whilst that this that throbbed about me was faint and
scarce to be known even unto the keenness of the Night-Hearing, which
was mine.

And, immediately, as I crouched low there, and thrilled with the hope
that was bred in me, lo! there seemed to come the far faint voice of
Naani, calling with a little voice within my spirit. And I thought the
cry to have an utterness of supplication within it; so that I grew
desperate to up and go to running; yet did curb such foolishness, and
stayed very hushed, to listen.

But I heard no more; yet was shaken continually with the Joy and Hope
which this calling did breed in me, for truly did it seem now that I was
right that I did determine to go unto the North; for sure was I now that
the Lesser Redoubt lay that way in the Night. And it did seem plain unto
me, that the House of Silence had put a barrier between; and had power
to withhold so weak a calling. And now had I come beyond the Barrier.
And I did perceive in my heart how that Naani had called off, maybe in
the sadness of Despair; yet had the weak crying of her brain-elements
been held from me by the horrid power of the house; and surely, as I did
think, it was well named; for it did make a silence.

And so shall you stay with me in your hearts, and take to ourselves
something of the new Gladness that held all my being; for it did seem
truly that my bitter task and adventuring should not in the end be
offered to Uselessness; and that I did