love; and they to have perceived how that I did be unto the end of hope;
and the Hounds to be almost upon me.

And in this moment, there came afresh to my hearing the shaking beat of
the Earth-Current; so that I knew the Humans to take desperate means to
save. And there came to my view a vast pack of the Hounds unto my left,
and they came running at a great pace, and their heads did be low, and
they to be so great as horses; and seen plain, and again in shadow, all
in the same moment, as they did come.

And, in verity, I knew that we two to be dead indeed ere a minute be
gone, if that the Humans not to haste. And I stood where I did be; for
there was no more use to run; and I lookt from the Hounds unto the
Mighty Pyramid, and again to the Hounds. And again I lookt with my hope
gone, unto the Pyramid; for the Hounds did be scarce two hundred fathoms
off from me; and there did be hundreds of the mighty beasts. And lo!
even as I lookt that last time unto the Pyramid, there brake out a
monstrous bursting flame, that did rush downward from the Sealed lower
part of the Mighty Pyramid. And the flame smote downward upon the Land
where the Hounds did run, and all the Night to be lost from my sight in
the brightness and strangeness of that mighty flame; so that I saw no
more the Pyramid, or aught; but only the shining and dreadful glory of
that flame. And the Flame made a blast in the Night, and a hotness that
did seem to wither me, even where I did be from it. And I perceived that
the Humans had truly turned loose the Earth-Current upon the Hounds,
that I be saved. And there went a constant great thundering over the
Land, because that the Earth-Force did rend and split the air, and did
tear up the earth. And the roaring of the Monsters did be husht and lost
in that mighty sound; and I to see no place where the Hounds did be; but
only flames and broken lands where the Earth-Force did strike; and great
rocks did be hurled all whithers, with a vast noise; and truly it did be
a mercy that I was not slain an hundred times, if this might be, by the
failings and burstings of great rocks and boulders.

And lo! in a moment the Humans did cut off the Earth-Force, and had it
again to their control. And there to seem now a great silence upon the
Land, and an utter dark; save that flames and noise came from that part
where the Current did strike. And I very speedy to come free of the
dazedness that had me, and made again to my running; fo