was far from feeling hopeful,
but he tried to encourage the girl into thinking they might get away.

However, he was unable to dissimulate. She felt his anguish for her
safety. "But I know now that you love me. I can feel it stronger than
ever before, John. It seems like a great rock to which I can always
cling, your love. It projects me from the hatred that these beasts
pour out against us."

Since they had no sense of time, they could not tell how long they
were allowed to remain unmolested. But in each other's company they
were happy, though each one was afraid for the safety of the loved
one.

They spoke of the mortal life they had lived, and their love. They
felt no need of food or water, but clung together in a dimensionless
universe, held up by love.

* * * * *

The lull came to an end, at last. There was no change in the coppery
vagueness about them which they sensed as the surrounding ether, but
all was changeless, boundless. Lambert, close to Madge Crawford, felt
that they were about to be attacked.

He had swift, temporary impressions of seeing saucerlike, unblinking
eyes, and then hordes of bizarre inhabitants started to climb up to
their perch.

For a short while, Lambert and Madge fought them off, thrusting at
them, seeming to push them backward down the intangible slope; the
cries which the dematerialized humans uttered also helped to hold the
leaders of the attacking army partially in check, but the vast number
of beings swept forward.

The thrusts of the torture-fields they emanated became more and more
racking, as the two unfortunates shuddered in horror and pain.

The power to demonstrate loud noise was evidently impossible to the
creatures, for their only sounds came to Madge Crawford and John
Lambert as long-drawn out, almost unbearable squeaks, mouse-like in
character. Perhaps they had never had the faculty of speech, since
they did not need it to communicate with one another; perhaps they
realized that the racket they could make would hurt them as much as it
did their enemies.

Lambert, Madge clinging to him, was forced backward down the slope,
and the beings had the advantage of height. He could not again reach
the eminence, but the way behind seemed to clear quickly enough,
though thrusts were made at him, innumerable times with the
torture-fields.

The hordes pushed them backward, and ever back.

* * * * *

They w