he knew
was Madge. His ears could not hear, nor could his flesh feel, but his
whole form or cerebrum sensed he held the woman he loved in his arms.

And she was speaking to him, in accents of fear, begging him to save
her.

"John, John, you have come at last. They have been torturing me
terribly. Save me."

"Darling Madge, I will do everything I can. Now I have found you, and
we are together and will never part. Can you hear me?"

"I know what you are thinking, and what you wish to say. I can't
exactly hear; it all seems vague, and impossible. Yet I can suffer.
They have been hitting me with something which makes me shudder and
shake--there, they are at it again."

* * * * *

Lambert felt the sensations, now, which the girl had made known to
him. He felt crowded by gray beings, and his existence was troubled by
spasms of pain-impressions. He knew Madge was crying out, too.

He could not comprehend the attacks, or guess their meaning. But the
situation was unendurable.

Anger shook him, and he began to fight, furiously but vaguely. They
were closely hemmed in, but when Lambert began to strike out with
hands and legs, the beings gave way a little. The scientist tried to
shout, and though he could actually hear nothing, the result was
gratifying. The formless creatures seemed to scatter and draw back in
confusion as he yelled his defiance.

"They hate that," Madge said to him. "I have screamed myself hoarse
and that is why they have not killed me--if I can be killed."

"I do not believe we can. But they can torture us," replied Lambert.
"It is an everlasting half-life or quarter-life, and these creatures
who call this Hell's Dimension home, have nothing but hatred for us in
their consciousness."

The inhabitants of the imperfect world had closed in once again and
the sharp instruments of torture they used were being thrust into the
invisible bodies of the two humans. Each time, Lambert was unable to
restrain his cries, for it seemed that he was being torn to pieces by
vibrations.

He yelled until he could not speak above a whisper, or at least until
the impressions of speech he gave forth did not trouble the beings.
The two humans, still bound to some extent by their mortal beliefs,
were chivvied to and fro, and struck and bullied. The creatures seemed
to delight in this sport.

The two felt they could not die; yet they could suffer terribly. Would
this go on through eternit