no longer afraid," he said.

"Why?" I interjected. "Why?" I was impatient to learn all that I could
before the end came.

"Because ..." He paused. "Because it holds no threat for me. Somehow,
someday, I understand--I know--that it too is seeking that for which I
wait."

"What is it doing now?" I asked.

"It has stopped beside me and we stand together, gazing across the
stark, empty plain. Now a second awful entity, with the same leashed
virulence about it, moves up and stands at my other side. We all three
wait, myself with a dark fear of this dismal universe, my unnatural
companions with patient, malicious menace.

"Bits of ..." He faltered. "Of ... I can name it only _aura_, go out
from the beasts like an acid stream, and touch me, and the hate, and the
venom chill my body like a wave of intense cold.

"Now there are others of the awful breed behind me. We stand, waiting,
waiting for that which will come. What it is I do not know."

I could see the pallor of death creeping steadily into the last corners
of his lips, and I knew that the end was not far away. Suddenly a black
frustration built up within me. "What are you waiting for?" I screamed,
the tenseness, and the importance of this moment forcing me to lose the
iron self-control upon which I have always prided myself. I knew that
the answer held the secret of what I must know. If I could learn that,
my experiment would not be in vain, and I could make whatever
preparations were necessary for my own death. I had to know that answer.

"Think! Think!" I pleaded. "What are you waiting for?"

"I do not know!" The dreary despair in his eyes, sightless as they met
mine, chilled me with a coldness that I felt in the marrow of my being.
"I do not know," he repeated. "I ... Yes, I do know!"

Abruptly the plasmatic film cleared from his eyes and I knew that for
the first time, since the poison struck, he was seeing me, clearly. I
sensed that this was the last moment before he left--for good. It had to
be now!

"Tell me. I command you," I cried. "What are you waiting for?"

His voice was quiet as he murmured, softly, implacably, before he was
gone.

"We are waiting," he said, "for _you_."

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Imagination Stories of Science and
Fantasy_ August 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Minor spelling and typog