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肩書を与える: The Metal Monster Author: Abraham Merritt * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1302381h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: May 2013 Most 最近の update: Feb 2019 This eBook was produced by Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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Argosy All Story 週刊誌, 7 August 1920, with first part of "The Metal Monster"
Famous Fantastic Mysteries, August 1941, with "The Metal Monster"
Before the narrative which follows was placed in my 手渡すs, I had never seen Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, its author.
When the manuscript 明らかにする／漏らすing his adventures の中で the pre- historic 廃虚s of the Nan-Matal in the Carolines (The Moon Pool) had been given me by the International 協会 of Science for editing and 改正 to 会合，会う the 必要物／必要条件s of a popular 贈呈, Dr. Goodwin had left America. He had explained that he was still too shaken, too depressed, to be able to 解任する experiences that must 必然的に carry with them freshened memories of those whom he loved so 井戸／弁護士席 and from whom, he felt, he was separated in all probability forever.
I had understood that he had gone to some remote part of Asia to 追求する 確かな botanical 熟考する／考慮するs, and it was therefore with the liveliest surprise and 利益／興味 that I received a 召喚するs from the 大統領 of the 協会 to 会合，会う Dr. Goodwin at a 指定するd place and hour.
Through my の近くに 熟考する／考慮する of the Moon Pool papers I had formed a mental image of their writer. I had read, too, those 容積／容量s of botanical 研究 which have 始める，決める him high above all other American scientists in this field, gleaning from their curious mingling of 極端に technical 観察s and minutely 正確な but extraordinarily poetic descriptions, hints to amplify my picture of him. It gratified me to find I had drawn a pretty good one.
The man to whom the 大統領 of the 協会 introduced me was sturdy, 井戸／弁護士席-knit, a little under 普通の／平均（する） 高さ. He had a 幅の広い but rather low forehead that reminded me somewhat of the late 電気の wizard Steinmetz. Under level 黒人／ボイコット brows shone 注目する，もくろむs of （疑いを）晴らす hazel, kindly, shrewd, a little wistful, lightly humorous; the 注目する，もくろむs both of a doer and a dreamer.
Not more than forty I 裁判官d him to be. A の近くに-trimmed, pointed 耐えるd did not hide the 会社／堅い chin and the clean-削減（する） mouth. His hair was 厚い and 黒人／ボイコット and oddly ぱらぱら雨d with white; small streaks and dots of gleaming silver that shone with a curiously metallic luster.
His 権利 arm was closely bound to his breast. His manner as he 迎える／歓迎するd me was tinged with shyness. He 延長するd his left 手渡す in 迎える／歓迎するing, and as I clasped the fingers I was struck by their peculiar, pronounced, yet pleasant warmth; a sensation, indeed, curiously electric.
The 協会's 大統領 軍隊d him gently 支援する into his 議長，司会を務める.
"Dr. Goodwin," he said, turning to me, "is not 完全に 回復するd as yet from 確かな consequences of his adventures. He will explain to you later what these are. In the 合間, Mr. Merritt, will you read this?"
I took the sheets he 手渡すd me, and as I read them felt the gaze of Dr. Goodwin 十分な upon me, searching, 重さを計るing, 見積（る）ing. When I raised my 注目する，もくろむs from the letter I 設立する in his a new 表現. The shyness was gone; they were filled with 完全にする friendliness. Evidently I had passed 召集（する）.
"You will 受託する, sir?" It was the 大統領，／社長's 厳粛に courteous トン.
"受託する!" I exclaimed. "Why, of course, I 受託する. It is not only one of the greatest 栄誉（を受ける）s, but to me one of the greatest delights to 行為／法令／行動する as a 協力者 with Dr. Goodwin."
The 大統領，／社長 smiled.
"In that 事例／患者, sir, there is no need for me to remain longer," he said. "Dr. Goodwin has with him his manuscript as far as he has 進歩d with it. I will leave you two alone for your discussion."
He 屈服するd to us and, 選ぶing up his old-fashioned bell-栄冠を与えるd silk hat and his quaint, 激しい 茎 of ebony, withdrew. Dr. Goodwin turned to me.
"I will start," he said, after a little pause, "from when I met Richard Drake on the field of blue poppies that are like a 広大な／多数の／重要な 祈り-rug at the gray feet of the nameless mountain."
The sun sank, the 影をつくる／尾行するs fell, the lights of the city sparkled out, for hours New York roared about me unheeded while I listened to the tale of that utterly weird, stupendous 演劇 of an unknown life, of unknown creatures, unknown 軍隊s, and of unconquerable human heroism played の中で the hidden gorges of unknown Asia.
It was 夜明け when I left him for my own home. Nor was it for many hours after that I laid his then incomplete manuscript 負かす／撃墜する and sought sleep —and 設立する a troubled sleep.
In this 広大な／多数の／重要な crucible of life we call the world—in the vaster one we call the universe—the mysteries 嘘（をつく） の近くに packed, uncountable as 穀物s of sand on ocean's shores. They thread gigantic, the 星／主役にする-flung spaces; they creep, 原子の, beneath the microscope's peering 注目する，もくろむ. They walk beside us, unseen and unheard, calling out to us, asking why we are deaf to their crying, blind to their wonder.
いつかs the 隠すs 減少（する） from a man's 注目する，もくろむs, and he sees—and speaks of his 見通し. Then those who have not seen pass him by with the 解除するd brows of 不信, or they mock him, or if his 見通し has been 広大な／多数の／重要な enough they 落ちる upon and destroy him.
For the greater the mystery, the more 激しく is its verity 攻撃する，非難するd; upon what seem the lesser a man may give 証言 and at least 伸び（る） for himself a 審理，公聴会.
There is 推論する／理由 for this. Life is a ferment, and upon and about it, 転換ing and changing, 追加するing to or taking away, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 over legions of 軍隊s, seen and unseen, known and unknown. And man, an 原子 in the ferment, 粘着するs 猛烈に to what to him seems stable; nor 迎える／歓迎するs with joy him who hazards that what he 支配するs may be but a broken staff, and, so 説, fails to 持つ／拘留する 前へ／外へ a sturdier one.
Earth is a ship, 骨折って進むing her way through uncharted oceans of space wherein are strange 現在のs, hidden shoals and 暗礁s, and where blow the unknown 勝利，勝つd of Cosmos.
If to the voyagers, painfully plotting their course, comes one who cries that their charts must be remade, nor can tell WHY they must be—that man is not welcome—no!
Therefore it is that men have grown chary of giving 証言 upon mysteries. Yet knowing each in his own heart the truth of that 見通し he has himself beheld, lo, it is that in whose reality he most believes.
The 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where I had 野営するd was of a singular beauty; so beautiful that it caught the throat and 始める，決める an ache within the breast—until from it a tranquillity distilled that was like 傷をいやす／和解させるing もや.
Since 早期に March I had been wandering. It was now 中央の-July. And for the first time since my 巡礼の旅 had begun I drank—not of forgetfulness, for that could never be—but of anodyne for a 悲しみ which had held 急速な／放蕩な upon me since my return from the Carolines a year before.
No need to dwell here upon that—it has been written. Nor shall I recite the 推論する／理由s for my restlessness—for these are known to those who have read that history of 地雷. Nor is there 原因（となる） to 始める，決める 前へ／外へ at length the steps by which I had arrived at this vale of peace.
十分な is to tell that in New York one night, reading over what is perhaps the most sensational of my 調書をとる／予約するs—"The Poppies and Primulas of Southern Tibet," the result of my travels of 1910-1911, I 決定するd to return to that 静かな, forbidden land. There, if anywhere, might I find something akin to forgetting.
There was a 確かな flower which I long had wished to 熟考する／考慮する in its 突然変異s from the singular forms appearing on the southern slopes of the Elbruz—Persia's 山地の chain that 延長するs from Azerbaijan in the west to Khorasan in the east; from thence I would follow its 修正するd types in the Hindu-Kush 範囲s and its 移住s along the southern scarps of the Trans- Himalayas—the unexplored 激変, higher than the Himalayas themselves, more 深く，強烈に 削減（する） with precipice and gorge, which Sven Hedin had touched and 指名するd on his 旅行 to Lhasa.
Having 遂行するd this, I planned to 押し進める across the passes to the Manasarowar Lakes, where, legend has it, the strange, luminous purple lotuses grow.
An ambitious 事業／計画（する）, undeniably fraught with danger; but it is written that desperate 病気s 要求する desperate 治療（薬）s, and until inspiration or message how to 再結合させる those whom I had loved so dearly （機の）カム to me, nothing いっそう少なく, I felt, could dull my heartache.
And, 率直に, feeling that no such inspiration or message could come, I did not much care as to the end.
In Teheran I had 選ぶd up a most unusual servant; yes, more than this, a companion and 助言者／カウンセラー and interpreter 同様に.
He was a Chinese; his 指名する Chiu-Ming. His first thirty years had been spent at the 広大な／多数の／重要な Lamasery of Palkhor-Choinde at Gyantse, west of Lhasa. Why he had gone from there, how he had come to Teheran, I never asked. It was most fortunate that he had gone, and that I had 設立する him. He recommended himself to me as the best cook within ten thousand miles of Pekin.
For almost three months we had 旅行d; Chiu-Ming and I and the two ponies that carried my impedimenta.
We had 横断するd mountain roads which had echoed to the marching feet of the hosts of Darius, to the hordes of the Satraps. The 主要道路s of the Achaemenids—yes, and which before them had trembled to the tramplings of the myriads of the godlike Dravidian 征服者／勝利者s.
We had slipped over 古代の Iranian 追跡するs; over paths which the 軍人s of 征服する／打ち勝つing Alexander had 横断するd; dust of bones of Macedons, of Greeks, of Romans, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 about us; ashes of the 炎上ing ambitions of the Sassanidae whimpered beneath our feet—the feet of an American botanist, a Chinaman, two Tibetan ponies. We had crept through clefts whose 塀で囲むs had sent 支援する the howlings of the Hephthalites, the White Huns who had sapped the strength of these same proud Sassanids until at last both fell before the Turks.
Over the 主要道路s and byways of Persia's glory, Persia's shame and Persia's death we four—two men, two beasts—had passed. For a fortnight we had met no human soul, seen no 調印する of human habitation.
Game had been plentiful—green things Chiu-Ming might 欠如（する） for his cooking, but meat never. About us was a welter of mighty 首脳会議s. We were, I knew, somewhere within the blending of the Hindu-Kush with the Trans-Himalayas.
That morning we had come out of a ragged defile into this valley of enchantment, and here, though it had been so 早期に, I had pitched my テント, 決定するing to go no さらに先に till the morrow.
It was a Phocean vale; a gigantic cup filled with tranquillity. A spirit brooded over it, serene, majestic, immutable—like the untroubled 静める which 残り／休憩（する）s, the Burmese believe, over every place which has guarded the Buddha, sleeping.
At its eastern end towered the colossal scarp of the 無名の 頂点（に達する） through one of whose gorges we had crept. On his 長，率いる was a cap of silver 始める，決める with pale emeralds—the snow fields and glaciers that 栄冠を与えるd him. Far to the west another gray and ocherous 巨大（な） 後部d its 本体，大部分／ばら積みの, の近くにing the vale. North and south, the horizon was a 大混乱／混沌とした sky-land of pinnacles, spired and minareted, steepled and turreted and ドームd, each diademed with its green and argent of eternal ice and snow.
And all the valley was carpeted with the blue poppies in wide, 無傷の fields, luminous as the morning skies of 中央の-June; they rippled mile after mile over the path we had followed, over the still untrodden path which we must take. They nodded, they leaned toward each other, they seemed to whisper —then to 解除する their 長，率いるs and look up like （人が）群がるing 群れているs of little azure rays, half impudently, wholly trustfully, into the 直面するs of the jeweled 巨大（な）s standing guard over them. And when the little 微風 walked upon them it was as though they bent beneath the soft tread and were 小衝突d by the 広範囲にわたる skirts of unseen, 急いでing Presences.
Like a 広大な 祈り-rug, sapphire and silken, the poppies stretched to the gray feet of the mountain. Between their southern 辛勝する／優位 and the clustering 首脳会議s a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of faded brown, low hills knelt—like brown-式服d, withered and 疲れた／うんざりした old men, 支援するs bent, 直面するs hidden between outstretched 武器, palms to the earth and brows touching earth within them—in the East's immemorial 態度 of worship.
I half 推定する／予想するd them to rise—and as I watched a man appeared on one of the 屈服するd, rocky shoulders, 突然の, with the ever-startling suddenness which in the strange light of these latitudes 反対するs spring into 見通し. As he stood scanning my （軍の）野営地，陣営 there arose beside him a laden pony, and at its 長，率いる a Tibetan 小作農民. The first 人物／姿／数字 waved its 手渡す; （機の）カム striding 負かす／撃墜する the hill.
As he approached I took 在庫／株 of him. A young 巨大（な）, three good インチs over six feet, a vigorous 長，率いる with unruly clustering 黒人／ボイコット hair; a clean-削減（する）, clean-shaven American 直面する.
"I'm 刑事 Drake," he said, 持つ／拘留するing out his 手渡す. "Richard Keen Drake, recently with Uncle's engineers in フラン."
"My 指名する is Goodwin." I took his 手渡す, shook it 温かく. "Dr. Walter T. Goodwin."
"Goodwin the botanist—? Then I know you!" he exclaimed. "Know all about you, that is. My father admired your work 大いに. You knew him— Professor Alvin Drake."
I nodded. So he was Alvin Drake's son. Alvin, I knew, had died about a year before I had started on this 旅行. But what was his son doing in this wilderness?
"Wondering where I （機の）カム from?" he answered my unspoken question. "Short story. War ended. Felt an irresistible 願望（する） for something different. Couldn't think of anything more different from Tibet—always 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go there anyway. Went. Decided to strike over toward Turkestan. And here I am."
I felt at once a strong liking for this young 巨大（な）. No 疑問, subconsciously, I had been feeling the need of companionship with my own 肉親，親類d. I even wondered, as I led the way into my little （軍の）野営地，陣営, whether he would care to join fortunes with me in my journeyings.
His father's work I knew 井戸／弁護士席, and although this stalwart lad was unlike what one would have 推定する／予想するd Alvin Drake—a trifle 乾燥した，日照りのd, 正確な, wholly abstracted with his 実験s—to beget, still, I 反映するd, 遺伝 like the Lord いつかs 作品 in mysterious ways its wonders to 成し遂げる.
It was almost with awe that he listened to me 教える Chiu- Ming as to just how I 手配中の，お尋ね者 supper 用意が出来ている, and his gaze dwelt 情愛深く upon the Chinese busy の中で his マリファナs and pans.
We talked a little, desultorily, as the meal was 用意が出来ている— fragments of 旅行者's news and gossip, as is the habit of journeyers who come upon each other in the silent places. Ever the 憶測 grew in his 直面する as he made away with Chiu-Ming's artful concoctions.
Drake sighed, 製図／抽選 out his 麻薬を吸う.
"A cook, a marvel of a cook. Where did you get him?"
簡潔に I told him.
Then a silence fell upon us. Suddenly the sun dipped 負かす／撃墜する behind the 側面に位置する of the 石／投石する 巨大（な） guarding the valley's western gate; the whole vale 速く darkened—a flood of 水晶- （疑いを）晴らす 影をつくる／尾行するs 注ぐd within it. It was the 序幕 to that 奇蹟 of unearthly beauty seen nowhere else on this earth—the sunset of Tibet.
We turned expectant 注目する，もくろむs to the west. A little, 冷静な／正味の 微風 raced 負かす／撃墜する from the watching 法外なs like a messenger, whispered to the nodding poppies, sighed and was gone. The poppies were still. High 総計費 a homing 道具 whistled, mellowly.
As if it were a signal there sprang out in the pale azure of the western sky 列／漕ぐ／騒動 upon 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of cirrus cloudlets, 階級 upon 階級 of them, thrusting their 長，率いるs into the path of the setting sun. They changed from mottled silver into faint rose, 深くするd to crimson.
"The dragons of the sky drink the 血 of the sunset," said Chiu-Ming.
As though a gigantic globe of 水晶 had dropped upon the heavens, their blue turned 速く to a （疑いを）晴らす and glowing amber—then as 突然の 転換d to a luminous violet A soft green light pulsed through the valley.
Under it, like hills ensorcelled, the rocky 塀で囲むs about it seemed to flatten. They glowed and all at once 圧力（をかける）d 今後 like gigantic slices of palest emerald jade, translucent, illumined, as though by a circlet of little suns 向こうずねing behind them.
The light faded, 式服s of deepest amethyst dropped around the mountain's mighty shoulders. And then from every snow-and glacier-栄冠を与えるd 頂点（に達する）, from minaret and pinnacle and 非常に高い turret, leaped 前へ／外へ a 混乱 of soft peacock 炎上s, a host of irised prismatic gleamings, an ordered 大混乱 of rainbows.
広大な／多数の／重要な and small, interlacing and 転換ing, they （犯罪の）一味d the valley with an incredible glory—as if some god of light itself had touched the eternal 激しく揺するs and bidden radiant souls stand 前へ／外へ.
Through the darkening sky swept a rosy pencil of living light; that utterly strange, pure beam whose coming never fails to clutch the throat of the beholder with the 手渡す of ecstasy, the ray which the Tibetans 指名する the Ting-Pa. For a moment this rosy finger pointed to the east, then arched itself, divided slowly into six 向こうずねing, rosy 禁止（する）d; began to creep downward toward the eastern horizon where a nebulous, pulsing splendor arose to 会合，会う it.
And as we watched I heard a gasp from Drake. And it was echoed by my own.
For the six beams were swaying, moving with ever swifter 動議 from 味方する to 味方する in ever-広げるing sweep, as though the hidden orb from which they sprang were swaying like a pendulum.
Faster and faster the six high-flung beams swayed—and then broke —broke as though a gigantic, unseen 手渡す had reached up and snapped them!
An instant the 厳しいd ends 略章d aimlessly, then bent, turned 負かす／撃墜する and darted earthward into the welter of clustered 首脳会議s at the north and 速く were gone, while 負かす／撃墜する upon the valley fell night.
"Good God!" whispered Drake. "It was as though something reached up, broke those rays and drew them 負かす／撃墜する—like threads."
"I saw it." I struggled with bewilderment. "I saw it. But I never saw anything like it before," I ended, most inadequately.
"It was PURPOSEFUL," he whispered. "It was DELIBERATE. As though something reached up, juggled with the rays, broke them, and drew them 負かす／撃墜する like willow withes."
"The devils that dwell here!" quavered Chiu-Ming.
"Some 磁石の 現象." I was half angry at myself for my own touch of panic. "Light can be deflected by passage through a 磁石の field. Of course that's it. Certainly."
"I don't know." Drake's トン was doubtful indeed. "It would take a 鯨 of a 磁石の field to have done THAT—it's 信じられない." He harked 支援する to his first idea. "It was so—so DAMNED 審議する／熟考する," he repeated.
"Devils—" muttered the 脅すd Chinese.
"What's that?" Drake gripped my arm and pointed to the north. A deeper blackness had grown there while we had been talking, a pool of 不明瞭 against which the mountain 首脳会議s stood out, blade-sharp 辛勝する／優位s faintly luminous.
A gigantic lance of misty green 解雇する／砲火／射撃 darted from the blackness and thrust its point into the heart of the zenith; に引き続いて it, leaped into the sky a host of the sparkling spears of light, and now the blackness was like an ebon 手渡す, brandishing a thousand javelins of tinseled 炎上.
"The aurora," I said.
"It せねばならない be a good one," mused Drake, gaze 意図 upon it. "Did you notice the big sun 位置／汚点／見つけ出す?"
I shook my 長，率いる.
"The biggest I ever saw. Noticed it first at 夜明け this morning. Some little aurora はしけ—that 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. I told you—look at that!" he cried.
The green lances had fallen 支援する. The blackness gathered itself together —then from it began to pulse 大波s of radiance, spangled with infinite darting 群れているs of flashing 血球s like uncounted hosts of dancing fireflies.
Higher the waves rolled—phosphorescent green and iridescent violet, weird cupreous yellows and metallic saffrons and a shimmer of glittering ash of rose—then wavered, 分裂（する） and formed into gigantic, sparkling, marching curtains of splendor.
A 広大な circle of light sprang out upon the 倍のs of the flickering, 急ぐing curtains. Misty at first, its 辛勝する／優位s sharpened until they 残り／休憩（する）d upon the 炎ing glory of the northern sky like a pale （犯罪の）一味 of 冷淡な 炎上. And about it the aurora began to churn, to heap itself, to 回転する.
Toward the （犯罪の）一味 from every 味方する raced the majestic 倍のs, drew themselves together, circled, seethed around it like 泡，激怒すること of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 about the lip of a cauldron, and 注ぐd through the 向こうずねing circle as though it were the mouth of that fabled cavern where old Aeolus sits blowing 前へ／外へ and breathing 支援する the 勝利，勝つd that sweep the earth.
Yes—into the （犯罪の）一味's mouth the aurora flew, cascading in a columned stream to earth. Then 速く, a もや swept over all the heavens, 隠すd that incredible cataract.
"Magnetism?" muttered Drake. "I guess NOT!"
"It struck about where the Ting-Pa was broken and seemed drawn 負かす／撃墜する like the rays," I said.
"Purposeful," Drake said. "And devilish. It 攻撃する，衝突する on all my 神経s like a —like a metal claw. Purposeful and 審議する／熟考する. There was 知能 behind that."
"知能? Drake—what 知能 could break the rays of the setting sun and suck 負かす／撃墜する the aurora?"
"I don't know," he answered.
"Devils," croaked Chiu-Ming. "The devils that 反抗するd Buddha—and have grown strong—"
"Like a metal claw!" breathed Drake.
Far to the west a sound （機の）カム to us; first a whisper, then a wild 急ぐing, a 長引かせるd wailing, a crackling. A 広大な／多数の／重要な light flashed through the もや, glowed about us and faded. Again the wailing, the 広大な 急ぐing, the 退却／保養地ing whisper.
Then silence and 不明瞭 dropped embraced upon the valley of the blue poppies.
夜明け （機の）カム. Drake had slept 井戸／弁護士席. But I, who had not his youthful resiliency, lay for long, awake and uneasy. I had hardly sunk into troubled slumber before 夜明け awakened me.
As we breakfasted, I approached 直接／まっすぐに that 事柄 which my growing liking for him was turning into strong 願望（する）.
"Drake," I asked. "Where are you going?"
"With you," he laughed. "I'm foot loose and fancy 解放する／自由な. And I think you せねばならない have somebody with you to help watch that cook. He might get away."
The idea seemed to appall him.
"罰金!" I exclaimed heartily, and thrust out my 手渡す to him. "I'm thinking of striking over the 範囲 soon to the Manasarowar Lakes. There's a curious flora I'd like to 熟考する／考慮する."
"Anywhere you say 控訴s me," he answered.
We clasped 手渡すs on our 共同 and soon we were on our way to the valley's western gate; our 部隊d caravans stringing along behind us. Mile after mile we trudged through the blue poppies, discussing the enigmas of the twilight and of the night.
In the light of day their breath of vague terror was dissipated. There was no place for mystery nor dread under this 床に打ち倒す of brilliant 日光. The smiling sapphire 床に打ち倒す rolled ever on before us.
Whispering little playful 微風s flew 負かす／撃墜する the slopes to gossip for a moment with the nodding flowers. Flocks of rose finches raced chattering 総計費 to quarrel with the tiny willow warblers, the chi-u-teb-tok, 持つ／拘留するing fief of the drooping, graceful bowers bending 負かす／撃墜する to the little laughing stream that for the past hour had chuckled and gurgled like a friendly water baby beside us.
I had proven, almost to my own satisfaction, that what we had beheld had been a 創造 of the 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の atmospheric せいにするs of these highlands, an atmosphere so unique as to make almost anything of the 肉親，親類d possible. But Drake was not 納得させるd.
"I know," he said. "Of course I understand all that—superimposed 層s of warmer 空気／公表する that might have bent the ray; vortices in the higher levels that might have produced just that 影響 of the 逮捕（する）d aurora. I 収容する／認める it's all possible. I'll even 収容する／認める it's all probable, but damn me, Doc, if I BELIEVE it! I had too 明確に the feeling of a CONSCIOUS 軍隊, a something that KNEW 正確に／まさに what it was doing—and had a REASON for it."
It was 中央の-afternoon.
The （一定の）期間 of the valley upon us, we had gone leisurely. The western 開始する was の近くに, the mouth of the gorge through which we must pass, now plain before us. It did not seem as though we could reach it before dusk, and Drake and I were reconciled to spending another night in the 平和的な vale. Plodding along, 深い in thought, I was startled by his exclamation.
He was 星／主役にするing at a point some hundred yards to his 権利. I followed his gaze.
The 非常に高い cliffs were a scant half mile away. At some distant time there had been an enormous 落ちる of 激しく揺する. This, 崩壊するing, had formed a gently-curving breast which sloped 負かす／撃墜する to 合併する with the valley's 床に打ち倒す. Willow and witch alder, stunted birch and poplar had 設立する roothold, 着せる／賦与するd it, until only their （人が）群がるing outposts, thrusting 今後 in a wavering semicircle, held 支援する seemingly by the blue hordes, showed where it melted into the meadows.
In the 中心 of this breast, beginning half way up its slopes and stretching 負かす／撃墜する into the flowered fields was a colossal imprint.
Gray and brown, it stood out against the green and blue of slope and level; a rectangle all of thirty feet wide, two hundred long, the heel faintly curved and from its hither end, like claws, four slender triangles radiating from it like twenty-four points of a ten-rayed 星／主役にする.
Irresistibly was it like a 足跡—but what thing was there whose tread could leave such a print as this?
I ran up the slope—Drake already 井戸／弁護士席 in 前進する. I paused at the base of the triangles where, were this thing indeed a 足跡, the spreading claws sprang from the flat of it.
The 跡をつける was fresh. At its upper 辛勝する／優位s were clipped bushes and 分裂（する） trees, the white 支持を得ようと努めるd of the latter showing where they had been sliced as though by the 一打／打撃 of a scimitar.
I stepped out upon the 示す. It was as level as though 計画（する）d; bent 負かす／撃墜する and 星／主役にするd in utter 不信 of what my own 注目する，もくろむs beheld. For 石／投石する and earth had been 鎮圧するd, compressed, into a smooth, microscopically 穀物d, adamantine コンビナート／複合体, and in this matrix poppies still 耐えるing traces of their coloring were embedded like 化石s. A サイクロン can and does 支配する straws and thrust them 無傷の through an インチ board—but what 軍隊 was there which could take the delicate petals of a flower and 始める，決める them like inlay within the surface of a 石／投石する?
Into my mind （機の）カム recollection of the wailings, the crashings in the night, of the weird glow that had flashed about us when the もや arose to hide the chained aurora.
"It was what we heard," I said. "The sounds—it was then that this was made."
"The foot of 向こうずね-je!" Chiu-Ming's 発言する／表明する was tremulous. "The lord of Hell has trodden here!"
I translated for Drake's 利益.
"Has the lord of Hell but one foot?" asked 刑事, politely.
"He bestrides the mountains," said Chiu-Ming. "On the far 味方する is his other 足跡. 向こうずね-je it was who strode the mountains and 始める，決める here his foot."
Again I 解釈する／通訳するd.
Drake cast a calculating ちらりと見ること up to the cliff 最高の，を越す.
"Two thousand feet, about," he mused. "井戸／弁護士席, if 向こうずね-je is built in our 割合s that makes it about 権利. The length of this thing would give him just about a two thousand foot 脚. Yes—he could just about またがる that hill."
"You're surely not serious?" I asked in びっくり仰天.
"What the hell!" he exclaimed, "am I crazy? This is no foot 示す. How could it be? Look at the mathematical nicety with which these 辛勝する／優位s are stamped out—as though by a die—
"That's what it reminds me of—a die. It's as if some impossible 力／強力にする had been used to 圧力（をかける） it 負かす／撃墜する. Like—like a 巨大（な） 調印（する） of metal in a mountain's 手渡す. A sigil—a 調印（する）—"
"But why?" I asked. "What could be the 目的—"
"Better ask where the devil such a 軍隊 could be gotten together and how it （機の）カム here," he said. "Look—except for this one place there isn't a 示す anywhere. All the bushes and the trees, all the poppies and the grass are just as they ought to be.
"How did whoever or whatever it was that made this, get here and get away without leaving any trace but this? Damned if I don't think Chiu-Ming's explanation puts いっそう少なく 緊張する upon the credulity than any I could 申し込む／申し出."
I peered about. It was so. Except for the 示す, there was no slightest 調印する of the unusual, the 異常な.
But the 示す was enough!
"I'm for 押し進めるing up a notch or two and getting into the gorge before dark," he was 発言する／表明するing my own thought. "I'm willing to 直面する anything human —but I'm not keen to be 圧力（をかける）d into a 激しく揺する like a flower in a maiden's 調書をとる／予約する of poems." Just at twilight we drew out of the valley into the pass. We traveled a 十分な mile along it before 不明瞭 軍隊d us to make （軍の）野営地，陣営. The gorge was 狭くする. The far 塀で囲むs but a hundred feet away; but we had no quarrel with them for their neighborliness, no! Their solidity, their immutability, breathed 信用／信任 支援する into us.
And after we had 設立する a 深い niche 有能な of 持つ／拘留するing the entire caravan we とじ込み／提出するd within, ponies and all, I for one perfectly willing thus to spend the night, let the 空気／公表する at 夜明け be what it would. We dined within on bread and tea, and then, tired to the bone, sought each his place upon the rocky 床に打ち倒す. I slept 井戸／弁護士席, waking only once or twice by Chiu-Ming's groanings; his dreams evidently were 非，不，無 of the pleasantest. If there was an aurora I neither knew nor cared. My slumber was dreamless.
The 夜明け, streaming into the niche, awakened us. A covey of partridges 投機・賭けるing too の近くに 産する／生じるd three to our guns. We breakfasted 井戸／弁護士席, and a little later were 押し進めるing on 負かす／撃墜する the cleft.
Its 降下／家系, though 漸進的な, was continuous, and therefore I was not surprised when soon we began to come upon 証拠s of 半分-熱帯の vegetation. 巨大（な） rhododendrons and tree ferns gave way to 時折の clumps of stately kopek and clumps of the hardier bamboos. We 追加するd a few snow cocks to our larder—although they were out of their habitat, 飛行機で行くing 負かす／撃墜する into the gorge from their 頂点（に達する）s and tablelands for some choice tidbit.
All that day we marched on, and when at night we made （軍の）野営地，陣営, sleep （機の）カム to us quickly and overmastering. An hour after 夜明け we were on our way. A 簡潔な／要約する stop we made for lunch; 圧力（をかける）d 今後.
It was の近くに to two when we caught the first sight of the 廃虚s.
The 急に上がるing, verdure-覆う？ 塀で囲むs of the canyon had long been 刻々と marching closer. Above, between their 縁s the wide 略章 of sky was like a fantastically-shored river, shimmering, dazzling; every cove and headland 辛勝する／優位d with an opalescent 微光ing as of 向こうずねing pearly beaches.
And as though we were 沈むing in that sky-stream's depths its light kept 少なくなるing, darkening imperceptibly with luminous 影をつくる／尾行するs of ghostly beryl, drifting 隠すs of pellucid aquamarine, limpid もやs of glaucous chrysolite.
Fainter, more crepuscular became the light, yet never losing its crystalline 質. Now the high 総計費 river was but a brook; became a thread. 突然の it 消えるd.
We passed into a tunnel, fern-塀で囲むd, fern-roofed, garlanded with tawny orchids, gay with carmine fungus and golden moss. We stepped out into a 炎 of sunlight.
Before us lay a wide green bowl held in the 手渡すs of the clustered hills; shallow, circular, as though, while plastic still, the thumb of God had run 一連の会議、交渉／完成する its 縁, 形態／調整ing it. Around it the 頂点（に達する）s （人が）群がるd, craning their lofty 長，率いるs to peer within.
It was about a mile in its 直径, this hollow, as my gaze then 手段d it. It had three 開始s—one that lay like a 割れ目 in the northeast slope; another, the tunnel mouth through which we had come. The third 解除するd itself out of the bowl, creeping up the precipitous 明らかにする scarp of the western 障壁 straight to the north, 粘着するing to the ocherous 激しく揺する up and up until it 消えるd around a far distant shoulder.
It was a wide and 防御壁／支持者d road, a road that spoke as 明確に as though it had tongue of human 手渡すs which had 削減（する） it there in the mountain's breast. An 古代の road 疲れた／うんざりした beyond belief beneath the tread of uncounted years.
From the hollow the blind soul of loneliness groped out to 迎える／歓迎する us!
Never had I felt such loneliness as that which lapped the lip of the verdant bowl. It was 有形の—as though it had been 注ぐd from some 貯蔵所 of 悲惨. A pool of despair—
Half the width of the valley away the 廃虚s began. Weirdly were they its 明白な 表現. They 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd in two bent 列／漕ぐ／騒動s to the 底（に届く）. They crouched in a wide cluster against the cliffs. From the cluster a curving 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of them ran along the southern crest of the hollow.
A flight of 粉々にするd, cyclopean steps 解除するd to a ledge and here a 崩壊するing 要塞 stood.
Irresistibly did the 廃虚s seem a colossal hag, flung 傾向がある, lying listlessly, helplessly, against the 障壁's base. The 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd lower 階級s were the 脚s, the cluster the 団体／死体, the upper 列／漕ぐ／騒動 an outflung arm and above the neck of the stairway the 古代の 要塞, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd and with two 抱擁する ragged apertures in its northern 前線 was an 老年の, bleached and withered 長，率いる 星／主役にするing, watching.
I looked at Drake—the （一定の）期間 of the bowl was 激しい upon him, his 直面する drawn. The Chinaman and Tibetan were murmuring, terror written large upon them.
"A hell of a 共同の!" Drake turned to me, a 影をつくる／尾行する of a grin lightening the 苦しめる on his 直面する. "But I'd rather chance it than go 支援する. What d'you say?"
I nodded, curiosity mastering my 圧迫. We stepped over the 縁, ライフル銃／探して盗むs on the 警報. の近くに behind us （人が）群がるd the two servants and the ponies.
The vale was shallow, as I have said. We trod the fragments of an olden approach to the green tunnel so the 降下／家系 was not difficult. Here and there beside the path upreared 抱擁する broken 封鎖するs. On them I thought I could see faint tracings as of carvings—now a suggestion of gaping, arrow-fanged dragon jaws, now the 輪郭（を描く） of a 規模d 団体／死体, a hint of enormous, batlike wings.
Now we had reached the first of the 崩壊するing piles that stretched 負かす／撃墜する into the valley's 中心.
Half fainting, I fell against Drake, clutching to him for support.
A stream of utter hopelessness was racing upon us, 渦巻くing and eddying around us, reaching to our hearts with ghostly fingers dripping with despair. From every 粉々にするd heap it seemed to 注ぐ, 急ぐing 負かす／撃墜する the road upon us like a 激流, （海，煙などが）飲み込むing us, 潜水するing, 溺死するing.
Unseen it was—yet 有形の as water; it sapped the life from every 神経. Weariness filled me, a 願望（する） to 減少（する） upon the 石／投石するs, to be rolled away. To die. I felt Drake's 団体／死体 quivering even as 地雷; knew that he was 製図／抽選 upon every reserve of strength.
"安定した," he muttered. "安定した—"
The Tibetan shrieked and fled, the ponies 緊急発進するing after him. Dimly I remembered that 地雷 carried precious 見本／標本s; a 殺到する of 怒り／怒る passed, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 支援する the anguish. I heard a sob from Chiu-Ming, saw him 減少（する）.
Drake stopped, drew him to his feet. We placed him between us, thrust each an arm through his own. Then, like swimmers, 長，率いるs bent, we 押し進めるd on, buffeting that inexplicable invisible flood.
As the path rose, its 軍隊 少なくなるd, my vitality grew, and the terrible 願望（する） to 産する／生じる and be swept away 病弱なd. Now we had reached the foot of the cyclopean stairs, now we were half up them—and now as we struggled out upon the ledge on which the watching 要塞 stood, the clutching stream shoaled 速く, the shoal became 安全な, 乾燥した，日照りの land and the cheated, unseen maelstrom 渦巻くd harmlessly beneath us.
We stood 築く, gasping for breath, again like swimmers who have fought their 最大の and barely, so barely, won.
There was an almost imperceptible movement at the 味方する of the 廃虚d portal.
Out darted a girl. A ライフル銃／探して盗む dropped from her 手渡すs. Straight she sped toward me.
And as she ran I 認めるd her.
Ruth Ventnor!
The 飛行機で行くing 人物／姿／数字 reached me, threw soft 武器 around my neck, was weeping in relieved gladness on my shoulder.
"Ruth!" I cried. "What on earth are YOU doing here?"
"Walter!" she sobbed. "Walter Goodwin—Oh, thank God! Thank God!"
She drew herself from my 武器, catching her breath; laughed shakily.
I took swift 在庫／株 of her. Save for 恐れる upon her, she was the same Ruth I had known three years before; wide, 深い blue 注目する，もくろむs that were now all 真面目さ, now sparkling 井戸／弁護士席s of mischief; petite, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd and tender; the fairest 肌; an impudent little nose; 向こうずねing clusters of intractable curls; all human, sparkling and 甘い.
Drake coughed, insinuatingly. I introduced him.
"I—I watched you struggling through that dreadful 炭坑，オーケストラ席." She shuddered. "I could not see who you were, did not know whether friend or enemy—but oh, my heart almost died in pity for you, Walter," she breathed. "What can it be—THERE?"
I shook my 長，率いる.
"ツバメ could not see you," she went on. "He was watching the road that leads above. But I ran 負かす／撃墜する—to help."
"市場 watching?" I asked. "Watching for what?"
"I—" she hesitated oddly. "I think I'd rather tell you before him. It's so strange—so incredible."
She led us through the broken portal and into the 要塞. It was more gigantic even than I had thought. The 床に打ち倒す of the 広大な 議会 we had entered was strewn with fragments fallen from the crackling, 石／投石する-丸天井d 天井. Through the breaks light streamed from the level above us.
We 選ぶd our way の中で the 破片 to a wide 崩壊するing stairway, crept up it, Ruth flitting ahead. We （機の）カム out opposite one of the 注目する，もくろむ-like apertures. 黒人／ボイコット against it, perched high upon a pile of 封鎖するs, I 認めるd the long, lean 輪郭（を描く） of Ventnor, ライフル銃／探して盗む in 手渡す, gazing intently up the 古代の road whose windings were plain through the 開始. He had not heard us.
"ツバメ," called Ruth softly.
He turned. A 軸 of light from a crevice in the gap's 辛勝する／優位 struck his 直面する, flashing it out from the semidarkness of the corner in which he crouched. I looked into the 静かな gray 注目する，もくろむs, upon the keen 直面する.
"Goodwin!" he shouted, 宙返り／暴落するing 負かす／撃墜する from his perch, shaking me by the shoulders. "If I had been in the way of praying—you're the man I'd have prayed for. How did you get here?"
"Just wandering, 市場," I answered. "But Lord! I'm sure GLAD to see you."
"Which way did you come?" he asked, 熱心に. I threw my 手渡す toward the south.
"Not through that hollow?" he asked incredulously.
"And some hell of a place to get through," Drake broke in. "It cost us our ponies and all my 弾薬／武器."
"Richard Drake," I said. "Son of old Alvin—you knew him, 市場."
"Knew him 井戸／弁護士席," cried Ventnor, 掴むing 刑事's 手渡す. "手配中の，お尋ね者 me to go to Kamchatka to get some confounded sort of stuff for one of his devilish 実験s. Is he 井戸／弁護士席?"
"He's dead," replied 刑事 soberly.
"Oh!" said Ventnor. "Oh—I'm sorry. He was a 広大な／多数の／重要な man."
簡潔に I 熟知させるd him with my wanderings, my 遭遇（する） with Drake.
"That place out there—" he considered us thoughtfully. "Damned if I know what it is. Thought maybe it's gas—of a sort. If it hadn't been for it we'd have been out of this 穴を開ける two days ago. I'm pretty sure it must be gas. And it must be much いっそう少なく than it was this morning, for then we made an 試みる／企てる to get through again—and couldn't."
I was hardly listening. Ventnor had certainly 前進するd a theory of our unusual symptoms that had not occurred to me. That hollow might indeed be a pocket into which a gas flowed; just as in the 地雷s the deadly coal damp collects in 炭坑，オーケストラ席s, flows like a stream along the passages. It might be that —some odorless, colorless gas of unknown 質s; and yet—
"Did you try 呼吸器械s?" asked 刑事.
"Surely," said Ventnor. "First off the go. But they weren't of any use. The gas, if it is gas, seems to operate 同様に through the 肌 as through the nose and mouth. We just couldn't make it—and that's all there is to it. But if you made it—could we try it now, do you think?" he asked 熱望して.
I felt myself go white.
"Not—not for a little while," I stammered.
He nodded, understandingly.
"I see," he said. "井戸／弁護士席, we'll wait a bit, then."
"But why are you staying here? Why didn't you make for the road up the mountain? What are you watching for, anyway?" asked Drake.
"Go to it, Ruth," Ventnor grinned. "Tell 'em. After all—it was YOUR party you know."
"市場!" she cried, blushing.
"井戸／弁護士席—it wasn't ME they admired," he laughed.
"ツバメ!" she cried again, and stamped her foot.
"Shoot," he said. "I'm busy. I've got to watch."
"井戸／弁護士席"—Ruth's 発言する／表明する was uncertain—"we'd been 追跡（する）ing up in Kashmir. ツバメ 手配中の，お尋ね者 to come over somewhere here. So we crossed the passes. That was about a month ago. The fourth day out we ran across what looked like a road running south.
"We thought we'd take it. It looked sort of old and lost—but it was going the way we 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go. It took us first into a country of little hills; then to the very base of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 範囲 itself; finally into the mountains—and then it ran blank."
"Bing!" interjected Ventnor, looking around for a moment. "Bing— just like that. 非難する dash against a prodigious 落ちる of 激しく揺する. We couldn't get over it."
"So we cast about to find another road," went on Ruth. "All we could strike were—just strikes."
"No fish on the end of 'em," said Ventnor. "God! But I'm glad to see you, Walter Goodwin. Believe me, I am. However—go on, Ruth."
"At the end of the second week," she said, "we knew we were lost. We were 深い in the heart of the 範囲. All around us was a forest of enormous, snow-topped 頂点（に達する）s. The gorges, the canyons, the valleys that we tried led us east and west, north and south.
"It was a maze, and in it we seemed to be going ever deeper. There was not the SLIGHTEST 調印する of human life. It was as though no human 存在s except ourselves had ever been there. Game was plentiful. We had no trouble in getting food. And sooner or later, of course, we were bound to find our way out. We didn't worry.
"It was five nights ago that we （軍の）野営地，陣営d at the 長，率いる of a lovely little valley. There was a 塚 that stood up like a tiny watch- tower, looking 負かす／撃墜する it. The trees grew 一連の会議、交渉／完成する like tall sentinels.
"We built our 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in that 塚; and after we had eaten, ツバメ slept. I sat watching the beauty of the skies and of the shadowy vale. I heard no one approach—but something made me leap to my feet, look behind me.
"A man was standing just within the glow of firelight, watching me."
"A Tibetan?" I asked. She shook her 長，率いる, trouble in her 注目する，もくろむs.
"Not at all." Ventnor turned his 長，率いる. "Ruth 叫び声をあげるd and awakened me. I caught a glimpse of the fellow before he 消えるd.
"A short purple mantle hung from his shoulders. His chest was covered with 罰金 chain mail. His 脚s were 列d and bound by the thongs of his high buskins. He carried a small, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, hide- covered 保護物，者 and a short two-辛勝する／優位d sword. His 長，率いる was helmeted. He belonged, in fact—oh, at least twenty centuries 支援する."
He laughed in plain enjoyment of our amazement.
"Go on, Ruth," he said, and took up his watch.
"But ツバメ did not see his 直面する," she went on. "And oh, but I wish I could forget it. It was as white as 地雷, Walter, and cruel, so cruel; the 注目する，もくろむs glowed and they looked upon me like a—like a slave 売買業者. They shamed me—I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to hide myself.
"I cried out and ツバメ awakened. As he moved, the man stepped out of the light and was gone. I think he had not seen ツバメ; had believed that I was alone.
"We put out the 解雇する／砲火／射撃, moved さらに先に into the 影をつくる／尾行する of the trees. But I could not sleep—I sat hour after hour, my ピストル in my 手渡す," she patted the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in her belt, "my ライフル銃／探して盗む の近くに beside me.
"The hours went by—dreadfully. At last I dozed. When I awakened again it was 夜明け—and—and—" she covered her 注目する，もくろむs, then: "TWO men were looking 負かす／撃墜する on me. One was he who had stood in the firelight."
"They were talking," interrupted Ventnor again, "in archaic Persian."
"Persian," I repeated blankly; "archaic Persian?"
"Very much so," he nodded. "I've a fair knowledge of the modern tongue, and a rather unusual 命令（する） of Arabic. The modern Persian, as you know, comes straight through from the speech of Xerxes, of Cyrus, of Darius whom Alexander of Macedon 征服する／打ち勝つd. It has been changed おもに by taking on a 負担 of Arabic words. 井戸／弁護士席—there wasn't a trace of the Arabic in the tongue they were speaking.
"It sounded 半端物, of course—but I could understand やめる easily. They were talking about Ruth. To be explicit, they were discussing her with 越えるing frankness—"
"ツバメ!" she cried wrathfully.
"井戸／弁護士席, all 権利," he went on, half repentantly. "As a 事柄 of fact, I had seen the pair steal up. My ライフル銃／探して盗む was under my 手渡す. So I lay there 静かに, listening.
"You can realize, Walter, that when I caught sight of those two, looking as though they had materialized from Darius's ghostly hordes, my 科学の curiosity was 誘発するd—prodigiously. So in my 利益／興味 I passed over the 事柄 of their speech; not alone because I thought Ruth asleep but also because I took into consideration that the 方式 of polite 表現 changes with the centuries—and these gentlemen 明確に belonged at least twenty centuries 支援する—the real truth is I was 消費するd with curiosity.
"They had got to a point where they were 詳細（に述べる）ing with what 楽しみ a 確かな mysterious person whom they seemed to regard with much 恐れる and 尊敬（する）・点 would 熟視する／熟考する her. I was wondering how long my 願望（する） to 観察する —for to the anthropologist they were most fascinating—could 持つ／拘留する my 手渡す 支援する from my ライフル銃／探して盗む when Ruth awakened.
"She jumped up like a little fury. 解雇する／砲火／射撃d a ピストル point blank at them. Their amazement was—井戸／弁護士席—ludicrous. I know it seems incredible, but they seemed to know nothing of 小火器—they certainly 行為／法令／行動するd as though they didn't.
"They 簡単に flew into the 木材／素質. I took a ピストル 発射 at one but 行方不明になるd. Ruth hadn't though; she had winged her man; he left a red 追跡する behind him.
"We didn't follow the 追跡する. We made for the opposite direction— and as 急速な／放蕩な as possible.
"Nothing happened that day or night. Next morning, creeping up a slope, we caught sight of a 怪しげな glitter a mile or two away in the direction we were going. We sought 避難所 in a small ravine. In a little while, over the hill and half a mile away from us, （機の）カム about two hundred of these fellows, marching along.
"And they were indeed Darius's men. Men of that Persia which had been dead for millenniums. There was no mistaking them, with their high, covering 保護物，者s, their 広大な／多数の／重要な 屈服するs, their javelins and armor.
"They passed; we 二塁打d. We built no 解雇する／砲火／射撃s that night—and we せねばならない have turned the pony loose, but we didn't. It carried my 器具s, and 弾薬／武器, and I felt we were going to need the latter.
"The next morning we caught sight of another 禁止（する）d—or the same. We turned again. We stole through a tree-covered plain; we struck an 古代の road. It led south, into the 頂点（に達する）s again. We followed it. It brought us here.
"It isn't, as you 観察する, the most comfortable of places. We struck across the hollow to the crevice—we knew nothing of the 入り口 you （機の）カム through. The hollow was not pleasant, either. But it was penetrable, then.
"We crossed. As we were about to enter the cleft there 問題／発行するd out of it a most unusual and disconcerting chorus of sounds—wailings, crashings, splinterings."
I started, 発射 a look at 刑事; 吸収するd, he was drinking in Ventnor's every word.
"So unusual, so—井戸／弁護士席, disconcerting is the best word I can think of, that we were not encouraged to proceed. Also the peculiar unpleasantness of the hollow was 増加するing 速く.
"We made the best time we could 支援する to the 要塞. And when next we tried to go through the hollow, to search for another 出口—we couldn't. You know why," he ended 突然の.
"But men in 古代の armor. Men like those of Darius." 刑事 broke the silence that had followed this amazing recital. "It's incredible!"
"Yes," agreed Ventnor, "isn't it. But there they were. Of course, I don't 持続する that they WERE 遺物s of Darius's armies. They might have been of Xerxes before him—or of Artaxerxes after him. But there they certainly were, Drake, living, breathing replicas of exceedingly 古代の Persians.
"Why, they might have been the 塀で囲む carvings on the tomb of Khosroes come to life. I について言及する Darius because he fits in with the most plausible hypothesis. When Alexander the 広大な／多数の／重要な 粉砕するd his empire he did it rather 完全に. There wasn't much sympathy for the vanquished in those days. And it's 完全に 考えられる that a city or two in Alexander's way might have gathered up a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing 連隊 or so for 保護 and have decided not to wait for him, but to 追跡（する） for cover.
"自然に, they would have gone into the almost inaccessible heart of the high 範囲s. There is nothing impossible in the theory that they 設立する 避難所 at last up here. As long as history runs this has been a 井戸／弁護士席-nigh unknown land. 侵入するing some mountain-guarded, easily defended valley they might have decided to settle 負かす／撃墜する for a time, have rebuilt a city, raised a 政府; laying low, in a 宣告，判決, waiting for the 嵐／襲撃する to blow over.
"Why did they stay? 井戸／弁護士席, they might have 設立する the new life more pleasant than the old. And they might have been locked in their valley by some 事故—地滑りs, rockfalls 調印（する）ing up the 入り口. There are a dozen reasonable 可能性s."
"But those who 追跡（する）d you weren't locked in," 反対するd Drake.
"No," Ventnor grinned ruefully. "No, they certainly weren't. Maybe we drifted into their 保存するs by a way they don't know. Maybe they've 設立する another way out. I'm sure I don't know. But I DO know what I saw."
"The noises, ツバメ," I said, for his description of these had been the description of those we had heard in the blue valley. "Have you heard them since?"
"Yes," he answered, hesitating oddly.
"And you think those—those 兵士s you saw are still 追跡（する）ing for you?"
"港／避難所't a 疑問 of it," he replied more cheerfully. "They didn't look like chaps who would give up a 追跡（する） easily—at least not a 追跡（する） for such novel, 利益／興味ing, and therefore 望ましい and delectable game as we must have appeared to them."
"ツバメ," I said decisively, "where's your pony? We'll try the hollow again, at once. There's Ruth—and we'd never be able to 持つ／拘留する 支援する such numbers as you've 述べるd."
"You feel strong enough to try it?"
The 切望, the 救済 in his 発言する／表明する betrayed the 緊張, the 苦悩 which until now he had hidden so 井戸／弁護士席; and hot shame 燃やすd me for my 縮むing, my dread of again passing through that haunted vale.
"I certainly DO." I was once more master of myself. "Drake—don't you agree?"
"Sure," he replied. "Sure. I'll look after Ruth—er—I mean 行方不明になる Ventnor."
The glint of amusement in Ventnor's 注目する，もくろむs at this faded 突然の; his 直面する grew somber.
"Wait," he said. "I carried away some—some 展示（する）s from the crevice of the noises, Goodwin."
"What 肉親，親類d of 展示（する）s?" I asked, 熱望して.
"Put 'em where they'd be 安全な," he continued. "I've an idea they're far more curious than our 装甲の men—and of far more importance. At any 率, we must take them with us.
"Go with Ruth, you and Drake, and look at them. And bring them 支援する with the pony. Then we'll make a start. A few minutes more probably won't make much difference—but hurry."
He turned 支援する to his watch. Ordering Chiu-Ming to stay with him I followed Ruth and Drake 負かす／撃墜する the 廃虚d stairway. At the 底（に届く） she （機の）カム to me, laid little 手渡すs on my shoulders.
"Walter," she breathed, "I'm 脅すd. I'm so 脅すd I'm afraid to tell even 市場. He doesn't like them, either, these little things you're going to see. He likes them so little that he's afraid to let me know how little he does like them."
"But what are they? What's to 恐れる about them?" asked Drake.
"See what you think!" She led us slowly, almost reluctantly toward the 後部 of the 要塞. "They lay in a little heap at the mouth of the cleft where we heard the noises. ツバメ 選ぶd them up and dropped them in a 解雇（する） before we ran through the hollow.
"They're grotesque and they're almost CUTE, and they make me feel as though they were the tiniest tippy-tip of the claw of some incredibly large cat just stealing around the corner, a terrible cat, a cat as big as a mountain," she ended breathlessly.
We climbed through the 崩壊するing masonry into a central, open 法廷，裁判所. Here a （疑いを）晴らす spring 泡d up in a 廃虚d and choked 石／投石する 水盤／入り江; の近くに to the 古代の 井戸／弁護士席 was their pony, contentedly browsing in the 厚い grass that grew around it. From one of its 妨害するs Ruth took a large cloth 捕らえる、獲得する.
"To carry them," she said, and trembled.
We passed through what had once been a 広大な／多数の／重要な door into another 議会 larger than that we had just left; and it was in better 保護, the 天井 無傷の, the light 薄暗い after the 炎ing sun of the 法廷，裁判所. 近づく its 中心 she 停止（させる）d us.
Before me ran a two-feet-wide ragged 割れ目, splitting the 床に打ち倒す and dropping 負かす／撃墜する into 黒人／ボイコット depths. Beyond was an expanse of smooth flagging, almost （疑いを）晴らす of 破片.
Drake gave a low whistle. I followed his pointing finger. In the 塀で囲む at the end whirled two enormous dragon 形態／調整s, 削減（する） in low 救済. Their gigantic wings, their monstrous coils, covered the nearly 無傷の surface, and these chimerae were the 形態／調整s upon the upthrust 封鎖するs of the haunted roadway.
In Ruth's gaze I read a nameless 恐れる, a half shuddering fascination.
But she was not looking at the cavern dragons.
Her gaze was 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon what at my first ちらりと見ること seemed to be a raised and patterned circle in the dust-covered 床に打ち倒す. Not more than a foot in width, it shone wanly with a pale, metallic bluish luster, as though, I thought, it had been recently polished. Compared with the 塀で囲む's tremendous winged 人物／姿／数字s this 床に打ち倒す design was trivial, ludicrously insignificant. What could there be about it to stamp that dread upon Ruth's 直面する?
I leaped the crevice; 刑事 joined me. Now I could see that the （犯罪の）一味 was not continuous. Its broken circle was made of はっきりと 辛勝する／優位d cubes about an インチ in 高さ, separated from each other with mathematical exactness by another インチ of space. I counted them—there were nineteen.
Almost touching them with their bases were an equal number of pyramids, of tetrahedrons, as はっきりと angled and of 類似の length. They lay on their 味方するs with tips pointing starlike to six spheres clustered like a conventionalized five petaled primrose in the exact 中心. Five of these spheres—the petals—were, I 概略で calculated, about an インチ and a half in 直径, the ball they enclosed larger by almost an インチ.
So 整然とした was their 協定, so much like a geometrical design nicely done by some clever child that I hesitated to 乱す it. I bent, and 強化するd, the first touch of dread upon me.
For within the （犯罪の）一味, の近くに to the clustering globes, was a miniature replica of the 巨大（な） 跡をつける in the poppied valley!
It stood out from the dust with the same hint of 鎮圧するing 軍隊, the same die 削減（する） sharpness, the same METALLIC suggestion—and pointing toward the globes were the claw 示すs of the four spreading 星／主役にする points.
I reached 負かす／撃墜する and 選ぶd up one of the pyramids. It seemed to 粘着する to the 激しく揺する; it was with 成果／努力 that I wrenched it away. It gave to the touch a slight sensation of warmth—how can I 述べる it?—a warmth that was living.
I 重さを計るd it in my 手渡す. It was oddly 激しい, twice the 負わせる, I should say, of platinum. I drew out a glass and 診察するd it. Decidedly the pyramid was metallic, but of finest, almost silken texture—and I could not place it の中で any of the known metals. It certainly was 非，不，無 I had ever seen; yet it was as certainly metal. It was striated—slender filaments radiating from tiny, dully lustrous points within the polished surface.
And suddenly I had the weird feeling that each of these points was an 注目する，もくろむ, peering up at me, scrutinizing me. There （機の）カム a startled cry from 刑事.
"Look at the （犯罪の）一味!"
The （犯罪の）一味 was in 動議!
Faster the cubes moved; faster the circle 回転するd; the pyramids raised themselves, stood bolt upright on their square bases; the six rolling spheres touched them, joined the spinning, and with sleight-of-手渡す suddenness the （犯罪の）一味 drew together; its 部隊s coalesced, cubes and pyramids and globes threading with a curious suggestion of ferment.
With the same startling abruptness there stood 築く, where but a moment before they had seethed, a little 人物／姿／数字, grotesque; a weirdly humorous, a ばく然と terrifying foot-high 形態／調整, squared and angled and pointed and ANIMATE—as though a child should build from nursery 封鎖するs a fantastic 形態／調整 which 突然の is filled with throbbing life.
A troll from the 幼稚園! A kobold of the toys!
Only for a second it stood, then began 速く to change, melting with quicksilver quickness from one 輪郭（を描く） into another as square and triangle and spheres changed places. Their shiftings were like the 変形s one sees within a kaleidoscope. And in each 消えるing form was the suggestion of unfamiliar harmonies, of a subtle, a transcendental geometric art as though each swift 形態／調整ing were a symbol, a WORD—
Euclid's problems given volition!
Geometry endowed with consciousness!
It 中止するd. Then the cubes drew one upon the other until they formed a pedestal nine インチs high; up this 中心存在 rolled the larger globe, balanced itself upon the 最高の，を越す; the five spheres followed it, clustered like a （犯罪の）一味 just below it. The other cubes raced up, clicked two by two on the outer arc of each of the five balls; at the ends of these twin 封鎖するs a pyramid took its place, tipping each with a point.
The Lilliputian fantasy was now a pedestal of cubes surmounted by a （犯罪の）一味 of globes from which sprang a 星／主役にする of five 武器.
The spheres began to 回転する. Faster and faster they spun around the base of the 栄冠を与えるing globe; the 武器 became a レコード upon which tiny brilliant 誘発するs appeared, clustered, 消えるd only to 再現する in greater number.
The troll swept toward me. It GLIDED. The finger of panic touched me. I sprang aside, and swift as light it followed, seemed to 宙に浮く itself to leap.
"減少（する） it!" It was Ruth's cry.
But, before I could let 落ちる the pyramid I had forgotten was in my 手渡す, the little 人物／姿／数字 touched me and a 麻ひさせるing shock ran through me. My fingers clenched, locked. I stood, muscle and 神経 bound, unable to move.
The little 人物／姿／数字 paused. Its whirling レコード 転換d from the 水平の 計画（する） on which it spun. It was as though it cocked its 長，率いる to look up at me —and again I had the sense of innumerable 注目する，もくろむs peering at me. It did not seem 脅迫的な—its 態度 was inquisitive, waiting; almost as though it had asked for something and wondered why I did not let it have it. The shock still held me rigid, although a tingle in every 神経 told me of returning 軍隊.
The レコード 攻撃するd 支援する to place, bent toward me again. I heard a shout; heard a 弾丸 strike the pigmy that now 明確に menaced; heard the 弾丸 ricochet without the slightest 影響 upon it. 刑事 leaped beside me, raised a foot and kicked at the thing. There was a flash of light and upon the instant he 衝突，墜落d 負かす／撃墜する as though struck by a 巨大（な） 手渡す, lay sprawling and inert upon the 床に打ち倒す.
There was a 叫び声をあげる from Ruth; there was softly sibilant rustling all about her. I saw her leap the crevice, 減少（する） on her 膝s beside Drake.
There was movement on the flagging where she stood. A 得点する／非難する／２０ or more of faintly 向こうずねing, bluish 形態／調整s were marching there—pyramids and cubes and spheres like those forming the 形態／調整 that stood before me. There was a curious sharp 強い味 of オゾン in the 空気／公表する, a perceptible 強化するing as of 電気の 緊張.
They swept to the 辛勝する／優位 of the fissure, swam together, and there, hanging half over the gap was a 橋（渡しをする）, half spanning it, a weird and fairy arch made up of 補欠／交替の／交替する cube and angle. The 形態／調整 at my feet 崩壊するd; 解決するd itself into 部隊s that raced over to the beckoning （期間が）わたる.
At the hither 味方する of the 割れ目 they clicked into place, even as had the others. Before me now was a 橋（渡しをする） 完全にする except for the one arc 近づく the middle where an angled gap marred it.
I felt the little 反対する I held pulse within my 手渡す, 努力する／競うing to escape. I dropped it. The tiny 形態／調整 swept to the 橋（渡しをする）, 上がるd it—dropped into the gap.
The arch was 完全にする—hanging in one 飛行機で行くing （期間が）わたる over the depths!
Upon it, over it, as though they had but を待つd this 完成, rolled the six globes. And as they dropped to the さらに先に 味方する the end of the 橋（渡しをする） nearest me raised itself in 空気／公表する, curved itself like a scorpion's tail, drew itself into a closer circled arc, and dropped upon the 床に打ち倒す beyond.
Again the sibilant rustling—and cubes and pyramids and spheres were gone.
神経s tingling slowly 支援する to life, mazed in 絶対の bewilderment, my gaze sought Drake. He was sitting up, feebly, his 長，率いる supported by Ruth's 手渡すs.
"Goodwin!" he whispered. "What—what were they?"
"Metal," I said—it was the only word to which my whirling mind could 粘着する—"metal—"
"Metal!" he echoed. "These things metal? Metal—ALIVE AND THINKING!"
Suddenly he was silent, his 直面する a page on which, visibly, dread gathered slowly and ever deeper.
And as I looked at Ruth, white-直面するd, and at him, I knew that my own was as pallid, as terror-stricken as theirs.
"They were such LITTLE THINGS," muttered Drake. "Such little things —bits of metal—little globes and pyramids and cubes— just little THINGS."
"Babes! Only babes!" It was Ruth—"BABES!"
"Bits of metal"—刑事's gaze sought 地雷, held it—"and they looked for each other, they worked with each other—THINKINGLY, CONSCIOUSLY—they were 審議する／熟考する, purposeful—little things —and with the 軍隊 of a 得点する／非難する／２０ of dynamos—living, THINKING—"
"Don't!" Ruth laid white 手渡すs over his 注目する，もくろむs. "Don't—don't YOU be 脅すd!"
"脅すd?" he echoed. "I'M not afraid—yes, I AM afraid—"
He arose, stiffly—and つまずくd toward me.
Afraid? Drake afraid. 井戸／弁護士席—so was I. 激しく, TERRIBLY afraid.
For what we had beheld in the dusk of that dragoned, 廃虚d 議会 was outside all experience, beyond all knowledge or dream of science. Not their 形態／調整s—that was nothing. Not even that, 存在 metal, they had moved.
But that 存在 metal, they had moved consciously, thoughtfully, deliberately.
They were metal things with—MINDS!
That—that was the incredible, the terrifying thing. That— and their 力／強力にする.
Thor compressed within Hop-o'-my-thumb—and thinking. The 雷s incarnate in metal 奇蹟s—and thinking.
The inert, the immobile, given volition, movement, cognoscence— thinking.
Metal with a brain!
Silently we looked at each other, and silently we passed out of the 中庭. The dread was 激しい upon me. The twilight was stealing upon the の近くに-clustered 頂点（に達する）s. Another hour, and their amethyst-and-purple mantles would 減少（する） upon them; snowfields and glaciers sparkle out in irised beauty; nightfall.
As I gazed upon them I wondered to what secret place within their brooding immensities the little metal mysteries had fled. And to what myriads, it might be, of their 肉親，親類d? And these hidden hordes—of what 形態／調整s were they? Of what 力／強力にするs? Small like these, or—or—
Quick on the 審査する of my mind flashed two pictures, 味方する by 味方する— the little four-rayed print in the 広大な／多数の／重要な dust of the 崩壊するing 廃虚 and its colossal twin on the breast of the poppied valley.
I turned aside, crept through the 粉々にするd portal and looked over the haunted hollow.
Unbelieving, I rubbed my 注目する，もくろむs; then leaped to the very brim of the bowl.
A lark had risen from the roof of one of the 粉々にするd heaps and had flown caroling up into the shadowy sky.
A flock of the little willow warblers flung themselves across the valley, scolding and gossiping; a hare sat upright in the middle of the 古代の roadway.
The valley itself lay serenely under the ambering light, smiling, 平和的な —emptied of horror!
I dropped over the 味方する, walked 慎重に 負かす／撃墜する the road up which but an hour or so before we had struggled so 猛烈に; paced さらに先に and さらに先に with an 増加するing 信用／信任 and a growing wonder.
Gone was that soul of loneliness; 消えるd the whirlpool of despair that had striven to drag us 負かす／撃墜する to death.
The bowl was nothing but a 静かな, smiling lovely little hollow in the hills. I looked 支援する. Even the 廃虚s had lost their 悪意のある 形態／調整; were time-worn, 崩壊するing piles—nothing more.
I saw Ruth and Drake run out upon the ledge and beckon me; made my way 支援する to them, running.
"It's all 権利," I shouted. "The place is all 権利."
I つまずくd up the 味方する; joined them.
"It's empty," I cried. "Get ツバメ and Chiu-Ming quick! While the way's open—"
A ライフル銃／探して盗む-発射 rang out above us; another and another. From the portal scampered Chiu-Ming, his 式服 tucked up about his 膝s.
"They come!" he gasped. "They come!"
There was a flashing of spears high up the winding mountain path. 負かす／撃墜する it was 注ぐing an 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 of men. I caught the glint of helmets and corselets. Those in the 先頭 were 機動力のある, galloping two abreast upon sure-footed mountain ponies. Their short swords, 解除するd high, flickered.
After the horsemen 群れているd foot 兵士s, a forest of 向こうずねing points and dully gleaming pikes above them. 明確に to us （機の）カム their 戦う／戦い-cries.
Again Ventnor's ライフル銃／探して盗む 割れ目d. One of the 真っ先の riders went 負かす／撃墜する; another つまずくd over him, fell. The 急ぐ was checked for an instant, milling upon the road.
"刑事," I cried, "急ぐ Ruth over to the tunnel mouth. We'll follow. We can 持つ／拘留する them there. I'll get ツバメ. Chiu-Ming, after the pony, quick."
I 押し進めるd the two over the 縁 of the hollow. 味方する by 味方する the Chinaman and I ran 支援する through the gateway. I pointed to the animal and 急ぐd 支援する into the 要塞.
"Quick, 市場!" I shouted up the 粉々にするd stairway. "We can get through the hollow. Ruth and Drake are on their way to the break we （機の）カム through. Hurry!"
"All 権利. Just a minute," he called.
I heard him empty his magazine with almost machine-gun quickness. There was a short pause, and 負かす／撃墜する the broken steps he leaped, gray 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing.
"The pony?" He ran beside me toward the portal. "All my 弾薬／武器 is on him."
"Chiu-Ming's taking care of that," I gasped.
We darted out of the gateway. A good five hundred yards away were Ruth and Drake, running straight to the green tunnel's mouth. Between them and us was Chiu-Ming 勧めるing on the pony.
As we sped after him I looked 支援する. The horsemen had 回復するd, were now a scant half-mile from where the road swept past the 要塞. I saw that with their swords the horsemen bore 広大な／多数の／重要な 屈服するs. A little cloud of arrows sparkled from them; fell far short.
"Don't look 支援する," grunted Ventnor. "Stretch yourself, Walter. There's a surprise coming. Hope to God I 裁判官d the time 権利."
We turned off the 廃虚d way; raced over the sward.
"If it looks as though—we can't make it," he panted, "YOU （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it after the 残り／休憩（する）. I'll try to 持つ／拘留する 'em until you get into the tunnel. Never do for 'em to get Ruth."
"権利." My own breathing was growing labored, "WE'LL 持つ／拘留する them. Drake can take care of Ruth."
"Good boy," he said. "I wouldn't have asked you. It probably means death."
"Very 井戸／弁護士席," I gasped, irritated. "But why borrow trouble?"
He reached out, touched me.
"You're 権利, Walter," he grinned. "It does—seem—like carrying coals—to Newcastle."
There was a thunderous にわか景気ing behind us; a 粉々にするing 衝突，墜落. A cloud of smoke and dust hung over the northern end of the 廃虚d 要塞.
It 解除するd 速く, and I saw that the whole 味方する of the structure had fallen, littering the road with its fragments. Scattered 傾向がある の中で these were men and horses; others staggered, 叫び声をあげるing. On the さらに先に 味方する of this stony dike our pursuers were held like 急ぐing waters behind a sudden fallen tree.
"Timed to a second!" cried Ventnor. "持つ／拘留する 'em for a while. Fuses and dynamite. Blew out the whole 味方する, 権利 on 'em, by the Lord!"
On we fled. Chiu-Ming was now 井戸／弁護士席 in 前進する; Ruth and 刑事 いっそう少なく than half a mile from the 開始 of the green tunnel. I saw Drake stop, raise his ライフル銃／探して盗む, empty it before him, and, 持つ／拘留するing Ruth by the 手渡す, race 支援する toward us.
Even as he turned, the vine-審査するd 入り口 through which we had come, through which we had thought lay safety, streamed other 装甲の men. We were outflanked.
"To the fissure!" shouted Ventnor. Drake heard, for he changed his course to the crevice at whose mouth Ruth had said the—Little Things— had lain.
After him streaked Chiu-Ming, 勧めるing on the pony. Shouting out of the tunnel, 負かす／撃墜する over the lip of the bowl, leaped the 兵士s. We dropped upon our 膝s, sent 発射 after 発射 into them. They fell 支援する, hesitated. We sprang up, sped on.
All too short was the check, but once more we held them—and again.
Now Ruth and 刑事 were a scant fifty yards from the crevice. I saw him stop, 押し進める her from him toward it. She shook her 長，率いる.
Now Chiu-Ming was with them. Ruth sprang to the pony, 解除するd from its 支援する a ライフル銃／探して盗む. Then into the 集まり of their pursuers Drake and she 注ぐd a fusillade. They 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd, wavered, broke for cover.
"A chance!" gasped Ventnor.
Behind us was a wolflike yelping. The first pack had re- formed; had crossed the バリケード the dynamite had made; was 急ぐing upon us.
I ran as I had never known I could. Over us whined the 弾丸s from the covering guns. の近くに were we now to the mouth of the fissure. If we could but reach it. の近くに, の近くに were our pursuers, too—the arrows closer.
"No use!" said Ventnor. "We can't make it. 会合，会う 'em from the 前線. 減少（する） —and shoot."
We threw ourselves 負かす／撃墜する, 直面するing them. There （機の）カム a 勝利を得た shouting. And in that strange sharpening of the senses that always goes 手渡す in 手渡す with deadly 危険，危なくする, that is indeed nature's 召喚するing of every reserve to 会合，会う that 危険，危なくする, my 注目する，もくろむs took them in with photographic nicety—the linked mail, lacquered blue and scarlet, of the horsemen; brown, padded armor of the footmen; their 屈服するs and javelins and short bronze swords, their pikes and 保護物，者s; and under their 一連の会議、交渉／完成する helmets their cruel, bearded 直面するs— white as our own where the 黒人／ボイコット 耐えるd did not cover them; their 猛烈な／残忍な and mocking 注目する，もくろむs.
The springs of 古代の Persia's long dead 力／強力にする, these. Men of Xerxes's ruthless, world-征服する／打ち勝つing hordes; the lustful, ravening wolves of Darius whom Alexander scattered—in this world of ours twenty centuries beyond their time!
速く, 正確に, even as I scanned them, we had been 演習ing into them. They 前進するd deliberately, heedless of their fallen. Their arrows had 中止するd to 飛行機で行く. I wondered why, for now we were 井戸／弁護士席 within their 範囲. Had they orders to take us alive—at whatever cost to themselves?
"I've got only about ten cartridges left, ツバメ," I told him.
"We've saved Ruth anyway," he said. "Drake せねばならない be able to 持つ／拘留する that 穴を開ける in the 塀で囲む. He's got lots of 弾薬／武器 on the pony. But they've got us."
Another wild shouting; 負かす／撃墜する swept the pack.
We leaped to our feet, sent our last 弾丸s into them; stood ready, ライフル銃／探して盗むs clubbed to 会合，会う the 急ぐ. I heard Ruth 叫び声をあげる—
What was the 事柄 with the 装甲の men? Why had they 停止（させる）d? What was it at which they were glaring over our 長，率いるs? And why had the ライフル銃／探して盗む 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of Ruth and Drake 中止するd so 突然の?
同時に we turned.
Within the 黒人／ボイコット background of the fissure stood a 形態／調整, an apparition, a woman—beautiful, awesome, incredible!
She was tall, standing there 列d from chin to feet in 粘着するing 隠すs of pale amber, she seemed taller even than tall Drake. Yet it was not her 高さ that sent through me the thrill of awe, of half incredulous terror which, relaxing my 支配する, let my smoking ライフル銃／探して盗む 減少（する） to earth; nor was it that about her proud 長，率いる a cloud of 向こうずねing tresses 渦巻くd and pennoned like a misty 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する of woven 巡査 炎上s—no, nor that through her 隠すs her 団体／死体 gleamed faint radiance.
It was her 注目する，もくろむs—her 広大な／多数の／重要な, wide 注目する，もくろむs whose （疑いを）晴らす depths were like pools of living 星／主役にする 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. They shone from her white 直面する—not phosphorescent, not 単に lucent and light- 反映するing, but as though they themselves were SOURCES of the 冷淡な white 炎上s of far 星／主役にするs—and as 静める as those 星／主役にするs themselves.
And in that 直面する, although as yet I could distinguish nothing but the 注目する，もくろむs, I sensed something unearthly.
"God!" whispered Ventnor. "What IS she?"
The woman stepped from the crevice. Not fifty feet from her were Ruth and Drake and Chiu-Ming, their rigid 態度s 明らかにする／漏らすing the same shock of awe that had momentarily 麻ひさせるd me.
She looked at them, beckoned them. I saw the two walk toward her, Chiu-Ming hang 支援する. The 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs fell upon Ventnor and myself. She raised a 手渡す, 動議d us to approach.
I turned. There stood the host that had 注ぐd 負かす／撃墜する (he mountain road, horsemen, spearsmen, pikemen—a 十分な thousand of them. At my 権利 were the scattered company that had come from the tunnel 入り口, threescore or more.
There seemed a （一定の）期間 upon them. They stood in silence, like automatons, only their ひどく 星／主役にするing 注目する，もくろむs showing that they were alive.
"Quick," breathed Ventnor.
We ran toward her who had checked death even while its jaws were の近くにing upon us.
Before we had gone half-way, as though our flight had broken whatever 社債s had bound them, a clamor arose from the host; a wild shouting, a clanging of swords on 保護物，者s. I 発射 a ちらりと見ること behind. They were in 動議, 前進するing slowly, hesitatingly as yet—but I knew that soon that hesitation would pass; that they would sweep 負かす／撃墜する upon us, （海，煙などが）飲み込む us.
"To the crevice," I shouted to Drake. He paid no 注意する to me, nor did Ruth —their gaze fastened upon the 列d woman.
Ventnor's 手渡す 発射 out, gripped my shoulder, 停止（させる）d me. She had thrown up her 長，率いる. The cloudy METALLIC hair 大波d as though 勝利，勝つd had blown it.
From the 解除するd throat （機の）カム a low, a vibrant cry; harmonious, weirdly disquieting, golden and 甘い—and laden with the eery, minor wailings of the blue valley's night, the dragoned 議会.
Before the cry had 中止するd there 注ぐd with incredible swiftness out of the crevice 得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ of the metal things. The fissures vomited them!
Globes and cubes and pyramids—not small like those of the 廃虚s, but 形態／調整s all of four feet high, dully lustrous, and 深い within that luster the myriads of tiny points of light like unwinking, 星／主役にするing 注目する，もくろむs.
They 渦巻くd, eddied and formed a バリケード between us and the 装甲の men.
負かす／撃墜する upon them 注ぐd a にわか雨 of arrows from the 兵士s. I heard the shouts of their captains; they 急ぐd. They had courage—those men —yes!
Again （機の）カム the woman's cry—golden, peremptory.
Sphere and 封鎖する and pyramid ran together, seemed to seethe. I had again that sense of a quicksilver melting. Up from them thrust a 厚い rectangular column. Eight feet in width and twenty feet high, it 形態／調整d itself. Out from its left 味方する, from 権利 味方する, sprang 武器—fearful 武器 that grew and grew as globe and cube and angle raced up the column's 味方する and clicked into place each upon, each after, the other. With magical quickness the 武器 lengthened.
Before us stood a monstrous 形態／調整; a geometric prodigy. A 向こうずねing angled 中心存在 that, though rigid, immobile, seemed to crouch, be instinct with living 軍隊 努力する／競うing to be 抑えるのをやめるd.
Two 広大な／多数の／重要な globes surmounted it—like the 長，率いるs of some two-直面するd Janus of an 外国人 world.
At the left and 権利 the knobbed 武器, now fully fifty feet in length, writhed, 新たな展開d, straightened; flexing themselves in grotesque imitation of a boxer. And at the end of each of the six 武器 the spheres were clustered 厚い, studded with the pyramids—again in gigantic, awful, parody of the spiked gloves of those 古代の gladiators who fought for 皇室の Nero.
For an instant it stood here, preening, 実験（する）ing itself like an 競技者 —a chimera, amorphous yet weirdly symmetric—under the darkening sky, in the green of the hollow, the 装甲の hosts frozen before it—
And then—it struck!
Out flashed two of the 武器, with a ちらりと見ることing 動議, with appalling 軍隊. They sliced into the の近くに-packed 今後 階級s of the 装甲の men; 削減（する） out of them two 広大な／多数の／重要な gaps.
Sickened, I saw fragments of man and horse 飛行機で行く. Another arm javelined from its place like a 飛行機で行くing snake, clicked at the end of another, became a hundred-foot chain which 渦巻くd like a flail through the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるing 集まり. 負かす／撃墜する upon a knot of the 兵士s with a straightforward blow drove a third arm, 運動ing through them like a 巨大（な） punch.
All that host which had driven us from the 廃虚s threw 負かす／撃墜する sword, spear, and pike; fled shrieking. The horsemen spurred their 開始するs, riding heedless over the footmen who fled with them.
The Smiting Thing seemed to watch them go with—AMUSEMENT!
Before they could cover a hundred yards it had 崩壊するd. I heard the little wailing sounds—then behind the 逃げるing men, の近くに behind them, rose the angled 中心存在; into place sprang the flexing 武器, and again it took its （死傷者）数 of them.
They scattered, running singly, by twos, in little groups, for the 味方するs of the valley. They were like ネズミs scampering in panic over the 底（に届く） of a 広大な／多数の／重要な green bowl. And like a monstrous cat the 形態／調整 played with them— yes, PLAYED.
It melted once more—took new form. Where had been 中心存在 and flailing 武器 was now a tripod thirty feet high, its 脚s 補欠／交替の／交替する globe and cube and upon its apex a wide and spinning （犯罪の）一味 of sparkling spheres. Out from the middle of this （犯罪の）一味 stretched a tentacle—writhing, undulating like a serpent of steel, four 得点する／非難する／２０ yards at least in length.
At its end cube, globe and pyramid had mingled to form a 抱擁する 核搭載ミサイル. With the three long prongs of this 核搭載ミサイル the thing struck, 速く, with fearful precision—JOYOUSLY—tining those who fled, forking them, 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing them from its points high in 空気／公表する.
It was, I think, that last touch of sheer horror, the playfulness of the Smiting Thing, that sent my 乾燥した，日照りの tongue to the roof of my terror-parched mouth, and held open with monstrous fascination 注目する，もくろむs that struggled to の近くに.
Ever the 装甲の men fled from it, and ever was it swifter than they, teetering at their heels on its tripod 脚s.
From half its length the darting snake streamed red rain.
I heard a sigh from Ruth; ひったくるd my gaze from the hollow; turned. She lay fainting in Drake's 武器.
Beside the two the 列d woman stood, looking out upon that 虐殺（する）, 静める and still, shrouded with an unearthly tranquillity—見解（をとる）ing it, it （機の）カム to me, with 注目する，もくろむs impersonal, 冷淡な, indifferent as the untroubled 星／主役にするs which look 負かす／撃墜する upon ハリケーン and 地震 in this world of ours.
There was a 急ぐing of many feet at our left; a wail from Chiu-Ming. Were they maddened by 恐れる, driven by despair, 決定するd to 殺す before they themselves were 殺害された? I do not know. But those who still lived of the men from the tunnel mouth were 非難する us.
They clustered の近くに, their 保護物，者s held before them. They had no 屈服するs, these men. They moved 速く 負かす／撃墜する upon us in silence—swords and pikes gleaming.
The Smiting Thing 激しく揺するd toward us, the metal tentacle 緊張するing out like a rigid, racing serpent, 飛行機で行くing to 削減（する） between its weird mistress and those who menaced her.
I heard Chiu-Ming 叫び声をあげる; saw him throw up his 手渡すs, cover his 注目する，もくろむs —run straight upon the pikes!
"Chiu-Ming!" I shouted. "Chiu-Ming! This way!"
I ran toward him. Before I had gone five paces Ventnor flashed by me, revolver spitting. I saw a spear thrown. It struck the Chinaman squarely in the breast. He tottered—fell upon his 膝s.
Even as he dropped, the 巨大（な） flail swept 負かす／撃墜する upon the 兵士s. It swept through them like a scythe through 熟した 穀物. It threw them, broken and torn, far toward the valley's sloping 味方するs. It left only fragments that bore no 外見 to men.
Ventnor was at Chiu-Ming's 長，率いる; I dropped beside him. There was a crimson froth upon his lips.
"I thought that 向こうずね-Je was about to 殺す us," he whispered. "恐れる blinded me."
His 長，率いる dropped; his 団体／死体 quivered, lay still.
We arose, looked about us dazedly. At the 味方する of the crevice stood the woman, her gaze 残り／休憩（する）ing upon Drake, his 武器 about Ruth, her 長，率いる hidden on his breast.
The valley was empty—save for the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd heaps that dotted it.
High up on the mountain path a 得点する／非難する／２０ of 人物／姿／数字s crept, all that were left of those who but a little before had streamed 負かす／撃墜する to take us 捕虜 or to 殺す. High up in the darkening heavens the lammergeiers, the winged scavengers of the Himalayas, were 集会.
The woman 解除するd her 手渡す, beckoned us once more. Slowly we walked toward her, stood before her. The 広大な／多数の／重要な （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs searched us—but no more intently than our own wondering 注目する，もくろむs did her.
We looked upon a 見通し of loveliness such, I think, as 非，不，無 has beheld since Trojan Helen was a maid. At first all I could 公式文書，認める were the 注目する，もくろむs, （疑いを）晴らす as rain-washed April skies, 水晶 （疑いを）晴らす as some secret spring sacred to 三日月d Diana. Their wide gray irises were flecked with golden amber and sapphire—flecks that shone like clusters of little aureate and azure 星／主役にするs.
Then with a strange thrill of wonder I saw that these tiny 星座s were not in the irises alone; that they clustered even within the pupils —深い within them, like far-flung 星／主役にするs in the depths of velvety, midnight heavens.
Whence had come those 冷淡な 解雇する／砲火／射撃s that had ゆらめくd from them, I wondered —more 脅迫的な, far more 脅迫的な, in their 冷淡な tranquillity than the hot 炎上s of wrath? These 注目する，もくろむs were not perilous—no. 静める they were and still—yet in them a 影をつくる／尾行する of 利益／興味 flickered; a ghost of friendliness smiled.
Above them were level, delicately penciled brows of bronze. The lips were 珊瑚 crimson and—asleep. 甘い were those lips as ever master painter, dreaming his dream of the very soul of woman's sweetness, saw in 見通し and limned upon his canvas—and asleep, nor wistful for awakening.
A proud, straight nose; a 幅の広い low brow, and over it the 集まりs of the tendriling tresses—tawny, lustrous topaz, cloudy, METALLIC. Like spun silk of ruddy 巡査; and misty as the wisps of cloud that Soul'tze, Goddess of Sleep, 始める，決めるs in the skies of 夜明け to catch the wandering dreams of lovers.
負かす／撃墜する from the wondrous 直面する melted the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd column of her throat to 合併する into exquisite curves of shoulders and breasts, half 明らかにする／漏らすd beneath the 列ing 隠すs.
But upon that 直面する, within her 注目する，もくろむs, kissing her red lips and 着せる／賦与するing her breasts, was something unearthly.
Something that （機の）カム straight out of the still mysteries of the 星／主役にする-filled spaces; out of the ordered, the untroubled, the illimitable 無効の.
A passionless spirit that watched over the human passion in the scarlet mouth, in every slumbering, sculptured line of her—guarding her against its awakening.
Twilight 静める dropping 負かす／撃墜する from the sun sleep to still the restless mountain tarn. Ishtar dreamlessly asleep within Nirvana.
Something not of this world we know—and yet of it as the 勝利，勝つd of the Cosmos are to the summer 微風, the ocean to the wave, the 雷s to the glow-worm.
"She isn't—human," I heard Ventnor whispering at my ear. "Look at her 注目する，もくろむs; look at the 肌 of her—"
Her 肌 was white as milk of pearls; gossamer 罰金, silken and creamy; translucent as though a soft brilliancy dwelt within it. Beside it Ruth's fair 肌 was like some sun-and-勝利，勝つd- roughened country lass's to Titania's.
She 熟考する／考慮するd us as though she were seeing for the first time 存在s of her own 肉親，親類d. She spoke—and her 発言する／表明する was elfin distant, chimingly 甘い like hidden little golden bells; filled with that tranquil, far off spirit that was part of her—as though indeed a tiny golden chime should （犯罪の）一味 out from the silences, speak for them, find tongues for them. The words were hesitating, 停止（させる）ing as though the lips that uttered them 設立する speech strange —as strange as the （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs 設立する our images.
And the words were Persian—purest, most 古代の Persian.
"I am Norhala," the golden 発言する／表明する chimed 前へ／外へ, whispered 負かす／撃墜する into silence. "I am Norhala."
She shook her 長，率いる impatiently. A 手渡す stole 前へ／外へ from beneath her 隠すs, slender, long-fingered with nails like rosy pearls; above the wrist was coiled a golden dragon with wicked little crimson 注目する，もくろむs. The slender white 手渡す touched Ruth's 長，率いる, turned it until the strange, flecked orbs looked 直接／まっすぐに into the misty ones of blue.
Long they gazed—and 深い. Then she who had 指名するd herself Norhala thrust out a finger, touched the 涙／ほころび that hung upon Ruth's curled 攻撃するs, regarded it wonderingly.
Something of 承認, of memory, seemed to awaken within her.
"You are—troubled?" she asked with that 停止（させる）ing 成果／努力.
Ruth shook her 長，率いる.
"THEY—do not trouble you?"
She pointed to the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd heaps まき散らすing the hollow. And then I saw whence the light which had streamed from her 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs （機の）カム. For the little azure and golden 星／主役にするs paled, trembled, then flashed out like 星雲s of tiny, clustered silver suns.
From that weird radiance Ruth shrank, affrighted.
"No—no," she gasped. "I weep for—HIM."
She pointed where Chiu-Ming lay, a brown blotch at the 辛勝する／優位 of the 粉々にするd men.
"For—him?" There was puzzlement in the faint 発言する／表明する. "For— that? But why?"
She looked at Chiu-Ming—and I knew that to her the sight of the crumpled form carried no 承認 of the human, nothing of 肉親，親類 to her. There was a faint wonder in her 注目する，もくろむs, no longer light-filled, when at last she turned 支援する to us. Long she considered us.
"Now," she broke the silence, "now something 動かすs within me that it seems has long been sleeping. It 企て，努力，提案s me take you with me. Come!"
突然の she turned from us, glided to the crevice. We looked at each other, 捜し出すing 会議, 決定／判定勝ち（する）.
"Chiu-Ming," Drake spoke. "We can't leave him like that. At least let's cover him from the vultures."
"Come." The woman had reached the mouth of the fissure.
"I'm afraid! Oh, ツバメ—I'm afraid." Ruth reached little trembling 手渡すs to her tall brother.
"Come!" Norhala called again. There was an echo of harshness, a clanging, peremptory and inexorable, in the chiming.
Ventnor shrugged his shoulders.
"Come, then," he said.
With one last look at the Chinese, the lammergeiers already circling about him, we walked to the crevice. Norhala waited, silent, brooding until we passed her; then glided behind us.
Before we had gone ten paces I saw that the place was no fissure. It was a tunnel, a passage hewn by human 手渡すs, its 塀で囲むs covered with the writhing dragon lines, its roof the mountain.
The 列d woman swept by us. 速く we followed her. Far, far ahead was a 病弱な gleaming. It quivered, a faintly shimmering, ghostly curtain, a 十分な mile away.
Now it was の近くに; we passed through it and were out of the tunnel. Before us stretched a 狭くする gorge, a sword 削除する in the 団体／死体 of the 非常に高い 巨大（な） under whose feet the tunnel crept. High above was the 略章 of the sky.
The 味方するs were dark, but it （機の）カム to me that here were no trees, no verdure of any 肉親，親類d. Its 床に打ち倒す was strewn with 玉石s, fantastically 形態／調整d, almost indistinguishable in the 急速な／放蕩な の近くにing dark.
Twin monoliths 防御壁／支持者d the passage end; the gigantic 石／投石するs were leaning, 崩壊するing. Fissures radiated from the 開始, like 深い wrinkles in the 激しく揺する, showing where earth warping, 範囲 圧力, had long been working to の近くに this hewn way.
"Stop," Norhala's abrupt, golden 公式文書，認める 停止（させる）d us; and again through the （疑いを）晴らす 注目する，もくろむs I saw the white 星／主役にする-向こうずね flash.
"It may be 井戸／弁護士席—" She spoke as though to herself. "It may be 井戸／弁護士席 to の近くに this way. It is not needed—"
Her 発言する／表明する rang out again, vibrant, strangely disquieting, harmonious. Murmurous 詠唱するing it was at first, rhythmic and low; ripples and flutings, トンs and progressions utterly unknown to me; unfamiliar, abrupt, and 外国人 主題s that kept returning, droppings of 水晶-（疑いを）晴らす jewels of sound, golden tollings—and all ordered, mathematical, GEOMETRIC, even as had been the gestures of the 形態／調整s; Lilliputians of the 廃虚s, Brobdignagian of the haunted hollow.
What was it? I had it—IT WAS THOSE GESTURES TRANSFORMED INTO SOUND!
There was a movement 負かす／撃墜する by the tunnel mouth. It grew more 早い, seemed to vibrate with her song. Within the 不明瞭 there were little flashes; glimmerings of light began to come and go—like little awakenings of 注目する，もくろむs of soft, jeweled 炎上s, like 巨大（な） gorgeous fireflies; flashes of cloudy amber, gleam of rose, sparkles of diamonds and of opals, of emeralds and of rubies—blinking, gleaming.
A shimmering もや drew 負かす／撃墜する around them—a swift and 渦巻くing もや. It thickened, was 発射 with slender 往復（する）d threads like cobweb, coruscating 立ち往生させるs of light.
The 向こうずねing threads grew 厚い, pulsed, were spangled with tiny vivid sparklings. They ran together, condensed—and all this in an instant, in a tenth of the time it takes me to 令状 it.
From fiery もや and gemmed flashes （機の）カム bolt upon bolt of 雷. The cliff 直面する leaped out, a cataract of green 炎上. The fissures 広げるd, the monoliths trembled, fell.
In the wake of that dazzling brilliancy （機の）カム utter blackness. I opened my blinded 注目する，もくろむs; slowly the flecks of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃 （疑いを）晴らすd. A faint lambency still clung to the cliff. By it I saw that the tunnel's mouth had 消えるd, had been 調印（する）d—where it had gaped were only トンs of 粉々にするd 激しく揺する.
（機の）カム a 急ぐing past us as of 広大な／多数の／重要な 団体／死体s; something grazed my 手渡す, something whose touch was like that of warm metal—but metal throbbing with life. They 急ぐd by—and whispered 負かす／撃墜する into silence.
"Come!" Norhala flitted ahead of us, a faintly luminous 形態／調整 in the 不明瞭. 速く we followed. I 設立する Ruth beside me; felt her 手渡す 支配する my wrist.
"Walter," she whispered, "Walter—she isn't human!"
"Nonsense," I muttered. "Nonsense, Ruth. What do you think she is— a goddess, a spirit of the Himalayas? She's as human as you or I."
"No." Even in the 不明瞭 I could sense the stubborn shake of her curly 長，率いる. "Not all human. Or how could she have 命令（する）d those things? Or have 召喚するd the 雷s that 爆破d the tunnel's mouth? And her 肌 and hair—they're too WONDERFUL, Walter.
"Why, she makes me look—look coarse. And the light that hovers about her—why, it is by that light we are making our way. And when she touched me—I—I glowed—all through.
"Human, yes—but there is something else in her—something stronger than humanness, something that—makes it sleep!" she 追加するd astonishingly.
The ground was level as a dancing 床に打ち倒す. We followed the enigmatic glow —emanation, it seemed to me—from Norhala which was as a light for us to follow within the 不明瞭. The high 略章 of sky had 消えるd —seemed to be 曇った, for I could see no 星／主役にするs.
Within the 不明瞭 I began again to sense faint movement; soft stirring all about us. I had the feeling that on each 味方する and behind us moved an invisible host.
"There's something moving all about us—going with us," Ruth echoed my thought.
"It's the 勝利，勝つd," I said, and paused—for there was no 勝利，勝つd.
From the blackness before us （機の）カム a succession of curious, muffled clickings, like a smothered mitrailleuse. The luminescence that 着せる／賦与するd Norhala brightened, 深くするing the 不明瞭.
"Cross!"
She pointed into the 無効の ahead; then, as we started 今後, thrust out a 手渡す to Ruth, held her 支援する. Drake and Ventnor drew の近くに to them, questioningly, anxious. But I stepped 今後, out of the 薄暗い gleaming.
Before me were two cubes; one I 裁判官d in that uncertain light to be six feet high, the other half its 本体，大部分／ばら積みの. From them a 軸 of pale-blue phosphorescence pierced the murk. They stood, the smaller 圧力（をかける）d against the 味方する of the larger, for all the world like a pair of 巨大な nursery 封鎖するs, placed like steps by some 巨大（な） child.
As my 注目する，もくろむs swept over them, I saw that the 向こうずねing 軸 was an 無傷の （期間が）わたる of cubes; not multi-arched like the Lilliputian 橋（渡しをする） of the dragon 議会, but flat and running out over an abyss that gaped at my very feet. All of a hundred feet they stretched; a slender, lustrous girder crossing unguessed depths of gloom. From far, far below （機の）カム the faint whisper of 急ぐing waters.
I 滞るd. For these were the 封鎖するs that had formed the 団体／死体 of the monster of the hollow, its flailing 武器. The thing that had played so murderously with the 装甲の men.
And now had 形態／調整d itself into this 錨，総合司会者d, quiescent 橋（渡しをする）.
"Do not 恐れる." It was the woman speaking, softly, as one would 安心させる a child. "上がる. Cross. They obey me."
I stepped 堅固に upon the first 封鎖する, climbed to the second. The （期間が）わたる stretched, sharp 辛勝する／優位d, smooth, only a slender, shimmering line 明らかにする／漏らすing where each 広大な／多数の／重要な cube held 急速な／放蕩な to the other.
I walked at first slowly, then with ever-増加するing 信用／信任, for up from the surface streamed a guiding, a 持つ／拘留するing 軍隊, that was like a host of little invisible 手渡すs, 安定したing me, keeping 会社／堅い my feet. I looked 負かす／撃墜する; the myriads of enigmatic 注目する，もくろむs were 星／主役にするing, 星／主役にするing up at me from 深い within. They fascinated me; I felt my pace slowing; a vertigo 掴むd me. Resolutely I dragged my gaze up and ahead; marched on.
From the depths （機の）カム more 明確に the sound of the waters. Now there were but a few feet more of the 橋（渡しをする） before me. I reached its end, dropped my feet over, felt them touch a smaller cube, and descended.
Over the （期間が）わたる （機の）カム Ventnor. He was 主要な his laden pony. He had 包帯d its 注目する，もくろむs so that it could not look upon the 狭くする way it was treading. And の近くに behind, a 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）ing reassuringly upon its 側面に位置する, strode Drake, swinging along carelessly. The little beast ambled along serenely, sure-footed as all its mountain 肉親，親類d, and docile to 不明瞭 and 指導／手引.
Then, an arm about Ruth, floated Norhala. Now she was beside us; dropped her arm from Ruth; glided past us. On for a hundred yards or more we went, and then she drew us a little toward the unseen canyon 塀で囲む.
She stood before us, 保護物，者ing us. One golden call she sent.
I looked 支援する into the 不明瞭. Something like an enormous, dimly shimmering 棒 was raising itself. Higher it rose and higher. Now it stood, upright, a slender 非常に高い 中心存在, a gigantic わずかな／ほっそりした 人物／姿／数字 whose tip pointed a 十分な hundred feet in the 空気／公表する.
Then slowly it inclined itself toward us; drew closer, closer to the ground; touched and lay there for an instant inert. 突然の it 消えるd.
But 井戸／弁護士席 I knew what I had seen. The （期間が）わたる over which we had passed had raised itself even as had the baby 橋（渡しをする） of the 要塞; had 解除するd itself across the chasm and dropping itself upon the hither 瀬戸際 had 崩壊するd into its 部隊s; was に引き続いて us.
A 橋（渡しをする） of metal that could build itself—and break itself. A thinking, conscious metal 橋（渡しをする）! A metal 橋（渡しをする） with volition—with mind—that was に引き続いて us.
There sighed from behind a soft, 支えるd wailing; 速く it 近づくd us. A wanly 微光ing 形態／調整 drew by; 停止（させる）d. It was like a rigid serpent 削減（する） from a gigantic square 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of 冷淡な blue steel.
Its 長，率いる was a pyramid, a tetrahedron; its length 消えるd in the その上の 不明瞭. The 長，率いる raised itself, the 封鎖するs that formed its neck separating into open wedges like a Brobdignagian replica of those 共同のd, fantastic, little painted reptiles the Japanese toy-製造者s 削減（する） from 支持を得ようと努めるd.
It seemed to regard us—mockingly. The pointed 長，率いる dropped— past us streamed the 団体／死体. Upon it other pyramids clustered—like the spikes that guarded the 支援する of the nightmare Brontosaurus. Its end （機の）カム 速く into sight—its tail another pyramid twin to its 長，率いる.
It FLIRTED by—gaily; 消えるd.
I had thought the （期間が）わたる must 崩壊する to follow—and it did not need to! It could move as a COMPOSITE 同様に as in UNITS. Move intelligently, consciously—as the Smiting Thing had moved.
"Come!" Norhala's 命令（する） checked my thoughts; we fell in behind her. Looking up I caught the friendly sparkle of a 星／主役にする; knew the cleft was 広げるing.
The 星／主役にする points grew 厚い. We stepped out into a valley small as that hollow from which we had fled; （犯罪の）一味d like it with heaven-touching 首脳会議s. I could see 明確に. The place was suffused with a soft radiance as though into it the far, 有望な 星／主役にするs were 注ぐing all their rays, filling it as a cup with their pale 炎上s.
It was luminous as the Alaskan valleys when on white 北極の nights they are lighted, the Athabascans believe, by the gleaming spears of 追跡（する）ing gods. The 塀で囲むs of the valley seemed to be drawn 支援する into infinite distances.
The shimmering もやs that had nimbused Norhala had 消えるd—or 合併するing into the 病弱な gleaming had become one with it.
I 星／主役にするd straight at her, 努力する／競うing to 明らかにする in my own clouded thought what it was that I had sensed as 残忍な—never of OUR world or its peoples. Yet this 有罪の判決 （機の）カム not because of the light that had hovered about her, nor of her summonings of the 雷s; nor even of her 支配（する）／統制する of those—things—which had smitten the 装甲の men and spanned for us the abyss.
All of that I was 確かな lay in the domain of the explicable, could be 解決するd into normality once the basic facts were 伸び（る）d.
Suddenly, I knew. 味方する by 味方する with what we 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 the human there dwelt within this woman an actual consciousness foreign to earth, passionless, at least as we know passion, ordered, mathematical—an emanation of the eternal 法律 which guides the circling 星／主役にするs.
This it was that had moved in the gestures which had evoked the 雷s. This it was that had spoken in the song which were those gestures transformed into sound. This it was that something greater than my consciousness knew and 受託するd.
Something which 株d, no—that 統治するd, serene and untroubled, upon the 王位 of her mind; something utterly UNCOMPREHENDING, utterly unconscious OF, cosmically blind TO all human emotion; that spread itself like a 隠す over her own consciousness; that PLATED her thought—that was a strange word—why had it come to me—something that had 始める，決める its 示す upon her like—like—the gigantic claw print on the poppied field, the little print of the dragoned hall.
I caught at my mind, whirling I thought then in the 支配する of fantasy; strove by taking minute 公式文書，認める of her to bring myself 支援する to normal.
Her 隠すs had slipped from her, 明らかにするing her neck, her 武器, the 権利 shoulder. Under the smooth throat a buckle of dull gold held the sheer, diaphanous 倍のs of the pale amber silk which 列d the high and 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd breasts, hiding no goddess curve of them.
A wide and golden girdle clasped the waist, covered the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd hips and thighs. The long, 狭くする, and high-arched feet were shod with golden sandals, laced just below the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd 膝s with flat turquoise studded 禁止（する）d.
And 向こうずねing through the amber 倍のs, as glowing above them, the 奇蹟 of her 団体／死体.
The dream of master sculptor given life. A goddess of earth's 青年 reborn in Himalayan wilds.
She raised her 注目する，もくろむs; broke the long silence.
"Now 存在 with you," she said dreamily, "there waken within me old thoughts, old 知恵, old 尋問—all that I had forgotten and thought forgotten forever—"
The golden 発言する／表明する died—she who had spoken was gone from us, like the fading out of a phantom; like the breaking of a film.
A flicker 発射 over the skies, another and another. A brilliant ray of 激しい green like that of a distant サーチライト swept to the zenith, hung for a moment and withdrew. Up （機の）カム 注ぐing the lances and the streamers of the aurora; faster and faster, 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道するs and slender 向こうずねing spears of green and iridescent blues and smoky, glistening reds.
The valley sprang into 十分な 見解（をとる）.
I felt Ventnor's 支配する upon my wrist. I followed his pointing finger. Into the valley from the 権利 ran a 黒人／ボイコット 刺激（する） of 激しく揺する, half a mile from us, fifty feet high.
Upon its crest stood—Norhala!
Her 武器 were 解除するd to the sparkling sky; her braids were 緩和するd —and as the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of the aurora rose and fell, raced and were still, the silken cloud of her tresses 渦巻くd and eddied with them. Little clouds of coruscations danced gaily like fireflies about and through it.
And all her 明らかにするd 団体／死体 was 輪郭（を描く）d in living light, glowed and throbbed with light—light filled her like a 大型船, she bathed in it. She thrust 武器 through the streaming, 炎上ing locks; held them out from her, 刑務所，拘置所d. She swayed slowly, rhythmically; like a faint, golden chiming （機の）カム the echo of her song.
突然の around her, half circling her on the 黒人／ボイコット 刺激（する）, gleamed myriads of gem 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. ゆらめくs and 炎上s of pale emerald, 安定した glowing of 炎上 rubies, glints and lambencies of deepest sapphire, of 病弱な sapphire, flickering opalescences, irised glitterings. A moment they gleamed. Then from them （機の）カム bolt upon bolt of 雷—雷 that darted upon the lovely 形態／調整 swaying there; 雷s that fell upon her, broke and dashed, cascading, from her radiant 団体／死体.
The 雷s bathed her—she bathed in them.
The skies were covered by a swift もや. The aurora was 隠すd.
The valley filled with a palely shimmering radiance which dropped like 隠すs upon it, hiding all within it. Hiding within 倍の upon luminous 倍の —Norhala!
Mutely we 直面するd each other, white and 病弱な in the ghostly light.
The valley was very still; as silent as though sound had been 孤立した from it. The shimmering radiance suffusing it had thickened perceptibly; hovered over the valley 床に打ち倒す faintly sparkling もやs; hid it.
Like a shroud was that silence. Beneath it my mind struggled, its unease, its forebodings growing ever stronger. Silently we repacked the saddlebags; girthed the pony; silently we waited for Norhala's return.
Idly I had 公式文書，認めるd that the place on which we stood must be raised above the level of the vale. Up toward us the 集会 もやs had been 刻々と rising; still was their wavering crest a half 得点する／非難する／２０ feet below us.
突然の out of their 薄暗い nebulosity a faintly phosphorescent square broke. It 解除するd, slowly; then swept, a dully lustrous six-foot cube, up the slope and （機の）カム to 残り／休憩（する） almost at our feet. It dwelt there; 熟視する／熟考するd us from its myriads of 深い-始める，決める, sparkling striations.
In its wake swam, one by one, six others—their 最高の，を越すs raising from the vapors like the first, watchfully; like shimmering 支援するs of sea monsters; like turrets of fantastic angled 潜水艦s from phosphorescent seas. One by one they skimmed 速く over the ledge; and one by one they nestled, 辛勝する／優位 to 辛勝する／優位 and alternately, against the cube which had gone before.
In a 三日月, they stretched before us. 支援する from them, a pace, ten paces, twenty, we 退却／保養地d.
They lay immobile—星／主役にするing at us.
Cleaving the もやs, silk of 巡査 hair streaming wide, unearthly 注目する，もくろむs lambent, floated up behind them—Norhala. For an instant she was hidden behind their 本体，大部分／ばら積みの; suddenly was upon them; drifted over them like some spirit of light; stood before us.
Her 隠すs were again about her; golden girdle, sandals of gold and turquoise in their places. Pearl white her 団体／死体 gleamed; no 示す of 雷 marred it.
She walked toward us, turned and 直面するd the watching cubes. She uttered no sound, but as at a signal the central cube slid 今後, 停止（させる）d before her. She 残り／休憩（する）d a 手渡す upon its 辛勝する／優位.
"Ride with me," she said to Ruth.
"Norhala." Ventnor took a step 今後. "Norhala, we must go with her. And this"—he pointed to the pony—"must go with us."
"I meant—you—to come," the faraway 発言する／表明する chimed, "but I had not thought of—that."
A moment she considered; then turned to the six waiting cubes. Again as at a 命令（する） four of the things moved, 渦巻くd in toward each other with a weird precision, with a monstrous 戦争の mimicry; joined; stood before us, a 壇・綱領・公約 twelve feet square, six high.
"開始する," sighed Norhala.
Ventnor looked helplessly at the sheer 前線 直面するing him.
"開始する." There was half-wondering impatience in her 命令（する）. "See!"
She caught Ruth by the waist and with the same bewildering swiftness with which she had 消えるd from us when the aurora beckoned she stood, 持つ／拘留するing the girl, upon the 最高の，を越す of the 選び出す／独身 cube. It was as though the two had been 解除するd, had been levitated with an incredible rapidity.
"開始する," she murmured again, looking 負かす／撃墜する upon us.
Slowly Ventnor began to 包帯 the pony's 注目する，もくろむs. I placed my 手渡す upon the 辛勝する／優位 of the quadruple; sprang. A myriad unseen 手渡すs caught me, raised me, 始める，決める me instantaneously on the 上向き surface.
"解除する the pony to me," I called to Ventnor.
"解除する it?" he echoed, incredulously.
Drake's grin 削減（する） like a sun-ray through the nightmare dread that shrouded my mind.
"Catch," he called; placed one 手渡す beneath the beast's belly, the other under its throat; his shoulders heaved—and up 発射 the pony, laden as it was, landed softly upon four wide- stretched 脚s beside me. The 直面するs of the two gaped up, ludicrous in their amazement.
"Follow," cried Norhala.
Ventnor leaped wildly for the 最高の，を越す, Drake beside him; in the flash of a humming-bird's wing they were gripping me, 断言するing feebly. The unseen 持つ／拘留する angled; struck 上向き; clutched from ankle to thigh; held us 急速な／放蕩な—men and beast.
Away swept the 封鎖する that bore Ruth and Norhala; I saw Ruth crouching, 長，率いる bent, her 武器 around the 膝s of the woman. They slipped into the もやs; 消えるd.
And after them, like a スピードを出す／記録につける in a racing 現在の, we, too, dipped beneath the faintly luminous vapors.
The cubes moved with an entire absence of vibration; so 滑らかに and skimmingly, indeed, that had it not been for the sudden 勝利，勝つd that had risen when first we had stirred, and that now （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 刻々と upon our 直面するs, and the cloudy 塀で囲むs streaming by, I would have thought ourselves at 残り／休憩（する）.
I saw the blurred form of Ventnor drift toward the 今後 辛勝する／優位. He walked as though wading. I essayed to follow him; my feet I could not 解除する; I could 前進する only by gliding them as though skating.
Also the 軍隊, whatever it was, that held me seemed to pass me on from unseen clutch to clutch; it was as though up to my hips I moved through a closely woven yet fluid 集まり of cobwebs. I had the fantastic idea that if I so willed I could slip over the 辛勝する／優位 of the 封鎖するs, はう about their 味方するs without 落ちるing—like a 飛行機で行く on the vertical 直面するs of a 抱擁する sugar loaf.
I drew beside Ventnor. He was 星／主役にするing ahead, 努力する／競うing, I knew, to pierce the もやs for some glimpse of Ruth.
He turned to me, his 直面する drawn with 苦悩, his 注目する，もくろむs feverish.
"Can you see them, Walter?" His 発言する／表明する shook. "God—why did I ever let her go like that? Why did I let her go alone?"
"They'll be の近くに ahead, ツバメ." I spoke out of a 有罪の判決 I could not explain. "Whatever it is we're bound for, wherever it is the woman's taking us, she means to keep us together—for a time at least. I'm sure of it."
"She said—follow." It was Drake beside us. "How the hell can we do anything else? We 港／避難所't any 支配（する）／統制する over this bird we're on. But she has. What she meant, Ventnor, is that it would follow her."
"That's true"—new hope 軟化するd the haggard 直面する—"that's true—but is it? We're reckoning with creatures that man's imagination never conceived—nor could conceive. And with this—woman —human in 形態／調整, yes, but human in thought—never. How then can we tell—"
He turned once more, all his consciousness concentrated in his searching 注目する，もくろむs.
Drake's ライフル銃／探して盗む slipped from his 手渡す.
He stooped to 選ぶ it up; then tugged with both 手渡すs. The ライフル銃／探して盗む lay immovable.
I bent and strove to 援助（する） him. For all the pair of us could do, the ライフル銃／探して盗む might have been a part of the gleaming surface on which it 残り／休憩（する）d. The tiny, deepset 星／主役にする points winked up—
"They're—laughing at us!" grunted Drake.
"Nonsense," I answered, and tried to check the involuntary shuddering that shook me, as I saw it shake him. "Nonsense. These 封鎖するs are 広大な／多数の／重要な magnets —that's what 持つ／拘留するs the ライフル銃／探して盗む; what 持つ／拘留するs us, too."
"I don't mean the ライフル銃／探して盗む," he said; "I mean those points of lights— the 注目する，もくろむs—"
There （機の）カム from Ventnor a cry of almost anguished 救済. We straightened. Our 長，率いる 発射 above the もやs like those of swimmers from water. Unnoticed, we had been climbing out of them.
And a hundred yards ahead of us, cleaving them, 隠すd in them almost to the shoulders, was Norhala, red-gold tresses steaming; and の近くに beside her were the brown curls of Ruth. At her brother's cry she turned and her arm flashed out of the 隠すs with 安心させるing gesture.
A mile away was an 開始 in the valley's 山地の 塀で囲む; toward it we were スピード違反. It was no ragged crevice, no nature 分裂（する） fissure; it gave the impression of a gigantic doorway.
"Look," whispered Drake.
Between us and the 広大な gateway, gleaming triangles began to break through the vapors, like the cutting fins of sharks, glints of 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 団体／死体s like gigantic porpoises—the vapors seethed with them. Quickly the fins and rolling curves were all about us. They 中心d upon the portal, streamed through—a horde of the metal things, 主要な us, guarding us, playing about us.
And weird, unutterably weird was that spectacle—the 広大な and silent vale with its still, smooth vapors like a coverlet of cloud; the regal 長，率いる of Norhala 広範囲にわたる over them; the dull glint and gleam of the metal paradoxes flowing, in ordered 動議, all about us; the titanic gateway, glowing before us.
We were at its threshold; over it.
Upon that threshold the もやs 泡，激怒することd like breaking 大波s, then 中止するd 突然の to be. Keeping 正確に／まさに the distance I had 公式文書，認めるd when our gaze had risen above the 霧, glided the 封鎖する that bore Ruth and Norhala. In the strange light of the place into which we had 現れるd—and whether that place was canyon, 回廊（地帯）, or tunnel I could not then 決定する—it stood out はっきりと.
One arm of Norhala held Ruth—and in her 態度 I sensed a 保護物，者ing 意図, guardianship—the first really human impulse this 形態／調整 of mystery and beauty had 明らかにする／漏らすd.
In 前線 of them swept 得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ of her familiars—no longer dully lustrous, but 向こうずねing as though 削減（する） from blue and polished steel. They —marched—in ordered 列／漕ぐ／騒動s, globes and cubes and pyramids; moving sedately now as 部隊s.
I looked behind me; out of the spume boiling at the portal, were 注ぐing 前へ／外へ other 得点する／非難する／２０s of the Metal Things, darting through like divers through a wave. And as they drew into our wake and swam into the light, their 薄暗い luster 消えるd like a film; their surfaces grew almost radiant.
Whence （機の）カム the light that 始める，決める them gleaming? Our pace had slackened —I looked about me. The 塀で囲むs of the cleft or tunnel were perpendicular, smooth and 向こうずねing with a 冷淡な, metallic, greenish glow.
Between the 塀で囲むs, like rhythmic flashing of 解雇する／砲火／射撃-飛行機で行くs, pulsed soft and 逃亡者／はかないもの glimmerings that carried a sense of the infinitely minute—of 電子s, it （機の）カム to me, rather than 原子s. Their irradiance was greenish, like the 塀で囲むs; but I was 確かな that these 血球s did not come from them.
They blinked and faded like motes within a 転換ing sunbeam; or, to use a more 科学の comparison, like colloids within the illuminated field of the ultramicroscope; and like these latter it was as though the 注目する，もくろむs took in not the minute 粒子s themselves but their movement only.
Save for these gleamings the light of the place, although crepuscular, was crystalline （疑いを）晴らす. High above us—five hundred, a thousand feet —the 塀で囲むs 合併するd into a 煙霧 of clouded beryl.
激しく揺する certainly the cliffs were—but 激しく揺する 削減（する） and 計画（する）d, smoothed and polished and PLATED!
Yes, that was it—plated. Plated with some metallic 実体 that was itself a 貯蔵所 of luminosity and from which, it （機の）カム to me, pulsed the 軍隊 that lighted the winking イオンs. But who could have done such a thing? For what 目的? How?
And the meticulousness, the perfection of these smoothed cliffs struck over my 神経s as no rasp could, stirring a vague 憤慨, an irritated 願望（する） for human inharmonies, human disorder.
吸収するd in my examination I had forgotten those who must 株 with me my 疑問s and dangers. I felt a 支配する on my arm.
"If we get の近くに enough and I can get my feet loose from this damned thing I'll jump," Drake said.
"What?" I gasped, blankly, startled out of my 最大の関心事. "Jump where?"
I followed his pointing finger. We were 速く の近くにing upon the other cube; it was now a scant twenty paces ahead; it seemed to be stopping. Ventnor was leaning 今後, quivering with 切望.
"Ruth!" he called. "Ruth—are you all 権利?"
Slowly she turned to us—my heart gave a 広大な／多数の／重要な leap, then seemed to stop. For her 甘い 直面する was touched with that same unearthly tranquillity which was Norhala's; in her brown 注目する，もくろむs was a 影をつくる／尾行する of that passionless spirit brooding in Norhala's own; her 発言する／表明する as she answered held within it more than echo of Norhala's faint, far-off golden chiming.
"Yes," she sighed; "yes, ツバメ—have no 恐れる for me—"
And turned from us, gazing 今後 once more with the woman and as silent as she.
I ちらりと見ることd covertly at Ventnor, at Drake—had I imagined, or had they too seen? Then I knew they had seen, for Ventnor's 直面する was white to the lips, and Drake's jaw was 始める，決める, his teeth clenched, his 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing with 怒り／怒る.
"What's she doing to Ruth—you saw her 直面する," he gritted, half inarticulately.
"Ruth!" There was anguish in Ventnor's cry.
She did not turn again. It was as though she had not heard him.
The cubes were now not five yards apart. Drake gathered himself; 緊張するd to 緩和する his feet from the 向こうずねing surface, making ready to leap when they should draw の近くに enough. His 広大な／多数の／重要な chest swelled with his 成果／努力, the muscles of his neck knotted, sweat steamed 負かす／撃墜する his 直面する.
"No use," he gasped, "no use, Goodwin. It's like trying to 解除する yourself by your boot-ひもで縛るs—like a 飛行機で行く stuck in molasses."
"Ruth," cried Ventnor once more.
As though it had been a signal the 封鎖する darted 今後, 再開するing the distance it had 以前は 持続するd between us.
The 先導 of the Metal Things began to race. With an incredible 速度(を上げる） they fled into, were lost in an instant within, the luminous distances.
The cube that bore the woman and girl 加速するd; flew faster and faster onward. And as 速く our own followed it. The lustrous 塀で囲むs flowed by, dizzily.
We had swept over toward the 権利 塀で囲む of the cleft and were gliding over a 幅の広い ledge. This ledge was, I 裁判官d, all of a hundred feet in width. From it the 床に打ち倒す of the place was dropping 速く.
The opposite precipices were slowly 製図／抽選 closer. After us flowed the 側面に位置するing host.
刻々と our ledge arose and the 床に打ち倒す of the canyon dropped. Now we were twenty feet above it, now thirty. And the character of the cliffs was changing. Veins of quartz shone under the metallic plating like 削減（する） 水晶, like cloudy opals; here was a splash of vermilion, there a patch of amber; 禁止（する）d of pallid ocher stained it.
My gaze was caught by a line of inky blackness in the exact 中心 of the 落ちるing 床に打ち倒す. So 黒人／ボイコット was it that at first ちらりと見ること I took it for a vein of jetty lignite.
It 広げるd. It was a 割れ目, a fissure. Now it was a yard in width, now three, and blackness seemed to 井戸／弁護士席 up from within it, blackness that was the very essence of the depths. 刻々と the ebon 不和 拡大するd; spread suddenly wide open in two sharp-辛勝する／優位d, 飛行機で行くing wedges—
Earth had dropped away. At our 味方する a 湾 had opened, an abyss, striking 負かす／撃墜する depth upon depth; 深遠な; immeasurable.
We were human 原子s, riding upon a steed of sorcery and racing along a 分裂（する） rampart of infinite space.
I looked behind—得点する／非難する／２０s of the cubes were darting from the metal host 追跡するing us; in a long column of twos they flashed by, raced ahead. Far in 前線 of us a gloom began to grow; 深くするd until we were 急ぐing into blackest night.
Through the murk stabbed a long lance of pale blue phosphorescence. It unrolled like a 略章 of 病弱な 炎上, flicked like a serpent's tongue— held 安定した. I felt the Thing beneath us leap 今後; its velocity grew prodigious; the 勝利，勝つd （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 upon us with ハリケーン 軍隊.
I 保護物，者d my 注目する，もくろむs with my 手渡すs and peered through the chinks of my fingers. 範囲d 直接／まっすぐに in our path was a バリケード of the cubes and upon them we were racing like a 飛行機で行くing 乱打するing-押し通す. Involuntarily I の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs against the 絶滅するing 衝撃 that seemed 必然的な.
The Thing on which we 棒 解除するd.
We were 急に上がるing at a long angle straight to the 最高の，を越す of the 障壁; were upon it, and still with that awful 速度(を上げる） unchecked were hurtling through the blackness over the 軸 of phosphorescence, the 略章 of pale light that I had watched pierce it and knew now was but another （期間が）わたる of the cubes that but a little before had fled past us. Beneath the （期間が）わたる, on each 味方する of it, I sensed illimitable 無効の.
We were over; 急ぐing along in 不明瞭. There began a mighty tumult, a 広大な 衝突，墜落ing and roaring. The clangor waxed, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 about us with tremendous 一打／打撃s of sound.
Far away was a 薄暗い glowing, as of rising sun through 激しい もやs of 夜明け. The もやs faded—miles away gleamed what at first glimpse seemed indeed to be the rising sun; a gigantic orb, whose lower 縁 just touched, was はっきりと, horizontally 削減（する） by the blackness, as though at its base that blackness was frozen.
The sun? 推論する／理由 returned to me; told me this globe could not be that.
What was it then? Ra-Harmachis, of the Egyptians, stripped of his wings, 追放するd and growing old in the 回廊（地帯）s of the Dead? Or that mocking luminary, the 冷淡な phantom of the God of light and warmth which the old Norsemen believed was 始める，決める in their frozen hell to torment the damned?
I thrust aside the fantasies, impatiently. But sun or no sun, light streamed from this orb, light in multicolored, lanced rays, banishing the blackness through which we had been 飛行機で行くing.
Closer we （機の）カム and closer; はしけ it grew about us, and by the growing light I saw that still beside us ran the abyss. And even louder, more thunderous, became the clamor.
At the foot of the radiant disk I glimpsed a luminous pool. Into it, out of the depths, protruded a tremendous rectangular tongue, gleaming like gray steel.
On the tongue an inky 形態／調整 appeared; it 解除するd itself from the abyss, 急ぐd upon the disk and took form.
Like a gigantic spider it was, squat and horned. For an instant it was silhouetted against the smiling sphere, 均衡を保った itself—and 消えるd through it.
Now, not far ahead, silhouetted as had been the spider 形態／調整, blackened into sight a cube and on it Ruth and Norhala. It seemed to hover, to wait.
"It's a door," Drake's shout （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 thinly in my ears against the ハリケーン of sound.
What I thought had been an orb was indeed a gateway, a portal; and it was gigantic.
The light streamed through it, the 炎上ing colors, the 雷 glare, the drifting 影をつくる／尾行するs were all beyond it. The suggestion of sphere had been an illusion, born of the 不明瞭 in which we were moving and in its own luminescence.
And I saw that the steel tongue was a ramp, a slide, dropping 負かす／撃墜する into the 湾.
Norhala raised her 手渡すs high above her 長，率いる. Up from the 不明瞭 flew an incredible 形態／調整—like a monstrous, 装甲の flat-支援するd crab; angled spikes protruded from it; its 抱擁する 団体／死体 was spangled with darting, greenish 炎上s.
It swept beneath us and by. On its 支援する were multitudinous breasts from which 問題／発行するd blinding flashes—sapphire blue, emerald green, sun yellow. It hung 均衡を保った as had that other nightmare 形態／調整, standing out jet 黒人／ボイコット and colossal, 後部ing upon columnar 脚s, whose 輪郭（を描く）s were those of 補欠／交替の／交替する enormous angled arrow-points and lunettes. 速く its form 転換d; an instant it hovered, half 崩壊する.
Now I saw spinning spheres and darting cubes and pyramids click into new positions. The 前線 and 味方する 脚s lengthened, the 支援する 脚s 縮めるd, fitting themselves plainly to what must be a 変化させるing angle of 降下／家系 beyond.
And it was no chimera, no kraken of the abyss. It was a car made of the Metal Things. I caught again the flashes and thought that they were jewels or heaps of 向こうずねing 鉱石s carried by the conscious machine.
It 消えるd. In its place hung 均衡を保った the cube that bore the enigmatic woman and Ruth. Then they were gone and we stood where but an instant before they had been.
We were high above an ocean of living light—a sea of incandescent splendors that stretched mile upon uncounted mile away and whose incredible waves streamed thousands of feet in 空気／公表する, flew in gigantic 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道するs, in tremendous streamers, in coruscating clouds of varicolored 炎上—as though torn by the talons of a mighty 勝利，勝つd.
My dazzled sight （疑いを）晴らすd, glare and 炎 and searing incandescence took form, became ordered. Within the sea of light I glimpsed 形態／調整s cyclopean, unnameable.
They moved slowly, with an awesome deliberateness. They shone darkly within the 炎上-woven depths. From them （機の）カム the ボレーs of the 雷s.
得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ of them there were—抱擁する and enigmatic. Their 炎上ing levins threaded the shimmering 隠すs, patterned them, as though they were the 飛行機で行くing 式服s of the very spirit of 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
And the tumult was as ten thousand Thors, smiting with 大打撃を与えるs against the enemies of Odin. As a (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進む upon whose shouting anvils was 存在 形態／調整d a new world.
A new world? A metal world!
The thought spun through my mazed brain, was gone—and not until long after did I remember it. For suddenly all that clamor died; the 雷s 中止するd; all the flitting radiances paled and the sea of 炎上ing splendors grew thin as moving もやs. The 嵐／襲撃するing 形態／調整s dulled with them, seemed to darken into the murk.
Through the 急速な／放蕩な-病弱なing light and far, far away—miles it seemed on high and many, many miles in length—a 幅の広い 禁止（する）d of fluorescent amethyst shone. From it dropped curtains, shimmering, nebulous as the marching 倍のs of the aurora; they 注ぐd, cascaded, from the amethystine 禁止（する）d.
抱擁する and purple-黒人／ボイコット against their opalescence 本体，大部分／ばら積みのd what at first I thought a mountain, so like was it to one of those fantastic buttes of our 砂漠 南西 when their castellated 最高の，を越すs are silhouetted against the setting sun; knew 即時に that this was but subconscious 努力する／競うing to translate into 条件 of reality the incredible.
It was a City!
A city 十分な five thousand feet high and 栄冠を与えるd with countless spires and turrets, titanic arches, stupendous ドームs! It was as though the man-made cliffs of lower New York were raised 得点する／非難する／２０s of times their 高さ, stretched a 得点する／非難する／２０ of times their length. And weirdly enough it did 示唆する those same 非常に高い 集まりs of masonry when one sees them blacken against the twilight skies.
The 炭坑，オーケストラ席 darkened as though night were filtering 負かす／撃墜する into it; the 広大な, purple-影をつくる／尾行するd 塀で囲むs of the city sparkled out with countless lights. From the 栄冠を与えるing arches and turrets leaped 幅の広い filaments of 炎上, flashing, electric.
Was it my 緊張するing 注目する，もくろむs, the play of the light and 影をつくる／尾行する—or were those high-flung excrescences 転換ing, changing 形態／調整? An icy 手渡す stretched out of the unknown, stilled my heart. For they were 転換ing—arches and ドームs, turrets and spires; were melting, 再現するing in ferment; like the 雷-threaded, rolling 辛勝する／優位s of the thundercloud.
I wrenched my gaze away; saw that our 壇・綱領・公約 had come to 残り／休憩（する） upon a 幅の広い and silvery ledge の近くに to the curving でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる of the portal and not a yard from where upon her 封鎖する stood Norhala, her arm clasped about the rigid form of Ruth. I heard a sigh from Ventnor, an exclamation from Drake.
Before one of us could cry out to Ruth, the cube glided to the 辛勝する／優位 of the shelf, dipped out of sight.
That upon which we 棒 trembled and sped after it.
There （機の）カム a sickening sense of 落ちるing; we lurched against each other; for the first time the pony whinnied, fearfully. Then with awful 速度(を上げる） we were 飛行機で行くing 負かす／撃墜する a wide, a glistening, a steeply angled ramp into the 炭坑，オーケストラ席, straight toward the half- hidden, 急に上がるing escarpments flashing afar.
Far ahead raced the Thing on which stood woman and maid. Their hair streamed behind them, mingled, silken web of brown and 向こうずねing 隠す of red-gold; little clouds of sparkling 血球s threaded them, like flitting 群れているs of 解雇する／砲火／射撃-飛行機で行くs; their 団体／死体s were nimbused with tiny, flickering tongues of lavender 炎上.
About us, above us, began again to rumble the countless 派手に宣伝するs of the 雷鳴.
It was as though we were on a meteor hurtling through space. The 分裂（する） 空気／公表する shrieked and shrilled, a keening 障壁 against the 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 of the 雷鳴. The 爆破 bent us far 支援する on thighs held rigid by the 磁石の 支配する.
The pony spread its 脚s, dropped its 長，率いる; through the ハリケーン roaring its 叫び声をあげるing pierced thinly, that agonizing, terrible lamentation which is of the horse and the horse alone when the 限界 of its endurance is reached.
Ventnor crouched lower and lower, 注目する，もくろむs 保護物，者d behind 武器 倍のd over his brows, 緊張するing for a glimpse of Ruth; Drake crouched beside him, を締めるing him, supporting him against the tempest.
Our line of flight became いっそう少なく abrupt, but the 速度(を上げる） 増加するd, the 勝利，勝つd-圧力 became almost insupportable. I 新たな展開d, dropped upon my 権利 arm, thrust my 長，率いる against my shoulder, 星／主役にするd backward. When first I had looked upon the place I had sensed its immensity; now I began to realize how 広大な it must really be—for already the gateway through which we had come 微光d far away on high, shrunk to a hoop of incandescent 厚かましさ／高級将校連 and dwindling 急速な／放蕩な.
Nor was it a cavern; I saw the 星／主役にするs, traced with 深い 救済 the familiar Northern 星座s. 炭坑，オーケストラ席 it might be, but whatever terror, whatever ordeals were before us, we would not have to 直面する them buried 深い within earth. There was a curious 慰安 to me in the thought.
Suddenly 星／主役にするs and sky were blotted out.
We had 急落（する），激減（する）d beneath the surface of the radiant sea.
Lying in the position in which I was, I was sensible of a diminution of the cyclonic 軍隊; the 爆破 streamed up and over the 前線 of the cube. To me drifted only the wailings of our flight and the whimpering terror of the pony.
I turned my 長，率いる 慎重に. Upon the very 辛勝する／優位 of the 飛行機で行くing 封鎖するs squatted Drake and Ventnor, grotesquely frog-like. I はうd toward them —はうd, literally, like a caterpillar; for wherever my 団体／死体 touched the surface of the cubes the attracting 軍隊 held it, 許すd a creeping movement only, surface 事情に応じて変わる upon surface—and weirdly enough like a human 手段ing-worm I 宙返り飛行d myself over to them,
As my 明らかにする palms clung to the Things I realized with finality that whatever their 活性化, their life, they WERE metal.
There was no mistaking now the 証言 of touch. Metal they were, with a hint upon 接触する of 高度に polished platinum, or at the least of a metal as finely 穀物d as it.
Also they had 気温, a curiously pleasant warmth—the surfaces were, I 裁判官d, around ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. I looked 深い 負かす／撃墜する into the little sparkling points that were, I knew, 組織／臓器s of sight; they were like the points of 接触する of innumerable intersecting 水晶 計画（する）s. They held strangest paradoxical suggestion of 存在 の近くに to the surface and still infinite distances away.
And they were like—what was it they were like?—it （機の）カム to me with a 際立った shock.
They were like the 星雲s of little aureate and sapphire 星／主役にするs in the （疑いを）晴らす gray heavens of Norhala's 注目する，もくろむs.
I crept beside Drake, struck him with my 長，率いる.
"Can't move," I shouted. "Can't 解除する my 手渡すs. Stuck 急速な／放蕩な—like a 飛行機で行く—just as you said."
"Drag 'em over your 膝s," he cried, bending to me. "It slides 'em out of the attraction."
事実上の／代理 as he had 示唆するd I 設立する to my astonishment I could slip my 手渡すs 解放する／自由な; I caught his belt, tried to 解除する myself by it.
"No use, Doc." The old grin lightened for a moment his 緊張した young 直面する. "You'll have to keep praying till the 力／強力にする's turned off. Nothing here you can slide your 膝s on."
I nodded, waddling の近くに to his 味方する; then sank 支援する on my haunches to relieve the 緊張する upon my aching 脚-muscles.
"Can you see them ahead, Walter—Ruth and the woman?" Ventnor turned his anxious 注目する，もくろむs toward me.
I peered into the 微光ing murk; shook my 長，率いる. I could see nothing. It was indeed, as though the clustered cubes sped within a 泡 of the now wanly glistening vapors; or rather as though in our passage—as a 発射物 does in 空気／公表する—we piled before us a 厚い wave of the もやs which streaming along each 味方する, の近くにing in behind, obscured all that lay around.
Yet I had, 断固としてやる, the feeling that beyond these shroudings was 広大な and ordered movement; marchings and 反対する- marchings of hosts greater even than those Golden Hordes of Genghis which ages agone had washed about the outer bases of the very 頂点（に達する）s that hid this place. （機の）カム, too, flitting shadowings of 抱擁する 形態／調整s, unnameable, moving 速く beside our way; gleamings that thrust themselves through the 隠すs like wheeling javelins of 炎上.
And always, always, everywhere that constant movement, rhythmic, terrifying—like myriads of feet of creatures of an unseen, stranger world 場内取引員／株価 time just outside the threshold of our own. 準備するing, DRILLING there in some wide vestibule of space between the known and the unknown, 警報 and 脅迫的な—均衡を保った for the signal which would send them 注ぐing over it.
Once again I seemed to stand upon the brink of an abyss of incredible 発覚, 努力する／競うing helplessly, struggling for 現実化—and so struggling became aware that our 速度(を上げる） was 速く slackening, the roaring 爆破 dying 負かす／撃墜する, the 隠すs before us thinning.
They （疑いを）晴らすd away. I saw Drake and Ventnor straighten up; raised myself to my own aching 膝s.
We were at one end of a vortex, a funneling within the radiant vapors; a funnel whose その上の end a mile ahead broadened out into a 抱擁する circle, its mistily 輪郭（を描く）d 辛勝する／優位s impinging upon the 非常に高い scarp of the—city. It was as though before us lay, upon its 味方する, a 反対／詐欺 of crystalline （疑いを）晴らす 空気／公表する against whose curved 味方するs some radiant medium heavier than 空気／公表する, はしけ than water, 圧力（をかける）d.
The 最高の，を越す arc of its prostrate base reached a thousand feet or more up the precipitous 塀で囲む; above it all was hidden in sparkling nebulosities that were like still clouds of greenly 微光ing 解雇する／砲火／射撃-飛行機で行くs. 支援する from the curving 味方するs of this 反対／詐欺, above it and below it, the 圧力（をかける）ing luminosities stretched into, it seemed, infinite distances.
Through them, suddenly, thousands of 有望な beams began to dart, to dance, weaving and interweaving, 狙撃 hither and あそこの—like myriads of 広大な／多数の／重要な サーチライトs in a phosphorescent sea 霧, like countless lances of the aurora thrusting through its own iridescent 隠すs! And in the play of these beams was something appallingly ordered, appallingly rhythmic.
It was—how can I 述べる it?—PURPOSEFUL; purposeful as the geometric shiftings of the Little Things of the 廃虚s, of the 召喚するing song of Norhala, of the Protean changes of the Smiting 形態／調整 and the に引き続いて Thing; and like all of these it was as laden with that baffling certainty of hidden meanings, of messages that the brain 認めるd as such yet knew it never could read.
The rays seemed to spring 上向き from the earth. Now they were like countless lances of light borne by marching armies of 巨人s; now they crossed and angled and flew as though they were clouds of javelins 投げつけるd by 戦う／戦いing 群れているs of the Genii of Light. And now they stood upright while through them, thrusting them aside, bending them, passed 広大な, vague 形態／調整s like mountains forming and 解散させるing; like darkening monsters of some world of light 押し進めるing through 厚い forests of slender, high- reaching trees of 冷淡な 炎上; 転換ing 影をつくる／尾行するs of monstrous chimerae slipping through ジャングルs of bamboo with trunks of diamond 解雇する／砲火／射撃; phantasmal leviathans swimming through ブレーキs of 巨大（な） reeds of radiance rising from the 誘発するing ooze of a sea of 星／主役にする 向こうずね.
Whence （機の）カム the 軍隊, the 機械装置 that produced this 反対／詐欺 of clarity, this NOT サーチライト, but unlight in the 中央 of light? Not from behind, that was 確かな —for turning I saw that behind us the もや was as 厚い. I turned again—it （機の）カム to me, why I knew not, yet with an 絶対の certainty, that the energy, the 軍隊 emanated from the distant 塀で囲む itself.
The funnel, the 反対／詐欺, did not 拡大する from where we were standing, now motionless.
It began at the 塀で囲む and 焦点（を合わせる）d upon us.
Within the 広大な／多数の／重要な circle the surface of the 塀で囲む was smooth, utterly blank; upon it was no trace of those flitting lights we had seen before we had 急落（する），激減（する）d 負かす／撃墜する toward the radiant sea. It shone with a pale blue phosphorescence. It was featureless, smooth, a blind cliff of polished, blue metal—and that was all.
"Ruth!" groaned Ventnor. "Where is she?"
Aghast at my mental 撤退 from him, angry at myself for my callousness, awkwardly I tried to はう over to him, to touch him, 慰安 him 同様に as I might.
And then, as though his cry had been a signal, the 広大な／多数の／重要な 反対／詐欺 began to move. Slowly the circled base slipped 負かす／撃墜する the shimmering facades; 負かす／撃墜する, 刻々と 負かす／撃墜する; I realized that we had paused at the 辛勝する／優位 of some 法外な declivity, for the 底（に届く） of the 反対／詐欺 was now at a decided angle while the upper 辛勝する／優位 of the circle had dropped a 十分な two hundred feet below the place where it had 残り／休憩（する）d—and still it fell.
There （機の）カム a gasp of 救済 from Ventnor, a sigh from Drake while, from my own heart, a 負わせる rolled. Not ten yards ahead of us and still 深い within the luminosity had appeared the regal 長，率いる of Norhala, the lovely 長，率いる of Ruth. The two rose out of the glow like swimmers floating from the depths. Now they were （疑いを）晴らす before us, and now we could see the surface of the cube on which they 棒.
But neither turned to us; each 星／主役にするd straightly, motionless along the axis of the 沈むing 反対／詐欺, the woman's left arm 持つ／拘留するing Ruth の近くに to her 味方する.
Drake's 手渡す caught my shoulder in a 支配する that 傷つける—nor did he need to point toward that which had wrung the exclamation from him. The funnel had broken from its slow 落ちるing; it had made one swift, startling 減少（する） and had come to 残り／休憩（する）. Its recumbent 味方する was now flattened into a triangular 計画（する）, 広げるing from the 狭くする tip in which we stood to all of five hundred feet where its base 残り／休憩（する）d against the blue 塀で囲む, and 落ちるing at a 十分な thirty-degree pitch.
The misty-辛勝する／優位d circle had become an oval, a flattened ellipse another five hundred feet high and three times that in length. And in its exact 中心, 向こうずねing 前へ／外へ as though it opened into a place of pale azure incandescence was another rectangular Cyclopean portal.
On each 味方する of it, in the 明らかに solid 直面する of the gleaming, metallic cliffs, a slit was 開始.
They began as thin lines a hundred yards in 高さ through which the 激しい light seemed to hiss; quickly they opened—広げるing like monstrous cat pupils until at last, their 広げるing 中止するing, they glared 前へ／外へ, the blue incandescence 噴出するing from them like molten steel from an opened sluice.
深い within them I sensed a movement. 得点する／非難する／２０s of 非常に高い 形態／調整s swam within and glided out of them, each 反映するing the vivid light as though they themselves were incandescent. Around their crests spun wide and 炎上ing coronets.
They 急ぐd 前へ／外へ, wheeling, whirling, driven like leaves in a whirlwind. Out they 渦巻くd from the cat's 注目する，もくろむs of the 微光ing 塀で囲む, these dervish obelisks （人が）群がるd with spinning 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. They 消えるd in the もやs. 即時に with their going, the 注目する，もくろむs 契約d; were but slits; were gone. And before us within the oval was only the waiting portal.
The 主要な 封鎖する leaped 今後. As 突然の, those that bore us followed. Again under that 緊張する of 発射物 flight we clutched each other; the pony 叫び声をあげるd in terror. The metal cliff 急ぐd to 会合，会う us like a 雷雲 of steel; the portal raced upon us—a square mouth of 冷淡な blue 炎上.
And into it we swept; were devoured by it.
Light in blinding, intolerable flood （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 about us, blackening the sight with agony. We 圧力（をかける）d, the three of us, against the 味方する of the pony, burying our 直面するs in its shaggy coat, 努力する／競うing to hide our 注目する，もくろむs from the radiance which, 緊張する closely as we might, seemed to pierce through the 団体／死体 of the little beast, through our own 長，率いるs, searing the sight.
How long we were within that glare I do not know; it seemed unending hours; it was of course only minutes—seconds, perhaps. Then I was sensible of a permeating 影をつくる／尾行する, a 不明瞭 gentle and 傷をいやす／和解させるing.
I raised my 長，率いる and opened my 注目する，もくろむs. We were moving tranquilly, with a curious suggestion of homing leisureliness, through a soft, blue shimmering 不明瞭. It was as though we were drifting within some high borderland of light; a 地域 in which that 早い vibration we call the violet was mingled with a still more 早い vibration whose quick pulsing was felt by the brain but ever fled ere that brain could 登録（する） it ーに関して／ーの点でs of color. And there seemed to be a film over my sight; dazzlement from the unearthly 炎, I thought, shaking my 長，率いる impatiently.
My 注目する，もくろむs 焦点（を合わせる）d upon an 反対する a little more than a foot away; my neck grew rigid, my scalp prickled while I 星／主役にするd, unbelieving. And that at which I 星／主役にするd was—a 骸骨／概要 手渡す. Every bone a grayish 黒人／ボイコット, はっきりと silhouetted, clean as some master 外科医's 見本／標本, it was 延長するd as though clutching at—clutching at—what was that toward which it was reaching?
Again the icy prickling over scalp and 肌—for its talons stretched out to しっかり掴む a steed that Death himself might have ridden, a rack whose 明らかにする skull hung drooping upon bent vertebrae.
I raised my 手渡すs to my 直面する to shut out the ghostly sight—and 速く the clutching bony 手渡す moved toward me—was before my 注目する，もくろむs —touched me.
The cry that sheer horror ひったくるd from me was strangled by 現実化. And so 激烈な／緊急の was my 救済, so 安心させるing was it to have in the 中央 of these mysteries some sane, 理解できる thing occur that I laughed aloud.
For the 骸骨／概要 手渡す was my own. The mournful 恐ろしい 開始する of death was —our pony. And when I looked again I knew what I would see—and see them I did—two tall 骸骨／概要s, skulls 残り／休憩（する）ing on their bony 武器, leaning against the でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる of the beast.
While ahead of us, floating 均衡を保った upon the surface of the glistening cube, were two women 骸骨／概要s—Ruth and Norhala!
Weird enough was the sight. Dureresque, grimly awful as materialization of a scene of the Dance Macabre—and yet—vastly 慰安ing.
For here was something which was 井戸／弁護士席 within the 範囲 of human knowledge. It was the light about us that did it; a vibration that even as I conjectured, was within the only partly 調査するd 地域 of the 紫外 and the comparatively unexplored 地域 above it.
Yet there were differences, for there was 非，不，無 of that misty halo around the bones, the flesh which the X-rays cannot （判決などを）下す wholly invisible. The 骸骨／概要s stood out clean 削減（する）, with no trace of fleshly vestments.
I crept over, spoke to the two.
"Don't look up yet," I said. "Don't open your 注目する，もくろむs. We're going through a queer light. It has an X-ray 質. You're going to see me as a 骸骨／概要—"
"What?" shouted Drake. Disobeying my 警告 he straightened, glared at me. And disquieting as the spectacle had been before, fully understanding it as I did, I could not 抑制する my shudder at the utter weirdness of that skull which was his 長，率いる thrusting itself toward me.
The 骸骨／概要 that was Ventnor turned to me; was 逮捕（する）d by the sight of the flitting pair ahead. I saw the fleshless jaws clamp, then opened to speak.
突然の, upon the 骸骨／概要s in 前線 the flesh dropped 支援する. Girl and woman stood there once again 式服d in beauty.
So swift was that 移行 from the grisly unreal to the normal that even to my unsuperstitious mind it smacked of necromancy. The next instant the three of us stood looking at each other, 着せる／賦与するd once more in the flesh, and the pony no longer the steed of death, but our shaggy, 患者 little companion.
The light had changed; the high violet had gone from it, and it was 発射 with yellow gleamings like 逃亡者／はかないもの sunbeams. We were passing through a wide 回廊（地帯） that seemed to be unending. The yellow light grew stronger.
"That light wasn't 正確に／まさに the Roentgen variety," Drake interrupted my absorption in our surroundings. "And I hope to God it's as different as it seemed. If it's not we may be up against a lot of trouble."
"More trouble than we're in?" I asked, a trifle satirically.
"X-ray 燃やすs," he answered, "and no way to 扱う／治療する them in this place —if we live to want 治療," he ended grimly.
"I don't think we were 支配するd to their 活動／戦闘 long enough—" I began, and was silent.
The 回廊（地帯） had opened without 警告 into a place for whose immensity I have no images that are 適する. It was a 議会 that was vaster than ten 得点する／非難する／２０ of the 広大な／多数の／重要な Halls of Karnak in one; 広大な／多数の／重要な as that fabled hall in dread Amenti where Osiris sits 王位d between the 捜査員 of Hearts and the Eater of Souls, 裁判官ing the jostling hosts of the newly dead.
寺 it was in its immensity, and its solemn vastness—but unlike any 寺 ever raised by human toil. In no 廃虚 of earth's 青年 巨大（な）s' work now 崩壊するing under the 負わせる of time had I ever sensed a 影をつくる／尾行する of the strangeness with which this was instinct. No—nor in the 粉々にするd fanes that once had held the gods of old Egypt, nor in the 中心存在d 神社s of 古代の Greece, nor 皇室の Rome, nor イスラム教寺院, basilica nor cathedral.
All these had been 献身的な to gods which, whether created by humanity as science believes, or creators of humanity as their 崇拝者s believed, still held in them that essence we 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 human.
The spirit, the 軍隊, that filled this place had in it nothing, NOTHING of the human.
No place? Yes, there was one—Stonehenge. Within that monolithic circle I had felt a something akin to this, as 残忍な; a brooding spirit —stony, stark, unyielding—as though not men but a people of 石／投石する had raised the 広大な／多数の／重要な Menhirs.
This was a 聖域 built by a people of metal!
It was filled with a soft yellow glow like pale 日光. Up from its 床に打ち倒す arose hundreds of tremendous, square 中心存在s 負かす／撃墜する whose polished 味方するs the crocus light seemed to flow.
Far, far as the gaze could reach, the columns marched, oppressively ordered, appallingly mathematical. From their massiveness distilled a sense of 力／強力にする, mysterious, mechanical yet—living; something priestly, hierophantic—as though they were 後見人s of a 神社.
Now I saw whence （機の）カム the light suffusing this place. High up の中で the 中心存在s floated 得点する／非難する／２０s of orbs that shone like pale gilt frozen suns. 広大な／多数の／重要な and small, through all the upper levels these strange luminaries gleamed, 直す／買収する，八百長をするd and motionless, hanging unsupported in space. Out from their 向こうずねing spherical surfaces darted rays of the same pale gold, rigid, unshifting, with the same suggestion of frozen stillness.
"They look like big Christmas-tree 星／主役にするs," muttered Drake.
"They're lights," I answered. "Of course they are. They're not 事柄 —not metal, I mean—"
"There's something about them like St. Elmo's 解雇する／砲火／射撃, witch lights— condensations of atmospheric electricity," Ventnor's 発言する／表明する was 静める; now that it was plain we were 近づくing the heart of this mystery in which we were enmeshed he had 明確に taken fresh 支配する, was again his observant, 科学の self.
We watched, once more silent; and indeed we had spoken little since we had begun that ride whose end we sensed の近くに. In the 広げるing of enigmatic happening after happening the mind had 砂漠d speech and crouched listening at every door of sight and 審理，公聴会 to gather some 手がかり（を与える） to 原因（となる）s, some thread of understanding.
Slowly now we were gliding through the forest of 中心存在s; so effortless, so smooth our flight that we seemed to be standing still, the tremendous columns flitting past us, turning and wheeling around us, dizzyingly. My 長，率いる swam with the しん気楼 動議, I の近くにd my 注目する，もくろむs.
"Look," Drake was shaking me. "Look. What do you make of that?"
Half a mile ahead the 中心存在s stopped at the 辛勝する／優位 of a shimmering, quivering curtain of green luminescence. High, high up past the pale gilt suns its smooth 倍のs ran, into the golden amber もや that canopied the columns.
In its sparkling was more than a hint of the dancing 血球s of the aurora; it was, indeed, as though woven of the auroral rays. And all about it played 転換ing, tremulous 影をつくる／尾行するs formed by the 合併するing of the golden light with the curtain's emerald gleaming.
Up to its base swept the cube that bore Ruth and Norhala—and stopped. From it leaped the woman, and drew Ruth 負かす／撃墜する beside her, then turned and gestured toward us.
That upon which we 棒 drew の近くに. I felt it quiver beneath me; felt on the instant, the 磁石の 支配する 減少（する） from me, angle downward and leave me 解放する／自由な. Shakily I arose from aching 膝s, and saw Ventnor flash 負かす／撃墜する and run, ライフル銃／探して盗む in 手渡す, toward his sister.
Drake bent for his gun. I moved unsteadily toward the 味方する of the clustered cubes. There （機の）カム a curious 押し進めるing 動議 運動ing me to the 辛勝する／優位. 事情に応じて変わる over upon me （機の）カム Drake and the pony—
The cube 攻撃するd, gently, playfully—and with the slightest of jars the three of us stood beside it on the 床に打ち倒す, we two men gaping at it in 新たにするd wonder, and the little beast stretching its 脚s, 解除するing its feet and whinnying with 救済.
Then 突然の the four 封鎖するs that had been our steed broke from each other; that which had been the woman's glided to them.
The four clicked into place behind it and darted from sight.
"Ruth!" Ventnor's 発言する／表明する was vibrant with his 恐れる. "Ruth! What is wrong with you? What has she done to you?"
We ran to his 味方する. He stood clutching her 手渡すs, searching her 注目する，もくろむs. They were wide, unseeing, dream filled. Upon her 直面する the 静める and stillness, which were mirrored reflections of Norhala's unearthly tranquillity, had 深くするd.
"Brother." The 甘い 発言する／表明する seemed far away, drifting out of untroubled space, an echo of Norhala's golden chimings—"Brother, there is nothing wrong with me. Indeed—all is—井戸／弁護士席 with me— brother."
He dropped the listless palms, 直面するd the woman, tall 人物／姿／数字 緊張した, drawn with mingled 激怒（する） and anguish.
"What have you done to her?" he whispered in Norhala's own tongue.
Her serene gaze took him in, undisturbed by his 怒り／怒る save for the faintest 影をつくる／尾行する of wonder, of perplexity.
"Done?" she repeated, slowly. "I have stilled all that was troubled within her—have 解除するd her above 悲しみ. I have given her the peace— as I will give it to you if—"
"You'll give me nothing," he interrupted ひどく; then, his passion breaking through all 抑制—"Yes, you damned witch—you'll give me 支援する my sister!"
In his 激怒（する） he had spoken English; she could not, of course, have understood the words, but their 怒り／怒る and 憎悪 she did understand. Her serenity quivered, broke. The strange 星／主役にするs within her 注目する，もくろむs began to glitter 前へ／外へ as they had when she had 召喚するd the Smiting Thing. Unheeding, Ventnor thrust out a 手渡す, caught her 概略で by one 明らかにする, lovely shoulder.
"Give her 支援する to me, I say!" he cried. "Give her 支援する to me!"
The woman's 注目する，もくろむs grew—awful. Out of the distended pupils the strange 星／主役にするs 炎d; upon her 直面する was something of the goddess 乱暴／暴力を加えるd. I felt the 影をつくる／尾行する of Death's wings.
"No! No—Norhala! No, ツバメ!" the 隠すs of 残忍な 静める shrouding Ruth were torn; 速く the girl we knew looked out from them. She threw herself between the two, 武器 outstretched.
"Ventnor!" Drake caught his 武器, held them tight; "that's not the way to save her!"
Ventnor stood between us, quivering, half sobbing. Never until then had I realized how 広大な／多数の／重要な, how 吸収するing was that love of his for Ruth. And the woman saw it, too, even though dimly; 想像するd it humanly. For, under the shock of human passion, that which I thought then as utterly unknown to her as her 冷淡な serenity was to us, the sleeping soul—I use the popular word for those emotional コンビナート／複合体s that are peculiar to mankind— stirred, awakened.
Wrath fled from her knitted brows; her 注目する，もくろむs dropping to the girl, lost their dreadfulness; 軟化するd. She turned them upon Ventnor, they brooded upon him; within their depths a half- troubled 利益／興味, a 尋問.
A smile 夜明けd upon the exquisite 直面する, humanizing it, transfiguring it, touching with tenderness the 甘い and sleeping mouth—as a hovering dream the lips of the slumbering maid.
And on the 直面する of Ruth, as upon a mirror, I watched that same slow, understanding tenderness 反映するd!
"Come," said Norhala, and led the way through the sparkling curtains. As she passed, an arm around Ruth's neck, I saw the 示すs of Ventnor's fingers upon her white shoulder, staining its 潔白, marring it like a blasphemy.
For an instant I hung behind, watching their 人物／姿／数字s grow misty within the 向こうずねing 影をつくる／尾行するs; then followed あわてて. Entering the もやs I was conscious of a pleasant tingling, an acceleration of the pulse, an 増加する of that sense of 井戸／弁護士席-存在 which, I grew suddenly aware, had since the beginning of our strange 旅行 最小限に減らすd the nervous attrition of constant 接触する with the 異常な.
努力する／競うing to 分類する, to 減ずる to order, my sensations I drew の近くに to the others, 追いつくing them in a dozen paces. A dozen paces more and we stepped out of the curtainings.
We stood at the 辛勝する／優位 of a 井戸／弁護士席 whose 塀で囲むs were of that same green vaporous iridescence through which we had just come, but finer 穀物d, compact; as though here the 血球s of which they were woven were far closer spun. Thousands of feet above us the mighty cylinder uprose, and in the 少なくなるd circle that was its mouth I glimpsed the 有望な 星／主役にするs; and knew by this it opened into the 解放する／自由な 空気／公表する.
All of half a mile in 直径 was this 軸, and （犯罪の）一味d 定期的に along its 高さ by wide amethystine 禁止（する）d—like （犯罪の）一味s of a hollow piston. They were, in color, replicas of that I had glimpsed before our 降下／家系 into this place and against whose gleaming cataracts the 輪郭（を描く）s of the incredible city had lowered. And they were in 動議, spinning 滑らかに, and 速く.
Only one swift ちらりと見ること I gave them, my 注目する，もくろむs held by a most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の —edifice—altar—machine—I could not find the word for it—then.
Its base was a scant hundred yards from where we had paused and concentric with the 味方するs of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. It stood upon a 厚い circular pedestal of what appeared to be cloudy 激しく揺する 水晶 supported by hundreds of 厚い 棒s of the same 構成要素.
Up from it 解除するd the structure, a thing of glistening 反対／詐欺s and spinning golden disks; fantastic yet disquietingly symmetrical; bizarre as an angled headdress worn by a 山地の Javanese god—yet coldly, painfully mathematical. In every direction the 反対／詐欺s pointed, seemingly interwoven of 立ち往生させるs of metal and of light.
What was their color? It （機の）カム to me—that of the mysterious element which stains the sun's corona, that diadem seen only when our day 星／主役にする is in （太陽，月の）食／失墜; the unknown element which science has 指名するd coronium, which never yet has been 設立する on earth and that may be electricity in its one 構成要素 form; electricity that is ponderable; 軍隊 whose vibrations are 重要なd 負かす／撃墜する to 集まり; 力／強力にする transmuted into 実体.
Thousands upon thousands the 反対／詐欺s bristled, pyramiding to the base of one tremendous spire that 次第に減少するd up almost to the 最高の，を越す of the 軸 itself.
In their 配合 the mind caught infinite 計算／見積りs carried into infinity; an apotheosis of geometry compassing the rhythms of unknown spatial dimensions; 集中 of the equations of the 星／主役にする hordes.
The mathematics of the Cosmos.
From the left of the crystalline base swept an enormous sphere. It was twice the 高さ of a tall man, and it was a paler blue than any of these Things I had seen, almost, indeed, an azure; different, too, in other subtle, indefinable ways.
Behind it glided a pair of the pyramidal 形態／調整s, their pointed tips higher by a yard or more than the 最高の，を越す of the sphere. They paused—regarding us. Out from the opposite arc of the 水晶 pedestal moved six other globes, somewhat smaller than the first and of a 深い purplish luster.
They separated, lining up on each 味方する of the leader now standing a little in 前進する of the twin tetrahedrons, rigid and motionless as watching guards.
There they stood—that enigmatic 列／漕ぐ／騒動, 意図, 熟考する／考慮するing us beneath their god or altar or machine of 反対／詐欺s and disks within their cylinder 塀で囲むd with light.
And at that moment there crystallized within my consciousness the sublimation of all the strangenesses of all that had gone before, a panic loneliness as though I had wandered into an 外国人 world—a world as unfamiliar to humanity, as unfamiliar with it as our own would seem to a thinking, 動きやすい 水晶 流浪して の中で men.
Norhala raised her white 武器 in salutation; from her throat （機の）カム a lilting 主題 of her weirdly ordered, golden 詠唱するing. Was it speech, I wondered; and if so—祈り or entreaty or 命令（する）?
The 広大な／多数の／重要な sphere quivered and undulated. Swifter than the 注目する，もくろむ could follow it dilated; opened!
Where the azure globe had been, flashed out a disk of 炎上ing splendors, the very secret soul of flowered 炎上! And 同時に the pyramids leaped up and out behind it—two gigantic, four-rayed 星／主役にするs 炎ing with 冷淡な blue 解雇する／砲火／射撃s.
The green auroral curtainings ゆらめくd out, ran with streaming radiance —as though some Spirit of Jewels had broken 社債s of enchantment and burst 前へ／外へ jubilant, flooding the 軸 with its 解放する／自由なd glories. Norhala's song 中止するd; an arm dropped 負かす／撃墜する upon the shoulders of Ruth.
Then woman and girl began to float toward the radiant disk.
As one, the three of us sprang after them. I felt a shock that was like a quick, abrupt tap upon every 神経 and muscle, 強化するing them into helpless rigidity.
麻ひさせるing that sharp, unseen 接触する had been, but nothing of 苦痛 followed it. Instead it created an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の acuteness of sight and 審理，公聴会, an 異常な 重要なing up of the observational faculties, as though the energy so mysteriously drawn from our モーター 中心s had been thrown 支援する into the sensory.
I could take in every minute 詳細（に述べる） of the flashing 奇蹟 of gemmed 解雇する／砲火／射撃s and its 炎上ing 大臣s. Halfway between them and us Norhala and Ruth drifted; I could catch no hint of voluntary 動議 on their part and knew that they were not walking, but were 存在 borne onward by some manifestation of that same 軍隊 which held us motionless.
I forgot them in my contemplation of the Disk.
It was oval, twenty feet in 高さ, I 裁判官d, and twelve in its greatest width. A 幅の広い 禁止（する）d, translucent as sun golden chrysolite, ran about its periphery.
始める，決める within this zodiac and spaced at mathematically 正規の／正選手 intervals were nine ovoids of intensely living light. They shone like nine gigantic cabochon 削減（する） sapphires; they 範囲d from palest, watery blue up through azure and purple and 負かす／撃墜する to a ghostly mauve 発射 with sullen undertones of crimson.
In each of them was 王位d a 炎上 that seemed the very fiery essence of vitality.
The—BODY—was convex, swelling outward like the boss of a 保護物，者; shimmering rosy-gray and crystalline. From the 決定的な ovoids ran a pattern of sparkling threads, irised and brilliant as floss of molten jewels; converging with interfacings of spirals, of volutes and of triangles into the 核.
And that 核, what was it?
Even now I can but guess—brain in part as we understand brain, certainly; but far, far more than that in its energies, its 力／強力にするs.
It was like an 巨大な rose. An incredible rose of a thousand の近くに clustering petals. It blossomed with a myriad 転換ing hues. And instant by instant the flood of varicolored 炎上 that 注ぐd into its petalings 負かす／撃墜する from the sapphire ovoids waxed and 病弱なd in 盛り上がりs and diminuendoes of relucent harmonies—ecstatic, awesome.
The heart of the rose was a 星／主役にする of incandescent ruby.
From the 炎上ing crimson 中心 to aureate, flashing penumbra it was instinct with and 注ぐd 前へ／外へ 力／強力にする—力／強力にする 広大な and conscious.
Not with that same completeness could I realize the 大臣ing 星／主役にする 形態／調整s, half hidden as they were by the Disk. Their radiance was いっそう少なく, nor had they its 奇蹟 of pulsing gem 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. Blue they were, blue of a peculiar vibrancy, and blue were the glistening threads that ran 負かす／撃墜する from blue-黒人／ボイコット circular convexities 始める，決める within each of the points 明白な to me.
Unlike in 形態／調整, their 炎上 of vitality dimmer than the ovoids of the Disk's golden zone, still I knew that they were even as those—ORGANS, 組織／臓器s of unknown senses, unknown potentialities. Their nuclei I could not 観察する.
The floating 人物／姿／数字s had drawn の近くに to that disk and had paused.
And on the moment of their pausing I felt a 殺到する of strength, a snapping of the （一定の）期間 that had bound us, an instantaneous 撤退 of the inhibiting 軍隊. Ventnor broke into a run, 持つ／拘留するing his ライフル銃／探して盗む at the 警報. We raced after him; were の近くに to the 向こうずねing 形態／調整s. And, gasping, we stopped short not a dozen paces away.
For Norhala had 急に上がるd up toward the 炎上ing rose of the Disk as though 解除するd by gentle, unseen 手渡すs. の近くに to it for an instant she swung. I saw the exquisite 団体／死体 gleam through her thin 式服s as though bathed in soft 炎上s of rosy pearl.
Higher she floated, and toward the 権利 of the zodiac. From the 辛勝する／優位s of three of the ovoids 渦巻くd a little cloud of tentacles, gossamer filaments of opal. They whipped out a 十分な yard from the Disk's surface, touching her, caressing her.
For a moment she hung there, her 直面する hidden from us; then was dropped softly to her feet and stood, 武器 stretched wide, her 巡査 hair streaming cloudily about her regal 長，率いる.
And up past her floated Ruth, levitated as had been she—and her 直面する, ecstatic as though she were gazing into 楽園, yet drenched with the tranquillity of the infinite. Her wide 注目する，もくろむs 星／主役にするd up toward that rose of splendors through which the pulsing colors now raced more 速く. She hung 均衡を保った before it while around her 長，率いる a faint aureole began to form.
Again the gossamer threads thrust 前へ／外へ, searched her. They ran over her rough 着せる／賦与するing—perplexedly. They coiled about her neck, stole through her hair, 小衝突d shut her 注目する，もくろむs, circled her brow, her breasts, girdled her.
Weirdly was it like some 知能 観察するing, 熟考する／考慮するing, some creature of another 種類—puzzled by its similarity and unsimilarity with the one other creature of its 肉親，親類d it knew, and 努力する／競うing to reconcile those differences. And like such a 尋問 brain calling upon others for counsel, it swung Ruth 上向き to the watching 星／主役にする at the 権利.
A ライフル銃／探して盗む 発射 rang out.
Another—the 報告（する）／憶測s breaking the silence like a profanation. Unseen by either of us, Ventnor had slipped to one 味方する where he could cover the 核心 of ruby 炎上 that must have seemed to him the heart of the Disk's rose of 解雇する／砲火／射撃. He knelt a few yards away, white lipped, 注目する，もくろむs 冷淡な gray ice, sighting carefully for a third 発射.
"Don't! ツバメ—don't 解雇する／砲火／射撃!" I shouted, leaping toward him.
"Stop! Ventnor—" Drake's panic cry mingled with my own.
But before we could reach him, Norhala flew to him, like a darting swallow. 負かす／撃墜する the 直面する of the Disk glided the upright 団体／死体 of Ruth, struck softly, stood swaying.
And out of the blue-黒人／ボイコット convexity within a 星／主役にする point of one of the opened pyramids a lance of 激しい green 炎上 darted, a 雷 bolt as real as any 投げつけるd by tempest, upon Ventnor.
The 粉々にするd 空気／公表する の近くにd behind the streaming 誘発する with the sound of breaking glass.
It struck—Norhala.
It struck her. It seemed to splash upon her, to run 負かす／撃墜する her like water. One curling tongue writhed over her 明らかにする shoulder and leaped to the バーレル／樽 of the ライフル銃／探して盗む in Ventnor's 手渡すs. It flashed up it and licked him. The gun was torn from his 支配する, 投げつけるd high in 空気／公表する, 爆発するing as it went. He leaped convulsively from his 膝s and dropped.
I heard a wailing, low, bitter and heartbroken. Past us ran Ruth, all dream, all unearthliness gone from a 直面する now a 悲劇の mask of human woe and terror. She threw herself 負かす／撃墜する beside her brother, felt of his heart; then raised herself upon her 膝s and thrust out supplicating 手渡すs to the 形態／調整s.
"Don't 傷つける him any more! He didn't mean it!" she cried out to them piteously—like a child. She reached up, caught one of Norhala's 手渡すs. "Norhala—don't let them kill him. Don't let them 傷つける him any more. Please!" she sobbed.
Beside me I heard Drake 悪口を言う／悪態ing.
"If they touch her I'll kill the woman! I will, by God I will!" He strode to Norhala's 味方する.
"If you want to live, call off these devils of yours." His 発言する／表明する was strangled.
She looked at him, wonder 深くするing on the tranquil brow, in the （疑いを）晴らす, untroubled gaze. Of course she could not understand his words—but it was not that which made my own sick 逮捕 grow.
It was that she did not understand what called them 前へ／外へ. Did not even understand what 推論する／理由 lay behind Ruth's 悲しみ, Ruth's 祈り.
And more and more wondering grew in her 注目する，もくろむs as she looked from the 脅すing Drake to the supplicating Ruth, and from them to the still 団体／死体 of Ventnor.
"Tell her what I say, Goodwin. I mean it."
I shook my 長，率いる. That was not the way, I knew. I looked toward the Disk, still 側面に位置するd with its sextette of spheres, still guarded by the 炎上ing blue 星／主役にするs. They were motionless, 静める, watching. I sensed no 敵意, no 怒り／怒る; it was as though they were waiting for us to—to—waiting for us to do what?
It （機の）カム to me—they were indifferent. That was it—as indifferent as we could be to the struggle of an ephemera; and as mildly curious.
"Norhala," I turned to the woman, "she would not have him 苦しむ; she would not have him die. She loves him."
"Love?" she repeated, and all of her wonderment seemed crystallized in the word. "Love?" she asked.
"She loves him," I said; and then, why I did not know, but I 追加するd, pointing to Drake: "and he loves her."
There was a tiny, astonished sob from Ruth. Again Norhala brooded over her. Then with a little despairing shake of her 長，率いる, she paced over and 直面するd the 広大な／多数の／重要な Disk.
Tensely we waited. Communication there was between them, 交換 of —thought; how carried out I would not hazard even to myself.
But of a surety these two—the goddess woman, the wholly unhuman 形態／調整 of metal, of jeweled 解雇する／砲火／射撃s and conscious 軍隊—understood each other.
For she turned, stood aside—and the 団体／死体 of Ventnor quivered, arose from the 床に打ち倒す, stood upright and with の近くにd 注目する，もくろむs, 長，率いる dropping upon one shoulder, glided toward the Disk like a dead man carried by those messengers never seen by man who, the Arabs believe, 耐える the death drugged souls before Allah for their awakening.
Ruth moaned and hid her 注目する，もくろむs; Drake reached 負かす／撃墜する, gathered her up in his 武器, held her の近くに.
Ventnor's 団体／死体 stood before the Disk, then swam up along its 直面する. The tendrils waved out, felt of it, thrust themselves 負かす／撃墜する through the wide collar of the shirt. The floating form passed higher, over the 辛勝する／優位 of the Disk; lay high beside the 権利 星／主役にする point of the rayed 形態／調整 to which Ruth had been passing when Ventnor's 発射 brought the 悲劇 upon us. I saw other tentacles whip 前へ／外へ, 診察する, caress.
Then 負かす／撃墜する the 団体／死体 swung, was borne through 空気／公表する, laid gently at our feet.
"He is not—dead," it was Norhala beside me; she 解除するd Ruth's 直面する from Drake's breast. "He will not die. It may be he will walk again. They can not help," there was a 影をつくる／尾行する of 陳謝 in her トンs. "They did not know. They thought it was the"—she hesitated as though at loss for words —"the—the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 Play."
"The 解雇する／砲火／射撃 Play?" I gasped.
"Yes," she nodded. "You shall see it. And now I will take him to my house. You are 安全な—now, nor need you trouble. For he has given you to me."
"Who has given us to you—Norhala?" I asked, as calmly as I could.
"He"—she nodded to the Disk, then spoke the phrase that was both 古代の Assyria's and 古代の Persia's 肩書を与える for their all-征服する／打ち勝つing 支配者s, and that meant—"the King of Kings. The 広大な／多数の／重要な King, Master of Life and Death."
She took Ruth from Drake's 武器, pointing to Ventnor.
"耐える him," she 命令（する）d, and led the way 支援する through the 塀で囲むs of light.
As we 解除するd the 団体／死体, I slipped my 手渡す through the shirt, felt at the heart. Faint was the pulsation and slow, but 正規の／正選手.
の近くに to the encircling vapors I cast one look behind me. The 形態／調整s stood immobile, flashing disks, gigantic radiant 星／主役にするs and the six 広大な／多数の／重要な spheres beneath their geometric 最高の-Euclidean god or 神社 or machine of interwoven threads of luminous 軍隊 and metal—still motionless, still watching.
We 現れるd into the place of 中心存在s. There stood the hooded pony and its patience, its uncomplaining 受託 of its place as servant to man brought a lump into my throat, salved, I suppose, my human vanity, abased as it had been by the colossal 無関心／冷淡 of those things to which we were but playthings.
Again Norhala sent 前へ／外へ her call. Out of the maze glided her quintette of familiars; again the four clicked into one. Upon its 最高の，を越す we 解除するd, Drake 上がるing first, the pony; then the 団体／死体 of Ventnor.
I saw Norhala lead Ruth to the remaining cube; saw the girl break away from her, leap beside me, and ひさまづくing at her brother's 長，率いる, cradle it against her soft breast. Then as I 設立する in the 薬／医学 事例／患者 the hypodermic needle and the strychnine for which I had been searching, I began my examination of Ventnor.
The cubes quivered—swept away through the forest of columns.
We crouched, the three of us, blind to anything that lay about us, heedless of whatever road of wonders we were on, 努力する／競うing to 強化する in Ventnor the 誘発する of life so 近づく 絶滅.
In our 集中 upon Ventnor 非，不，無 of us had given thought to the passing of time, nor where we were going. We stripped him to the waist, and while Ruth massaged 長，率いる and neck, Drake's strong fingers kneaded chest and abdomen. I had used to the 最大の my somewhat 限られた／立憲的な 医療の knowledge.
We had 設立する no 示す nor 燃やす upon him, not even upon his 手渡すs over which had run the licking 炎上. The わずかに purplish, cyanotic tinge of his 肌 had given way to a （疑いを）晴らす pallor; the 肌 was itself disquietingly 冷淡な, the 血- 圧力 only わずかに subnormal. The pulse was more 早い, stronger; the breathing faint but 正規の／正選手, and with no laboring. The pupils of his 注目する，もくろむs were 契約d almost to the point of invisibility.
I could get no nervous reactions whatever. I am familiar with the 影響s of electric shock and know what to do in such 事例／患者s, but Ventnor's symptoms, while 類似の in part, 現在のd other features unknown to me and most puzzling. There was a passive automatism, a perplexing muscular rigidity which 原因（となる）d 武器 and 脚s, 手渡すs and 長，率いる to remain, doll-like, in any position placed.
Several times during my labors I had been aware of Norhala gazing 負かす／撃墜する upon us; but she made no 成果／努力 to help, nor did she speak.
Now, my 緊張するd attention relaxing, I began to receive and 公式文書，認める impressions from without. There was a different feeling in the 空気／公表する, a diminution of the 磁石の 緊張; I smelled the blessed breath of trees and water.
The light about us was （疑いを）晴らす and pearly, about the intensity of the moon at 十分な. Looking 支援する along the way we had been traveling, I saw a half mile away vertical, knife-sharp 辛勝する／優位s of two 直面するing cliffs, the gap between them a mile or more wide.
Through them we must have passed, for beyond them were the radiant もやs of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of the city, and through this precipitous gateway filtered the enveloping luminosity. On each 味方する of us uprose 徐々に converging and perpendicular scarps along whose base 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd a sparse foliage.
There （機の）カム a low whistle of astonishment from Drake; I turned. We were slowly gliding toward something that looked like nothing so much as a 抱擁する and shimmering 泡 of mingled sapphire and turquoise, swimming up from and two-thirds above and the balance still hidden within earth. It seemed to draw to itself the light, sending it 支援する with gleamings of the gray-blue of the 星／主役にする sapphire, with pellucid azures and lazulis like clouded jades, with glistening peacock iridescences and tender, 乳の greens of tropic shallows.
Little turrets—globular and topaz, yellow and pierced with tiny hexagonal 開始s clustered about it like baby 泡s just nestling 負かす／撃墜する to 残り／休憩（する）.
広大な／多数の／重要な trees 影をつくる／尾行するd it, unfamiliar trees の中で whose glossy leaves blossomed in 花冠s flowers pink and white as apple- blossoms. From their graceful 支店s strange fruits, golden and scarlet and pear-形態／調整d, hung pendulous.
It was an elfin palace; a goblin dwelling; such a bower as some mirthful, beauty-loving Jinn King of Jewels might have built from enchanted hoards for some 井戸／弁護士席-beloved daughter of earth.
All of fifty feet in 高さ was the blue globe, and up to a wide and ovaled 入り口 ran a 幅の広い and 向こうずねing roadway. Along this the cubes swept and stopped.
"My house," murmured Norhala.
The attraction that had held us to the surface of the 封鎖するs relaxed, angled through changed and 補助装置ing lines of 軍隊; the hosts of minute 注目する，もくろむs sparkling quizzically, interestedly, at us, we gently slid Ventnor's 団体／死体; 解除するd 負かす／撃墜する the pony.
"Enter," sighed Norhala, and waved a welcoming 手渡す.
"Tell her to wait a minute," ordered Drake.
He slipped the 包帯 from off the pony's 長，率いる, threw off the saddlebags, and led it to the 味方する of the roadway where 厚い, lush grass was growing, spangled with flowerets. There he hobbled it and 再結合させるd us. Together we 選ぶd up Ventnor and passed slowly through the portal.
We stood in a 影をつくる／尾行するd 議会. The light that filled it was translucent, and oddly enough with little of the bluish 質 I had 推定する／予想するd. Crystalline it was; the 影をつくる／尾行するs crystalline, too, rigid—like the facets of 広大な／多数の／重要な 水晶s. And as my 注目する，もくろむs accustomed themselves I saw that what I had thought 影をつくる／尾行するs 現実に were 非，不，無.
They were slices of semitransparent 石／投石する like pale moonstones, springing from the curving 塀で囲むs and the high ドーム, and bisecting and intersecting the 議会. They were pierced with oval doorways over which fell 微光ing metallic curtains—silk of silver and gold.
I glimpsed a pile of this silken stuff 近づく by, and as we laid our 重荷（を負わせる） upon it Ruth caught my arm with a little 脅すd cry.
Through a curtained oval sidled a 人物／姿／数字.
黒人／ボイコット and tall, its long and gnarled 武器 swung apelike; its shoulders were distorted, one so much longer than the other that the 手渡す upon that 味方する hung far below the 膝.
It walked with a curious, crablike 動議. Upon its 直面する were stamped countless wrinkles and its blackness seemed いっそう少なく that of pigmentation than the 天候ing of unbelievable years, the very stain of ancientness. And about neither 直面する nor 人物／姿／数字 was there anything to show whether it was man or woman.
From the 新たな展開d shoulders a short and sleeveless red tunic fell. Incredibly old the creature was—and by its corded muscles, its sinewy tendons, as incredibly powerful. It raised within me a half sick revulsion, loathing. But the 注目する，もくろむs were not 古代の, no. Irisless, lashless, 黒人／ボイコット and brilliant, they 炎d out of the 直面する's carven web of wrinkles, 意図 upon Norhala and filled with a 炎上 of worship.
It threw itself at her feet, prostrate, the inordinately long 武器 outstretched.
"Mistress!" it whined in a high and curiously unpleasant falsetto. "広大な／多数の／重要な lady! Goddess!"
She stretched out a sandaled foot, touched one of the 黒人／ボイコット taloned 手渡すs, and at the 接触する I saw a shiver of ecstasy run through the lank 団体／死体. "Yuruk—" she began, and paused, regarding us.
"The goddess speaks! Yuruk hears! The goddess speaks!" It was a 詠唱する of adoration.
"Yuruk. Rise. Look upon the strangers."
The creature—and now I knew what it was—writhed, 新たな展開d, and hideously apelike crouched upon its haunches, 手渡すs knuckling the 床に打ち倒す.
By the amazement in the unwinking 注目する，もくろむs it was plain that not till now had the eunuch taken cognizance of us. The amazement fled, was 取って代わるd with a 黒人／ボイコット 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of malignancy, of 憎悪—jealousy.
"Augh!" he snarled; leaped to his feet; thrust an arm toward Ruth. She gave a little cry, cowered against Drake.
"非，不，無 of that!" He struck 負かす／撃墜する the clutching arm.
"Yuruk!" There was a hint of 怒り／怒る in the bell-トンd 発言する／表明する. "Yuruk, these belong to me. No 害（を与える） must come to them. Yuruk—beware!"
"The goddess 命令（する）s. Yuruk obeys." If 恐れる quavered in the words, beneath was more than a trace of a sullenness, too, 悪意のある enough.
"That's a nice little playmate for her new playthings," muttered Drake. "If that bird gets the least bit gay—I shoot him pronto." He gave Ruth a 安心させるing 抱擁する. "元気づける up, Ruth. Don't mind that thing. He's something we can 扱う."
Norhala waved a white 手渡す; Yuruk sidled over to one of the curtained ovals and through it, 再現するing almost 即時に with a 抱擁する platter upon which were fruits, and a curdly white liquid in bowls of 厚い porcelain.
"Eat," she said, as the gnarled 黒人／ボイコット 武器 placed the platter at our feet.
"Hungry?" asked Drake. Ruth shook her 長，率いる violently.
"I'm going out for the saddlebags," said Drake. "We'll use our own stuff —while it lasts. I'm taking no chances on what the Yuruk lad brings —with all 予定 尊敬（する）・点 to Norhala's good 意向s."
He started for the doorway; the eunuch 封鎖するd his way.
"We have with us food of our own, Norhala," I explained. "He goes to get it."
She nodded indifferently; clapped her 手渡すs. Yuruk shrank 支援する, and out strode Drake.
"I am 疲れた／うんざりした," sighed Norhala. "The way was long. I will refresh myself—"
She stretched out a foot toward Yuruk. He knelt, unlaced the turquoise 禁止（する）d, drew off the sandals. Her 手渡すs sought her breast, dwelt for an instant there.
負かす／撃墜する slipped her silken 隠すs, clingingly, slowly, as though 気が進まない to unclasp her; whispering they fell from the high and tender breasts, the delicate 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd hips, and clustered about her feet in soft petalings as of some flower of pale amber 泡，激怒すること. Out of the calyx of that flower arose the gleaming 奇蹟 of her 団体／死体 栄冠を与えるd with glowing glory of her cloudy hair.
Naked she was, yet 着せる／賦与するd with an unearthly 潔白, the 潔白 of the far-flung, serene 星／主役にするs, of the eternal snows upon some 静める, high-flung 頂点（に達する）, the tranquil, silver 夜明けs of spring; 保護するd by some （一定の）期間 of divinity which 冷気／寒がらせるd and slew the 炎上 of 願望（する）. A maiden Ishtar, a virginal Isis; a woman—yet with no more of woman's 誘惑する than if she had been some exquisite and breathing statue of mingled ivory and milk of pearls.
So she stood, indifferent to us who gazed upon her, 孤立した, musing, as though she had forgotten us. And that serene 無関心／冷淡, with its entire absence of what we 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 sex consciousness, 明らかにする／漏らすd to me once more how 広大な／多数の／重要な was the abyss between us and her.
Slowly she raised her 武器, 負傷させる the floating tresses into a coronal. I saw Drake enter with the saddlebags; saw them 減少（する） from 手渡すs relaxing under the shock of this amazing tableau; saw his 注目する，もくろむs 広げる and fill with wonder and half-awed 賞賛.
Now Norhala stepped out of her fallen 式服s and moved toward the その上の 塀で囲む, Yuruk に引き続いて. He stooped, raised an ewer of silver and began gently to 注ぐ over her shoulders its contents. Again and again he bent and filled the 大型船, dipping it into a shallow 水盤／入り江 from which （機の）カム the 泡ing and chuckling of a little spring. And again I marveled at the marble smoothness and fineness of her 肌 on which the caressing water left tiny silvery globules, gemming it. The eunuch slithered to one 味方する, drew from a quaint chest 着せる／賦与するs of white floss; patted her 乾燥した，日照りの with them; threw over her shoulders a silken 式服 of blue.
支援する she floated to us; hovered over Ruth, crouching with her brother's 長，率いる upon her 膝s.
She made a 動議 as though to draw the girl to her; hesitated as Ruth's 直面する 始める，決める in a passion of 否定. A 影をつくる／尾行する of 親切 drifted through the wide, mysterious 注目する，もくろむs; a 影をつくる／尾行する of pity joined it as she looked curiously 負かす／撃墜する on Ventnor.
"Bathe," she murmured, and pointed to the pool. "And 残り／休憩（する）. No 害（を与える） shall come to any of you here. And you—" A 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）d for a moment lightly on the girl's curly 長，率いる. "When you 願望（する） it—I will again give you —peace!"
She parted the curtains, and the eunuch still に引き続いて, was hidden beyond them.
Helplessly we looked at each other. Then called 前へ／外へ perhaps by what she saw in Drake's 注目する，もくろむs, perhaps by another thought, Ruth's cheeks crimsoned, her 長，率いる drooped; the web of her hair hid the warm rose of her 直面する, the frozen pallor of Ventnor's.
突然の, she sprang to her feet. "Walter! 刑事! Something's happening to ツバメ!"
Before she had 中止するd we were beside her; bending over Ventnor. His mouth was 開始, slowly, slowly—with an 成果／努力 agonizing to watch. Then his 発言する／表明する （機の）カム through lips that scarcely moved; faint, faint as though it floated from infinite distances, a ghost of a 発言する／表明する whispering with phantom breath out of a dead throat.
"Hard—hard! So hard!" the whispering complained. "Don't know how long I can keep 関係—with 発言する／表明する.
"Was fool to shoot. Sorry—might have gotten you in worse trouble —but crazy with 恐れる for Ruth—thought, too, might be 価値（がある） chance. Sorry—not my usual line—"
The thin thread of sound 中止するd. I felt my 注目する，もくろむs fill with 涙／ほころびs; it was like Ventnor to flay himself like this for what he thought stupidity, like him to make this 成果／努力 to 収容する／認める his supposed fault and crave forgiveness —as like him as that mad attack upon the 炎上ing Disk in its own 寺, surrounded by its 大臣s, had been so bafflingly unlike his usual 冷静な／正味の, collected self.
"ツバメ," I called, bending closer, "it's nothing, old friend. No one 非難するs you. Try to rouse yourself."
"Dear," it was Ruth, passionately tender, "it's me. Can you hear me?"
"Only speck of consciousness and motionless in the 無効の," the whisper began again. "Terribly alive, terribly alone. Seem outside space yet— still in 団体／死体. Can't see, hear, feel—short-回路・連盟d from every sense —but in some strange way realize you—Ruth, Walter, Drake.
"See without seeing—here floating in 不明瞭 that is also light —黒人／ボイコット light—indescribable. In touch, too, with these—"
Again the 発言する／表明する 追跡するd into silence; returned, word and phrase 注ぐing 前へ／外へ disconnected, with a curious and 騒然とした rhythm, like 急ぐing wave crests linked by half-seen threads of the spindrift, 声の fragments of thought 速く 組み立てる／集結するd by some subtle faculty of the mind as they fell into a coherent, incredible message.
"Group consciousness—gigantic—operating within our sphere —operating also in spheres of vibration, energy, 軍隊—above, below one to which humanity 反応するs—perception, 命令（する） 軍隊s known to us—but in greater degree—cognizant, manipulate unknown energies—senses known to us—unknown—can't realize them fully—impossible cover, only impinge on 接触する points akin to our senses, 軍隊s—even these profoundly 修正するd by 付加 ones —metallic, crystalline, 磁石の, electric—inorganic with every 力／強力にする of 有機の—consciousness 基本的に same as ours— profoundly changed by differences in 機械装置 through which it finds 表現—difference our 団体／死体s—theirs.
"Conscious, 動きやすい—inexorable, invulnerable. Getting clearer —see more 明確に—see—" the 発言する／表明する shrilled out in a shuddering, thin 攻撃する of despair—"No! No—oh, God— no!"
Then 明確に and solemnly:
"And God said: let us make men in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
A silence; we bent closer, listening; the still, small 発言する／表明する took up the thread once more—but 明確に その上の on. Something we had 行方不明になるd between that text from Genesis and what we were now 審理，公聴会; something that even as he had 警告するd us, he had not been able to articulate. The whisper broke through 明確に in the middle of a 宣告，判決.
"Nor is Jehovah the God of myriads of millions who through those same centuries, and centuries upon centuries before them, 設立する earth a garden and 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な—and all these countless gods and goddesses only phantom 障壁s raised by man to stand between him and the eternal 軍隊s man's instinct has always 警告するd him are ever in 準備完了 to destroy. That do destroy him as soon as his vigilance relaxes, his 抵抗 弱めるs— the eternal, ruthless 法律 that will 絶滅する humanity the instant it runs 反対する to that 法律 and turns its will and strength against itself—"
A little pause; then （機の）カム these singular 宣告，判決s:
"Weaklings praying for 奇蹟s to make 平易な the path their own wills should （疑いを）晴らす. Beggars who whine for alms from dreams. Shirkers each struggling to place upon his god the 重荷（を負わせる） whose carrying and whose carrying alone can give him strength to walk 解放する／自由な and unafraid, himself godlike の中で the 星／主役にするs."
And now distinctly, unfalteringly, the 発言する／表明する went on:
"Dominion over all the earth? Yes—as long as man is fit to 支配する; no longer. Science has 警告するd us. Where was the 哺乳動物 when the 巨大（な） reptiles 統治するd? Slinking hidden and afraid in the dark and secret places. Yet man sprang from these skulking beasts.
"For how long a time in the history of earth has man been master of it? For a breath—for a cloud's passing. And will remain master only until something grown stronger ひったくるs mastery from him—even as he ひったくるd it from his ravening 肉親，親類d—as they took it from the reptiles— as did the reptiles from the 巨大（な） saurians—which snatched it from the nightmare 支配者s of the Triassic—and so 負かす／撃墜する to whatever held sway in the murk of earth 夜明け.
"Life! Life! Life! Life everywhere struggling for 完成!
"Life （人が）群がるing other life aside, 戦う／戦いing for its moment of 最高位, 伸び（る）ing it, 持つ／拘留するing it for one rise and 落ちる of the wings of time （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing through eternity—and then—投げつけるd 負かす／撃墜する, trampled under the feet of another 緊張するing life whose hour has struck.
"Life （人が）群がるing outside every 閉めだした threshold in a million circling worlds, yes, in a million 急ぐing universes; 圧力（をかける）ing against the doors, bursting them 負かす／撃墜する, 圧倒的な, 軍隊ing out those dwellers who had thought themselves so 安全な・保証する.
"And these—these—" the 発言する／表明する suddenly dropped, became thickly, vibrantly resonant, "over the Threshold, within the House of Man —nor does he even dream that his doors are 負かす／撃墜する. These—Things of metal whose brains are thinking 水晶s—Things that suck their strength from the sun and whose 血 is the 雷.
"The sun! The sun!" he cried. "There lies their 証拠不十分!"
The 発言する／表明する rose in pitch, grew strident.
"Go 支援する to the city! Go 支援する to the city! Walter—Drake. They are not invulnerable. No! The sun—strike them through the sun! Go into the city—not invulnerable—the Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s— strike at the 反対／詐欺s when—the Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s— ah-h-h-ah—"
We shrank 支援する appalled, for from the parted, scarcely moving lips in the unchanging 直面する a gust of laughter, mad, mocking, terrifying, racked its way.
"攻撃を受けやすい—under the 法律—even as we! The 反対／詐欺s!
"Go!" he gasped. A （軽い）地震 shook him; slowly the mouth の近くにd.
"ツバメ! Brother," wept Ruth. I thrust my 手渡す into his breast; felt the heart （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing, with a curious suggestion of stubborn, unshakable strength, as though every 決定的な 軍隊 had concentrated there as in a beleaguered citadel.
But Ventnor himself, the consciousness that was Ventnor was gone; had 孤立した into that subjective 無効の in which he had said he floated—a lonely sentient 原子, his one line of communication with us 削減（する）; 厳しいd from us as 完全に as though he were, as he had 述べるd it, outside space.
And Drake and I looked at each other's 注目する，もくろむs, neither daring to be first to break the silence of which the muffled sobbing of the girl seemed to be the sorrowful soul.
The peculiar ability of the human mind to slip so readily into the 避難 of the commonplace after, or even during, some 井戸／弁護士席-nigh intolerable 危機, has been to me long one of the most 利益／興味ing phenomena of our psychology.
It is instinctively a 保護の habit, of course, acquired through 正確に the same 原因（となる）s that had given to animals their 保護の coloration—the （土地などの）細長い一片s, say, of the zebra and tiger that blend so cunningly with the 閉めだした and speckled shadowings of bush and ジャングル, the twig and leaflike 形態／調整s and hues of 確かな insects; in fact, all that natural 偽装する which was the basis of the art of concealment so astonishingly developed in the late war.
Like the animals of the wild, the mind of man moves through a ジャングル —the ジャングル of life, passing along paths beaten out by the thought of his countless forefathers in their 進歩 from birth to death.
And these paths are 国境d and 審査するd, figuratively and literally, with bush and trees of his own 選択, setting out and cultivation— 避難所s of the familiar, the habitual, the customary.
On these ancestral paths, within these 障壁s of usage, man moves hidden and 安全な・保証する as the animals in their haunts—or so he thinks.
Outside them 嘘（をつく） the wildernesses and the gardens of the unknown, and man's little 追跡するs are but rabbit-runs in an illimitable forest.
But they are home to him!
Therefore it is that he scurries from some open place of 発覚, some 嵐／襲撃する of emotion, some strength-実験（する）ing struggle, 支援する into the 避難所 of the obvious; finding it an 知識人 環境 that 需要・要求するs no slightest 支出 of mental energy or 率先, strength to sally 前へ／外へ again into the unfamiliar.
I crave 容赦 for this digression. I 始める，決める it 負かす／撃墜する because now I remember how, when Drake at last broke the silence that had の近くにd in upon the passing of that still, small 発言する／表明する the essence of these thoughts occurred to me.
He strode over to the weeping girl, and in his 発言する／表明する was a roughness that 怒り／怒るd me until I realized his 目的.
"Get up, Ruth," he ordered. "He （機の）カム 支援する once and he'll come 支援する again. Now let him be and help us get a meal together. I'm hungry."
She looked up at him, incredulously, indignation rising.
"Eat!" she exclaimed. "You can be hungry?"
"You bet I can—and I am," he answered cheerfully. "Come on; we've got to make the best of it."
"Ruth," I broke in gently, "we'll all have to think about ourselves a little if we're to be of any use to him. You must eat—and then 残り／休憩（する）."
"No use crying in the milk even if it's spilt," 観察するd Drake, even more cheerfully 残虐な. "I learned that at the 前線 where we got so we'd yelp for food even when the lads who'd been bringing it were all mixed up in it."
She 解除するd Ventnor's 長，率いる from her （競技場の）トラック一周, 残り／休憩（する）d it on the silks; arose, 注目する，もくろむs wrathful, her little 手渡すs の近くにd in 握りこぶしs as though to strike him.
"Oh—you brute!" she whispered. "And I thought—I thought —Oh, I hate you!"
"That's better," said 刑事. "Go ahead and 攻撃する，衝突する me if you want. The madder you get the better you'll feel."
For a moment I thought she was going to take him at his word; then her 怒り／怒る fled.
"Thanks—刑事," she said 静かに.
And while I sat 熟考する／考慮するing Ventnor, they put together a meal from the 蓄える／店s, brewed tea over the spirit-lamp with water from the 泡ing spring. In these commonplaces I knew that she at least was finding 救済 from that 緊張する of the 異常な under which we had labored so long. To my surprise I 設立する that I was hungry, and with 深い 救済 I watched Ruth partake of food and drink even though lightly.
About her seemed to hover something of the ethereal, elusive, and disquieting. Was it the strangely pellucid light that gave the 影響, I wondered; and knew it was not, for as I scanned her covertly, there fell upon her 直面する that 影をつくる／尾行する of 残忍な tranquillity, of unearthly 撤退 which, I guessed, had more than anything else maddened Ventnor into his attack upon the Disk.
I watched her fight against it, 運動 it 支援する. White-lipped, she raised her 長，率いる and met my gaze. And in her 注目する，もくろむs I read both terror and— shame.
It （機の）カム to me that painful as it might be for her the time for 尋問 had come.
"Ruth," I said, "I know it's not necessary to remind you that we're in a tight place. Every fact and every 捨てる of knowledge that we can lay 持つ／拘留する of is of the 最大の importance in enabling us to 決定する our course.
"I'm going to repeat your brother's question—what did Norhala do to you? And what happened when you were floating before the Disk?"
The 炎 of 利益／興味 in Drake's 注目する，もくろむs at these questions changed to amazement at her stricken recoil from them.
"There was nothing," she whispered—then defiantly— "nothing. I don't know what you mean."
"Ruth!" I spoke はっきりと now, in my own perplexity. "You do know. You must tell us—for his sake." I pointed toward Ventnor.
She drew a long breath.
"You're 権利—of course," she said unsteadily. "Only I—I thought maybe I could fight it out myself. But you'll have to know it— there's a taint upon me."
I caught in Drake's swift ちらりと見ること the echo of my own thrill of 逮捕 for her sanity.
"Yes," she said, now 静かに. "Some new and 外国人 thing within my heart, my brain, my soul. It （機の）カム to me from Norhala when we 棒 the 飛行機で行くing 封鎖する, and—he—調印（する）d upon me when I was in—his"— again she crimsoned, "embrace."
And as we gazed at her, incredulously:
"A thing that 勧めるs me to forget you two—and ツバメ—and all the world I've known. That tries to pull me from you—from all —to drift untroubled in some 広大な 静める filled with an ordered ecstasy of peace. And whose calling I want, God help me, oh, so 猛烈に to 注意する!
"It whispered to me first," she said, "from Norhala—when she put her arm around me. It whispered and then seemed to float from her and cover me like—like a 隠す, and from 長，率いる to foot. It was a quietness and peace that held within it a happiness at one and the same time utterly tranquil and utterly 解放する／自由な.
"I seemed to be at the doorway to unknown ecstasies—and the life I had known only a dream—and you, all of you—even ツバメ, dreams within a dream. You weren't—real—and you did not —事柄."
"Hypnotism," muttered Drake, as she paused.
"No." She shook her 長，率いる. "No—more than that. The wonder of it grew—and grew. I thrilled with it. I remember nothing of that ride, saw nothing—except that once through the peace enfolding me pierced 警告 that ツバメ was in 危険，危なくする, and I broke through to see him clutching Norhala and to see floating up in her 注目する，もくろむs death for him.
"And I saved him—and again forgot. Then, when I saw that beautiful, 炎上ing 形態／調整—I felt no terror, no 恐れる—only a tremendous—joyous—予期, as though—as though—" She 滞るd, hung her 長，率いる, then leaving that 宣告，判決 unfinished, whispered: "and when—it—解除するd me it was as though I had come at last out of some endless 黒人／ボイコット ocean of despair into the 十分な sun of 楽園."
"Ruth!" cried Drake, and at the 苦痛 in his cry she winced.
"Wait," she said, and held up a little, tremulous 手渡す. "You asked— and now you must listen."
She was silent; and when once more she spoke her 発言する／表明する was low, curiously rhythmic; her 注目する，もくろむs rapt:
"I was 解放する／自由な—解放する／自由な from every human fetter of 恐れる or 悲しみ or love or hate; 解放する／自由な even of hope—for what was there to hope for when everything 望ましい was 地雷? And I was elemental; one with the eternal things yet fully conscious that I was—I.
"It was as though I were the 向こうずねing 影をつくる／尾行する of a 星／主役にする afloat upon the breast of some still and hidden woodland pool; as though I were a little 勝利，勝つd dancing の中で the mountain 最高の，を越すs; a もや whirling 負かす／撃墜する a 静かな glen; a shimmering lance of the aurora pulsing in the high 孤独s.
"And there was music—strange and wondrous music and terrible, but not terrible to me—who was part of it. 広大な chords and singing 主題s that rang like clusters of little swinging 星／主役にするs and harmonies that were like the very 発言する／表明する of infinite 法律 解決するing within itself all discords. And all —all—passionless, yet—rapturous.
"Out of the Thing that held me, out from its 解雇する／砲火／射撃s pulsed vitality— a flood of 残忍な energy in which I was bathed. And it was as though this energy were—組立て直すing me, fitting me even closer to the elemental things, changing me fully into them.
"I felt the little tendrils touching, caressing—then （機の）カム the 発射s. Awakening was—dreadful, a struggling 支援する from 溺死するing. I saw ツバメ—爆破d. I drove the—the （一定の）期間 away from me, tore it away.
"And, O Walter—刑事—it 傷つける—it 傷つける—and for a breath before I ran to him it was like—like coming from a world in which there was no disorder, no 悲しみ, no 疑問s, a rhythmic, harmonious world of light and music, into—into a world that was like a 黒人／ボイコット and dirty kitchen.
"And it's there," her 発言する／表明する rose, hysterically. "It's still within me —whispering, whispering; 勧めるing me away from you, from ツバメ, from every human thing; bidding me give myself up, 降伏する my humanity.
"Its 調印（する）," she sobbed. "No—HIS 調印（する）! An 外国人 consciousness 調印（する）d within me, that tries to make the human me a slave—that waits to 打ち勝つ my will—and if I 降伏する gives me freedom, an incredible freedom—but makes me, 存在 still human, a— monster."
She hid her 直面する in her 手渡すs, quivering.
"If I could sleep," she wailed. "But I'm afraid to sleep. I think I shall never sleep again. For sleeping how do I know what I may be when I wake?"
I caught Drake's 注目する，もくろむ; he nodded. I slipped my 手渡す 負かす／撃墜する into the 薬／医学-事例／患者, brought 前へ／外へ a 確かな potent and tasteless combination of 麻薬s which I carry upon 探検s.
I dropped a little into her cup, then held it to her lips. Like a child, unthinking, she obeyed and drank.
"But I'll not 降伏する." Her 注目する，もくろむs were 悲劇の. "Never think it! I can 勝利，勝つ —don't you know I can?"
"勝利，勝つ?" Drake dropped 負かす／撃墜する beside her, drew her toward him. "Bravest girl I've known—of course you'll 勝利，勝つ. And remember this— nine-tenths of what you're thinking now is 純粋に over-wrought 神経s and weariness. You'll 勝利，勝つ—and we'll 勝利，勝つ, never 疑問 it."
"I don't," she said. "I know it—oh, it will be hard—but I will—I will—"
Her 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd, her 団体／死体 relaxed; the potion had done its work quickly. We laid her beside Ventnor on the pile of silken stuffs, covered them both with a 倍の, then looked at each other long and silently—and I wondered whether my 直面する was as grim and drawn as his.
"It appears," he said at last, curtly, "that it's up to you and me for pow-wow quick. I hope you're not sleepy."
"I am not," I answered as curtly; the 辛勝する／優位 of 神経s in his manner of 尋問 doing nothing to soothe my own, "and even if I were I would hardly 推定する／予想する to put all the 重荷（を負わせる） of the 現在の problem upon you by going to sleep."
"For God's sake don't be a prima donna," he ゆらめくd up. "I meant no 罪／違反."
"I'm sorry, 刑事," I said. "We're both a little jumpy, I guess." He nodded; gripped my 手渡す.
"It wouldn't be so bad," he muttered, "if all four of us were all 権利. But Ventnor's 負かす／撃墜する and out, and God alone knows for how long. And Ruth —has all the trouble we have and some special ones of her own. I've an idea"—he hesitated—"an idea that there was no exaggeration in that story she told—an idea that if anything she underplayed it."
"I, too," I replied somberly. "And to me it is the most hideous 段階 of this whole 状況／情勢—and for 推論する／理由s not all connected with Ruth," I 追加するd.
"Hideous!" he repeated. "考えられない—yet all this is 考えられない. And still—it is! And Ventnor—coming 支援する—that way. Like a lost soul finding 発言する／表明する.
"Was it raving, Goodwin? Or could he have been—how was it he put it—in touch with these Things and their 目的? Was that message —truth?"
"Ask yourself that question," I said. "Man—you know it was truth. Had not inklings of it come to you even before he spoke? They had to me. His message was but an 解釈／通訳, a 合成 of facts I, for one, 欠如（する）d the courage to 収容する／認める."
"I, too," he nodded. "But he went その上の than that. What did he mean by the Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s—and that the Things—were 攻撃を受けやすい under the same 法律 that orders us? And why did he 命令（する） us to go 支援する to the city? How could he know—how could he?"
"There's nothing inexplicable in that, at any 率," I answered. "異常な sensitivity of perception 予定 to the cutting off of all sensual impressions. There's nothing uncommon in that. You have its most familiar form in the sensitivity of the blind. You've watched the same thing at work in 確かな forms of hypnotic experimentation, 港／避難所't you?
"Through the 操作／手術 of 完全に 理解できる 原因（となる）s the mind 伸び（る）s the 力／強力にする to 反応する to vibrations that 普通は pass unperceived; is able to 事業／計画（する） itself through this 重要なing up of perception into a wider area of consciousness than the normal. Just as in 確かな 病気s of the ear the 苦しんでいる人, though deaf to sounds within the 普通の／平均（する） 範囲 of 審理，公聴会, is fully aware of sound vibrations far above and far below those the healthy ear 登録（する）s."
"I know," he said. "I don't need to be 納得させるd. But we 受託する these things in theory—and when we get up against them for ourselves we 疑問.
"How many people are there in Christendom, do you think, who believe that the Saviour 上がるd from the dead, but who if they saw it today would 主張する upon 医療の 査察, doctor's 証明書s, a clinic, and even after that （判決などを）下す a Scotch 判決? I'm not speaking irreverently—I'm just 明言する／公表するing a fact."
Suddenly he moved away from me, strode over to the curtained oval through which Norhala had gone.
"刑事," I cried, に引き続いて him あわてて, "where are you going? What are you going to do?"
"I'm going after Norhala," he answered. "I'm going to have a 対決 with her or know the 推論する／理由 why."
"Drake," I cried again, aghast, "don't make the mistake Ventnor did. That's not the way to 勝利，勝つ through. Don't—I beg you, don't."
"You're wrong," he answered stubbornly. "I'm going to get her. She's got to talk."
He thrust out a 手渡す to the curtains. Before he could touch them, they were parted. Out from between them slithered the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch. He stood motionless, regarding us; in the 署名／調印する-黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs a red 炎上 of 憎悪. I 押し進めるd myself between him and Drake.
"Where is your mistress, Yuruk?" I asked.
"The goddess has gone," he replied sullenly.
"Gone?" I said suspiciously, for certainly Norhala had not passed us. "Where?"
"Who shall question the goddess?" he asked. "She comes and she goes as she pleases."
I translated this for Drake.
"He's got to show me," he said. "Don't think I'm going to 流出／こぼす any beans, Goodwin. But I want to talk to her. I think I'm 権利, honestly I do."
After all, I 反映するd, there was much in his 決意 to recommend it. It was the obvious thing to do—unless we 認める that Norhala was superhuman; and that I would not 収容する／認める. In 命令（する） of 軍隊s we did not yet know, en 和合 with these People of Metal, 調印（する）d with that 外国人 consciousness Ruth had 述べるd—all these, yes. But still a woman —of that I was 確かな . And surely Drake could be 信用d not to repeat Ventnor's error.
"Yuruk," I said, "we think you 嘘（をつく）. We would speak to your mistress. Take us to her."
"I have told you that the goddess is not here," he said. "If you do not believe it is nothing to me. I cannot take you to her for I do not know where she is. Is it your wish that I take you through her house?"
"It is," I said.
"The goddess has 命令（する）d me to serve you in all things." He 屈服するd, sardonically. "Follow."
Our search was short. We stepped out into what for want of better words I can 述べる only as a central hall. It was circular, and strewn with 厚い piled small rugs whose hues had been 軟化するd by the alchemy of time into exquisite, shadowy echoes of color.
The 塀で囲むs of this hall were of the same moonstone 実体 that had enclosed the 議会 upon whose inner threshold we were. They whirled straight up to the ドーム in a crystalline, cylindrical 反対／詐欺. Four doorways like that in which we stood pierced them. Through each of their curtainings in turn we peered.
All were 正確に 類似の in 形態／調整 and 割合s, radiating in a lunetted, curved base triangle from the middle 議会; the curvature of the enclosing globe forming 支援する 塀で囲む and roof; the translucent slicings the 味方するs; the circle of 床に打ち倒す of the inner hall the truncating lunette.
The first of these 議会s was utterly 明らかにする. The one opposite held a half-dozen 控訴s of the lacquered armor, as many wicked looking, short and 二塁打-辛勝する／優位d swords and long javelins. The third I 裁判官d to be the lair of Yuruk; within it was a 巡査 brazier, a stand of spears and a gigantic 屈服する, a quiver 十分な of arrows leaning beside it. The fourth room was littered with coffers 広大な／多数の／重要な and small, of 支持を得ようと努めるd and of bronze, and all tightly の近くにd.
The fifth room was beyond question Norhala's bedchamber. Upon its 床に打ち倒す the 古代の rugs were 厚い. A low couch of carven ivory inset with gold 残り／休憩（する）d a few feet from the doorway. A dozen or more of the chests were scattered about and flowing over with silken stuffs.
Upon the 支援する of four golden lions stood a high mirror of polished silver. And の近くに to it, in curiously incongruous 国内の array stood a stiffly 保安官d 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of sandals. Upon one of the chests were heaped 徹底的に捜すs and fillets of 爆撃する and gold and ivory studded with jewels blue and yellow and crimson.
To all of these we gave but a passing ちらりと見ること. We sought for Norhala. And of her we 設立する no 影をつくる／尾行する. She had gone even as the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch had said; flitting unseen past Ruth, perhaps, 吸収するd in her watch over her brother; perhaps through some hidden 開始 in this room of hers.
Yuruk let 減少（する） the curtains, sidled 支援する to the first room, we after him. The two there had not moved. We drew the saddlebags の近くに, propped ourselves against them.
The 黒人／ボイコット eunuch squatted a dozen feet away, 直面するing us, chin upon his 膝s, taking us in with unblinking 注目する，もくろむs blank of any emotion. Then he began to move slowly his tremendously long 武器 in 平易な, soothing 動議, the 手渡すs running along the 床に打ち倒す upon their talons in arcs and circles. It was curious how these 手渡すs seemed to be endowed with a volition of their own, 独立した・無所属 of the 武器 upon which they swung.
And now I could see only the 手渡すs, 往復（する）ing so 滑らかに, so rhythmically 支援する and 前へ／外へ—weaving so sleepily, so sleepily 支援する and 前へ／外へ —黒人／ボイコット 手渡すs that dripped sleep—hypnotic.
Hypnotic! I sprang from the lethargy の近くにing upon me. In one quick 味方する ちらりと見ること I saw Drake's 長，率いる nodding—nodding in time to the movement of the 黒人／ボイコット 手渡すs. I jumped to my feet, shaking with an intensity of 激怒（する） unfamiliar to me; thrust my ピストル into the wrinkled 直面する.
"Damn you!" I cried. "Stop that. Stop it and turn your 支援する."
The corded muscles of the 武器 契約d, the claws of the slithering paws drew in as though he were about to clutch me; the ebon pools of 注目する，もくろむs were covered with a frozen film of hate.
He could not have known what was this tube with which I menaced him, but its 脅し he certainly sensed and was afraid to 会合，会う. He scuttered about, wrapped his 武器 around his 膝s, crouched with 支援する toward us.
"What's the 事柄?" asked Drake drowsily.
"He tried to hypnotize us," I answered すぐに. "And pretty nearly did."
"So that's what it was." He was now wide awake. "I watched those 手渡すs of his and got sleepier and sleepier—I guess we'd better tie Mr. Yuruk up." He jumped to his feet.
"No," I said, 抑制するing him. "No. He's 安全な enough as long as we're on the 警報. I don't want to use any 軍隊 on him yet. Wait until we know we can get something 価値（がある） while by doing it."
"All 権利," he nodded, grimly. "But when the time comes I'm telling you straight, Doc, I'm going the 限界. There's something about that human spider that makes me itch to squash him—slowly."
"I'll have no compunction—when it's 価値（がある） while," I answered as grimly.
We sank 負かす／撃墜する again against the saddlebags; Drake brought out a 黒人／ボイコット 麻薬を吸う, looked at it sorrowfully; at me appealingly.
"All 地雷 was on that pony that bolted," I answered his wistfulness.
"All 地雷 was on my beast, too," he sighed. "And I lost my pouch in that spurt from the 廃虚s."
He sighed again, clamped white teeth 負かす／撃墜する upon the 茎・取り除く.
"Of course," he said at last, "if Ventnor was 権利 in that—that disembodied 分析 of his, it's rather—井戸／弁護士席, terrifying, isn't it?"
"It's all of that," I replied, "and かなり more."
"Metal, he said," Drake mused. "Things of metal with brains of thinking 水晶 and their 血 the 雷s. You 受託する that?"
"So far as my own 観察 has gone—yes," I said. "Metallic yet 動きやすい. Inorganic but with all the 質s we have hitherto thought only those of the 有機の and with others 追加するd. Crystalline, of course, in structure and 高度に コンビナート／複合体. 活動させる／戦時編成するd by 磁石の-electric 軍隊s consciously 発揮するd and as much a part of their life as brain energy and 神経 現在のs are of our human life. Animate, moving, sentient combinations of metal and electric energy."
He said:
"The 開始 of the Disk from the globe and of the two 爆破ing 星／主役にするs from the pyramids show the 柔軟性 of the outer—plate would you call it? I couldn't help thinking of the armadillo after I had time to think at all."
"It may be"—I struggled against the 有罪の判決 now strong upon me —"it may be that within that metallic 爆撃する is an 有機の 団体／死体, something soft—animal, as there is within the horny carapace of the 海がめ, the nacreous 弁s of the oyster, the 爆撃するs of the crustaceans —it may be that even their inner surface is 有機の—"
"No," he interrupted, "if there is a 団体／死体—as we know a 団体／死体 —it must be between the outer surface and the inner, for the latter is 水晶, jewel hard, impenetrable.
"Goodwin—Ventnor's 弾丸s 攻撃する，衝突する fair. I saw them strike. They did not ricochet—they dropped dead. Like 飛行機で行くs dashed up against a 激しく揺する —and the Thing was no more conscious of their striking than a 激しく揺する would have been of those 飛行機で行くs."
"Drake," I said, "my own 有罪の判決 is that these creatures are 絶対 metallic, 完全に inorganic—incredible, unknown forms. Let us go on that basis."
"I think so, too," he nodded; "but I 手配中の，お尋ね者 you to say it first. And yet —is it so incredible, Goodwin? What is the 鮮明度／定義 of 決定的な 知能—sentience?
"Haeckel's is the 受託するd one. Anything which can receive a 刺激, that can 反応する to a 刺激 and 保持するs memory of a 刺激 must be called an intelligent, conscious （独立の）存在. The gap between what we have long called the 有機の and the inorganic is 刻々と 減少（する）ing. Do you know of the remarkable 実験s of Lillie upon さまざまな metals?"
"ばく然と," I said.
"Lillie," he went on, "証明するd that under the electric 現在の and other exciting mediums metals 展示（する）d 事実上 every reaction of the human 神経 and muscle. It grew 疲れた／うんざりした, 残り／休憩（する）d, and after 残り／休憩（する）ing was perceptibly stronger than before; it got what was 事実上 indigestion, and it 展示（する）d a peculiar but unmistakable memory. Also, he 設立する, it could acquire 病気 and die.
"Lillie 結論するd that there 存在するd a real metallic consciousness. It was Le Bon who first 証明するd also that metal is more 極度の慎重さを要する than man, and that its immobility is only 明らかな.*
[* Le Bon, 進化 Of 事柄, 一時期／支部 11. ]
"Take the 封鎖する of 磁石の アイロンをかける that stands so gray and 明らかに lifeless, 支配する it to a 磁石の 現在の lifeless, what happens? The アイロンをかける 封鎖する is composed of 分子s which under ordinary 条件s are 性質の／したい気がして in all possible directions indifferently. But when the 現在の passes through there is tremendous movement in that 明らかに inert 集まり. All of the tiny 粒子s of which it is composed turn and 転換 until their north 政治家s all point more or いっそう少なく だいたい in the direction of the 磁石の 軍隊.
"When that happens the 封鎖する itself becomes a magnet, filled with and surrounded by a field of 磁石の energy; instinct with it. Outwardly it has not moved; 現実に there has been prodigious 動議."
"But it is not conscious 動議," I 反対するd.
"Ah, but how do you know?" he asked. "If Jacques Loeb* is 権利, that 活動／戦闘 of the アイロンをかける 分子s is every bit as conscious a movement as the least and the greatest of our own. There is 絶対 no difference between them.
"Your and my and its every movement is nothing but an involuntary and 必然的な reaction to a 確かな 刺激. If he's 権利, then I'm a buttercup—but that's neither here nor there. Loeb—all he did was to 再び述べる 運命, one of humanity's oldest ideas, in the 条件 of tropisms, infusoria and light. Omar Khayyam chemically reincarnated in the Rockefeller 学校／設ける. にもかかわらず those who 受託する his theories have to 収容する／認める that there is essentially no difference between their impulses and the 急ぐ of filings toward a magnet.
"平等に にもかかわらず, Goodwin, the アイロンをかける does 会合，会う Haeckel's three 実験（する）s —it can receive a 刺激, it does 反応する to that 刺激 and it 保持するs memory of it; for even after the 現在の has 中止するd it remains changed in tensile strength, conductivity and other 質s that were 修正するd by the passage of that 現在の; and as time passes this memory fades. 正確に as some human experience 増加するs wariness, 警告を与える, which 重要なing up of 質s remains with us after the experience has passed, and fades away in the 割合 of our sensitivity 加える retentiveness divided by the time elapsing from the 初めの experience—正確に／まさに as it is in the アイロンをかける."
[* Professor Jacques Loeb, of the Rockefeller 学校／設ける, New York, "The Mechanistic Conception of Life." ]
"認めるd," I acquiesced. "We now come to their means of locomotion. In its simplest 条件 all locomotion is 進歩 through space against the 軍隊 of gravitation. Man's walk is a 一連の rhythmic つまずくs against this 軍隊 that 絶えず 努力する／競うs to drag him 負かす／撃墜する to earth's 直面する and keep him 圧力（をかける）d there. Gravitation is an etheric—磁石の vibration akin to the 軍隊 which 持つ／拘留するs, to use your simile again, Drake, the とじ込み／提出するing against the magnet. A walk is a constant breaking of the 現在の.
"Take a 動議 picture of a man walking and run it through the lantern 速く and he seems to be 飛行機で行くing. We have 非，不，無 of the ぎこちない fallings and 回復s that are the 速度 of walking as we see it.
"I take it that the movement of these Things is a conscious breaking of the gravitational 現在の just as much as is our own movement, but by a rhythm so swift that it appears to be continuous.
"Doubtless if we could so 支配（する）／統制する our sight as to 収容する／認める the vibrations of light slowly enough we would see this 明らかに smooth 動議 as a 一連の leaps—just as we do when the 動議-picture 操作者 slows 負かす／撃墜する his machine 十分に to show us walking in a 一連の つまずくs.
"Very 井戸／弁護士席—so far, then, we have nothing in this 現象 which the human mind cannot conceive as possible; therefore intellectually we still remain masters of the phenomena; for it is only that which human thought cannot encompass which it need 恐れる."
"Metallic," he said, "and crystalline. And yet—why not? What are we but 捕らえる、獲得するs of 肌 filled with 確かな 実体s in 解答 and stretched over a supporting and 動きやすい 機械装置 大部分は made up of lime? Out of that primeval jelly which Gregory* calls Protobion （機の）カム after untold millions of years us with our 肌s, our nails, and our hair; （機の）カム, too, the serpents with their 規模s, the birds with their feathers; the horny hide of the rhinoceros and the fairy wings of the バタフライ; the 爆撃する of the crab, the gossamer loveliness of the moth and the shimmering wonder of the mother-of-pearl.
[* J. W. Gregory, F.R.S.D.Sc., Professor of 地質学, University of Glasgow. ]
"Is there any greater gap between any of these and the metallic? I think not."
"Not materially," I answered. "No. But there remains— consciousness!"
"That," he said, "I cannot understand. Ventnor spoke of—how did he put it?—a group consciousness, operating in our sphere and in spheres above and below ours, with senses known and unknown. I got—glimpses —Goodwin, but I cannot understand."
"We have agreed for 推論する／理由s that seem 十分な to us to call these Things metallic, 刑事," I replied. "But that does not やむを得ず mean that they are composed of any metal that we know. にもかかわらず, 存在 metal, they must be of crystalline structure.
"As Gregory has pointed out, 水晶s and what we call living 事柄 had an equal start in the first 必須のs of life. We cannot conceive life without giving it the せいにする of some sort of consciousness. Hunger cannot be anything but conscious, and there is no other 刺激 to eat but hunger.
"The 水晶s eat. The extraction of 力／強力にする from food is conscious because it is purposeful, and there can be no 目的 without consciousness; 類似して the 力／強力にする to work from such derived energy is also purposeful and therefore conscious. The 水晶s do both. And the 水晶s can 送信する／伝染させる all these abilities to their children, just as we do. For although there would seem to be no 推論する／理由 why they should not continue to grow to gigantic size under 都合のよい 条件s—yet they do not. They reach a size beyond which they do not develop.
"Instead, they bud—give birth, in fact—to smaller ones, which 増加する until they reach the size of the 先行する 世代. And like the children of man and animals, these younger 世代s grow on 正確に as their progenitors!
"Very 井戸／弁護士席, then—we arrive at the conception of a metallically crystalline 存在, which by some 爆発 of the 軍隊 of 進化 has burst from the to us familiar and 明らかに inert 行う／開催する／段階 into these Things that 持つ／拘留する us. And is there any greater difference between the forms with which we are familiar and them than there is between us and the はうing amphibian which is our remote ancestor? Or between that and the amoeba —the little swimming stomach from which it 発展させるd? Or the amoeba and the inert jelly of the Protobion?
"As for what Ventnor calls a group consciousness I would assume that he means a communal 知能 such as that shown by the bees and the ants —that in the 事例／患者 of the former Maeterlinck calls the 'Spirit of the 蜂の巣.' It is shown in their 配合s—just as the geometric 協定 of those 配合s shows also 明確に their crystalline 知能.
"I 服従させる／提出する that in their 早い 調整 either for attack or movement or work without 明らかな communication having passed between the 部隊s, there is nothing more remarkable than the 群れているing of a 蜂の巣 of bees where also without 明らかな communication just so many waxmakers, nurses, honey-gatherers, 化学者／薬剤師s, bread-製造者s, and all the 変化させるd specialists of the 蜂の巣 go with the old queen, leaving behind 十分な number of each class for the needs of the young queen.
"All this apportionment is 影響d without any means of communication that we 認める. Still it is most 明白に intelligent 選択. For if it were haphazard all the honeymakers might leave and the 蜂の巣 餓死する, or all the 化学者／薬剤師s might go and the food for the young bees not be 適切に 用意が出来ている—and so on and so on."
"But metal," he muttered, "and conscious. It's all very 井戸／弁護士席—but where did that consciousness come from? And what is it? And where did they come from? And most of all, why 港／避難所't they 侵略（する）／超過（する） the world before this?
"Such 開発 as theirs, such an 進化, presupposes aeons of time —long as it took us to drag up from the lizards. What have they been doing—why 港／避難所't they been ready to strike—if Ventnor's 権利—at humanity until now?"
"I don't know," I answered, helplessly. "But 進化 is not the slow, plodding 過程 that Darwin thought. There seem to be 爆発s— nature will create a new form almost in a night. Then comes the long ages of 開発 and 調整, and suddenly another new race appears.
"It might be so of these—some 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 条件s that 形態／調整d them. Or they might have developed through the ages in spaces within the earth—there's that incredible abyss we saw that is evidently one of their 主要道路s. Or they might have dropped here upon some fragment of a broken world, 設立する in this valley the 権利 条件s and developed in amazing rapidity.* They're all possible theories—take your 選ぶ."
"Something's held them 支援する—and they're 急ぐing to a 最高潮," he whispered. "Ventnor's 権利 about that—I feel it. And what can we do?"
"Go 支援する to their city," I said. "Go 支援する as he ordered. I believe he knows what he's talking about. And I believe he'll be able to help us. It wasn't just a request he made, nor even an 控訴，上告—it was a 命令（する）."
"But what can we do—just two men—against these Things?" he groaned.
"Maybe we'll find out—when we're 支援する in the city," I answered.
"井戸／弁護士席," his old 無謀な cheerfulness （機の）カム 支援する to him, "in every 危機 of this old globe it's been up to one man to turn the trick. We're two. And at the worst we can only go 負かす／撃墜する fighting a little before the 残り／休憩（する） of us. So, after all, whatEVER the hell, WHAT the hell."
For a time we were silent.
"井戸／弁護士席," he said at last, "we have to go to the city in the morning." He laughed. "Sounds as though we were living in the 郊外s, somehow, doesn't it?"
"It can't be many hours before 夜明け," I said. "Turn in for a while, I'll wake you when I think you've slept enough."
"It doesn't seem fair," he 抗議するd, but sleepily.
* Professor Svante Arrhenius's theory of propagation of life by means of minute spores carried through space. See his "Worlds in the Making."— W.T.G.
"I'm not sleepy," I told him; nor was I.
But whether I was or not, I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to question Yuruk, 連続する and undisturbed.
Drake stretched himself out. When his breathing showed him 急速な／放蕩な asleep indeed, I slipped over to the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch and crouched, 権利 手渡す の近くに to the butt of my (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, 直面するing him.
"Yuruk," I whispered, "you love us as the wheat field loves the あられ／賞賛する; we are as welcome to you as the death cord to the 非難するd. Lo, a door opened into a land of unpleasant dreams you thought 調印（する）d, and we （機の）カム through. Answer my questions truthfully and it may be that we shall return through that door."
利益／興味 井戸／弁護士席d up in the depths of the 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs.
"There is a way from here," he muttered. "Nor does it pass through— Them. I can show it to you."
I had not been blind to the flash of malice, of cunning, that had 発射 across the wrinkled 直面する.
"Where does that way lead?" I asked. "There were those who sought us; men 覆う？ in armor with javelins and arrows. Does your way lead to them, Yuruk?"
For a time he hesitated, the lashless lids half の近くにd.
"Yes," he said sullenly. "The way leads to them; to their place. But will it not be safer for you there—の中で your 肉親，親類d?"
"I don't know that it will," I answered 敏速に. "Those who are unlike us smote those who are like us and drove them 支援する when they would have taken and 殺害された us. Why is it not better to remain with them than to go to our 肉親，親類d who would destroy us?"
"They would not," he said "If you gave them—her." He thrust a long thumb backward toward sleeping Ruth. "Cherkis would 許す much for her. And why should you not? She is only a woman."
He spat—in a way that made me want to kill him.
"Besides," he ended, "have you no arts to amuse him?"
"Cherkis?" I asked.
"Cherkis," he whined. "Is Yuruk a fool not to know that in the world without, new things have arisen since long ago we fled from Iskander into the secret valley? What have you to beguile Cherkis beyond this woman flesh? Much, I think. Go then to him—unafraid."
Cherkis? There was a familiar sound to that. Cherkis? Of course—it was the 指名する of Xerxes, the Persian 征服者／勝利者, corrupted by time into this —Cherkis. And Iskander? 平等に, of course—Alexander. Ventnor had been 権利.
"Yuruk," I 需要・要求するd 直接／まっすぐに, "is she whom you call goddess— Norhala—of the people of Cherkis?"
"Long ago," he answered; "long, long ago there was trouble in their city, even in the 広大な／多数の／重要な dwelling place of Cherkis. I fled with her who was the mother of the goddess. There were twenty of us; and we fled here—by the way which I will show you—"
He leered cunningly; I gave no 調印する of 利益／興味.
"She who was the mother of the goddess 設立する 好意 in the sight of the 支配者 here," he went on. "But after a time she grew old and ugly and withered. So he slew her—like a little 塚 of dust she danced and blew away after he had 殺害された her; and also he slew others who had grown displeasing to him. He 爆破d me—as he was 爆破d—" He pointed to Ventnor.
"Then it was that, 回復するing, I 設立する my crooked shoulder. The goddess was born here. She is 肉親，親類 to Him Who 支配するs! How else could she shed the 雷s? Was not the father of Iskander the god Zeus Ammon, who （機の）カム to Iskander's mother in the form of a 広大な／多数の／重要な snake? 井戸／弁護士席? At any 率 the goddess was born—shedder of the 雷s even from her birth. And she is as you see her.
"Cleave to your 肉親，親類d! Cleave to your 肉親，親類d!" Suddenly he shrilled. "Better is it to be whipped by your brother than to be eaten by the tiger. Cleave to your 肉親，親類d. Look—I will show you the way to them."
He sprang to his feet, clasped my wrist in one of his long 手渡すs, led me through the curtained oval into the cylindrical hall, parted the curtainings of Norhala's bedroom and 押し進めるd me within. Over the 床に打ち倒す he slid, still 持つ／拘留するing 急速な／放蕩な to me, and 圧力（をかける）d against the さらに先に 塀で囲む.
An ovoid slice of the gemlike 構成要素 slid aside, 明らかにする／漏らすing a doorway. I glimpsed a path, a 追跡する, 主要な into a forest pallid green beneath the 病弱な light. This way thrust itself like a 黒人／ボイコット tongue into the boskage and 消えるd in the depths.
"Follow it." He pointed. "Take those who （機の）カム with you and follow it."
The wrinkles upon his 直面する writhed with his 切望.
"You will go?" panted Yuruk. "You will take them and go by that path?"
"Not yet," I answered absently. "Not yet."
And was brought 突然の to 十分な alertness, vigilance, by the 炎上 of 激怒（する） that filled the 注目する，もくろむs thrust so の近くに.
"Lead 支援する," I directed curtly. He slid the door into place, turned sullenly. I followed, wondering what were the sources of the bitter 憎悪 he so plainly bore for us; the 推論する／理由s for his 切望 to be rid of us にもかかわらず the 命令（する）s of this woman who to him at least was goddess.
And by that curious human habit of 捜し出すing for the コンビナート／複合体 when the simple answer lies の近くに, failed to 認める that it was jealousy of us that was the root of his 行為; that he wished to be, as it would seem he had been for years, the only human thing 近づく Norhala; failed to realize this, and with Ruth and Drake was terribly to 支払う／賃金 for this 失敗.
I looked 負かす／撃墜する upon the pair, sleeping soundly; upon Ventnor lost still in trance.
"Sit," I ordered the eunuch. "And turn your 支援する to me."
I dropped 負かす／撃墜する beside Drake, my mind 格闘するing with the mystery, but every sense 警報 for movement from the 黒人／ボイコット. Glibly enough I had passed over 刑事's 尋問 as to the consciousness of the Metal People; now I 直面するd it knowing it to be the very crux of these incredible phenomena; admitting, too, that にもかかわらず all my special pleading, about that point 渦巻くd in my own mind the thickest もやs of 不確定. That their sense of order was immensely beyond a man's was plain.
As plain was it that their knowledge of 磁石の 軍隊 and its 巧みな操作 were far beyond the sphere of humanity. That they had 現実化 of beauty this palace of Norhala's 証明するd—and no human imagination could have conceived it nor human 手渡すs have made its thought of beauty real. What were their senses through which their consciousness fed?
Nine in number had been the sapphire ovals 始める，決める within the golden zone of the Disk. 明確に it （機の）カム to me that these were sense 組織／臓器s!
But—nine senses!
And the 広大な／多数の／重要な 星／主役にするs—how many had they? And the cubes—did they open as did globe and pyramid?
Consciousness itself—after all what is it? A secretion of the brain? The cumulative 表現, wholly 化学製品, of the multitudes of 独房s that form us? The inexplicable 知事 of the city of the 団体／死体 of which these myriads of 独房s are the 国民s—and created by them out of themselves to 支配する?
Is it what many call the soul? Or is it a finer form of 事柄, a self-realizing 軍隊, which uses the 団体／死体 as its 乗り物 just as other 軍隊s use for their vestments other machines? After all, I thought, what is this conscious self of ours, the ego, but a 誘発する of 現実化 running continuously along the path of time within the 機械装置 we call the brain; making 接触する along that path as the electric 誘発する at the end of a wire?
Is there a sea of this conscious 軍隊 which （競技場の）トラック一周s the shores of the farthest-flung 星／主役にするs; that finds 表現 in everything—man and 激しく揺する, metal and flower, jewel and cloud? 限られた／立憲的な in its 表現 only by the 制限s of that which animates, and in essence the same in all. If so, then this problem of the life of the Metal People 中止するd to be a problem; was answered!
So thinking I became aware of 増加するing light; strode past Yuruk to the door and peeped out. 夜明け was paling the sky. I stooped over Drake, shook him. On the instant he was awake, 警報.
"I only need a little sleep, 刑事," I said. "When the sun is 井戸／弁護士席 up, call me."
"Why, it's 夜明け," he whispered. "Goodwin, you ought not to have let me sleep so long. I feel like a damned pig."
"Never mind," I said. "But watch the eunuch closely."
I rolled myself up in his warm 一面に覆う／毛布; sank almost 即時に into dreamless slumber.
High was the sun when I awakened; or so, I supposed, 開始 my 注目する，もくろむs upon a flood of daylight. As I lay, lazily, recollection 急ぐd upon me.
It was no sky into which I was gazing; it was the ドーム of Norhala's elfin home. And Drake had not 誘発するd me. Why? And how long had I slept?
I jumped to my feet, 星／主役にするd about. Ruth nor Drake nor the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch was there!
"Ruth!" I shouted. "Drake!"
There was no answer. I ran to the doorway. Peering up into the white 丸天井 of the heavens I 始める，決める the time of day as の近くに to seven; I had slept then three hours, more or いっそう少なく. Yet short as that time of slumber had been, I felt marvelously refreshed, reenergized; the 影響, I was 確かな , of the extraordinarily tonic 質s of the atmosphere of this place. But where were the others? Where Yuruk?
I heard Ruth's laughter. Some hundred yards to the left, half hidden by a 審査する of flowering shrubs, I saw a small meadow. Within it a half-dozen little white goats nuzzled around her and 刑事. She was milking one of them.
安心させるd, I drew 支援する into the 議会, knelt over Ventnor. His 条件 was 不変の. My gaze fell upon the pool that had been Norhala's bath. Longingly I looked at it; then 満足させるing myself that the milking 過程 was not finished, slipped off my 着せる／賦与するs and splashed about.
I had just time to get 支援する in my 着せる／賦与するs when through the doorway （機の）カム the pair, each carrying a porcelain pannikin 十分な of milk.
There was no 影をつくる／尾行する of 恐れる or horror on her 直面する. It was the old Ruth who stood before me; nor was there 成果／努力 in the smile she gave me. She had been washed clean in the waters of sleep.
"Don't worry, Walter," she said. "I know what you're thinking. But I'm —ME again."
"Where is Yuruk?" I turned to Drake bruskly to smother the sob of sheer happiness I felt rising in my throat; and at his wink and 警告 grimace 突然の forebore to 圧力（をかける） the question.
"You men 選ぶ out the things and I'll get breakfast ready," said Ruth.
Drake 選ぶd up the teakettle and 動議d me before him.
"About Yuruk," he whispered when he had gotten outside. "I gave him a little 反対する lesson. 説得するd him to go 負かす／撃墜する the line a bit, showed him my ピストル, and then 選ぶd off one of Norhala's goats with it. Hated to do it, but I knew it would be good for his soul.
"He gave one screech and fell on his 直面する and groveled. Thought it was a 雷 bolt, I 人物／姿／数字; decided I had been stealing Norhala's stuff. 'Yuruk,' I told him, 'that's what you'll get, and worse, if you lay a finger on that girl inside there.'"
"And then what happened?" I asked.
"He （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it 支援する there." He grinned, pointing toward the forest through which ran the path the eunuch had shown me. "Probably hiding 支援する of a tree."
As we filled the コンテナ at the outer spring, I told him of the 発覚s and the 申し込む／申し出 Yuruk had made to me.
"Whew-w!" he whistled. "In the nutcracker, eh? Trouble behind us and trouble in 前線 of us."
"When do we start?" he asked, as we turned 支援する.
"権利 after we've eaten," I answered. "There's no use putting it off. How do you feel about it?"
"率直に, like the 長，指導者 guest at a lynching party," he said. "Curious but 非，不，無 too cheerful."
Nor was I. I was filled with a fever of 科学の curiosity. But I was not cheerful—no!
We 大臣d to Ventnor 同様に as we could; 軍隊ing open his 始める，決める jaws, thrusting a thin rubber tube 負かす／撃墜する past his windpipe into his gullet and dropping through it a few ounces of the goat milk. Our own breakfasting was silent enough.
We could not take Ruth with us upon our 旅行; that was 確かな ; she must stay here with her brother. She would be safer in Norhala's home than where we were going, of course, and yet to leave her was most 苦しめるing. After all, I wondered, was there any need of both of us taking the 旅行; would not one do just 同様に?
Drake could stay—
"No use of putting all our eggs in one basket," I broached the 支配する. "I'll go 負かす／撃墜する by myself while you stay and help Ruth. You can always follow if I don't turn up in a reasonable time."
His indignation at this 提案 was matched only by her own.
"You'll go with him, 刑事 Drake," she cried, "or I'll never look at or speak to you again!"
"Good Lord! Did you think for a minute I wouldn't?" 苦痛 and wrath struggled on his 直面する. "We go together or neither of us goes. Ruth will be all 権利 here, Goodwin. The only thing she has any 原因（となる） to 恐れる is Yuruk —and he's had his lesson.
"Besides, she'll have the ライフル銃／探して盗むs and her ピストルs, and she knows how to use them. What d'ye mean by making such a proposition as that?" His indignation burst all bounds.
Lamely I tried to 正当化する myself.
"I'll be all 権利," said Ruth. "I'm not afraid of Yuruk. And 非，不，無 of these Things will 傷つける me—not after—not after—" Her 注目する，もくろむs fell, her lips quivered, then she 直面するd us 刻々と. "Don't ask me how I know that," she said 静かに. "Believe me, I do know it. I am closer to —them than you two are. And if I choose I can call upon that 外国人 strength their master gave me. It is for you two that I 恐れる."
"No 恐れる for us," Drake burst out あわてて. "We're Norhala's little playthings. We're tabu. Take it from me, Ruth, I'd bet my 長，率いる there isn't one of these Things, 広大な／多数の／重要な or small, and no 事柄 how many, that doesn't by this time know all about us.
"We'll probably be received with demonstrations of 利益／興味 by the populace as welcome guests. Probably we'll find a 調印する—'Welcome to our City'—hung up over the 前線 gate."
She smiled, a trifle tremulously.
"We'll come 支援する," he said. Suddenly he leaned 今後, put his 手渡すs on her shoulders. "Do you think there is anything that could keep me from coming 支援する?" he whispered.
She trembled, wide 注目する，もくろむs searching 深い into his.
"井戸／弁護士席," I broke in, a bit uncomfortably, "we'd better be starting. I think as Drake does, that we're tabu. Barring 事故 there's no danger. And if I guess 権利 about these Things, 事故 is impossible."
"As 信じられない as the multiplication （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する going wrong," he laughed, straightening.
And so we made ready. Our ライフル銃／探して盗むs would be worse than useless, we knew; our ピストルs we decided to carry as Drake put it, "for 慰安." Canteens filled with water; a couple of 緊急 rations, a few 器具s, 含むing a small spectroscope, a 選択 from the 医療の 道具—all these packed in a little haversack which he threw over his 幅の広い shoulders.
I pocketed my compact but exceedingly powerful field-glasses. To my poignant and everlasting 悔いる my camera had been upon the bolting pony, and Ventnor had long been out of films for his.
We were ready for our 旅行.
Our path led straight away, a smooth and dark-gray road whose surface 似ているd 固く結び付ける packed under enormous 圧力. It was all of fifty feet wide and now, in daylight, glistened faintly as though overlaid with some vitreous 塗装. It 狭くするd 突然の into a wedged way that stopped at the threshold of Norhala's door.
減らすing through the distance, it stretched straight as an arrow onward and 消えるd between perpendicular cliffs which formed the frowning gateway through which the night before we had passed upon the coursing cubes from the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of the city. Here, as then, a mistiness checked the gaze.
Ruth with us, we made a 簡潔な／要約する 査察 of the surroundings of Norhala's house. It was 始める，決める as though in the narrowest 部分 of an hour-glass. The precipitous 塀で囲むs marched inward from the gateway forming the lower half of the 人物／姿／数字; at the 支援する they swung apart at a wider angle.
This upper part of the hour-glass was filled with a park-like forest. It was の近くにd, perhaps twenty miles away, by a 障壁 of cliffs.
How, I wondered, did the path which Yuruk had pointed out to me pierce them? Was it by pass or tunnel; and why was it the 装甲の men had not 設立する and followed it?
The waist between these two mountain wedges was a valley not more than a mile wide. Norhala's house stood in its 中心; and it was like a garden, dotted with flowering and fragrant lilies and here and there a tiny green meadow. The 広大な／多数の／重要な globe of blue that was Norhala's dwelling seemed いっそう少なく to 残り／休憩（する） upon the ground than to 現れる from it; as though its basic curvatures were hidden in the earth.
What was its 実体 I could not tell. It was as though built of the lacquer of the gems whose colors it held. And beautiful, wondrously, incredibly beautiful it was—an 巨大な 泡 of froth of molten sapphires and turquoises.
We had not time to 熟考する／考慮する its beauties. A few last 指示／教授／教育s to Ruth, and we 始める，決める 前へ／外へ 負かす／撃墜する the gray road. Hardly had we taken a few steps when there （機の）カム a faint cry from her.
"刑事! 刑事—come here!"
He sprang to her, caught her 手渡すs in his. For a moment, half 脅すd it seemed, she considered him.
"刑事," I heard her whisper. "刑事—come 支援する 安全な to me!"
I saw his 武器 の近くに about her, hers 強化する around his neck; 黒人／ボイコット hair touched the silken brown curls, their lips met, clung. I turned away.
In a little time he joined me; 長，率いる 負かす／撃墜する, silent, he strode along beside me, utterly dejected.
A hundred more yards and we turned. Ruth was still standing on the threshold of the house of mystery, watching us. She waved her 手渡すs, flitted in, was hidden from us. And Drake still silent, we 押し進めるd on.
The 塀で囲むs of the gateway were の近くに. The sparse vegetation along the base of the cliffs had 中止するd; the roadway itself had 合併するd into the smooth, 明らかにする 床に打ち倒す of the canyon. From vertical 辛勝する／優位 to vertical 辛勝する／優位 of the rocky portal stretched a curtain of shimmering もや. As we drew nearer we saw that this was motionless, and いっそう少なく like vapor of water than vapor of light; it streamed in oddly 直す／買収する，八百長をするd lines like 原子s of 水晶s in a still 解答. Drake thrust an arm within it, waved it; the もや did not move. It seemed instead to interpenetrate the arm—as though bone and flesh were spectral, without 力／強力にする to dislodge the 向こうずねing 粒子s from position.
We passed within it—味方する by 味方する.
即時に I knew that whatever these 隠すs were, they were not moisture. The 空気／公表する we breathed was 乾燥した，日照りの, electric. I was sensible of a decided stimulation, a pleasant tingling along every 神経, a gaiety almost light-長，率いるd. We could see each other やめる plainly, the rocky 床に打ち倒す on which we trod 同様に. Within this vapor of light there was no ghost of sound; it was utterly empty of it. I saw Drake turn to me, his mouth open in a laugh, his lips move in speech—and although he bent の近くに to my ear, I heard nothing. He frowned, puzzled, and walked on.
突然の we stepped into an 開始, a pocket of （疑いを）晴らす 空気／公表する. Our ears were filled with a high, shrill humming as unpleasantly vibrant as the shriek of a sand 爆破. Six feet to our 権利 was the 辛勝する／優位 of the ledge on which we stood; beyond it was a sheer 減少（する） into space. A 軸 piercing 負かす／撃墜する into the 無効の and 塀で囲むd with the もやs.
But it was not that 軸 that made us clutch each other. No! It was that through it uprose a colossal column of the cubes. It stood a hundred feet from us. Its 最高の，を越す was another hundred feet above the level of our ledge and its length 消えるd in the depths.
And its 長，率いる was a gigantic spinning wheel, yards in thickness, 次第に減少するing at its point of 接触する with the cliff 塀で囲む into a 直径 half that of the 味方する closest the column, gleaming with flashes of green 炎上 and grinding with tremendous 速度(を上げる） at the 直面する of the 激しく揺する.
Over it, 大（公）使館員d to the cliff, was a 広大な／多数の／重要な visored hood of some pale yellow metal, and it was this 避難所 that cutting off the vaporous light like an enormous umbrella made the pocket of clarity in which we stood, the 軸 up which sprang the 中心存在.
All along the length of that column as far as we could see the myriad tiny 注目する，もくろむs of the Metal People shone out upon us, not twinkling mischievously, but —grotesque as this may seem, I cannot help it—wide with surprise.
Only an instant longer did the 広大な／多数の／重要な wheel spin. I saw the 叫び声をあげるing 激しく揺する melting beneath it, dropping like 溶岩. Then, as though it had received some message, 突然の its 動議 now 中止するd.
It 攻撃するd; looked 負かす／撃墜する upon us!
I 公式文書，認めるd that its grinding surface was studded thickly with the smaller pyramids and that the tips of these were each capped with what seemed to be faceted gems gleaming with the same pale yellow radiance as the 神社 of the 反対／詐欺s.
The column was bending; the wheel approaching.
Drake 掴むd me by the arm, drew me 速く 支援する into the もやs. We were shrouded in their silences. Step by step we went on, peering for the 辛勝する／優位 of the shelf, feeling in fancy that prodigious wheeled 直面する stealing upon us; afraid to look behind lest in looking we might step too の近くに to the unseen 瀬戸際.
Yard after yard we slowly covered. Suddenly the vapors thinned; we passed out of them—
A 大混乱 of sound （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 about us. The clanging of a million anvils; the clamor of a million (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むs; the 衝突，墜落ing of a hundred years of 雷鳴; the roarings of a thousand ハリケーンs. The prodigious bellowings of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing against us now as they had when we had flown 負かす／撃墜する the long ramp into the depths of the Sea of Light.
Instinct with 考えられない 力／強力にする was that clamor; the very 発言する／表明する of 軍隊. Stunned, nay BLINDED, by it, we covered ears and 注目する，もくろむs.
As before, the clangor died, leaving in its wake a bewildered silence. Then that silence began to throb with a 広大な humming, and through that humming rang a murmur as that of a river of diamonds.
We opened our 注目する，もくろむs, felt awe 支配する our throats as though a 手渡す had clutched them.
Difficult, difficult almost beyond thought is it for me now to essay to draw in words the scene before us then. For although I can 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する what it was we saw, I nor any man can transmute into phrases its essence, its spirit, the intangible wonder that was its 合成—the appallingly beautiful, soul-shaking strangeness of it, its grandeur, its fantasy, and its 外国人 terror.
The Domain of the Metal Monster—it was filled like a chalice with Its will; was the 明白な 表現 of that will.
We stood at the very 縁 of a wide ledge. We looked 負かす／撃墜する into an 巨大な 炭坑，オーケストラ席, 形態／調整d into a perfect oval, thirty miles in length I 裁判官d, and half that as wide, and rimmed with colossal precipices. We were at the upper end of this 深い valley and on the tip of its axis; I mean that it stretched longitudinally before us along the line of greatest length. Five hundred feet below was the 炭坑，オーケストラ席's 床に打ち倒す. Gone were the clouds of light that had obscured it the night before; the 空気／公表する 水晶 （疑いを）晴らす; every 詳細（に述べる） standing out with stereoscopic sharpness.
First the 注目する，もくろむs 残り／休憩（する）d upon a 幅の広い 禁止（する）d of fluorescent amethyst, （犯罪の）一味ing the entire rocky 塀で囲む. It girdled the cliffs at a 高さ of ten thousand feet, and from this 炎上ing zone, as though it clutched them, fell the curtains of sparkling もや, the enigmatic, sound-殺すing vapors.
But now I saw that all of these 隠すs were not motionless like those through which we had just passed. To the northwest they were pulsing like the aurora, and like the aurora they were 発射 through with swift iridescences, spectrums, polychromatic gleamings. And always these were ordered, geometric —like 巨大な and flitting prismatic 水晶s 飛行機で行くing 速く to the very 辛勝する／優位s of the 隠すs, then darting as 速く 支援する.
From zone and 隠すs the gaze leaped to the incredible City 非常に高い not two miles away from us.
Blue 黒人／ボイコット, 向こうずねing, はっきりと 削減（する） as though from polished steel, it 後部d 十分な five thousand feet on high!
How 広大な／多数の／重要な it was I could not tell, for the 高さ of its precipitous 塀で囲むs 閉めだした the 見通し. The frowning facade turned toward us was, I 概算の, five miles in length. Its colossal scarp struck the 注目する，もくろむs like a blow; its 影をつくる／尾行する, 落ちるing upon us, checked the heart. It was overpowering— dreadful as that midnight city of Dis that Dante saw rising up from another 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
It was a metal city, 山地の.
Featureless, smooth, the 巨大な 塀で囲む of it heaved heavenward. It should have been blind, that 広大な oblong 直面する—but it was not blind. From it radiated alertness, vigilance. It seemed to gaze toward us as though every foot were 乗組員を乗せた with sentinels; 後見人s invisible to the 注目する，もくろむs whose 集中 of watchfulness was caught by some subtle hidden sense higher than sight.
It was a metal city, 山地の and—AWARE.
About its base were 抱擁する 開始s. Through and around these portals 渦巻くd hordes of the Metal People; in 部隊s and in combinations coming and going, streaming in and out, forming as they （機の）カム and went patterns about the 開始s like the fretted spume of 広大な／多数の／重要な breakers 殺到するing into, 退却／保養地ing from, ocean- bitten gaps in some アイロンをかける-bound coast.
From the immensity of the City the 注目する，もくろむs dropped 支援する to the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 in which it lay. Its 床に打ち倒す was plaquelike, a 広大な／多数の／重要な 計画（する） smooth as though turned by potter's wheel, broken by no 塚 nor hillock, slope nor terrace; level, 水平の, flawlessly flat. On it was no green living thing—no tree nor bush, meadow nor covert.
It was alive with movement. A ferment that was as purposeful as it was mechanical, a ferment symmetrical, geometrical, supremely ordered—
The 殺到するing of the Metal Hordes.
There they moved beneath us, these enigmatic 存在s, in a countless host. They marched and countermarched in 大軍, in 連隊s, in armies. Far to the south I glimpsed a company of colossal 形態／調整s like 動きやすい, castellated and pyramidal 開始するs. They were circling, weaving about each other with incredible rapidity—like 得点する／非難する／２０s of 広大な／多数の／重要な pyramids 栄冠を与えるd with gigantic turrets and dancing. From these turrets （機の）カム vivid flashes, 雷 有望な—on their wake the rolling echoes of faraway 雷鳴.
Out of the north sped a 騎兵大隊 of obelisks from whose 最高の，を越すs 炎上d and ゆらめくd the 巨大な spinning wheels, appearing at this distance like fiery whirling disks.
Up from their setting the Metal People 解除するd themselves in a thousand incredible 形態／調整s, 形態／調整s squared and globed and spiked and 転換ing 速く into other thousands as incredible. I saw a 集まり of them draw themselves up into the likeness of a テント 超高層ビル high; hang so for an instant, then writhe into a monstrous chimera of a dozen 非常に高い 脚s that strode away like a gigantic headless and bodiless tarantula in steps two hundred feet long. I watched mile-long lines of them 形態／調整 and reshape into circles, into interlaced lozenges and pentagons—then 解除する in 広大な／多数の／重要な columns and shoot through the 空気／公表する in unimaginable 一斉射撃，（質問などの）連発／ダム.
Through all this incessant movement I sensed plainly 目的, knew that it was 限定された activity toward a 限定された end, caught the （疑いを）晴らす suggestion of 演習, of 作戦行動.
And when the shiftings of the Metal Hordes permitted we saw that all the flat 床に打ち倒す of the valley was （土地などの）細長い一片d and checkered, stippled and tessellated with every color, patterned with enormous lozenges and squares, rhomboids and parallelograms, pentagons and hexagons and diamonds, lunettes, circles and spirals; harlequined yet harmonious; instinct with a grotesque suggestion of a 最高の-Futurism.
But always this patterning was ordered, always COHERENT. As though it were a page on which was （一定の）期間d some untranslatable other-world message.
Fourth Dimensional 発覚s by some Euclidean deity! Commandments traced by some mathematical God!
宙返り飛行ing across the vale, 現れるing from the sparkling 倍のs of the 最南端の curtainings and 消えるing into the gleaming 隠すs of the easternmost, ran a 幅の広い 略章 of pale-green jade; not straightly but with manifold convolutions and 繁栄するs. It was like a 宣告，判決 in Arabic.
It was 利ざやd with sapphire blue. All along its 新たな展開ing course two 幅の広い 禁止（する）d of jet 利ざやd the cerulean shore. It was spanned by 得点する／非難する／２０s of flashing 水晶 arches. Nor were these 橋（渡しをする）s—even from that distance I knew they were no 橋（渡しをする）s. From them （機の）カム the crystalline murmurings.
Jade? This stream jade? If so then it must be in truth molten, for I caught its swift and polished 急ぐing! It was no jade. It was in truth a river; a river running like a 令状ing across a patterned 計画（する）.
I looked 上向き—up to the circling 頂点（に達する）s. They were a stupendous coronet thrusting miles 深い into the dazzling sky. I raised my glasses, swept them. In color they were an 巨大な and variegated flower with countless multiform petals of 石／投石する; in 輪郭（を描く） they were a （犯罪の）一味 of 要塞s built by fantastic unknown Gods.
Up they thrust—ドームd and arched, spired and horned, pyramided, fanged and needled. Here were palisades of 燃やすing orange with barbicans of incandescent bronze; there aiguilles of azure rising from bastions of cinnabar red; turrets of 王室の purple, obelisks of indigo; titanic forts whose 塀で囲むs were splashed with vermilion, with citron yellows and with rust of rubies; watch towers of 炎上ing scarlet.
Scattered の中で them were the flashing emeralds of the glaciers and the 巨大な pallid baroques of the snow fields.
Like a diadem the 首脳会議s （犯罪の）一味d the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. Below them ran the （犯罪の）一味 of flashing amethyst with its aural もやs. Between them lay the 広大な and patterned flat covered with still symbol and inexplicable movement. Under their 首脳会議s brooded the blue 黒人／ボイコット, metallic 集まり of the Seeing City.
Within circling 塀で囲むs, over plain and from the City hovered a cosmic spirit not to be understood by man. Like an emanation of 星／主役にするs and space, it was yet gem 罰金 and gem hard, crystalline and metallic, lapidescent and—
Conscious!
負かす／撃墜する from the ledge where we stood fell a 法外な ramp, 類似の to that by which, in the 不明瞭, we had descended. It dropped at an angle of at least forty-five degrees; its surface was smooth and polished.
Through the もやs at our 支援する stole a 向こうずねing 封鎖する. It paused, seemed to perk itself; spun so that in turn each of its six 直面するs took us in.
I felt myself 解除するd upon it by multitudes of little invisible 手渡すs; saw Drake whirling up beside me. I moved toward him—through the 軍隊 that held us. A 封鎖する swept away from the ledge, swayed for a moment. Under us, as though we were floating in 空気／公表する, the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 lay stretched. There was a 早い readjustment, a 転換ing of our two selves upon another surface. I looked 負かす／撃墜する upon a tremendous, slender 中心存在 of the cubes, dropping below, five hundred feet to the valley's 床に打ち倒す a column of which the 封鎖する that held us was the 最高の，を越す.
Gone was the whirling wheel that had 栄冠を与えるd it, but I knew this for the Grinding Thing from which we had fled; the 追求（する），探索（する）ing 封鎖する had been its scout. As though curious to know more of us, the 形態／調整 had sought us out through the もやs, its messenger had caught us, 配達するd us to it.
The 中心存在 leaned over—bent like that 向こうずねing 中心存在 that had 橋（渡しをする）d for us, at Norhala's 命令（する）s, the abyss. The 床に打ち倒す of the valley arose to 会合，会う us. その上の and その上の leaned the 中心存在. Again there was a 早い 転換ing of us to another surface of the 栄冠を与えるing cube. 急速な／放蕩な now swept up toward us the valley 床に打ち倒す. A dizziness clouded my sight. There was a little shock, a rolling over the Thing that had held us—
We stood upon the 床に打ち倒す of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
And breaking from the 巨大な and prostrate 軸 on whose 最高の，を越す we had ridden downward （機の）カム 得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ of the cubes. They broke from it, 崩壊するing it; circled about us, curiously, interestedly, twinkling at us from their 深い sparkling points of 注目する，もくろむs.
Helplessly we gazed at those who circled around us. Then suddenly I felt myself 解除するd once more, was 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd to the surface of the nearest 封鎖する. Upon it I spun while the tiny 注目する，もくろむs searched me. Then like a human ball it 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd me to another. I caught a glimpse of Drake's tall 人物／姿／数字 drifting through the 空気／公表する.
The play became more 早い, breathtaking. It was play; I 認めるd that. But it was perilous play for us. I felt myself as 壊れやすい as a doll of glass in the 手渡すs of careless children.
I was 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd to a waiting cube. On the ground, not ten feet from me, was Drake, swaying dizzily. Suddenly the cube that held me 強化するd its 支配する; 強化するd it so that it drew me irresistibly flat 負かす／撃墜する upon its surface. Before I dropped, Drake's 団体／死体 leaped toward me as though drawn by a lasso. He fell at my 味方する.
Then 追求するd by 得点する／非難する／２０s of the Things and like some mischievous boy 耐えるing off the spoils, the 封鎖する that held us raced away, straight for an open portal. A 炎 of incandescent blue 炎上 blinded me; again as the dazzlement faded I saw Drake beside me—a 骸骨／概要 form. 速く flesh melted 支援する upon him, 着せる／賦与するd him.
The cube stopped, 突然の; the hosts of little unseen 手渡すs raised us, slid us gently over its 辛勝する／優位, 始める，決める us upright beside it. And it sped away.
All about us stretched another of those 広大な halls in which on high 燃やすd the pale-gilt suns. Between its colossal columns streamed thousands of the Metal Folk; no longer hurriedly, but 静かに, deliberately, sedately.
We were within the City—even as Ventnor had 命令（する）d.
の近くに beside us was one of the cyclopean columns. We crept to it; crouched at its base opposite the drift of the Metal People; strove, 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd there, to 回復する our shaken 宙に浮く. Like bagatelles we felt in that tremendous place, the weird luminaries gleaming above like garlands of frozen suns, the enigmatic hosts of animate cubes and spheres and pyramids 軍隊／機動隊ing past.
They 範囲d in size from 形態／調整s yard-high to 巨大（な）s of thirty feet or more. They paid no 注意する to us, did not stop; streaming on, engrossed in whatever mysterious 商売／仕事 was 召喚するing them. And after a time their numbers 少なくなるd; thinned 負かす／撃墜する to 広範囲にわたって separate groups, to stragglers; then 中止するd. The hall was empty of them.
As far as the 注目する，もくろむ could reach the columned spaces stretched. I was conscious once more of that unusual flow of energy through every vein and 神経.
"Follow the （人が）群がる!" said Drake. "Do you feel just 十分な of pep and ginger, by the way?"
"I am aware of the most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の vigor," I answered.
"Some weird 共同の," he mused, looking about him. "Wonder if they have any windows? This whole place looked solid to me—what I could see of it. Wonder if we'll get up against it for 空気／公表する? These Things don't need it, that's sure. Wonder—"
He broke off 星／主役にするing fascinatedly at the 中心存在 behind us.
"Look here, Goodwin!" There was a （軽い）地震 in his 発言する／表明する. "What do you make of THIS?"
I followed his pointing finger; looked at him inquiringly.
"The 注目する，もくろむs!" he said impatiently. "Don't you see them? The 注目する，もくろむs in the column!"
And now I saw them. The 中心存在 was a pale metallic blue, in color a trifle darker than the Metal Folk. All within it were the myriads of tiny crystalline points that we had grown to know were the receptors of some strange sense of sight. But they did not sparkle as did those others; they were dull, lifeless. I touched the surface. It was smooth, 冷静な／正味の—with 非，不，無 of that subtle, warm vitality that pulsed through all the Things with which I had come in 接触する. I shook my 長，率いる, realizing as I did so what a shock the incredible 可能性 he had 示唆するd had given me.
"No," I said. "There is a resemblance, yes. But there is no 軍隊 about this—stuff; no life. Besides, such a thing is utterly incredible."
"They might be—活動停止中の," he 示唆するd stubbornly. "Can you see any 示す of their joining—if they ARE the cubes?"
Together we scanned the 中心存在 minutely. The 直面するs seemed 無傷の, continuous; there was no trace of those thin and 向こうずねing lines that 示すd the juncture of the cubes when they had clicked together to form the 橋（渡しをする） of the abyss or that had gleamed, crosslike, upon the 支援する of the 連合させるd four upon which we had followed Norhala.
"It's a sheer impossibility. It's madness to think such a thing, Drake!" I exclaimed, and wondered at my own vehemence of 否定.
"Maybe," he shook his 長，率いる doubtfully. "Maybe—but—井戸／弁護士席 —let's be on our way."
We strode on, に引き続いて the direction the Metal Folk had gone. 明確に Drake was still doubtful; at each 中心存在 he hesitated, scanning it closely with troubled 注目する，もくろむs.
But I, having determinedly 解任するd the idea, was more 利益／興味d in the fantastic lights that flooded this columned hall with their buttercup radiance. They were still and unwinking; not disks, I could see now, but globes. 広大な／多数の／重要な and small, they floated motionless, their rays 延長するing rigidly and as still as the orb that shed them.
Yet rigid as they were there was nothing about either rays or orbs that 示唆するd either hardness or the metallic. They were vaporous, soft as St. Elmo's 解雇する／砲火／射撃, the witch lights that 粘着する at times to the spars of ships, weird gleaming 訪問者s from the invisible ocean of atmospheric electricity.
When they disappeared, as they did frequently, it was instantaneously, 完全に, with a disconcerting sleight-of-手渡す finality. I 公式文書，認めるd, though, that when they did 消える, すぐに の近くに to where they had been other orbs swam 前へ／外へ with that same astonishing abruptness; いつかs only one, larger it might be than that which had gone; いつかs a cluster of smaller globes, their frozen, crocused rays impinging.
What could they be, I wondered—how 直す／買収する，八百長をするd, and what the source of their light? 製品s of electro-磁石の 現在のs and born of the interpenetration of such streams flowing above us? Such a theory might account for their 見えなくなる, and reappearance, shiftings of the flows that changed the light producing points of 接触する. Wireless lights? If so here was an idea that human science might (a)手の込んだ／(v)詳述する if ever we returned to—
"Now which way?" Drake broke in upon my musing. The hall had ended. We stood before a blank 塀で囲む 消えるing into the soft もやs hiding the roof of the 議会.
"I thought we had been going along the way They went," I said in amazement.
"So did I," he answered. "We must have circled. They never went through THAT unless—unless—" He hesitated.
"Unless what?" I asked はっきりと.
"Unless it opened and let them through," he said. "Have you forgotten those 広大な／多数の／重要な ovals—like cat's 注目する，もくろむs that opened in the outer 塀で囲むs?" he 追加するd 静かに.
I HAD forgotten. I looked again at the 塀で囲む. Certainly it was smooth, lineless. In one 無傷の, 向こうずねing surface it rose, a facade of polished metal. Within it the 深い 始める，決める points of light were duller even than they had been in the 中心存在s; almost indeed indistinguishable.
"Go on to the left," I said 非，不，無 too 根気よく. "And get that absurd notion out of your 長，率いる."
"All 権利." He 紅潮／摘発するd. "But you don't think I'm afraid, do you?"
"If what you're thinking were true, you'd have a 権利 to be," I replied tartly. "And I want to tell you I'D be afraid. Damned afraid."
For perhaps two hundred paces we skirted the base of the 塀で囲む. We （機の）カム 突然の to an 開始, an oblong passageway fully fifty foot wide by twice as high. At its 入り口 the mellow, saffron light was 削減（する） off as though by an invisible 審査する. The tunnel itself was filled with a 薄暗い grayish blue luster. For an instant we 熟視する／熟考するd it.
"I wouldn't care to be caught in there by any 急ぐ," I hesitated.
"There's not much good in thinking of that now," said Drake, grimly. "A few chances more or いっそう少なく in a 共同の of this 肉親，親類d is nothing between friends, Goodwin; take it from me. Come on."
We entered. 塀で囲むs, 床に打ち倒す and roof were composed of the same 実体 as the 広大な／多数の／重要な 中心存在s, the 塀で囲む of the outer 議会; filled like them with dimmed replicas of the twinkling 注目する，もくろむ points.
"半端物 that all the places in here are square," muttered Drake. "They don't seem to have used any spherical or pyramidal ideas in their building— if it is a building."
It was true. All was mathematically straight up and 負かす／撃墜する and across. It was strange—still we had seen little as yet.
There was a warmth about this passageway we trod; a difference in the 空気／公表する of it. The warmth grew, a 乾燥した，日照りの and baking heat; but stimulative rather than oppressive. I touched the 塀で囲むs; the warmth did not come from them. And there was no 勝利，勝つd. Yet as we went on the heat 増加するd.
The passageway turned at a 権利 angle, continuing in a 回廊（地帯） half its former dimensions. Far away shone a high 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of pale yellow radiance, rising like a 中心存在 of light from 床に打ち倒す to roof. Toward it, perforce, we trudged. Its brilliancy grew greater.
A few paces away from it we stopped. The yellow luminescence streamed through a slit not more than a foot wide in the 塀で囲む. We were in a cul-de-sac for the 開始 was not wide enough for either Drake or me to 押し進める through. Through it with the light 噴出するd the curious heat enveloping us.
Drake walked to the 開始, peered through. I joined him.
At first all that I could see was a space filled with the saffron lambency. Then I saw that this was splashed with tiny flashes of the jewel 解雇する／砲火／射撃s; little lances and javelin thrusts of 燃やすing emeralds and rubies; darting gem hard 炎上s rose scarlet and pale sapphire; quick ゆらめくs of violet.
Into my sight through the irised, crocus もや swam the radiant 団体／死体 of Norhala!
She stood naked, 覆う？ only in the 隠すs of her hair that glowed now like spun silk of molten 巡査, her strange 注目する，もくろむs wide and smiling, the 星雲s of tiny 星／主役にするs sparkling through their gray depths.
And all about her 渦巻くd a countless host of the Little Things!
From them （機の）カム the gem 解雇する／砲火／射撃s piercing the aureate もやs. They played and frolicked about her in 得点する／非難する／２０s of 速く forming, 速く changing, goblin 形態／調整s. They circled her feet in 向こうずねing, elfin （犯罪の）一味s; then 開始 into 炎上ing disks and 星／主役にするs, 発射 up and spun about the white 奇蹟 of her 団体／死体 in 広大な／多数の／重要な girdles of multi-colored living 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. Mingled with disk and 星／主役にする were tiny crosses gleaming with sullen, 深い crimsons and smoky orange.
A flash of blue incandescence and a slender 中心存在d 形態／調整 leaped from the 床に打ち倒す; became a coronet, a whirling, flashing halo toward which streamed up the 炎上ing tendrilings of her tresses. Other halos circled her 武器 and breasts; they spun like bracelets about the outstretched 武器.
Then like a 速く 急ぐing wave a host of the Little Things thrust themselves up, covered her, hid her in a coruscating cloud.
I saw an exquisite arm thrust itself from their 粘着するing, wave gaily; saw her glorious 長，率いる 現れる from the incredible, the seething draperies of living jewels. I heard her laughter, 甘い and golden and far away.
Goddess of the Inexplicable! Madonna of the Metal Babes!
The Nursery of the Metal People!
Norhala was gone, blotted out from our sight! Gone too were the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of light and the 議会 into which we had been peering. We 星／主役にするd at a smooth, blank 塀で囲む. With that same ensorcelled swiftness the 塀で囲む had の近くにd even as we had 星／主役にするd through it; の近くにd so quickly that we had not seen its 動議.
I gripped Drake; shrank with him into the farthest corner—for on the other 味方する of us the 塀で囲む was 開始. First it was only a 割れ目; then 速く it 広げるd. There stretched another passageway, luminous and long; far 負かす／撃墜する it we glimpsed movement. Closer that movement （機の）カム, grew plainer. Out of the mistily luminous distances, three abreast and filling the 回廊（地帯） from 味方する to 味方する, raced upon us a company of the 広大な／多数の／重要な spheres!
支援する we cowered from their approach—支援する and 支援する; 武器 outstretched, 圧力（をかける）ing against the 障壁, flattening ourselves against the shock of the destroying 衝撃 脅迫的な.
"It's all up," muttered Drake. "No place to run. They're bound to 粉砕する us. Stick の近くに, Doc. Get 支援する to Ruth. Maybe I can stop them!"
Before I could check him, he had leaped straight in the path of the 急ぐing globes, now a scant two-得点する／非難する／２０ yards away.
The globes stopped—停止（させる）d a few feet from him. They seemed to 熟視する／熟考する us, astonished. They turned upon themselves, as though 協議するing. Slowly they 前進するd. We were 押し進めるd 今後 and 解除するd gently. Then as we hung 一時停止するd, held by that 軍隊 which always I can に例える only to myriads of tiny invisible 手渡すs, the 向こうずねing arcs of their 支援するs undulated beneath us.
Their とじ込み／提出するs swung around the corner and marched 負かす／撃墜する the passage by which we had come from the 巨大な hall. And when the last 階級 had passed from under us we were dropped softly to our feet; stood swaying in their wake.
A curious frenzy of helpless indignation shook me, a 激怒（する） of humiliation obscuring all 感謝 I should have felt for our escape. Drake's 注目する，もくろむs 炎d wrath.
"The insolent devils!" He raised clenched 握りこぶしs. "The insolent, domineering devils!"
We 星／主役にするd after them.
Was the passage growing narrower—の近くにing? Even as I gazed I saw it 縮む; saw its 塀で囲むs slide silently toward each other. I 押し進めるd Drake into the newly opened way and sprang after him.
Behind us was an 無傷の 塀で囲む covering all that space in which but a moment before we had stood!
Is it to be wondered that a panic 掴むd us; that we began to run crazily 負かす／撃墜する the alley that still lay open before us, casting over our shoulders quick, fearful ちらりと見ることs to see whether that inexorable, dreadful の近くにing was continuing, 脅すing to 鎮圧する us between these 塀で囲むs like 飛行機で行くs in a vise of steel?
But they did not の近くに. 無傷の, silent, the way stretched before us and behind us. At last, gasping, 避けるing each other's gaze, we paused.
And at that very moment of pause a deeper （軽い）地震 shook me, a trembling of the very 創立／基礎s of life, the shuddering of one who 直面するs the 信じられない knowing at last that the 信じられない—IS.
For, 突然の, 塀で囲むs and 床に打ち倒す and roof broke 前へ／外へ into countless twinklings!
As though a film had been 孤立した from them, as though they had awakened from slumber, myriads of little points of light shone 前へ／外へ upon us from the pale-blue surfaces—lights that considered us, 手段d us— mocked us.
The little points of living light that were the 注目する，もくろむs of the Metal People!
This was no 回廊（地帯） 削減（する） through inert 事柄 by mechanic art; its 開始 had been 原因（となる）d by no hidden 機械装置s! It was a living Thing—塀で囲むd and 床に打ち倒すd and roofed by the living 団体／死体s—of the Metal People themselves.
Its 開始, as had been the の近くにing of that other passage, was the conscious, 調整する and voluntary 活動／戦闘 of the Things that formed these mighty 塀で囲むs.
An 活動／戦闘 that obeyed, was directed by, the incredibly gigantic, communistic will which, like the spirit of the 蜂の巣, the soul of the formicary, animated every 部隊 of them.
A greater 現実化 swept us. If THIS were true, then those 中心存在s in the 広大な hall, its 非常に高い 塀で囲むs—all this City was one living Thing!
Built of the animate 団体／死体s of countless millions! トンs upon countless トンs of them 形態／調整ing a gigantic pile of which every 原子 was sentient, 動きやすい —intelligent!
A Metal Monster!
Now I knew why it was that its frowning facade had seemed to watch us Argus-注目する，もくろむd as the Things had 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd us toward it. It HAD watched us!
That flood of watchfulness pulsing about us had been actual 集中 of regard of untold billions of tiny 注目する，もくろむs of the living 封鎖する which formed the City's cliff.
A City that Saw! A City that was Alive!
No secret 機械装置 then—支援する darted my mind to that first terror —had の近くにd the 塀で囲む, shutting from our sight Norhala at play with the Little Things. 非，不，無 had opened the way for, had の近くにd the way behind, the coursing spheres. It had been done by the conscious 活動／戦闘 of the conscious Things of whose living 団体／死体s was built this whole tremendous thinking pile!
I think that for a moment we both went a little mad as that staggering truth （機の）カム to us. I know we started to run once more, 味方する by 味方する, gripping like 脅すd children each other's 手渡すs. Then Drake stopped.
"By all the HELL of this place," he said, solemnly, "I'll run no more. After all—we're men. If they kill us, they kill us. But by the God who made me I'll run from them no more. I'll die standing."
His courage 安定したd me. Defiantly we marched on. Up from below us, 負かす／撃墜する from the roof, out from the 塀で囲むs of our way the hosts of 注目する，もくろむs gleamed and twinkled upon us.
"Who could have believed it?" he muttered, half to himself. "A living city of them! A living nest of them; a prodigious living nest of metal!"
"A nest?" I caught the word. What did it 示唆する? That was it—the nest of the army ants, the city of the army ants, that Beebe had 熟考する／考慮するd in the South American ジャングルs and once 述べるd to me. After all, was this more wonderful, more unbelievable than that—the city of ants which was formed by their living 団体／死体s 正確に as this was of the 団体／死体s of the Cubes?
How had Beebe* phrased it—"the home, the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal 控訴, the kitchen, the bed and board of the army ants." Built of and 占領するd by those blind and dead and savage little insects which by the 指導／手引 of smell alone carried on the most intricate 操作／手術s, the most コンビナート／複合体 activities. Nothing here was stranger than that, I 反映するd —if once one could rid the mind of the 麻ひさせるing 影響（力） of the 形態／調整s of the Metal Things. Whence （機の）カム the stimuli that moved THEM, the stimuli to which THEY 反応するd?
* William Beebe, 大西洋 月毎の, October, 1919.
井戸／弁護士席 then—whence and how （機の）カム the orders to which the ANTS 答える／応じるd; that bade them open THIS 回廊（地帯） in their nest, の近くに THAT, form this 議会, fill that one? Was one more mysterious than the other?
Breaking into my 現在の of thoughts （機の）カム consciousness that I was moving with 増加するd 速度(を上げる）; that my 団体／死体 was 急速な／放蕩な growing はしけ.
同時に with this 承認 I felt myself 解除するd from the 床に打ち倒す of the 回廊（地帯） and levitated with かなりの rapidity 今後; looking 負かす／撃墜する I saw that 床に打ち倒す several feet below me. Drake's arm 負傷させる itself around my shoulder.
"の近くにing up behind us," he muttered. "They're putting us—out."
It was, indeed, as though the passageway had 疲れた／うんざりしたd of our 審議する／熟考する 進歩. Had decided to—give us a 解除する. Rearward it was shutting. I 公式文書，認めるd with 利益／興味 how 正確に this 動議 kept pace with our own 速度(を上げる）, and how fluidly the 塀で囲むs seemed to run together.
Our movement became 加速するd. It was as though we floated buoyantly, weightless, upon some swift stream. The sensation was curiously pleasant, languorous—what was that word Ruth had used?—ELEMENTAL —and 解放する／自由な. The supporting 軍隊 seemed to flow 平等に from 塀で囲むs and 床に打ち倒す; to reach 負かす／撃墜する to us from the roof. It was slumberously even, and effortless. I saw that in 前進する of us the living 回廊（地帯） was 開始 even as behind us it was の近くにing.
All around us the little 注目する，もくろむ points twinkled and—laughed.
There was no danger here—there could be 非，不，無. Deeper and deeper dropped my mind into the depths of that 外国人 tranquillity. Faster and faster we floated—onward.
突然の, ahead of us shone a 炎 of daylight. We passed into it. The 軍隊 持つ／拘留するing us withdrew its 支配する; I felt solidity beneath my feet; stood and leaned 支援する against a smooth 塀で囲む.
The 回廊（地帯） had ended and—had shut us out from itself.
"Bounced!" exclaimed Drake.
And incongruous, flippant, colloquial as was that word, I know 非，不，無 that would better 述べる my own feelings.
We were BOUNCED out upon a turret jutting from the 障壁. And before us lay spread the most amazing, the most 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の fantastic scene upon which, I think, the 見通し of man has 残り／休憩（する）d since the advent of time.
It was a 噴火口，クレーター; a half mile on high and all of two thousand feet across ran the circular lip of its 広大な 縁. Above it was a circle of white and glaring sky in whose 中心 炎上d the sun.
And 即時に, before my 見通し could しっかり掴む a tithe of that panorama, I knew that this place was the very heart of the City; its 決定的な ganglion; its soul.
Around the 噴火口，クレーター lip were 均衡を保った thousands of concave disks, vernal green, enormous. They were like a 国境 of gigantic, upthrust 保護物，者s; and within each, emblazoned like a 保護物，者's 装置, was a blinding flower of 炎上—the 反映するd, dilated 直面する of the sun. Below this diadem hung, pendent, clusters of other disks, 群れているd like the globular 蜂の巣ing of the 星座 Hercules' 逮捕（する）d 星／主役にするs. And each of these 刑務所，拘置所d the image of our sun.
A hundred feet below us was the 噴火口，クレーター 床に打ち倒す.
Up from it thrust a 山地の forest of the pallidly radiant 反対／詐欺s; bristling; prodigious. Tier upon tier, thicket upon thicket, phalanx upon phalanx they climbed. Up and up, pyramidically, they flung their spiked hosts.
They drew together two thousand feet above us, clustering の近くに about the foot of a 選び出す／独身 抱擁する spire which thrust itself skyward above them. The crest of this spire was truncated. From its shorn tip radiated 得点する／非難する／２０s of long and slender spokes 持つ／拘留するing in place a thousand feet wide wheel of 病弱な green disks whose concave surfaces, unlike those smooth ones girding the 噴火口，クレーター, were curiously faceted.
This amazing structure 残り／休憩（する）d upon a myriad-footed base of 水晶, even as had that other cornute fantasy beside which we had met the 広大な／多数の／重要な Disk. But it was in size to that as—as Leviathan to a minnow. From it streamed the same baffling suggestion of invincible 軍隊 transmuted into 事柄; energy coalesced into the 有形の; 力／強力にする made concentrate in the vestments of 実体.
Half-way between 噴火口，クレーター lip and 床に打ち倒す began the hordes of the Metal People.
In colossal animate chevaux-de-frise of hundred-foot girders they thrust themselves out from the curving 塀で囲むs—塀で囲むs, I knew, as alive as they!
From these Brobdignagian beams they swung in ropes and clusters— spheres and cubes studded as thickly with the pyramids as ever 巨人's mace with spikes. Group after bizarre group they dropped; pendulous. Coppices of slender columns of thistled globes sprang up to 会合，会う the festooned joists.
Between the girders they draped themselves in long, stellated garlands; grouped themselves in innumerable, kaleidoscopic patterns.
They clicked into place around the golden turret in which we crouched.
In fantastic arrases they swayed in 前線 of us—now hiding by, now 明らかにする／漏らすing through their quicksilver interweavings the 開始するs of the 反対／詐欺s.
And 刻々と those flowing in below 追加するd to their multitudes; gliding up cable and 中心存在; building out still その上の the living girders, stringing themselves upon living festoon and living garland, weaving in の中で them, changing their 形態／調整s, rewriting their symbols.
They swung and threaded 速く, in 転換ing arabesque, in Gothic traceries, in lace-like fantasies; utterly bizarre, unutterably beautiful —crystalline, geometric always.
突然の their movement 中止するd—so 突然の that the 停止 of all the ordered 騒動 had the 質 of appalling silence.
An unimaginable tapestry bedight with incredible broidery, the Metal People draped the 広大な cup.
中心存在d it as though it were a 寺.
Garnished it with their 団体／死体s as though it were a 神社.
Across the 床に打ち倒す toward the 反対／詐欺s glided a palely lustrous sphere. In 形態／調整 only a globe like all its 肉親，親類d, yet it was 投資するd with 力／強力にする; it radiated 力／強力にする as a 星／主役にする does light; was 着せる／賦与するd in unseen 衣料品s of supernal 軍隊. In its wake drifted two 広大な／多数の／重要な pyramids; after them ten spheres but little smaller than the 形態／調整 which led.
"The Metal Emperor!" breathed Drake.
On they swept until they reached the base of the 反対／詐欺s. They paused at the 辛勝する／優位 of the 水晶 （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するing. They turned.
There was a flashing as of a meteor bursting. The globe had opened into that splendor of jewel 解雇する／砲火／射撃s before which had floated Norhala and Ruth.
I saw again the luminous ovals of sapphire, studding its golden zone, the mystic rose of pulsing, petal 炎上, the still 核心 of incandescent ruby that was the heart of that rose.
Strangely I felt my own heart veer toward this—Thing; 屈服するing before its beauty and its strength; almost worshiping!
A shock of revulsion went through me. I 発射 a quick, half 脅すd ちらりと見ること at Drake. He was crouching 危険に の近くに to the lip of the ledge, 手渡すs clasped and knuckles white with the intensity of his 支配する, 注目する，もくろむs rapt, 星／主役にするing—upon the 瀬戸際 of worship even as I had been.
"Drake!" I thrust my 肘 into his 味方する 残酷に. "非，不，無 of that! Remember you're human! Guard yourself, man—guard yourself!"
"What?" he muttered; then, 突然の: "How did you know?"
"I felt it myself," I answered: "For God's sake, 刑事—持つ／拘留する 急速な／放蕩な to yourself! Remember Ruth!"
He shook his 長，率いる violently—as though to be rid of some 粘着するing, cloying thing.
"I'll not forget again," he said.
He 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd 負かす／撃墜する once more の近くに to the 辛勝する／優位 of the shelf; peering over. No one of the Metal People had moved; the silence, the stillness, was 無傷の.
Now the 側面に位置するing pyramids 発射 前へ／外へ into twin 星／主役にするs, 炎ing with violet luminescences. And one by one after them the ten lesser spheres 拡大するd into 炎上ing orbs; beautiful they were, but far いっそう少なく glorious than that Disk of whom they were the 助言者／カウンセラーs?—大臣s?—what?
Still there was no movement の中で all the arrased, girdered, 中心存在d hosts.
There （機の）カム a little wailing; far away it was and far. Nearer it drew. Was that a （軽い）地震 that passed through the （人が）群がるd 噴火口，クレーター? A quick pulse of —切望?
"Hungry!" whispered Drake. "They're HUNGRY!"
Closer was the wailing; again that faint （軽い）地震 quivered over the place. And now I caught it—a quick and 熱心な pulsing.
"Hungry," whispered Drake again. "Like a lot of lions with the keeper coming along with meat."
The wailing was below us. I felt, not a quiver this time, but an unmistakable shock pass through the Horde. It throbbed—and passed.
Into the field of our 見通し, up to the 炎上ing Disk 急ぐd an 巨大な cube.
Thrice the 高さ of a tall man—as I think I have 公式文書，認めるd before —when it 広げるd its radiance was that 形態／調整 of mingled beauty and 力／強力にする I call the Metal Emperor.
Yet this Thing （太陽，月の）食／失墜d it. 黒人／ボイコット, uncompromising, in some indefinable way BRUTAL, its square 本体，大部分／ばら積みの blotted out the Disk's effulgence; shrouded it. And a 影をつくる／尾行する seemed to 落ちる upon the 噴火口，クレーター. The violet 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of the 側面に位置するing 星／主役にするs pulsed out—watchfully, threateningly.
For only an instant the darkening 封鎖する ぼんやり現れるd against the Disk; blackened it.
There （機の）カム another meteor burst of light. Where the cube had been was now a tremendous, fiery cross—a cross inverted.
Its upper arm arose to twice the length either of its 水平のs or the square that was its foot. In its 開始 it must have turned, for its— FACE—was toward us and away from the 反対／詐欺s, its 団体／死体 hid the Disk, and almost all the surfaces of the two watchful 星／主役にするs.
Eighty feet at least in 高さ, this cruciform 形態／調整 stood. It 炎上d and flickered with angry, smoky crimsons and scarlets; with sullen orange glowings and glitterings of sulphurous yellows. Within its 解雇する／砲火／射撃s were 非，不，無 of those leaping, multicolored glories that were the Metal Emperor's; no trace of the pulsing, mystic rose; no 影をつくる／尾行する of jubilant sapphire; no purple 王室の; no tender, 慈悲の greens nor gracious opalescences. Nothing even of the 爆破ing violet of the 星／主役にするs.
All angry, smoky reds and ochers the cross 炎d 前へ／外へ—and in its lurid glowings was something 悪意のある, something real, something cruel, something—nearer to earth, closer to man.
"The Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s and the Metal Emperor!" muttered Drake. "I begin to get it—yes—I begin to get—Ventnor!"
Once more the pulse, the 熱心な throbbing shook the 噴火口，クレーター. And as 速く in its wake 急ぐd 支援する the stillness, the silence.
The Keeper turned—I saw its palely lustrous blue metallic 支援する. I drew out my little field-glasses, focussed them.
The Cross slipped sidewise past the Disk, its courtiers, its stellated 後見人s. As it went by they swung about with it; ever 直面するing it.
And now at last was （疑いを）晴らす a thing that had puzzled 大いに—the 機械装置 of that 開始 過程 by which sphere became oval disk, pyramid a four-pointed 星／主役にする and—as I had glimpsed in the play of the Little Things about Norhala, could see now so plainly in the Keeper—the 封鎖するs took this inverted cruciform 形態／調整.
The Metal People were hollow!
Hollow metal—boxes!
In their enclosing 味方するs dwelt all their vitality—their 力／強力にするs —themselves!
And those 味方するs were—everything that THEY were!
倍のd, the oval disk became the sphere; the four points of the 星／主役にする, the square from which those points radiated; shutting became the pyramid; the six 直面するs of the cubes were when opened the inverted cross.
Nor were these 柔軟な, 動きやすい 塀で囲むs 大規模な. They were indeed, considering the 明らかな 集まり of the Metal Folk, most astonishingly 壊れやすい. Those of the Keeper, にもかかわらず its eighty feet of 高さ, could not have been more than a yard in thickness. At the 辛勝する／優位s I thought I could see groovings; 公式文書，認めるd the same 外見s at the 輪郭（を描く）s of the 星／主役にするs. Seen sidewise, the 団体／死体 of the Metal Emperor showed as a convexity; its surface smooth, with a suggestion of transparency.
The Keeper was bending; its oblong upper 計画（する） dropping 今後 as though upon a hinge. Lower and lower this flange bent—in a grotesque, terrifying obeisance; a horrible mockery of reverence.
Was this mountain of 反対／詐欺s then 現実に a 神社—an idol of the Metal People—their God?
The oblong that was the upper half of the cruciform 形態／調整 延長するd now at 権利 angles to the 水平の 武器. It hovered, a rectangle forty feet long, as many feet over the 床に打ち倒す at the base of the 水晶 pedestal. It bent again, this time from the hinge that held the outstretched 武器 to the base. And now it was a 抱擁する truncated cross, a T-形態／調整d 人物／姿／数字, hovering only twenty feet above the 覆う.
負かす／撃墜する from the Keeper writhed and flicked a 絡まる of tentacles; serpentine, whiplike. Silvery white, they were dyed with the scarlet and orange 炎上ing of the surface now hidden from my 注目する，もくろむs; 反映するd those sullen and angry gleamings. Vermicious, coiling, they seemed to 減少（する） from every インチ of the overhanging 計画（する）s.
Something there was beneath them—something like an 巨大な and luminous tablet. The tentacles were moving over it—圧力（をかける）ing here, thrusting there, turning, 押し進めるing, manipulating—
A shuddering passed through the （人が）群がるing 反対／詐欺s. I saw the （軽い）地震 shake their bristling hosts, oscillate the 広大な／多数の／重要な spire, 始める，決める the faceted disks quivering.
The trembling grew; a vibration in every separate 反対／詐欺 that became even more 早い. There was a faint, curiously oppressive humming—like the distant echo of a tempest in 大混乱.
Faster, ever faster grew the vibration. Now the sharp 輪郭（を描く）s of the 反対／詐欺s were 解散させるing.
And now they were—gone.
The 開始する of the 反対／詐欺s had become a mighty pyramid of pale green radiance —one tremendous, pallid 炎上, of which the spire was the tongue. Out from the disked wheel at its shorn tip 噴出するd a flood of light—light that gathered itself from the leaping radiance below it.
The tentacles of the Keeper moved more 速く over the enigmatic tablet; writhing cloudily; confusedly 早い. The faceted disks wavered; turned 上向き; the wheel began to whirl—faster—faster—
Up from that 炎上ing circle, out into the sky leaped a 厚い, pale green column of intensest light.
With prodigious 速度(を上げる）, as compact as water, CONCENTRATE, it struck— straight out toward the 直面する of the sun.
It thrust up with the 速度(を上げる） of light—the 速度(を上げる） of light? A thought （機の）カム to me; incredible I believed it even as I 反応するd to it. My pulse is uniformly seventy to the minute. I sought my wrist, 設立する the artery, made allowance for its possible acceleration, began to count.
"What's the 事柄?" asked Drake.
"Take my glasses," I muttered, trying to keep up, while speaking, my 一致する. "Matches in my pocket. Smoke the レンズs. I want to look at sun."
With a look of stupefied amazement which, at another time I would have 設立する laughable, he obeyed.
"持つ／拘留する them to my 注目する，もくろむs," I ordered.
Three minutes had gone by.
There it was—that for which I sought. （疑いを）晴らす through the darkened レンズs I could see the sun 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, high up on the northern-most 四肢 of the sun. An unimaginable サイクロン of incandescent gases; an unthinkably 抱擁する dynamo 注ぐing its floods of electro-magnetism upon all the circling 惑星s; that solar 噴火口，クレーター which we now know was, when at its 最大限, all of one hundred and fifty thousand miles across; the 広大な／多数の／重要な sun 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of the summer of 1919—the most enormous ever 記録，記録的な／記録するd by 天文学の science.
Five minutes had gone by.
ありふれた sense whispered to me. There was no use keeping my 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd to the glasses. Even if that thought were true—even if that 中心存在 of radiance were a MESSENGER, an earth-投げつけるd bolt 飛行機で行くing to the sun through atmosphere and outer space with the 速度(を上げる） of light, even if it were this stupendous 創造 of these Things, still between eight and nine minutes must elapse before it could reach the orb; and as many minutes must go by before the image of whatever its 衝撃 might produce upon the sun could pass 支援する over the 橋（渡しをする） of light spanning the ninety millions of miles between it and us.
And after all did not that hypothesis belong to the utterly impossible? Even were it so—what was it that the Metal Monster 推定する／予想するd to follow? This radiant 軸, colossal as it was to us, was infinitesimal compared to the 的 at which it was 目的（とする）d.
What possible 影響 could that spear have upon the solar 軍隊s?
And yet—and yet—a gnat's bite can 運動 an elephant mad. And Nature's balance is delicate; and what 広大な／多数の／重要な happenings may follow the slightest 騒動 of her infinitely 極度の慎重さを要する, her コンビナート／複合体, equilibrium? It might be—it might be—
Eight minutes had passed.
"Take the glasses," I bade Drake. "Look up at the sun 位置／汚点／見つけ出す—the big one."
"I see it." He had obeyed me. "What of it?"
Nine minutes.
The 軸, if I were 権利, had by now touched the sun. What was to follow?
"I don't get you at all," said Drake, and lowered the glasses.
Ten minutes.
"What's happening? Look at the 反対／詐欺s! Look at the Emperor!" gasped Drake.
I peered 負かす／撃墜する, then almost forgot to count.
The pyramidal 炎上 that had been the 開始する of 反対／詐欺s was shrunken. The 中心存在 of radiance had not 少なくなるd—but the 機械装置 that was its source had 退却／保養地d whole yards within the field of its 水晶 base.
And the Metal Emperor! Dulled and faint were his 解雇する／砲火／射撃s, dimmed his splendors; and fainter still were the violet luminescences of the watching 星／主役にするs, the shimmering livery of his 法廷，裁判所.
The Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s! Were not its outstretched 計画（する）s hovering lower and lower over the gleaming tablet; its tentacles moving aimlessly, feebly —wearily?
I had a sense of 軍隊 存在 孤立した from all about me. It was as though all the City were 存在 drained of life—as though vitality were 存在 sucked from it to 料金d this pyramid of radiance; drained from it to (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進む the thrusting spear piercing sunward.
The Metal People seemed to hang limply, inert; the living girders seemed to 下落する; the living columns to bend; to droop and to sway.
Twelve minutes.
With a 神経-racking 衝突，墜落 one of the laden beams fell; dragging 負かす／撃墜する with it others; bending, 粉々にするing in its 落ちる a thicket of the horned columns. Behind us the sparkling 注目する，もくろむs of the 塀で囲む were dimmed, 空いている—dying. Something of that hellish loneliness, that demoniac 願望（する） for immolation that had 攻撃する，非難するd us in the haunted hollow of the 廃虚s began to creep over me.
The （人が）群がるd 噴火口，クレーター was fainting. The life was going out of the City —its 磁石の life, draining into the 軸 of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
Duller grew the Metal Emperor's glories.
Fourteen minutes.
"Goodwin," cried Drake, "the life's going out of these Things! Going out with that ray they're 狙撃."
Fifteen minutes.
I watched the tentacles of the Keeper grope over the tablet. 突然の the 炎上ing pyramid darkened—WENT OUT.
The radiant 中心存在 hurtled 上向き like a 雷鳴-bolt; 消えるd in space.
Before us stood the 開始する of 反対／詐欺s, shrunken to a sixth of its former size.
Sixteen minutes.
All about the 噴火口，クレーター-lip the （犯罪の）一味d 保護物，者s 攻撃するd; thrust themselves on high, as though behind each was an eager 解除するing arm. Below them the 蜂の巣d clusters of disks changed from globules into wide coronets.
Seventeen minutes.
I dropped my wrist; 掴むd the glasses from Drake; raised them to the sun. For a moment I saw nothing—then a tiny 位置／汚点／見つけ出す of white incandescence shone 前へ／外へ at the lower 辛勝する／優位 of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. It grew into a point of radiance, dazzling even through the 影をつくる／尾行するd レンズs.
I rubbed my 注目する，もくろむs; looked again. It was still there, larger—炎ing with an ever 増加するing and intolerable intensity.
I 手渡すd the glasses to Drake, silently.
"I see it!" he muttered. "I see it! And THAT did it—that! Goodwin!" There was panic in his cry. "Goodwin! The 位置／汚点／見つけ出す! it's 広げるing! It's 広げるing!"
I snatched the glasses from him. I caught again the dazzling flashing. But whether Drake HAD seen the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す 広げる, change—to this day I do not know.
To me it seemed 不変の—and yet—perhaps it was not. It may be that under that finger of 軍隊, that spear of light, that 負傷させる in the 味方する of our sun HAD opened その上の—
That the sun had winced!
I do not to this day know. But whether it had or not—still shone the intolerably brilliant light. And 奇蹟 enough that was for me.
Twenty minutes—subconsciously I had gone on counting— twenty minutes—
About the 噴火口，クレーターd girdle of the upthrust 保護物，者s a 微光ing mistiness was 集会; a translucent もや, beryl pale and beryl （疑いを）晴らす. In a heart-（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it had thickened into a 広大な and vaporous （犯罪の）一味 through whose 群れているs of 血球s the sun's 反映するd image upon each disk shone （疑いを）晴らす —as though seen through clouds of transparent 原子s of aquamarine.
Again the filaments of the Keeper moved—feebly. As one of the hosts of circling 保護物，者s 転換d downward. Brilliant, ever more brilliant, waxed the 急速な／放蕩な-thickening もやs.
突然の, and again as one, the disks began to 回転する. From every concave surface, from the surfaces of the 抱擁する circlets below them, flashed out a stream of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃—green as the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of green life itself. Corpuscular, spun of uncounted 急ぐing, dazzling イオンs the 広大な／多数の／重要な rays struck across, impinged upon the thousand-foot wheel that 栄冠を与えるd the 反対／詐欺s; 始める，決める it whirling.
Over it I saw form a limpid cloud of the brilliant vapors. Whence （機の）カム these sparkling nebulosities, these もやs of light? It was as though the clustered, spinning disks reached into the shadowless 空気／公表する, sucked from it some unseen, rhythmic energy and transformed it into this 明白な, coruscating flood.
For now it was a flood. 負かす／撃墜する from the 巨大な wheel （機の）カム 注ぐing cataracts of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. They cascaded over the 反対／詐欺s; deluged them; （海，煙などが）飲み込むd them.
Beneath that radiant inundation the 反対／詐欺s grew. Perceptibly their 容積／容量 増加するd—as though they gorged themselves upon the light. No— it was as though the 血球s flew to them, coalesced and built themselves into the structure.
Out and その上の out upon the base of 水晶 they crept. And higher and higher 急に上がるd their tips, thrusting, ever thrusting 上向き toward the whirling wheel that fed them.
Now from the Keeper's 計画（する）s writhed the Keeper's 絡まる of tentacles, uncoiling 熱望して, avidly, through the twenty feet of space between their source and the enigmatic 機械装置 they manipulated. The 噴火口，クレーター's disks 攻撃するd downward. Into the 広大な hollow 発射 their jets of green radiance, drenching the Metal Hordes, splashing from the polished 塀で囲むs wherever the Metal Hordes had left those living 塀で囲むs exposed.
All about us was a trembling, an 加速するing pulse of life. Colossal, rhythmic, ever quicker, ever more powerfully that pulse throbbed—a prodigious vibration monstrously alive.
"Feeding!" whispered Drake. "Feeding! Feeding on the sun!"
Faster danced the radiant beams. The 噴火口，クレーター was a cauldron of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃s through which the conical rays angled and interwove, crossed and mingled. And where they mingled, where they crossed, 炎上d out suddenly 巨大な rayless orbs; palpitant for an instant, then 解散させるing in spiraling, feathery spray of pallid emerald incandescences.
Stronger and stronger （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the pulse of returning life.
A jetting stream struck squarely upon the Metal Emperor. Out 炎d his splendors—jubilant. His golden zodiac, no longer （名声などを）汚すd and dull, ran with sun 炎上s; the wondrous rose was a racing, lambent 奇蹟.
Up snapped the Keeper; towered behind him, all flickering scarlets and leaping yellows—no longer wrathful or sullen.
The place dripped radiance; was filling like a chrisom with radiance.
Us, too, the sparkling もやs bathed.
I was conscious of a curiously wild exhilaration; a 生き返らせる of the pulse; an abnormally 早い breathing. I stooped to touch Drake; 誘発するs leaped from my outstretched fingers, 広大な／多数の／重要な green 誘発するs that crackled as they 衝撃d upon him. He gave them no 注意する; but 星／主役にするd with fascinated 注目する，もくろむs upon the 噴火口，クレーター.
Now from every 味方する broke a tempest of gem 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. From every girder and column, from every arras, pendent and 宙返り飛行ing, burst diamond glitterings, ruby luminescences, lanced 炎上s of molten emerald and sapphires, flashings of amethyst and opal, meteoric iridescences, dazzling spectrums.
The hollow was a 洞穴 of some Aladdin of the 巨人s 燃えて with enchanted hoards. It was a place of gems ensorcelled, gems in which 拘留するd hosts of the Jinns of Light （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 sparkling against their 水晶 塀で囲むs to escape.
I thrust the fantasies from me. Fantastic enough was this reality— globe and pyramid and cube of the Metal People 開始 wide, bathing in, drinking from the radiant maelstrom that faster and ever faster 渦巻くd about them.
"Feeding!" It was Drake's awed 発言する／表明する. "Feeding on the sun!"
The circling 保護物，者s were raising themselves, 解除するing themselves higher above the 噴火口，クレーター-lip. Into the （人が）群がるd cylinder （機の）カム now only the rays from the high circlets, the streams from the 抱擁する wheel above the still growing 反対／詐欺s.
Up and up the 保護物，者s rose, but by what 機械装置 raised I could not see. Their 動議 中止するd; in all their thousands they turned. Over the City's 最高の，を越す and out into the oval valley they 注ぐd their 激流s of light; flooding it, deluging it even as they had this 炭坑，オーケストラ席 that was the City's heart. Feeding, I knew, those other Metal Hordes without.
And as though in answer, 広範囲にわたる 負かす／撃墜する upon us through the circles of open sky, a clamor 注ぐd.
"If we'd but known!" Drake's 発言する／表明する （機の）カム to me, thin and unreal through the tumult. "It's what Ventnor meant! If we had got 負かす／撃墜する there when they were so weak—if we could have 扱うd the Keeper—we could have 粉砕するd that plate that 作品 the 反対／詐欺s! We could have killed them!"
"There are other 反対／詐欺s," I cried 支援する to him.
"No," he shook his 長，率いる. "This is the master machine. It's what Ventnor meant when he said to strike through the sun. And we've lost the chance—"
Louder grew the ハリケーン without; and now within began its mate. Through the もやs flashed linked tempests of 雷s. Bolt upon javelin bolt, and ever more thickly; 雷s green as the もやs themselves; 雷 bolts of destroying violets, searing scarlets; 涙／ほころびing chains of withering yellows, globes of 爆発するing multicolored electric incandescences.
The 噴火口，クレーター was threaded with the 雷s of the Metal People; was broidered with them; was a 炭坑，オーケストラ席 woven with 広大な and changing patterns of electric 炎上.
What was it that Drake had said? That if but we could have known we could have destroyed these—Things—Destroyed—Them? Things that could thrust their will and 力／強力にする up through ninety million miles of space and suck from the sun the honey of 力／強力にする! Drain it and 蜂の巣 it within these 広大な／多数の／重要な mountains of the 反対／詐欺s!
Destroy Things that could 料金d their own life into a machine to draw 支援する from the sun a greater life—Things that could (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進む of their strength a spear which, piercing the 味方する of the sun, sent 噴出するing 支援する upon them a tenfold, nay, a thousandfold strength!
Destroy this City that was one 広大な and living dynamo feeding upon the 磁石の life of earth and sun!
The clamor had grown stupendous, destroying—like 装甲の Gods roaring at sword play in a hundred Valhallas; like the war 派手に宣伝するs of 戦う／戦いing universe; like the smitings of warring suns.
And all the City was throbbing, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing with a gigantic pulse of life —was fed and drunken with life. I felt that pulsing become my own; I echoed to it; throbbed in unison. I saw Drake 輪郭（を描く）d in 炎上; that around me a radiant nimbus was growing.
I thought I saw Norhala floating, 着せる／賦与するd in shouting, flailing 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. I strove to call out to her. By me slipped the 団体／死体 of Drake; lay 炎上ing at my feet upon the 狭くする ledge.
There was a roaring within my 長，率いる—louder, far louder, than that which （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 against my ears. Something was 製図／抽選 me 前へ／外へ; 製図／抽選 me out of my 団体／死体 into unimaginable depths of blackness. Something was 投げつけるing me out into those 冷淡な depths of space that alone could darken the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s that encircled me—the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of which I was becoming a part.
I felt myself leap outward—outward and outward—into —oblivion.
Wearily I opened my 注目する，もくろむs. Stiffly, painfully, I stirred. High above me was the tremendous circle of sky, （犯罪の）一味d with the hosts of feeding 保護物，者s. But the 保護物，者s were now wanly gleaming and the sky was the sky of night.
Night? How long had I lain here? And where was Drake? I struggled to rise.
"安定した, old man," his 発言する／表明する （機の）カム from beside me. "安定した—and 静かな. How are you feeling?"
"不正に 乱打するd," I groaned. "What happened?"
"We weren't used to the show," he said. "We got all fed up at the orgy. Too much magnetism—we had a sudden and violent attack of 電気の indigestion. Sh-h—look ahead of you."
Gingerly I turned. I had been lying, I now saw, 長，率いる toward and 傾向がある at the base of one of the 噴火口，クレーター's 塀で囲むs. As my gaze swept away I 公式文書，認めるd with a curious 救済 that the tiny 注目する，もくろむ-points were no longer sparkling with their enigmatic life, that they were dulled and 薄暗い once more.
Before me, 微光ing pallidly, bristled the 開始する of the 反対／詐欺s. Around its 水晶 base glittered 巨大な egg-形態／調整d diamond incandescences. They were both rayless and strangely—lightless; they threw no 影をつくる／尾行するs nor did their lambency 少なくなる the dimness. Beside each of these curious luminosities stood one of the sullen-解雇する／砲火／射撃d, cruciform 形態／調整s—the Things that now I knew for the opened cubes.
They were smaller than the Keeper, indeed いっそう少なく than half his 高さ. They were 範囲d in an almost 無傷の 三日月 around the 明白な arc of the 巨大な pedestal—and now I saw that the lights were a few feet closer to that pedestal than they. Egg-形態／調整d as I have said, the wider end was undermost, 残り／休憩（する）ing in a 幅の広い cup upheld by a slender pedicle silvery-gray and metallic.
"They're building out the base," whispered Drake. "The 反対／詐欺s got so big they have to give them more room."
"Magnetism," I whispered in return. "Electricity—they drew 負かす／撃墜する from the sun 位置／汚点／見つけ出す. And it was more than that—I saw the 反対／詐欺s grow under it. It fed them as it fed the Hordes—but the 反対／詐欺s grew. It was as though the 保護物，者s and the 反対／詐欺s turned pure energy into 実体."
"And if we hadn't been pretty 完全に magnetized to start with it would have done for us," he said.
We watched the 操作／手術 going on in 前線 of us. The cross 形態／調整s had bent, hinging above the transverse 武器. They 屈服するd in 絶対の unison as at some signal. 負かす／撃墜する from the 水平の 計画（する） of each whipped the long and writhing tentacles.
At the foot of every one I could now perceive a heap of some faintly glistening 構成要素. The tendrils coiled の中で this, then drew up something that looked like a 厚い 棒 of 水晶. The bent 計画（する）s straightened; 同時に they thrust the crystalline 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s toward the incandescences.
There （機の）カム a curious, brittle hissing. The ends of the 棒s began to 解散させる into dazzling, diamond rain, atomically minute, that passing through the egg-形態／調整d lights 注ぐd upon the periphery of the pedestal. 速く the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s melted. Heat there must be in these lights, terrific heat—yet the Keeper's 労働者s seemed impervious to it.
As the ends of the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s radiated into the annealing もや I saw the tentacles creep closer and ever closer to the rayless 炎上 through which the もや flew. And at the last, as the ultimate 原子s drove through, the 持つ／拘留するing tendrils were thrust almost within it; touched it, certainly.
A 得点する／非難する／２０ of times they repeated this 過程 while we watched. Unaware of us they seemed, or—if aware, then indifferent. More 早い became their movements, the glassy 鋳塊s streaming through the floating braziers with hardly a pause in their passing. 突然の, as though switched, the incandescences 少なくなるd into candle-points; 即時に, as at a signal, the 三日月 of crosses の近くにd into a 三日月 of cubes.
Motionless they stood, 抱擁する 封鎖するs blackened against the 薄暗い glowing of the 反対／詐欺s—sentient monoliths; a Druid curve; an arc of a metal Stonehenge. And as at dusk and 夜明け the 広大な／多数の／重要な menhirs of Stonehenge fill with a mysterious, granitic life, seem to be praying priests of 石／投石する, so about these gathered hierophantic illusion.
They quivered; the slender pedicles cupping, the 病弱なd lights swayed; the lights 解除するd and 急に上がるd, upright, to their 支援するs.
Two by two with 手段d pace, solemnly the cubes glided off into the encircling 不明瞭. As they swept away there streamed behind them other 得点する／非難する／２０s not until then 明白な to us, joining pair by pair from hidden arcs.
Into the secret 影をつくる／尾行するs they flowed, two by two, each 耐えるing over it the わずかな／ほっそりした 軸 持つ／拘留するing the serene 炎上.
Grotesquely were they like a column of 修道士s marching with dimmed flambeaux of their worship. Angled metal 修道士s of some god of metal, carrying 次第に減少するs of electric 解雇する／砲火／射撃, 身を引くing slowly from a 宗教上の of 宗教上のs whose metallically divine Occupant knew nothing of man—nor cared to know.
Grotesque—yes. But would that I had the 力／強力にする to crystallize in words the underlying, 外国人 terror every movement of the Metal Monster when 崩壊する, its every manifestation when 連合させるd, evoked; the incredulous, amazed lurking always の近くに behind the threshold of the mind; the never 解除するing, thin- shuddering 影をつくる／尾行する.
Smaller, dimmer 病弱なd the lights—they were gone.
We crouched, motionless. Nothing stirred; there was no sound. Without speaking we arose; crept together over the smooth 床に打ち倒す toward the 反対／詐欺s.
As we crossed I saw that the 覆う, like the 塀で囲むs, was built of the 団体／死体s of the Metal People; and, like the 塀で囲むs, they were 活動停止中の, filmed 注目する，もくろむs oblivious to our passing. Closer we crept—were only a scant 得点する／非難する／２０ of 棒s from that colossal 機械装置. I 公式文書，認めるd that the 水晶 創立／基礎 was 始める，決める low; was not more than four feet above the 床に打ち倒す. The sturdy, dwarfed pilasters supporting it thrust up in （人が）群がるd copses, 合併するing through distance into 明らかな solidity.
Now, too, I realized, as I had not when looking 負かす／撃墜する from above, how stupendous the structure rising from the 水晶 創立／基礎 was.
I began to wonder how so thin a support could 耐える the 開始する bristling above it—then remembered what it was that at first had flown from them, 縮むing them, and at last had fed and swelled them.
Light! Weightless 磁石の イオンs; 群れているs of electric イオンs; the misty breath of the infinite energy breathing upon, condensing upon, them. Could it be that the 反対／詐欺s for all their 明らかな 集まり had little, if any, 負わせる? Like （犯罪の）一味d Saturn, thousands of times Earth's 本体，大部分／ばら積みの, flaunting itself in the Heavens—yet if 輸送（する）d to our world so light that （犯罪の）一味s and all it would float like a 泡 upon our oceans. The 反対／詐欺s towered above me —の近くに, so の近くに.
The 反対／詐欺s were weightless. How I knew I cannot say—but now, almost touching them, I did know. Nebulous, yet solid, were they; compact, yet tenuous, dense and unsubstantial.
Again the thought （機の）カム to me—they were 軍隊 made 明白な; energy made concentrate into 事柄.
We skirted, 捜し出すing for the tablet over which the Keeper had hovered; the 機械装置 which, under his tentacles, had 転換d the circling 保護物，者s, thrust the spear of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃 into the 味方する of the 負傷させるd sun. Hesitantly I touched the 水晶 base; the 辛勝する／優位 was warm, but whether this warmth （機の）カム from the dazzling rain which we had just watched build it outward or whether it was a 所有物／資産／財産 inherent with the 実体 itself I do not know.
Certainly there was no 示す upon it to show where the molten もやs had fallen. It was diamond hard and smooth. The nearest 反対／詐欺s were but a scant nine feet from its 縁.
Suddenly we saw the tablet; stood beside it. The 形態／調整 of a 広大な／多数の／重要な T, 微光ing with a faint and limpid violet phosphorescence, it might have been, in 形態／調整 and size, the palely 向こうずねing 影をつくる／尾行する of the Keeper. It was a foot above the 床に打ち倒す, and had 明らかに no 関係 with the 反対／詐欺s.
It was made of thousands of の近くに-packed tiny octagonal 棒s the 最高の，を越すs of some of which were cupped, of others pointed; 非，不，無 was more than half an インチ in width. There was about it a suggestion of wedded 水晶 and metal— as about its 重荷（を負わせる） was the suggestion of mated energy and 事柄.
The 棒s were movable; they formed a keyboard unimaginably コンビナート／複合体; a keyboard whose infinite combinations were like a Fourth Dimensional chess game. I saw that only the 群れているs of tentacles that were the Keeper's 手渡すs and these only could be masters of its incredible intricacies. No Disk —not even the Emperor, no 星／主役にする 形態／調整 could play on it, draw out its chords of 力／強力にする.
But why? Why had it been so made that sullen 炎上ing Cross alone could 解放（する） its hidden meanings, make articulate its interwoven octaves? And how were its messages 伝えるd? Up to its bases 圧力（をかける）d the 活動停止中の cubes— that under it they lay as 井戸／弁護士席 I did not 疑問.
There was no 明白な copula of the tablet with 反対／詐欺s; no antennae between it and the circled 保護物，者s. Could it be that the impulses 解放（する）d by the Keeper's coilings passed through the Metal People of the 覆う on the upthrust Metal People of the 噴火口，クレーター 縁 who held the 保護物，者s?
That WAS 考えられない—考えられない because if so this 機械装置 was superfluous.
The swift 返答 to the communal will that we had 観察するd showed that the Metal Monster needed nothing of this 肉親，親類d for 伝達／伝染 of the thought of any of its 部隊s.
There was some gap here—a gap that the grouped consciousness could not 橋（渡しをする） without other means. 明確に that was true—else why the tablet, why the Keeper's travail?
Was each of these tiny 棒s a 機械装置 akin, in a fashion, to the sending 重要なs of the wireless; were they transmitters of subtle energy in which was enfolded 命令（する）? Spellers-out of a 最高の-Morse carrying to each responsive 独房 of the Metal Monster the bidding of those higher 部隊s which were to It as the brain 独房s are to us? That, 前進するd as the knowledge it 暗示するd might be, was closer to the heart of the possible.
I bent, 決定するd, にもかかわらず the 井戸／弁護士席-nigh unconquerable 縮むing I felt, to touch the tablet's 棒s.
A flickering 影をつくる／尾行する fell upon me; a flock of pulsating ocherous and scarlet 影をつくる／尾行するs—
The Keeper glowed above us!
In a life that has had its 株 of dangers, its need for quick 決定／判定勝ち（する）s, I 認める that few indeed of my reactions to 危険，危なくする have been more than 純粋に 直感的に; no more consciously 勇敢な nor intellectually dissociate from the 活動させる／戦時編成するing 刺激 than the 縮むing of the 燃やすd 手渡す from the brand, the will-to-live dictated 急ぐ of the cornered animal upon the thing 脅迫的な it.
One such higher 機能（する）／行事ing was when I followed Larry O'Keefe and Lakla, the Handmaiden, out to what we believed soul- destroying death in a place almost as strange as this;* another was now. Deliberately, detachedly, I 熟考する／考慮するd the 怒って 炎上ing 形態／調整.
[ * See "The Moon Pool" and "The Conquest of the Moon Pool." ]
Compared to it we were as a pair of Hop-o'-my-Thumbs to the 巨大（な）; had it been man-形態／調整d we would have come いっそう少なく than a third way up to its 膝s. I focussed my attention upon the twenty-foot-wide square that was the Keeper's foot. Its surface was jewel smooth, hyaline—yet beneath it was a suggestion of granulation, of の近くに-packed, innumerable, microscopic 水晶s.
Within these 穀物s whose 存在 was more sensed than seen glowed dull red light, smoky and sullen. At each end of the square, の近くに to the 底（に届く）, was a diamond-形態／調整d lozenge, cabochon, perhaps a yard in width. These were 薄暗い yellow, translucent, with no suggestion of the underlying crystallization. Sense 組織／臓器s I 始める，決める them 負かす／撃墜する to be—類似の to the 広大な／多数の／重要な ovals within the Emperor's golden zone.
My gaze traveled up to the transverse 武器. They stretched sixty feet from tip to tip. At each tip were two more of the diamond 人物／姿／数字s, not dull but 燃やすing 怒って with orange-and- scarlet luster. In the 中心 of the beam was something that might have been a smoldering rubrous reflection of the Emperor's pulsing multicolored rose had each of the petals of the latter been clipped and squared.
It 深くするd toward its heart into a singular pattern of vermilion latticings. Into the entire 人物／姿／数字 ran 非常に／多数の tiny rivulets of angry crimson and orange light, angling in interwoven patterns with never a curve nor arching.
始める，決める at intervals between them were what looked like octagonal rosettes filled with slender silvery flutings, 病弱な striations—like—it （機の）カム to me—巨大な chrysanthemum buds, half opened, and carved in gray jade.
Above towered the gigantic vertical beam. Toward its 最高の，を越す I glimpsed a 抱擁する square of ゆらめくing crimsons and 有望な topaz; two other diamonds 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する upon us from just beneath it—like 注目する，もくろむs. And over all its 高さ the striated octagons clustered.
I felt myself 解除するd, floated 上向き. Drake's 手渡す 発射 out, clung to me as together we drifted up the living 塀で囲む. Opposite the latticed heart of the square-petaled rose our flight was checked. There for an instant we hung. Then the octagonal symbols stirred, 広げるd like buds—
They were the nests of the Keeper's tentacles, and out from them the whiplike tendrils uncoiled, 発射 out and writhed toward us.
My 肌 flinched from their touch; my 団体／死体, held in the unseen 支配する, was motionless. Yet when they touched their 接触する was not unpleasant. They were like 柔軟な 立ち往生させるs of glass; their smooth tips questioned us, passing through our hair, searching our 直面するs, writhing over our 着せる／賦与するing.
There was a pulse in the 広大な／多数の／重要な clipped rose, a rhythmic throbbing of vermilion 解雇する／砲火／射撃 that ran into it from the angled veins, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 through the latticed 核 and throbbed 支援する whence it had come. The 抱擁する, high square of scarlet and yellow was liquid 炎上; the diamond 組織／臓器s beneath it seemed to smoke, to send out 渦巻くs of orange red vapor.
持つ／拘留するing us so the Keeper 熟考する／考慮するd us.
The rhythm of the square rose, became the rhythm of my own mind. But here was 非，不，無 of the 広大な, serene and elemental 静める that Ruth had 述べるd as emanating from the Metal Emperor. Powerful it was, without 疑問, but in it were undertones of 激怒（する）, of impatience, overtones of 反乱, something incomplete and struggling. Within the disharmonies I seemed to sense a fettered 軍隊 努力する／競うing for freedom; energy 戦う／戦いing against itself.
Greater grew the 群れているs of the tentacles winding about us like slender 立ち往生させるs of glass, covering our 直面するs, making breathing more and more difficult. There was a coil of them around my throat and 強化するing— 強化するing.
I heard Drake gasping, laboring for breath. I could not turn my 長，率いる toward him, could not speak. Was this then to be our end?
The strangling clutch relaxed, the 集まり of the tentacles 少なくなるd. I was conscious of a 殺到する of 怒り／怒る through the cruciform Thing that held us.
Its sullen 解雇する／砲火／射撃s 炎d. I was aware of another light （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing past us —（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 負かす／撃墜する the Keeper's. The hosts of tendrils drew 支援する from me. I felt myself 選ぶd from the unseen しっかり掴む, whirled in the 空気／公表する and drawn away.
Drake beside me, I hung now before the 向こうずねing Disk—the Metal Emperor!
He it was who had plucked us from the Keeper—and even as I swung I saw the Keeper's multitudinous, serpentine 武器 殺到する out toward us 怒って and then sullenly, slowly, draw 支援する into their nests.
And out of the Disk, 着せる／賦与するing me, permeating me, （機の）カム an 巨大な tranquillity, a muting of all human thought, all human 努力する, an 考えられない, cosmic 静める into which all that was human of me seemed to be 沈むing, 溺死するing as in a fathomless abyss. I struggled against it, 猛烈に, 努力する／競うing in 熟考する／考慮する of the Disk to 築く a 障壁 of 最大の関心事 against the 力／強力にする 注ぐing from it.
A dozen feet away from us the sapphire ovals 中心d upon us their regard. They were limpid, pellucid as gems whose 巨大（な） replicas they seemed to be. The surface of the Disk （犯罪の）一味d about by the aureate zodiac in which the nine ovals shone was a maze of geometric symbols traced in the lines of living gem 解雇する／砲火／射撃s; infinitely コンビナート／複合体 those patterns and infinitely beautiful; an infinite number of symmetric forms in which I seemed to trace all the ordered crystalline wonders of the snowflakes, the 配合s of all crystalline patternings, the soul of ordered beauty that are the marvels of the Radiolaria, Nature's own miraculous 調書をとる／予約する of the soul of mathematical beauty.
The flashing, petaled heart was woven of living rainbows of 冷淡な 炎上.
Silently we floated there while the Disk—LOOKED—at us.
And as though I had been not an actor but an 観察者／傍聴者, the weird picture of it all （機の）カム to me—two men swinging like motes in 中央の 空気／公表する, on one 味方する the flickering scarlet and orange Cruciform 形態／調整, on the other 味方する the radiant Disk, behind the two manikins the pallid 開始する of the bristling 反対／詐欺s; and high above the 病弱な circle of the 保護物，者s.
There was a （犯罪の）一味ing about us—an elfin chiming, 甘い and crystalline. It （機の）カム from the 反対／詐欺s—and strangely was it their 声の 合成, their 発言する／表明する. Into the 広大な circle of sky pierced a lance of green 解雇する／砲火／射撃; swift in its wake uprose others.
We slid gently 負かす／撃墜する, stood swaying at the Disk's base. The Keeper bent; angled. Again the 計画（する）s above the supporting square hovered over the tablet. The tendrils swept 負かす／撃墜する, 押し進めるd here and there, playing upon the 棒s some unknown symphony of 力／強力にする.
厚い pulsed the lances of the aurora; changed to 広大な 大波ing curtains. The faceted wheel at the 最高の，を越す of the central spire of the 反対／詐欺s swung 上向き; a light began to stream from the 反対／詐欺s themselves—no 中心存在 now, but a 広大な circle that 発射 whirling into the heavens like a noose.
And like a noose it caught the aurora, snared it!
Into it the coruscating もやs of mysterious 炎上 渦巻くd; lost their colors, became a 激流 of light 飛行機で行くing 負かす／撃墜する through the （犯罪の）一味 as though through a funnel 最高の，を越す.
負かす／撃墜する 注ぐd the radiant 血球s, bathing the 反対／詐欺s. They did not glow as they had beneath the flood from the 保護物，者s, and if they grew it was too slowly for me to see; the 保護物，者s were motionless. Now here, now there, I saw the other （犯罪の）一味s whirl up—smaller mouths of lesser 反対／詐欺s hidden within the 団体／死体 of the Metal Monster, I knew, sucking 負かす／撃墜する this 磁石の flux, these countless イオンs 噴出するing 前へ／外へ from the sun.
Then as when first we had seen the 現象 in the valley of the blue poppies, the （犯罪の）一味 消えるd, hidden by a 霧 of coruscations—as though the 軍隊 streaming through the （犯罪の）一味s became diffused after it had been caught.
Crouching, forgetful of our juxtaposition to these two unhuman, anomalous Things, we watched the play of the tentacles upon the upthrust 棒s.
But if we forgot, we were not forgotten!
The Emperor slipped nearer; seemed to 熟視する／熟考する us—quizzically, AMUSED; as a man would look 負かす／撃墜する upon some curious and 利益／興味ing insect, a puppy, a kitten. I sensed this amusement in the Disk's regard even as I had sensed its soul of awful tranquillity; as we had sensed the playful malice in the 注目する，もくろむ 星／主役にするs of the living 回廊（地帯）, the curiosity in the column that had dropped us into the valley.
I felt a 押し進める—a 押し進める that was filled with a colossal, GLITTERING playfulness.
Under it I went spinning away for yards—Drake twirling の近くに behind me. The 軍隊, whatever it was, swept out from the Emperor, but in it was no slightest hint of 怒り／怒る or of malice, no slightest 影をつくる／尾行する of the 悪意のある.
Rather it was as though one would blow away a feather; 勧める gently some little lesser thing away.
The Disk watched our whirlings—with a sparkling, jeweled LAUGHTER in its pulsing radiance.
Again （機の）カム the 押し進める—さらに先に yet we spun. Suddenly before us, across the 覆う, shone out a twinkling 追跡する—the wakened 注目する，もくろむs of the cubes that formed it, 場内取引員／株価 out a pathway for us to follow.
すぐに upon their gleaming 前へ／外へ I saw the Emperor turn—his 巨大な, oval, metallic 支援する now 黒人／ボイコット against the radiance of the 反対／詐欺s.
Up from the 狭くする gleaming path—a path opened I knew by some 命令（する）—解除するd the hosts of tiny unseen 手渡すs; the sentient 現在のs of 磁石の 軍隊 that were the fingers and 武器 of the Metal Hordes. They held us, thrust us along, passed us 今後. Faster and faster we moved, スピード違反 on the wake of the long-消えるd metal 修道士s.
I turned my 長，率いる—the 反対／詐欺s were already far away. Over the tablet of limpid violet phosphorescence still hovered the 計画（する）s of the Keeper; and still was the oval of the Emperor 黒人／ボイコット against the radiance.
But the twinkling, sparkling path between us and them was gone—was fading out の近くに behind us as we swept onward.
Faster and faster grew our pace. The cylindrical 塀で囲む ぼんやり現れるd の近くに. A high oblong portal showed within it. Into this we were carried. Before us stretched a 回廊（地帯） 正確に 類似の to that which, の近くにing upon us, had 軍隊d us 完全に out into the hall.
Unlike that passage, its 床に打ち倒す 解除するd steeply—a smooth and 向こうずねing slide up which no man could climb. A 軸, indeed, which thrust 上向き straight as an arrow at an angle of at least thirty degrees and whose end or turning we could not see. Up and up it （疑いを）晴らすd its way through the City —through the Metal Monster—の近くにd only by the 無（不）能 of the 注目する，もくろむ to pierce the faint luminosity that thickened by distance became impenetrable.
For an instant we hovered upon its threshold. But the impulse, the 命令（する）, that had carried us thus far was not to stop here. Into it and up it we were thrust, our feet barely touching the 微光ing surface; 解除するd by the 軍隊 that emanated from its 床に打ち倒す, carried on by the 軍隊 that 圧力（をかける）d out from the 味方するs.
Up and up we went—得点する／非難する／２０s of feet—hundreds—
"Goodwin!" Drake broke the silence; 猛烈に he was 努力する／競うing to keep his 恐れる out of his 発言する／表明する. "Goodwin—this isn't the way to get out. We're going up—さらに先に away all the time from the—the gates!"
"What can we do?" My 苦悩 was no いっそう少なく than his, but my 現実化 of our helplessness was 完全にする.
"If we only knew how to talk to these Things," he said. "If we could only have let the Disk know we 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get out—damn it, Goodwin, it would have helped us."
Grotesque as the idea sounded, I felt that he spoke the truth. The Emperor meant no 害（を与える） to us; in fact in スピード違反 us away I was not at all sure that he had not deliberately wished us 井戸／弁護士席—there was that about the Keeper—
Still up we sped along the 軸. I knew we must now be above the level of the valley.
"We've got to get 支援する to Ruth! Goodwin—NIGHT! And what may have HAPPENED to her?"
"Drake, boy"—I dropped into his own colloquialism—"we're up against it. We can't help it. And remember—she's there in Norhala's home. I don't believe, I honestly don't believe, 刑事, that there's any danger as long as she remains there. And Ventnor 関係 her 急速な／放蕩な."
"That's true," he said, more hopefully. "That's true—and probably Norhala is with her by now."
"I don't 疑問 it," I said cheerfully. An idea （機の）カム to me—I half believed it myself. "And another thing. There's not an 活動／戦闘 here that's purposeless. We're 存在 driven on by the 命令（する） of that Thing we call the Metal Emperor. It means us no 害（を与える）. Maybe—maybe this IS the way out."
"Maybe so," he shook his 長，率いる doubtfully. "But I'm not sure. Maybe that long 押し進める was just to get us away from THERE. And it strikes me that the impulse has begun to 弱める. We're not going anywhere 近づく as 急速な／放蕩な as we were."
I had not realized it, but our 速度(を上げる） was slackening. I looked 支援する— hundreds of feet behind us fell the slide. An unpleasant 冷気／寒がらせる went through me—should the 磁石の 支配する upon us relax, 身を引く, nothing could stop us from 落ちるing 支援する along that incline to be broken like eggs at its end; that our breaths would be 消すd out by the terrific 降下／家系 long before we reached that end was scant 慰安.
"There are other passages 開始 up along this 軸," Drake said. "I'm not for 信用ing the Emperor too far—he has other things on his metallic mind, you know. The next one we get to, let's try to slip into —if we can."
I had noticed; there had been 開始s along the 上がるing 軸; 回廊（地帯）s running 明らかに transversely to its angled way.
Slower and slower became our pace. A hundred yards above I glimpsed one of the apertures. Could we reach it? Slower and slower we arose. Now the gap was but a yard off—but we were motionless—were tottering!
Drake's 武器 wrapped 一連の会議、交渉／完成する me. With a tremendous 成果／努力 he 投げつけるd me into the portal. I dropped at its 辛勝する／優位, writhed 速く around, saw him slipping, slipping 負かす／撃墜する—thrust my 手渡すs out to him.
He caught them. There （機の）カム a wrench that 拷問d my arm sockets as though racked. But he held!
Slowly—I writhed 支援する into the passage, dragging up his almost dead 負わせる. His 長，率いる appeared, his shoulders; there was a convulsion of the long 団体／死体 and he lay before me.
For a minute or two we lay, flat upon our 支援するs 残り／休憩（する）ing. I sat up. The passage was 幅の広い, silent; 明らかに as endless as that from which we had just escaped.
Along it, above us, under us, the crystalline 注目する，もくろむs were 薄暗い. It showed no 調印する of movement—yet had it done so there was nothing we could do save 減少（する） 負かす／撃墜する the 絶滅するing slant. Drake arose.
"I'm hungry," he said, "and I'm thirsty. I move that we eat and drink and だいたい be merry."
He slung aside the haversack. From it we took food; from the canteens we drank. We did not talk. Each knew what the other was thinking; infrequently, and thank the eternal 法律 that some call God for that, come crises in which speech seems not only petty but when against it the mind 反逆者／反逆するs as a nauseous thing.
This was such a time. At last I drew myself to my feet.
"Let's be going," I said.
The 回廊（地帯） stretched straight before us; along it we paced. How far we walked I do not know; mile upon mile, it seemed. It broadened 突然の into a 広大な hall.
And this hall was filled with the Metal Hordes—was a gigantic workshop of them. In every 形態／調整, in every form, they seethed and toiled about it. Upon its 床に打ち倒す were heaps of 向こうずねing 鉱石s, 塚s of flashing gems, piles of 鋳塊s, metallic and crystalline. High and low throughout 炎上d the egg-形態／調整d incandescences; floating furnaces both 広大な／多数の／重要な and small.
Before one of these (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むs, の近くに to us, stood a Metal Thing. Its 団体／死体 was a twelve-foot column of smaller cubes. Upon the 最高の，を越す was a hollow square formed of even lesser 封鎖するs—封鎖するs hardly larger than the Little Things themselves. In the 中心 of the open rectangle was another 軸, its 最高の，を越す a two-foot square plate formed of a 選び出す／独身 cube.
From the 味方するs of the hollow square sprang long 武器 of spheres, each tipped by a tetrahedron. They moved 自由に, slipping about upon their curved points of 接触する and like a dozen little thinking 大打撃を与えるs, the pyramid points at their ends （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 負かす／撃墜する upon as many thimble 形態／調整d 反対するs which they thrust alternately into the unwinking brazier then laid upon the central 封鎖する to 形態／調整.
A goblin workman the Thing seemed, standing there, so 意図 upon and so busy with its forgings.
There were 得点する／非難する／２０s of these animate machines; they paid no slightest 注意する to us as we slipped by them, 粘着するing as closely to the 塀で囲む of the 巨大な workshop as we could.
We passed a company of other 形態／調整s which stood two by two and の近くに together, their 最高の，を越すs wide spinning wheels through which the tendrils of an opened globe fed translucent, colorless 鋳塊s—the 実体 it seemed to me of which Norhala's shadowy 塀で囲むs were made, the 水晶 of which the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s that built out the base of the 反対／詐欺s were formed.
The 鋳塊s passed between the whirling 直面するs; 現れるd from them as slender, long cylinders; were 掴むd as they slipped 負かす／撃墜する by a crouching 封鎖する, whose place as it glided away was 即時に taken by another. In many bewildering forms, 意図 upon unknown activities directed toward unguessable ends, the 合成物, animate 機械装置s labored. And all the place was filled with a goblin bustle, trollish racketings, （犯罪の）一味ing of gnomish anvils, clanging of kobold (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むs—a clamorous cavern filled with metal Nibelungen.
We （機の）カム to the 開始 of another passage, a doorway piercing the 塀で囲むs of the workshop. Its incline, though 法外な, was not dangerous.
Into it we stepped; climbed onward it seemed interminably. Far ahead of us at last appeared the 輪郭（を描く） of its その上の 入り口, silhouetted against and filled with a brighter luminosity. We drew 近づく; stopped 慎重に at its threshold, peering out.
井戸／弁護士席 it was that we had hesitated. Before us was open space—an abyss in the 団体／死体 of the Metal Monster.
The 回廊（地帯） opened into it like a window. Thrusting out our 長，率いるs, we saw an 無傷の 塀で囲む both above and below. Half a mile away was its opposite 味方する. Over this 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was a misty sky and not more than a thousand feet above and 黒人／ボイコット against the heavens was the lip of it—the cornices of this chasm within the City.
Far, far beneath us we watched the Hordes throw themselves across the abyss in webs of curving arches and girder-straight 橋（渡しをする）s; gigantic we knew these （期間が）わたるs must be yet dwarfed to slender footways by distance. Over them moved hurrying companies; from them （機の）カム flashings, glitterings— prismatic, sun golden; plutonic scarlets, molten blues; javelins of colored light piercing 上向き from 広げるd cubes and globes and pyramids crossing them or from busy 持参人払いのs of the 向こうずねing fruits of the mysterious workshops.
And as they passed the 橋（渡しをする）s swung up, coiled and thrust themselves from sight through 開始s that の近くにd behind them. Ever, as they passed, の近くに on their going whipped out other （期間が）わたるs so that always across that abyss a sentient, 転換ing web was hung.
We drew 支援する, 星／主役にするd into each other's white 直面する. Panic swept through me, in quick, 補欠／交替の／交替する pulse of ice and 解雇する／砲火／射撃. For crushingly, no longer to be 否定するd, （機の）カム certainty that we were lost within the mazes of this incredible City—lost in the 団体／死体 of the Metal Monster which that City was. There was a sick despair in my heart as we turned and slowly made our way 支援する along the sloping 回廊（地帯）.
A hundred yards, perhaps, we had gone in silence before we stopped, gazing stupidly at an 開始 in the 塀で囲む beside us. The portal had not been there when we had passed—of that I was 確かな .
"It's opened since we went by," whispered Drake.
We peered through it. The passage was 狭くする; its 覆う led downward. For a moment we hesitated, the same foreboding in both our minds. And yet— の中で the 危険，危なくするs that （人が）群がるd in upon us what choice had we? There could be no more danger there than here.
Both ways were—ALIVE, both obedient to impulses over which we had no more 支配（する）／統制する and no more way of predetermining than mice in some コンビナート／複合体, man-made 罠（にかける）. その上に, this 軸 also ran downward, and although its pitch was いっそう少なく and it did not therefore 減少（する） as quickly toward that level we sought and wherein lay the 開始s of escape into the outer valley, it fell at 権利 angles to the 回廊（地帯） through which we had come.
We knew that to retrace our steps now would but take us 支援する to the (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むs and thence to the hall of the 反対／詐欺s and the 確かな 危険，危なくする waiting for us there.
We stepped into this opened way. For a little distance it ran straightly, then turned and sloped gently 上向き; and a little distance more we climbed. Then suddenly, not a hundred yards from us, 噴出するd out a flood of soft radiance, opalescent, filled with pearly glimmerings and rosy 影をつくる／尾行するs of light.
It was as though a door had opened into some world of luminescence. From it the lambent 激流 注ぐd; 大波d 負かす／撃墜する upon us. In its wake （機の）カム music —if music the mighty harmonies, the sonorous chords, the crystalline 主題s and the linked chaplet of 公式文書，認めるs that were like spiralings of tiny golden 星／主役にする bells could be 指名するd.
Toward source of light and sound we moved, nor could we have 停止（させる）d nor 孤立した had we willed; the radiance drew us to it as the sun the water 減少（する）, and irresistibly the 甘い, unearthly music called. Closer we （機の）カム —it was a 狭くする alcove from which sound and light 注ぐd—into it we crept—and went no その上の.
We peered into a 広大な and columnless 丸天井, a limitless 寺 of light. High up in it, strewn manifold, danced and shone soft orbs like tender suns. No pale gilt luminaries of frozen rays were these. Effulgent, jubilant, they 炎上d—orbs red as ワイン of rubies that Jinns of Al Shiraz 圧力（をかける） from his enchanted vineyards of jewels; twin orbs rosy white as breasts of pampered Babylonian maids; orbs of pulsing opalescences and orbs of the murmuring green of bursting buds of spring, crocused orbs and orbs of 王室の 珊瑚; suns that throbbed with singing rays of wedded rose and pearl and of sapphires and topazes amorous; orbs born of 冷静な／正味の virginal 夜明けs and of 皇室の sunsets and orbs that were the tuliped fruit of mating rainbows of 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
They danced, these countless aureoles; they swung and threaded in radiant choral patterns, in linked harmonies of light. And as they danced their gay rays caressed and bathed myriads of the Metal Folk open beneath them. Under the rays the jewel 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of disk and 星／主役にする and cross leaped and pulsed and danced to the same 有望な rhythm.
We sought the source of the music—a tremendous thing of shimmering 水晶 麻薬を吸うs like some colossal 組織／臓器. Out of the radiance around it 広大な／多数の／重要な 炎上s gathered, shook into sight with streamings and pennonings, in bannerets and bandrols, leaped upon the 水晶 麻薬を吸うs, and 合併するd within them.
And as the 麻薬を吸うs drank them the 炎上s changed into sound!
Throbbing bass viols of roaring vernal 勝利，勝つd, diapasons of waterfall and 激流s—these had been 炎上s of emerald; 炎上ing trumpetings of 願望（する） that had been 広大な／多数の／重要な streamers of scarlet—rose 炎上s that had 解散させるd into echoes of fulfillment; diamond burgeonings that melted into silver symphonies like もや entangled Pleiades transmuted into melodies; chameleon harmonies to which the strange suns danced.
And now I saw—realizing with a clutch of indescribable awe, with a sense of inexplicable profanation the secret of this ensorcelled 議会.
Within every pulsing rose of irised 解雇する／砲火／射撃 that was the heart of a disk, from every rubrous, clipped rose of a cross, and from every rayed purple petaling of a 星／主役にする there nestled a tiny disk, a tiny cross, a tiny 星／主役にする, luminous and symboled even as those that cradled them.
The Metal Babes building like 水晶s from hearts of radiance beneath the play of jocund orbs!
Incredible blossomings of 水晶 and of metal whose lullabies and cradle songs were singing symphonies of 炎上.
It was the birth 議会 of the City!
The womb of the Metal Monster!
突然の the 塀で囲むs of the niche sparkled out, the glittering 注目する，もくろむ points regarding us with a most disquieting suggestion of sentinels who, slumbering, had been caught unaware, and now awakening challenged us. 速く the niche の近くにd—so 速く that barely had we time to spring over its threshold into the 回廊（地帯）.
The 回廊（地帯） was awake—alive!
The 力／強力にする darted out; gripped us. Up it swept us and on. Far away a square of light appeared, grew quickly larger. でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd in it was the amethystine 燃やすing of the 広大な／多数の／重要な （犯罪の）一味 that girdled the encircling cliffs.
I turned my 長，率いる—behind us the 回廊（地帯） was の近くにing!
Now the 開始 was so の近くに that through it I could see the 広大な panorama of the valley. The 塀で囲む behind us touched us; 押し進めるd us on. We thrust ourselves against it, despairingly. As 井戸／弁護士席 might 飛行機で行くs have tried to 圧力（をかける） 支援する a moving mountain.
Resistingly, inexorably we were 圧力（をかける）d 今後. Now we cowered within a yard-深い niche; now we trembled upon a foot- wide ledge.
Shuddering, gasping, we glared 負かす／撃墜する the sheer 減少（する） of the City's 塀で囲む. The smooth and 微光ing scarp fell thousands of feet straight to the valley 床に打ち倒す. And there were no 慈悲の もやs to hide what を待つd us there; no もやs anywhere. In that 簡潔な／要約する, agonized ちらりと見ること every 詳細（に述べる） of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was 公表する／暴露するd with an 異常な clarity.
We tottered on the brink. The ledge melted.
負かす／撃墜する, 負かす／撃墜する we 急落（する），激減（する）d, locked in each other's 武器, hurtling to the 粉々にするing death so far below!
Was it true that Time is within ourselves—that like Space, its twin, it is only a self- created illusion of the human mind? There are hours that flash by on hummingbird wings; there are seconds that shuffle on shod in leaden shoes.
Was it true that when death 直面するs us the consciousness finds 力／強力にする through its will to live to 征服する／打ち勝つ the illusion—to 長引かせる Time? That, recoiling from oblivion, we can recreate in a わずかの moment whole years gone past, years yet to come—努力する／競うing to lengthen our 存在, stretching out our apperception beyond the phantom 境界s, overdrawing upon a Barmecide deposit of minutes, 火刑／賭けるing fresh （人命などを）奪う，主張するs upon a しん気楼?
How else explain the seeming slowness with which we were 落ちるing— the seeming leisureness with which the 塀で囲む drifted up past us?
And was this 罰—a 宣告，判決 meted out for profaning with our 注目する，もくろむs a forbidden place; a 刑罰，罰則 for touching with our gaze the ark of the Metal Tribes—their 宗教上の of 宗教上のs—the budding place of the Metal Babes?
The valley was swinging—swinging in slow 幅の広い curves; was oscillating dizzily.
Slowly the colossal 塀で囲む slipped 上向き.
現実化 swept me; left me amazed; only half believing. This was no illusion. After that first swift 急落（する），激減（する） our 落ちる had been checked. We were swinging—not the valley.
Deliberately, in wide arcs like pendulums, we were swinging across the City's scarp; three feet out from it, and as we swung, slowly 沈むing.
And now I saw the countless 注目する，もくろむs of the watching 塀で囲む again were twinkling, regarding us with impish mockery.
It was the 支配する of the living 塀で囲む that held us; that 激しく揺するd us from 味方する to 味方する as though giving greater breadths of it chance to behold us; that was dropping us gently, carefully, to the valley 床に打ち倒す now a scant two thousand feet below.
A 嵐／襲撃する of 激怒（する）, of intensest 憤慨 swept me; as once before any 感謝 I should have felt for escape was 潜水するd in the utter humiliation with which it was 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d.
I shook my 握りこぶしs at the twinkling 塀で囲む, strove to kick and smite it like an angry child, 悪口を言う／悪態d it—not childishly. Dared it to hurl me 負かす／撃墜する to death.
I felt Drake's 手渡す touch 地雷.
"安定した," he said. "安定した, old boy. It's no use. 安定した. Look 負かす／撃墜する."
Hot with shame for my 爆発, weak from its 暴力／激しさ, I obeyed. The valley 床に打ち倒す was not more than a thousand feet away. Thronging about where we must at last touch, clustered and seething, was a multitude of the Metal Things. They seemed to be looking up at us, watching, waiting for us.
"歓迎会 委員会," grinned Drake.
I ちらりと見ることd away; over the valley. It was luminously （疑いを）晴らす; yet the sky was 曇った, no 星／主役にするs showing. The light was no stronger than that of the moon at 十分な, but it held a 質 unfamiliar to me. It cast no 影をつくる／尾行するs; though soft, it was piercing, 明らかにする／漏らすing all it bathed with the distinctness of 有望な 日光. The 照明 （機の）カム, I thought, from the encircling 隠すs 落ちるing from the 禁止（する）d of amethyst.
And, as I peered, out of the 隠すs and far away sped a violet 誘発する. With meteor 速度(を上げる） it flew toward us. の近くに to the base of the 広大な facade it landed with a flashing of blue incandescence. I knew it for one of the 飛行機で行くing Things, the 示す 製造者s—one of the incredible messengers.
の近くに upon its 落ちる （機の）カム 増加する in the 騒動 of the （人が）群がるing throng を待つing us. （機の）カム, too, an abrupt change in our own 動議. The long arcs 少なくなるd. We were dropped more 速く.
Far away in the direction from which the 飛行機で行くing Thing had flown I sensed another movement; something coming that carried with it subtle suggestion of unlikeness to all the other incessant, linked movement over the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. Closer it drew.
"Norhala!" gasped Drake.
式服d in her silken amber swathings, red-巡査 hair streaming, woven with elfin sparklings, she was racing toward the City like some lovely witch, riding upon the 支援する of a steed of 抱擁する cubes.
Nearer she raced. More direct became our 落ちる. Now we were dropping as though at the end of an unreeling 急落する cord; the 床に打ち倒す of the valley was no more than two hundred feet below.
"Norhala!" we shouted; and again and again—again "Norhala!"
Before our cries could have reached her the cubes swerved; （機の）カム to a 停止（させる） beneath us. Through the hundred feet of space between I caught the brilliancy of the weird 星座s in Norhala's 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs—saw with a vague but no いっそう少なく 悲惨な foreboding that on her 直面する dwelt a terrifying, a 爆破ing wrath.
As softly as though by the 手渡す of a 巨大（な） of cloud we were 解除するd out from the 塀で囲む, and were 始める，決める with no perceptible shock beside her on the 支援する of the cubes.
"Norhala—" I stopped. For this was no Norhala whom we had known. Gone was all 静める, 消えるd every trace of unearthly tranquillity. It was a Norhala awakened at last—all human.
Yet in the still 激怒（する） that filled her I sensed a 軍隊, an intensity, more than human. Over the 炎ing 注目する，もくろむs the brows were knit in a rigid, golden 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業; the delicate nostrils were pinched; the 甘い red mouth was white and merciless. It was as though in its long sleep her human self had gathered more than human strength, and that now, awakened and 抑えるのをやめるd, the 暴力／激しさ of its 激怒（する） touched the vibrant zenith of that sphere of which her 静かな had been the nadir.
She was like an urn filled and 炎上ing with the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of the Gods of wrath.
What was it that had awakened her—what in awakening had changed the inpouring human consciousness into this flood of fury? Foreboding gripped me.
"Norhala!" My 発言する／表明する was shaking. "Those we left—"
"They are gone!" The golden 発言する／表明する was octaves deeper, vibrant, throbbing with that muffled, 脅迫的な 公式文書，認める that must have pulsed from the golden tambours that 召喚するd to 戦う／戦い Timur's 猛烈な／残忍な hordes. "They were— taken."
"Taken!" I gasped. "Taken by what—these?" I swept my 手渡すs out toward the Metal Things milling around us.
"No! THESE are 地雷. These are they who obey me." The golden 発言する／表明する now shrilled with her passion. "Taken by—men!"
Drake had read my 直面する although he could not understand our words.
"Ruth—"
"Taken," I said. "Both Ruth and Ventnor. Taken by the 装甲の men— the men of Cherkis!"
"Cherkis!" She had caught the word. "Yes—Cherkis! And now he and all his men—and all his women—and every living thing he 支配するs shall 支払う／賃金. And 恐れる not—you two. For I, Norhala, will bring 支援する my own.
"Woe, woe to you, Cherkis, and to all of yours! For I, Norhala, am awake, and I, Norhala, remember. Woe to you, Cherkis, woe—for now all ends for you!
"Not by the gods of my mother who turned their strength against her do I 約束 this. I, Norhala, have no need for them—I, Norhala, who have strength greater than they. And would I could 鎮圧する those gods as I shall 鎮圧する you, Cherkis—and every living thing of yours! Yea—and every UNLIVING thing 同様に!"
Not 停止（させる）ing now was Norhala's speech; it 注ぐd from the ruthless lips —flamingly.
"We go," she cried. "And something of vengeance I have saved for you —as is your 権利."
She 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd her 武器 high; stamped upon the 支援する of the Metal Thing that held us.
It quivered and sped away. 速く dwindled the City's 本体，大部分／ばら積みの; 急速な／放蕩な faded its 微光ing watchful 直面する.
Not toward the 隠すs of light but out over the plain we flew. Above us, crouching against the 爆破 of our going, streamed like a silken 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する Norhala's hair, gemmed with the witch lights.
We were far out now, the City far away. The cube slowed. Norhala threw high her 長，率いる. From the arched, exquisite throat pealed a trumpet call —golden, 召喚するing, imperious. Thrice it rang 前へ／外へ—and all the surrounding valley seemed to 停止（させる） and listen.
Followed upon its ending, a 詠唱するing as goldenly sonorous. Wild, peremptory, 勝利を得た. It was like a 召集（する）ing shouting to adventurous 星／主役にするs, buglings to buccaneering 勝利，勝つd, cadenced beckonings to restless 階級s of viking waves, signaling to all the corsairs and picaroons of the elemental.
A cosmic call to 殺す!
The gigantic 封鎖する upon which we 棒 quivered; I myself felt a thousand needle-pointed roving arrows prick me, 勧めるing me on to some jubilant, 無謀な orgy of 破壊.
Obeying that 召喚するing there 渦巻くd to us cube and globe and pyramid by the 得点する／非難する／２０—by the hundreds. They swept into our wake and followed —解除するing up behind us, an ever-rising sea.
Higher and higher arose the metal wave—開始するing, ever 開始するing as other 得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ leaped upon it, 急ぐd up it and swelled its crest. And soon so 広大な／多数の／重要な it was that it 影をつくる／尾行するd us, hung over us.
The cubes we 棒 angled in their course; raced now with ever- 増加するing 速度(を上げる） toward the spangled curtains.
And still Norhala's golden 詠唱する 誘惑するd; higher and even higher reached the に引き続いて wave. Now we were rising upon a 法外な slope; now the amethystine, gleaming （犯罪の）一味 was almost overheard.
Norhala's song 中止するd. One breathless, soundless moment and we had pierced the 隠すs. A globule of sapphire shone afar, the elfin 泡 of her home. We 近づくd it.
Heart leaping, I saw three ponies, high and empty saddles turquoise studded, 解除する their 長，率いるs from their roadway browsing. For a moment they stood, stiff with terror; then whimpering raced away.
We were at Norhala's door; were 解除するd 負かす／撃墜する; stood の近くに to its threshold. Slaves to a 選び出す／独身 thought, Drake and I sprang to enter.
"Wait!" Norhala's white 手渡すs caught us. "There is 危険，危なくする there— without me! Me you must—follow!"
Upon the exquisite 直面する was no unshadowing of wrath, no 減らすing of 激怒（する）, no 弱めるing of dreadful 決意. The 星／主役にする-flecked 注目する，もくろむs were not upon us; they looked over and beyond—coldly, calculatingly.
"Not enough," I heard her whisper. "Not enough—for that which I will do."
We turned, に引き続いて her gaze. A hundred feet on high, stretching nearly across the gorge, an incredible curtain was flung. Over its 倍のs was movement—武器 of spinning globes that thrust 前へ／外へ like paws and 負かす／撃墜する upon which leaped pyramid upon pyramid 強化するing as they clung like bristling spikes of hair; 広大な／多数の／重要な 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s of clicking cubes that threw themselves from the shuttering—shook and withdrew. The curtain was a ferment —転換ing, 水銀の; it throbbed with 願望（する）, palpitated with 切望.
"Not enough!" murmured Norhala.
Her lips parted; from them （機の）カム another trumpeting—tyrannic, arrogant and clangorous. Under it the curtaining writhed—out from it spurted thin cascades of cubes. They 群れているd up into tall 中心存在s that shook and swayed and gyrated.
With blinding flash upon flash the sapphire incandescences struck 前へ／外へ at their feet. A 得点する／非難する／２０ of 炎上ing columned 形態／調整s leaped up and curved in meteor flight over the tumultuous curtain. Streaming with violet 解雇する／砲火／射撃s they 発射 支援する to the valley of the City.
"Hai!" shouted Norhala as they flew. "Hai!"
Up darted her 武器; the starry 星雲s of her 注目する，もくろむs danced madly, 発射 前へ／外へ 明白な rays. The mighty curtain of the Metal Things pulsed and throbbed; its 部隊s interweaving—封鎖する and globe and pyramid of which it was woven, each seeming to 緊張する at leash.
"Come!" cried Norhala—and led the way through the portal.
の近くに behind her we 圧力（をかける）d. I つまずくd, nearly fell, over a brown-直面するd, leather-cuirassed 団体／死体 that lay half over, 脚s barring the threshold.
Contemptuously Norhala stepped over it. We were within that 議会 of the pool. About it lay a fair dozen of the 装甲の men. Ruth's 弁護, I thought with a grim delight, had been most excellent—those who had taken her and Ventnor had not done so without 支払う／賃金ing 十分な （死傷者）数.
A violet flashing drew my 注目する，もくろむs away. の近くに to the pool wherein we had first seen the white 奇蹟 of Norhala's 団体／死体, two 巨大な, purple 解雇する／砲火／射撃d 星／主役にするs 炎d. Between them, like a suppliant cast from 黒人／ボイコット アイロンをかける, was Yuruk.
均衡を保った upon their nether tips the 星／主役にするs guarded him. 長，率いる touching his 膝s, 注目する，もくろむs hidden within his 倍のd 武器, the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch crouched.
"Yuruk!"
There was an unearthly mercilessness in Norhala's 発言する／表明する.
The eunuch raised his 長，率いる; slowly, fearfully.
"Goddess!" he whispered. "Goddess! Mercy!"
"I saved him," she turned to us, "for you to 殺す. He it was who brought those who took the maid who was 地雷 and the helpless one she loved. 殺す him."
Drake understood—his 手渡す twitched 負かす／撃墜する to his ピストル, drew it. He leveled the gun at the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch. Yuruk saw it—shrieked and cowered. Norhala laughed—sweetly, ruthlessly.
"He dies before the 一打／打撃 落ちるs," she said. "He dies doubly therefore —and that is 井戸／弁護士席."
Drake slowly lowered the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃; turned to me.
"I can't," he said. "I can't—do it—"
"Masters!" Upon his 膝s the eunuch writhed toward us. "Masters—I meant no wrong. What I did was for love of the Goddess. Years upon years I have served her. And her mother before her.
"I thought if the maid and the 爆破d one were gone, that you would follow. Then I would be alone with the Goddess once more. Cherkis will not 殺す them—and Cherkis will welcome you and give the maid and the 爆破d one 支援する to you for the arts that you can teach him.
"Mercy, Masters, I meant no 害（を与える）—企て，努力，提案 the Goddess be 慈悲の!"
The ebon pools of 注目する，もくろむs were 明らかにするd of their 古代の 影をつくる／尾行するs by his terror; age was wiped from them by 恐れる, even as it was wiped from his 直面する. The wrinkles were gone. Appallingly youthful, the 直面する of Yuruk prayed to us.
"Why do you wait?" she asked us. "Time 圧力（をかける）s, and even now we should be on the way. When so many are so soon to die, why tarry over one? 殺す him!"
"Norhala," I answered, "we cannot 殺す him so. When we kill, we kill in fair fight—手渡す to 手渡す. The maid we both love has gone, taken with her brother. It will not bring her 支援する if we kill him through whom she was taken. We would punish him—yes, but 殺す him we cannot. And we would be after the maid and her brother quickly."
A moment she looked at us, perplexity shading the high and 安定した 怒り／怒る.
"As you will," she said at last; then 追加するd, half sarcastically, "Perhaps it is because I who am now awake have slept so long that I cannot understand you. But Yuruk has disobeyed ME. That of MINE which I committed to his care he has given to the enemies of me and those who were 地雷. It 事柄s nothing to me what YOU would do. 事柄s to me only what I will to do."
She pointed to the dead.
"Yuruk"—the golden 発言する／表明する was 冷淡な—"gather up these carrion and pile them together."
The eunuch arose, stole out fearfully from between the two 星／主役にするs. He slithered to 団体／死体 after 団体／死体, dragging them one after the other to the 中心 of the 議会, 解除するing them and forming of them a heap. One there was who was not dead. His 注目する，もくろむs opened as the eunuch 掴むd him, the blackened mouth opened.
"Water!" he begged. "Give me drink. I 燃やす!"
I felt a thrill of pity; 解除するd my canteen and walked toward him.
"You of the 耐えるd," the merciless chime rang out, "he shall have no water. But drink he shall have, and soon—drink of 解雇する／砲火／射撃!"
The 兵士's fevered 注目する，もくろむs rolled toward her, saw and read aright the ruthlessness in the beautiful 直面する.
"Sorceress!" he groaned. "悪口を言う／悪態d spawn of Ahriman!" He spat at her.
The 黒人／ボイコット talons of Yuruk stretched around his throat
"Son of unclean dogs!" he whined. "You dare blaspheme the Goddess!"
He snapped the 兵士's neck as though it had been a rotten twig.
At the callous cruelty I stood for an instant petrified; I heard Drake 断言する wildly, saw his ピストル flash up.
Norhala struck 負かす／撃墜する his arm.
"Your chance has passed," she said, "and not for THAT shall you 殺す him."
And now Yuruk had cast that 団体／死体 upon the others; the pile was 完全にする.
"開始する!" 命令（する）d Norhala, and pointed. He cast himself at her feet, writhing, moaning, imploring. She looked at one of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 形態／調整s; something of 命令（する） passed from her, something it understood plainly.
The 星／主役にする slipped 今後—there was an almost imperceptible movement of its 味方する points. The twitching form of the 黒人／ボイコット seemed to leap up from the 床に打ち倒す, to throw itself like a 捕らえる、獲得する upon the 塚 of the dead.
Norhala threw up her 手渡すs. Out of the violet ovals beneath the upper tips of the Things spurted streams of blue 炎上. They fell upon Yuruk and splashed over him upon the heap of the 殺害された. In the 塚 was a dreadful movement, a contortion; the 団体／死体s 強化するd, seemed to try to rise, to 押し進める away—dead 神経s and muscles 答える／応じるing to the 爆破ing energy passing through them.
Out from the 星／主役にするs rained bolt upon bolt. In the 議会 was the sound of 雷鳴, crackling like broken glass. The 団体／死体s 炎上d, 崩壊するd. There was a little smoke—nauseous, feebly 抗議するing, beaten out by the 消費するing 解雇する／砲火／射撃s almost before it could rise.
Where had been the heap of 殺害された capped by the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch there was but a little whirling cloud of sad gray dust. Caught by a passing 草案, it eddied, slipped over the 床に打ち倒す, 消えるd through the doorway. Motionless stood the 爆破ing 星／主役にするs, 熟視する／熟考するing us. Motionless stood Norhala, her wrath no whit abated by the 恐ろしい sacrifice. And 麻ひさせるd by what we had beheld, motionless stood we.
"Listen," she said. "You two who love the maid. What you have seen is nothing to that which you SHALL see—a wisp of もや to the 嵐／襲撃する cloud."
"Norhala"—I 設立する speech—"can you tell us when it was that the maid was 逮捕（する）d?"
Perhaps there was still time to 追いつく the abductors before Ruth was thrust into the worse 危険，危なくする waiting where she was 存在 carried. Crossed this thought another—puzzling, baffling. The cliffs Yuruk had pointed out to me as those through which the hidden way passed were, I had 概算の then, at least twenty miles away. And how long was the pass, the tunnel, through them? And then how far this place of the 装甲の men? It had been past 夜明け when Drake had 脅すd the 黒人／ボイコット eunuch with his ピストル. It was not yet 夜明け now. How could Yuruk have made his way to the Persians so 速く—how could they so 速く have returned?
Amazingly she answered the spoken question and the unspoken.
"They （機の）カム long before dusk," she said. "By the night before Yuruk had won to Ruszark, the city of Cherkis; and long before 夜明け they were on their way hither. This the 黒人／ボイコット dog I slew told me."
"But Yuruk was with us here at 夜明け yesterday," I gasped.
"A night has passed since then," she said, "and another night is almost gone."
Stunned, I considered this. If this were true—and not for an instant did I 疑問 her—then not for a few hours had we lain there at the foot of the living 塀で囲む in the Hall of the 反対／詐欺s—but for the balance of that day and that night, and another day and part of still another night.
"What does she say?" Drake 星／主役にするd anxiously into my whitened 直面する. I told him.
"Yes." Norhala spoke again. "The dusk before the last dusk that has passed I returned to my house. The maid was there and 悲しみing. She told me you had gone into the valley, prayed me to help you and to bring you 支援する. I 慰安d her, and something of—the peace—I gave her; but not all, for she fought against it. A little we played together, and I left her sleeping. I sought you and 設立する you also sleeping. I knew no 害（を与える） would come to you, and I went my ways—and forgot you. Then I （機の）カム here again —and 設立する Yuruk and these the maid had 殺害された."
The 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs flashed.
"Now do I 栄誉（を受ける） the maid for the 戦う／戦い that she did," she said, "though how she slew so many strong men I do not know. My heart goes out to her. And therefore when I bring her 支援する she shall no more be plaything to Norhala, but sister. And with you it shall be as she wills. And woe to those who have taken her!"
She paused, listening. From without （機の）カム a rising 嵐／襲撃する of thin wailings, insistent and eager.
"But I have an older vengeance than this to take," the golden 発言する／表明する （死傷者）数d somberly. "Long have I forgotten—and shame I feel that I had forgot. So long have I forgotten all 憎悪s, all lusts, all cruelty—の中で —these—" She thrust a 手渡す 前へ／外へ toward the hidden valley. "Forgot—dwelling in the 広大な／多数の／重要な harmonies. Save for you and what has befallen I would never have stirred from them, I think. But now awakened, I take that vengeance. After it is done"—she paused—"after it is over I shall go 支援する again. For this awakening has in it nothing of the ordered joy I love—it is a 猛烈な／残忍な and 殺すing 解雇する／砲火／射撃. I shall go 支援する—"
The 影をつくる／尾行する of her far dreaming flitted over, 軟化するd the angry brilliancy of her 注目する，もくろむs.
"Listen, you two!" The 影をつくる／尾行する of dream fled. "Those that I am about to 殺す are evil—evil are they all, men and women. Long have they been so—yea, for cycles of suns. And their children grow like them— or if they be gentle and with love for peace they are 殺害された or die of heartbreak. All this my mother told me long ago. So no more children shall be born from them either to 苦しむ or to grow evil."
Again she paused, nor did we interrupt her musing.
"My father 支配するd Ruszark," she said at last. "Rustum he was 指名するd, of the seed of Rustum the Hero even as was my mother. They were gentle and good, and it was their ancestors who built Ruszark when, 逃げるing from the might of Iskander, they were 調印（する）d in the hidden valley by the 落ちるing mountain.
"Then there sprang from one of the families of the nobles—Cherkis. Evil, evil was he, and as he grew he lusted for 支配する. On a night of terror he fell upon those who loved my father and slew; and barely had my father time to 飛行機で行く from the city with my mother, still but a bride, and a handful of those loyal to him.
"They 設立する by chance the way to this place, hiding in the cleft which is its portal. They （機の）カム, and they were taken by—Those who are now my people. Then my mother, who was very beautiful, was 解除するd before him who 支配するs here and she 設立する 好意 in his sight and he had built for her this house, which now is 地雷.
"And in time I was born—but not in this house. Nay—in a secret place of light where, too, are born my people."
She was silent. I 発射 a ちらりと見ること at Drake. The secret place of light —was it not that 広大な 丸天井 of mystery, of dancing orbs and 炎上s transmuted into music into which we had peered and for which sacrilege, I had thought, had been thrust from the City? And did in this 嘘（をつく） the explanation of her strangeness? Had she there sucked in with her mother's milk the enigmatic life of the Metal Hordes, been transformed into half human changeling, become true 肉親，親類 to them? What else could explain—
"My mother showed me Ruszark," her 発言する／表明する, taking up once more her tale, checked my thoughts. "Once when I was little she and my father bore me through the forest and through the hidden way. I looked upon Ruszark— a 広大な／多数の／重要な city it is and populous, and a cauldron of cruelty and of evil.
"Not like me were my father and mother. They longed for their 肉親，親類d and sought ever for means to 回復する their place の中で them. There （機の）カム a time when my father, driven by his longing, 投機・賭けるd 前へ／外へ to Ruszark, 捜し出すing friends to help him 回復する that place—for these who obey me obeyed not him as they obey me; nor would he have marched them—as I shall —upon Ruszark if they had obeyed him.
"Cherkis caught him. And Cherkis waited, knowing 井戸／弁護士席 that my mother would follow. For Cherkis knew not where to 捜し出す her, nor where they had lain hid, for between his city and here the mountains are 広大な／多数の／重要な, unscalable, and the way through them is cunningly hidden; by chance alone did my mother's mother and those who fled with her discover it: And though they 拷問d him, my father would not tell. And after a while forthwith those who still remained of hers stole out with my mother to find him. They left me here with Yuruk. And Cherkis caught my mother."
The proud breasts heaved, the 注目する，もくろむs 発射 前へ／外へ 明白な 炎上s.
"My father was flayed alive and crucified," she said. "His 肌 they nailed to the City's gates. And when Cherkis had had his will with my mother he threw her to his 兵士s for their sport.
"All of those who went with them he 拷問d and slew—and he and his laughed at their torment. But one there was who escaped and told me —me who was little more than a budding maid. He called on me to bring vengeance—and he died. A year passed—and I am not like my mother and my father—and I forgot—dwelling here in the 広大な／多数の／重要な tranquillities, 閉めだした from and having no thought for men and their way.
"AIE, AIE!" she cried; "woe to me that I could forget! But now I shall take my vengeance—I, Norhala, will stamp them flat—Cherkis and his city of Ruszark and everything it 持つ／拘留するs! I, Norhala, and my servants shall stamp them into the 激しく揺する of their valley so that 非，不，無 shall know that they have been! And would that I could 会合，会う their gods with all their 力／強力にするs that I might break them, too, and stamp them into the 激しく揺する under the feet of my servants!"
She threw out white 武器.
Why had Yuruk lied to me? I wondered as I watched her. The Disk had not 殺害された her mother. Of course! He had lied to play upon our terrors; had lied to 脅す us away.
The wailings were rising in a 支えるd 盛り上がり. One of the 殺すing 星／主役にするs slipped over the 議会 床に打ち倒す, 倍のd its points and glided out the door.
"Come!" 命令（する）d Norhala, and led the way. The second 星／主役にする の近くにd, followed us. We stepped over the threshold.
For one astounded, breathless moment we paused. In 前線 of us 後部d a monster—a colossal, headless Sphinx. Like forelegs and paws, a 山の尾根 of pointed cubes, and globes thrust against each 味方する of the canyon 塀で囲むs. Between them for two hundred feet on high stretched the breast.
And this was a 転換ing, weaving 集まり of the Metal Things; they formed into gigantic cuirasses, 巨大（な） bucklers, corselets of living mail. From them as they moved—nay, from all the monster—（機の）カム the wailings. Like a headless Sphinx it crouched—and as we stood it 殺到するd 今後 as though it sprang a step to 迎える／歓迎する us.
"HAI!" shouted Norhala, 戦う／戦い buglings （犯罪の）一味ing through the golden 発言する／表明する. "HAI! my companies!"
Out from the 首脳会議 of the breast 発射 a tremendous trunk of cubes and spinning globes. And like a trunk it nuzzled us, caught us up, swept us to the crest. An instant I tottered dizzily; was held; stood beside Norhala upon a little, level twinkling 注目する，もくろむd 壇・綱領・公約; upon her other 味方する swayed Drake.
Now through the monster I felt a throbbing, an eager and impatient pulse. I turned my 長，率いる. Still like some 抱擁する and grotesque beast the 支援する of the clustered Things ran for half a mile at least behind, 次第に減少するing to a dragon tail that coiled and 新たな展開d another 十分な mile toward the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. And from this 支援する uprose and fell 巨大な spiked and fan-形態／調整d ruffs, thickets of spikes, whipping knouts of bristling tentacles, fanged crests. They thrust and waved, whipped and fell 絶えず; and 絶えず the 広大な／多数の／重要な tail 攻撃するd and snapped, fantastic, long and living.
"HAI!" shouted Norhala once more. From her 解除するd throat （機の）カム again the golden 詠唱するing—but now a relentless, ruthless song of 虐殺（する）.
Up 後部d the monstrous 本体，大部分／ばら積みの. Into it ran the dragon tail. Into it 注ぐd the fanged and bristling 支援する.
Up, up we were thrust—three hundred feet, four hundred, five hundred. Over the blue globe of Norhala's house bent a gigantic 脚. Spiderlike out from each 味方する of the monster thrust half a 得点する／非難する／２０ of others.
総計費 the 夜明け began to break. Through it with ever 増加するing 速度(を上げる） we moved, straight to the line of the cliffs behind which lay the city of the 装甲の men—and Ruth and Ventnor.
滑らかに moved the colossal 形態／調整; on it we 棒 as easily as though cradled. It did not glide—it strode.
The columned 脚s raised themselves, bending from a thousand 共同のs. The pedestals of the feet, 抱擁する and 大規模な as 創立／基礎s for sixteen-インチ guns, fell with machinelike precision, stamping gigantically.
Under their tread the trees of the forest snapped, were 鎮圧するd like reeds beneath the pads of a mastodon. From far below （機の）カム the sound of their 衝突，墜落ing. The 厚い forest checked the 進歩 of the 形態／調整 いっそう少なく than tall grass would that of a man.
Behind us our 追跡する was 示すd by 深い, 黒人／ボイコット 炭坑，オーケストラ席s in the forest's green, clean 削減（する） and 広大な／多数の／重要な as the 示す upon the poppied valley. They were the 足跡s of the Thing that carried us.
The 勝利，勝つd streamed and whistled. A flock of the willow warblers arose, 渦巻くd about us with manifold （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing of little 脅すd wings. Norhala's 直面する 軟化するd, her 注目する，もくろむs smiled.
"Go—foolish little ones," she cried, and waved her 武器. They flew away, scolding.
A lammergeier 急襲するd 負かす／撃墜する on wide funereal wings; it peered at us; darted away toward the cliffs.
"There will be no carrion there for you, 黒人／ボイコット eater of the dead, when I am through," I heard Norhala whisper, 注目する，もくろむs again somber.
刻々と grew the 夜明け light; from Norhala's lips （機の）カム again the 詠唱するing. And now that paean, the 無謀な pulse of the monster we 棒, began to creep through my own veins. Into Drake's too, I knew, for his 長，率いる was held high and his 注目する，もくろむs were （疑いを）晴らす and 有望な as hers who sang.
The jubilant pulse streamed through the 手渡すs that held us, throbbed through us. The pulse of the Thing—sang!
Closer and closer grew the cliffs. 負かす／撃墜する and 衝突，墜落ing 負かす／撃墜する fell the trees, the noise of their 落ちる …を伴ってing the 戦う／戦い 詠唱する of the Valkyr beside me like wild harp chords of 嵐／襲撃する-攻撃するd surf. Up to the precipices the forest rolled, 無傷の. Now the cliffs ぼんやり現れるd 総計費. The 夜明け had passed. It was 十分な day.
Cutting up through the 非常に高い granite scarps was a 不和. In it the 黒人／ボイコット 影をつくる／尾行するs clustered thickly. Straight toward that cleft we sped. As we drew 近づく, the crest of the 形態／調整 began 速く to lower. 負かす／撃墜する we sank and 負かす／撃墜する —a hundred feet, two hundred; now we were two 得点する／非難する／２０ yards above the tree 最高の，を越すs.
Out 発射 a neck, a tremendous serpent 団体／死体. Crested it was with pyramids; crested with them, too, was its 巨大な 長，率いる. Thickly the 長，率いる bristled with them, 均衡を保った motionless upon spinning globes as 抱擁する as they. For hundreds of feet that incredible neck stretched ahead of us and for twice as far behind a monstrous, lizard-形態／調整d 団体／死体 writhed.
We 棒 now upon a serpent, a glittering blue metal dragon, spiked and knobbed and 規模d. It was the weird steed of Norhala flattening, thrusting out to pierce the 不和.
And still as when it had 後部d on high （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 through it the wild, 勝利を得た, 追求（する），探索（する）ing pulse. Still rang out Norhala's 詠唱するing.
The trees parted and fell upon each 味方する of us as though we were some monster of the sea and they the waves we cleft.
The 不和 enclosed us. Lower we dropped; were not more than fifty feet above its 床に打ち倒す. The Thing upon which we 棒 was a 激流 roaring through it.
A deeper blackness enclosed us—a tunneling.
Through that we flowed. Out of it we darted into a 広げるing filled with 病弱な light drifting 負かす／撃墜する through a pinnacle-fanged mouth miles on high. Again the cleft shrunk. A thousand feet ahead was a 割れ目, a 狭くするing of the cleft so small that hardly could a man pass through it.
突然の the metal dragon 停止（させる）d.
Norhala's 詠唱するing changed; became again the arrogant clarioning. And の近くに below us the 抱擁する neck 分裂（する）. It （機の）カム to me then that it was as though Norhala were the over-spirit of this chimera—as though it caught and understood and obeyed each quick thought of hers.
As though, indeed, she was a PART of it—as IT was in reality a part of that infinitely greater Thing, crouching there in its lair of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 —the Metal Monster that had lent this living part of itself to her for a steed, a 支持する／優勝者. Little time had I to consider such 事柄s.
Up thrust the 形態／調整 before us. Into it raced and spun Things angled, Things curved and Things squared. It gathered itself into a Titanic 中心存在 out of which, 即時に, thrust 得点する／非難する／２０s of 武器.
Over them 広大な／多数の／重要な globes raced; after these flew other 得点する／非難する／２０s of 抱擁する pyramids, 非，不，無 いっそう少なく than ten feet in 高さ, the 集まり of them twenty and thirty. The manifold 武器 grew rigid. 静かな for a moment, a Titanic metal Briareus, it stood.
Then at the tips of the 武器 the globes began to spin—faster, faster. Upon them I saw the hosts of the pyramids open—as one into a host of 星／主役にするs. The cleft leaped out in a flood of violet light.
Now for another instant the 星／主役にするs which had been motionless, 均衡を保った upon the whirling spheres, joined in their mad spinning. Cyclopean pin wheels they turned; again as one they 中止するd. More brilliant now was their light, dazzling; as though in their whirling they had gathered greater 軍隊.
Under me I felt the 分裂（する） Thing quiver with 切望.
From the 星／主役にするs （機の）カム a ハリケーン of 雷! A cataract of electric 炎上 注ぐd into the 割れ目, splashed and guttered 負かす／撃墜する the granite 塀で囲むs. We were blinded by it; were deafened with 雷鳴s.
The 直面する of the precipice smoked and 分裂（する）; was whirled away in clouds of dust.
The 割れ目 広げるd—広げるd as a gulley in a sand bank does when a swift stream 急ぐs through it. 雷s these were—and more than 雷s; 雷s 重要なd up to an invincible 絶滅するing 武器 that could rend and 分裂（する） and 崩壊する to 原子s the living granite.
刻々と the cleft 拡大するd. As its 塀で囲むs melted away the 爆破ing Thing 前進するd, spurting into it the 炎上ing 激流s. Behind it we crept. The dust of the 粉々にするd 激しく揺するs 渦巻くd up toward us like angry ghosts—before they reached us they were blown away as though by strong 勝利，勝つd streaming from beneath us.
On we went, blinded, deafened. Interminably, it seemed, 注ぐd 前へ／外へ the ハリケーン of blue 解雇する／砲火／射撃; interminably the 雷鳴 bellowed.
There （機の）カム a louder clamor—火山の, 大混乱／混沌とした, dulling the 雷鳴s. The 味方するs of the cleft quivered, bent outward. They 分裂（する）; 衝突，墜落d 負かす／撃墜する. 有望な daylight 注ぐd in upon us, a flood of light toward which the 大波s of dust 急ぐd as though 捜し出すing escape; out it 注ぐd like the smoke of ten thousand 大砲.
And the 爆破ing Thing shook—as though with laughter!
The 星／主役にするs の近くにd. 支援する into the 形態／調整 ran globe and pyramid. It slid toward us—joined the 団体／死体 from which it had broken away. Through all the 集まり ran a wave of jubilation, a pulse of mirth—a colossal, metallic—SILENT—roar of laughter.
We glided 今後—out of the cleft. I felt a 転換ing movement.
Up and up we were thrust. Dazed I looked behind me. In the 直面する of a sky climbing 塀で囲む of 激しく揺する, smoked a wide chasm. Out of it the 大波ing clouds of dust still streamed, 追求するing, 脅すing us. The whole granite 障壁 seemed to quiver with agony. Higher we rose and higher.
"Look," whispered Drake, and whirled me around.
いっそう少なく than five miles away was Ruszark, the City of Cherkis. And it was like some 古代の city come into life out of long dead centuries. A page 回復するd from once 征服する／打ち勝つing Persia's 崩壊するd 調書をとる／予約する. A city of the Chosroes 輸送（する）d by Jinns into our own time.
Built around and upon a low 開始する, it stood within a valley but little larger than the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. The plain was level, as though once it had been the 床に打ち倒す of some primeval lake; the hill of the City was its only elevation.
Beyond, I caught the glinting of a 狭くする stream, meandering. The valley was （犯罪の）一味d with precipitous cliffs 落ちるing sheer to its 床に打ち倒す.
Slowly we 前進するd.
The city was almost square, guarded by 二塁打 塀で囲むs of hewn 石／投石する. The first raised itself a hundred feet on high, turreted and parapeted and pierced with gates. Perhaps a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile behind it the second 要塞 thrust up.
The city itself I 概算の covered about ten square miles. It ran 上向き in 幅の広い terraces. It was very fair, decked with blossoming gardens and green groves. の中で the clustering granite houses, red and yellow roofed, thrust skyward tall spires and towers. Upon the 開始する's 最高の，を越す was a 幅の広い, flat plaza on which were 広大な／多数の／重要な buildings, marble white and golden roofed; 寺s I thought, or palaces, or both.
Running to the city out of the 穀物 fields and steads that surrounded it, were 得点する／非難する／２０s of little 人物／姿／数字s, ネズミ-like. Here and there の中で them I glimpsed horsemen, 武器 and armor glittering. All were racing to the gates and the 避難所 of the battlements.
Nearer we drew. From the 塀で囲むs （機の）カム now a faint sound of gongs, of 派手に宣伝するs, of shrill, flutelike pipings. Upon them I could see hosts 集会; hosts of 群れているing little 人物／姿／数字s whose 団体／死体s glistened, from above whom （機の）カム gleamings—the light striking upon their 舵輪／支配s, their spear and javelin tips.
"Ruszark!" breathed Norhala, 注目する，もくろむs wide, red lips cruelly smiling. "Lo —I am before your gates. Lo—I am here—and was there ever joy like this!"
The 星座s in her 注目する，もくろむs 炎d. Beautiful, beautiful was Norhala —as Isis punishing Typhon for the 殺人 of Osiris; as avenging Diana; 向こうずねing from her something of the spirit of all wrathful Goddesses.
The 炎上ing hair whirled and snapped. From all her 甘い 団体／死体 （機の）カム white-hot furious 軍隊, a withering perfume of 破壊. She 圧力（をかける）d against me, and I trembled at the 接触する.
Lawless, wild imaginings ran through me. Life, human life, dwindled. The City seemed but a thing of toys.
On—let us 鎮圧する it! On—on!
Again the monster shook beneath us. Faster we moved. Louder grew the clangor of the 派手に宣伝するs, the gongs, the 麻薬を吸うs. Nearer （機の）カム the 塀で囲むs; and ever more （人が）群がるd with the 群れているing human ants that 乗組員を乗せた them.
We were の近くに upon the heels of the last 逃げるing stragglers. The Thing slackened in its stride; waited 根気よく until they were の近くに to the gates. Before they could reach them I heard the brazen clanging of their 弁s. Those shut out （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 frenziedly upon them; dragged themselves の近くに to the base of the battlements, cowered there or crept along them 捜し出すing some 穴を開ける in which to hide.
With a slow lowering of its 高さ the Thing 前進するd. Now its form was that of a spindle a 十分な mile in length on whose bulging 中心 we three stood.
A hundred feet from the outer 塀で囲む we 停止（させる）d. We looked 負かす／撃墜する upon it not more than fifty feet above its 幅の広い 最高の，を越す. Hundreds of the 兵士s were crouching behind the parapets, companies of archers with 広大な／多数の／重要な 屈服するs 均衡を保った, arrows at their cheeks, 得点する／非難する／２０s of leather jerkined men with stands of javelins at their 権利 手渡すs, spearsmen and men with long, thonged slings.
始める，決める at intervals were squat, powerful engines of 支持を得ようと努めるd and metal beside which were heaps of 抱擁する, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd 玉石s. Catapults I knew them to be and around each 群れているd a knot of 兵士s, 直す／買収する，八百長をするing the 広大な／多数の／重要な 石／投石するs in place, 製図／抽選 支援する the 厚い ropes that, 緩和するd, would hurl 前へ／外へ the 発射物s. From each 味方する （機の）カム other men, dragging more of these balisters; 組み立てる／集結するing a 殴打／砲列 against the prodigious, gleaming monster that menaced their city.
Between outer 塀で囲む and inner battlements galloped 騎兵大隊s of 機動力のある men. Upon this inner 塀で囲む the 兵士s clustered as thickly as on the outer, 準備するing as 活発に for its 弁護.
The city seethed. Up from it arose a humming, a buzzing, as of some 巨大な angry 蜂の巣.
Involuntarily I visualized the spectacle we must 現在の to those who looked upon us—this 抱擁する incredible 形態／調整 of metal alive with quicksilver 転換ing. This—as it must have seemed to them— hellish 機械装置 of war captained by a sorceress and two familiars in form of men. There （機の）カム to me dreadful 見通しs of such a monster looking 負かす／撃墜する upon the peace- 後部d battlements of New York—the panic 急ぐ of thousands away from it.
There was a blaring of trumpets. Up on the parapet leaped a man 覆う？ all in gleaming red armor. From 長，率いる to feet the の近くに linked 規模s covered him. Within a hood 形態／調整d somewhat like the tight-fitting 長，率いる coverings of the 改革運動家s a pallid, cruel 直面する looked out upon us; in the 猛烈な／残忍な 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs was no trace of 恐れる.
Evil as Norhala had said these people of Ruszark were, wicked and cruel —they were no cowards, no!
The red 装甲の man threw up a 手渡す.
"Who are you?" he shouted. "Who are you three, you three who come 運動ing 負かす／撃墜する upon Ruszark through the 激しく揺するs? We have no quarrel with you?"
"I 捜し出す a man and a maid," cried Norhala. "A maid and a sick man your thieves took from me. Bring him 前へ／外へ!"
"捜し出す どこかよそで for them then," he answered. "They are not here. Turn now and 捜し出す どこかよそで. Go quickly, lest I loose our might upon you and you go never."
Mockingly rang her laughter—and under its 攻撃する the 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs grew fiercer, the cruelty on the white 直面する darkened.
"Little man whose words are so big! 飛行機で行く who 雷鳴s! What are you called, little man?"
Her raillery bit 深い—but its menace passed unheeded in the 激怒（する） it called 前へ／外へ.
"I am Kulun," shouted the man in scarlet armor. "Kulun, the son of Cherkis the Mighty, and captain of his hosts. Kulun—who will cast your 肌 under my 損なうs in 立ち往生させる for them to trample and thrust your red flayed 団体／死体 upon a 政治家 in the 穀物 fields to 脅す away the crows! Does that answer you?"
Her laughter 中止するd; her 注目する，もくろむs dwelt upon him—filled with an infernal joy.
"The son of Cherkis!" I heard her murmur. "He has a son—"
There was a sneer on the cruel 直面する; 明確に he thought her awed. Quick was his disillusionment.
"Listen, Kulun," she cried. "I am Norhala—daughter of another Norhala and of Rustum, whom Cherkis 拷問d and slew. Now go, you lying spawn of unclean toads—go and tell your father that I, Norhala, am at his gates. And bring 支援する with you the maid and the man. Go, I say!"
There was stark amazement on Kulun's 直面する; and 恐れる now enough. He dropped from the parapet の中で his men. There （機の）カム one loud trumpet 爆破.
Out from the battlements 注ぐd a 嵐／襲撃する of arrows, a cloud of javelins. The squat catapults leaped 今後. From them （機の）カム a あられ／賞賛する of 玉石s. Before that onrushing tempest of death I flinched.
I heard Norhala's golden laughter and before they could reach us arrow and javelin and 玉石 were checked as though myriads of 手渡すs reached out from the Thing under us and caught them. 負かす／撃墜する they dropped.
前へ／外へ from the 広大な／多数の／重要な spindle 発射 a gigantic arm, 大打撃を与える tipped with cubes. It struck the 塀で囲む の近くに to where the scarlet 装甲の Kulun had 消えるd.
Under its blow the 石／投石するs 崩壊するd. With the fragments fell the 兵士s; were buried beneath them.
A hundred feet in width a 違反 gaped in the battlements. Out 発射 the arm again; 麻薬中毒の its 大打撃を与える tip over the parapet, tore away a stretch of the breastwork as though it had been cardboard. Beside the 違反 an expanse of the 幅の広い flat 最高の，を越す lay open like a wide 壇・綱領・公約.
The arm withdrew, and out from the whole length of the spindle thrust other 武器, 大打撃を与える tipped, held high aloft, 脅迫的な.
From all the length of the 塀で囲む arose panic 激しい抗議. 突然の the 嵐／襲撃する of arrows ended; the catapults were still. Again the trumpets sounded; the crying 中止するd. 負かす／撃墜する fell a silence, terrified, stifling.
Kulun stepped 前へ／外へ again, both 手渡すs held high. Gone was his arrogance.
"A 交渉，会談," he shouted. "A 交渉，会談, Norhala. If we give you the maid and man, will you go?"
"Go get them," she answered. "And take with you this my 命令（する） to Cherkis —that HE return with the two!"
For an instant Kulun hesitated. Up thrust the dreadful 武器, 均衡を保った themselves to strike.
"It shall be so," he shouted. "I carry your 命令（する）."
He leaped 支援する, his red mail flashed toward a turret that held, I supposed, a stairway. He was lost to sight. In silence we waited.
On the その上の 味方する of the city I glimpsed movement. Little 軍隊／機動隊s of 機動力のある men, pony-drawn wains, knots of running 人物／姿／数字s were 逃げるing from the city through the opposite gates.
Norhala saw them too. With that 理解できない, instant obedience to her unspoken thought a 集まり of the Metal Things separated from us; whirled up into a dozen of those obelisked forms I had seen march from the cat 注目する，もくろむs of the City of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
In but a breath, it seemed, their columns were far off, herding 支援する the 逃亡者／はかないものs.
They did not touch them, did not 申し込む／申し出 to 害（を与える）—only, grotesquely, like dogs 長，率いるing off and corraling 脅すd sheep, they circled and darted. 急ぐing 支援する （機の）カム those they herded.
From the watching terraces and 塀で囲むs arose shrill cries of terror, a wailing. Far away the obelisks met, pirouetted, melted into one 厚い column. 非常に高い, motionless as we, it stood, guarding the その上の gates.
There was a 動かす upon the 塀で囲む, a flashing of spears, of drawn blades. Two litters の近くにd with curtainings, surrounded by ３倍になる 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of swordsmen fully 装甲の, carrying small 保護物，者s and led by Kulun were 存在 borne to the torn battlement.
Their 持参人払いのs stopped 井戸／弁護士席 within the 壇・綱領・公約 and gently lowered their 重荷（を負わせる）s. The leader of those around the second litter drew aside its covering, spoke.
Out stepped Ruth and after her—Ventnor!
"ツバメ!" I could not keep 支援する the cry; heard mingled with it Drake's own cry to Ruth. Ventnor raised his 手渡す in 迎える／歓迎するing; I thought he smiled.
The cubes on which we stood 発射 今後; stopped within fifty feet of them. 即時に the guard of swordsmen raised their blades, held them over the pair as though waiting the signal to strike.
And now I saw that Ruth was not 覆う？ as she had been when we had left her. She stood in scanty kirtle that （機の）カム scarcely to her 膝s, her shoulders were 明らかにする, her curly brown hair unbound and 絡まるd. Her 直面する was 始める，決める with wrath hardly いっそう少なく than that which （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 from Norhala. On Ventnor's forehead was a 血 red scar, a line that ran from 寺 to 寺 like a brand.
The curtains of the first litter quivered; behind them someone spoke. That in which Ruth and Ventnor had ridden was drawn 速く away. The knot of swordsmen drew 支援する.
Into their places sprang and knelt a dozen archers. They （犯罪の）一味d in the two, 屈服するs drawn taut, arrows in place and pointing straight to their hearts.
Out of the litter rolled a 巨大（な） of a man. Seven feet he must have been in 高さ; over the 抱擁する shoulders, the バーレル／樽d chest and the bloated abdomen hung a purple cloak glittering with gems; through the 厚い and grizzled hair passed a flashing circlet of jewels.
The scarlet 装甲の Kulun beside him, swordsmen guarding them, he walked to the 瀬戸際 of the torn gap in the 塀で囲む. He peered 負かす／撃墜する it, ちらりと見ることing imperturbably at the upraised, 大打撃を与える-banded 武器 still 脅すing; 診察するd again the 違反. Then still with Kulun he strode over to the very 辛勝する／優位 of the broken battlement and stood, 長，率いる thrust a little 今後, 熟考する／考慮するing us in silence.
"Cherkis!" whispered Norhala—the whisper was a hymn to Nemesis. I felt her 団体／死体 quiver from 長，率いる to foot.
A wave of 憎悪, a hot 願望（する） to kill, passed through me as I scanned the 直面する 星／主役にするing at us. It was a 広大な／多数の／重要な 甚だしい／１２ダース mask of evil, of 冷淡な cruelty and callous lusts. Unwinking, icily malignant, 黒人／ボイコット slits of 注目する，もくろむs glared at us between pouches that held them half の近くにd. 激しい jowls hung pendulous, dragging 負かす／撃墜する the corners of the 厚い lipped, 残虐な mouth into a 深い graven, unchanging sneer.
As he gazed at Norhala a flicker of lust 発射 like a licking tongue through his 注目する，もくろむs.
Yet from him pulsed 力／強力にする; 悪意のある, instinct with evil, concentrate with cruelty—but 力／強力にする indomitable. Such was Cherkis, 子孫 perhaps of that Xerxes the 征服者／勝利者 who three millenniums gone 支配するd most of the known world.
It was Norhala who broke the silence.
"Tcherak! 迎える／歓迎するing—Cherkis!" There was merciless mirth in the buglings of her 発言する／表明する. "Lo, I did but knock so gently at your gates and you 急いでd to welcome me. Greetings—甚だしい／１２ダース swine, spittle of the toads, fat slug beneath my sandals."
He passed the 侮辱s by, unmoved—although I heard a murmuring go up from those 近づく and Kulun's hard 注目する，もくろむs 炎d.
"We will 取引, Norhala," he answered calmly; the 発言する／表明する was 深い, filled with 悪意のある strength.
"取引?" she laughed. "What have you with which to 取引, Cherkis? Does the ネズミ 取引 with the tigress? And you, toad, have nothing."
He shook his 長，率いる.
"I have these," he waved a 手渡す toward Ruth and her brother. "Me you may 殺す—and mayhap many of 地雷. But before you can move my archers will feather their hearts."
She considered him, no longer mocking.
"Two of 地雷 you slew long since, Cherkis," she said, slowly. "Therefore it is I am here."
"I know," he nodded ひどく. "Yet now that is neither here nor there, Norhala. It was long since, and I have learned much during the years. I would have killed you too, Norhala, could I have 設立する you. But now I would not do as then—やめる 異なって would I do, Norhala; for I have learned much. I am sorry that those that you loved died as they did. I am in truth sorry!"
There was a curious lurking sardonicism in the words, an undertone of mockery. Was what he really meant that in those years he had learned to （打撃，刑罰などを）与える greater agonies, more exquisite 拷問s? If so, Norhala 明らかに did not sense that 解釈／通訳. Indeed, she seemed to be 利益／興味d, her wrath abating.
"No," the hoarse 発言する／表明する rumbled dispassionately. "非，不，無 of that is important —now. YOU would have this man and girl. I 持つ／拘留する them. They die if you 動かす a 手渡す's breadth toward me. If they die, I 勝つ／広く一帯に広がる against you— for I have cheated you of what you 願望（する）. I 勝利，勝つ, Norhala, even though you 殺す me. That is all that is now important."
There was 疑問 upon Norhala's 直面する and I caught a quick gleam of contemptuous 勝利 glint through the depths of the evil 注目する，もくろむs.
"Empty will be your victory over me, Norhala," he said; then waited.
"What is your 取引?" she spoke hesitatingly; with a 沈むing of my heart I heard the 疑問 tremble in her throat.
"If you will go without その上の knocking upon my gates"—there was a satiric grimness in the phrase—"go when you have been given them, and 誓約（する） yourself never to return—you shall have them. If you will not, then they die."
"But what 安全, what 人質s, do you ask?" Her 注目する，もくろむs were troubled. "I cannot 断言する by your gods, Cherkis, for they are not my gods—in truth I, Norhala, have no gods. Why should I not say yes and take the two, then 落ちる upon you and destroy—as you would do in my place, old wolf?"
"Norhala," he answered, "I ask nothing but your word. Do I not know those who bore you and the line from which they sprung? Was not always the word they gave kept till death—無傷の, inviolable? No need for 公約するs to gods between you and me. Your word is holier than they—O glorious daughter of kings, princess 王室の!"
The 広大な／多数の／重要な 発言する／表明する was 厳しく caressing; not obsequious, but as though he gave her as an equal her rightful 栄誉（を受ける）. Her 直面する 軟化するd; she considered him from 注目する，もくろむs far いっそう少なく 敵意を持った.
A wholesome 尊敬（する）・点 for this 甚だしい／１２ダース tyrant's mentality （機の）カム to me; it did not temper, it 高くする，増すd, the 憎悪 I felt for him. But now I 認めるd the subtlety of his attack; realized that unerringly he had taken the only means by which he could have 伸び（る）d a 審理，公聴会; have temporized. Could he 勝利，勝つ her with his guile?
"Is it not true?" There was a leonine purring in the question.
"It IS true!" she answered proudly. "Though why YOU should dwell upon this, Cherkis, whose word is 確固たる as the running stream and whose 約束s are as 継続している as its 泡s—why YOU should dwell on this I do not know."
"I have changed 大いに, Princess, in the years since my 広大な／多数の／重要な wickedness; I have learned much. He who speaks to you now is not he you were taught —and taught 正確に，正当に then—to hate."
"You may speak truth! Certainly you are not as I have pictured you." It was as though she were more than half 納得させるd. "In this at least you do speak truth—that IF I 約束 I will go and （性的に）いたずらする you no more."
"Why go at all, Princess?" 静かに he asked the amazing question— then drew himself to his 十分な 高さ, threw wide his 武器.
"Princess?" the 広大な／多数の／重要な 発言する／表明する rumbled 前へ／外へ. "Nay—Queen! Why leave us again—Norhala the Queen? Are we not of your people? Am I not of your 肉親，親類? Join your 力／強力にする with ours. What that war engine you ride may be, how built, I know not. But this I do know—that with our strengths joined we two can go 前へ／外へ from where I have dwelt so long, go 前へ／外へ into the forgotten world, eat its cities and 支配する.
"You shall teach our people to make these engines, Norhala, and we will make many of them. Queen Norhala—you shall 結婚する my son Kulun, he who stands beside me. And while I live you shall 支配する with me, 支配する 平等に. And when I die you and Kulun shall 支配する.
"Thus shall our two 王室の lines be made one, the old 反目，不和 wiped out, the long 得点する／非難する／２０ be settled. Queen—wherever it is you dwell it comes to me that you have few men. Queen—you need men, many men and strong to follow you, men to gather the 収穫s of your 力／強力にする, men to bring to you the fruit of your smallest wish—young men and vigorous to amuse you.
"Let the past be forgotten—I too have wrongs to forget, O Queen. Come to us, 広大な／多数の／重要な One, with your 力／強力にする and your beauty. Teach us. Lead us. Return, and 王位d above your people 支配する the world!"
He 中止するd. Over the battlements, over the city, dropped a 広大な expectant silence—as though the city knew its 運命／宿命 was hanging upon the balance.
"No! No!" It was Ruth crying. "Do not 信用 him, Norhala! It's a 罠（にかける）! He shamed me—he 拷問d—"
Cherkis half turned; before he swung about I saw a hell 影をつくる／尾行する darken his 直面する. Ventnor's 手渡す thrust out, covered Ruth's mouth, choking her crying.
"Your son"—Norhala spoke 速く; and 支援する flashed the cruel 直面する of Cherkis, devouring her with his 注目する，もくろむs. "Your son—and Queenship here —and Empire of the World." Her 発言する／表明する was rapt, thrilled. "All this you 申し込む／申し出? Me—Norhala?"
"This and more!" The 抱擁する 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of his 団体／死体 quivered with 切望. "If it be your wish, O Queen, I, Cherkis, will step 負かす／撃墜する from the 王位 for you and sit beneath your 権利 手渡す, eager to do your bidding."
A moment she 熟考する／考慮するd him.
"Norhala," I whispered, "do not do this thing. He thinks to 伸び（る） your secrets."
"Let my bridegroom stand 前へ／外へ that I may look upon him," called Norhala.
Visibly Cherkis relaxed, as though a 緊張する had been 孤立した. Between him and his crimson-覆う？ son flashed a ちらりと見ること; it was as though a 勝利を得た devil sped from them into each other's 注目する，もくろむs.
I saw Ruth 縮む into Ventnor's 武器. Up from the 塀で囲む rose a jubilant shouting, was caught by the inner battlements, passed on to the （人が）群がるd terraces.
"Take Kulun," it was Drake, ピストル drawn and whispering across to me. "I'll 扱う Cherkis. And shoot straight."
Norhala's 手渡す that had gone from my wrist dropped 負かす／撃墜する again; the other fell upon Drake's.
Kulun loosed his hood, let it 落ちる about his shoulders.
He stepped 今後, held out his 武器 to Norhala.
"A strong man!" she cried approvingly. "あられ／賞賛する—my bridegroom! But stay—stand 支援する a moment. Stand beside that man for whom I （機の）カム to Ruszark. I would see you together!"
Kulun's 直面する darkened. But Cherkis smiled with evil understanding, shrugged his shoulders and whispered to him. Sullenly Kulun stepped 支援する. The （犯罪の）一味 of the archers lowered their 屈服するs; they leaped to their feet and stood aside to let him pass.
Quick as a serpent's tongue a pyramid tipped tentacle flicked out beneath us. It darted through the broken circle of the bowmen.
It LICKED up Ruth and Ventnor and—Kulun!
速く as it had swept 前へ／外へ it returned, coiled and dropped those two I loved at Norhala's feet.
It flashed 支援する on high with the scarlet length of Cherkis's son sprawled along its angled end.
The 広大な／多数の／重要な 団体／死体 of Cherkis seemed to wither.
Up from all the 塀で囲む went a tempestuous sigh of horror.
Out rang the merciless chimes of Norhala's laughter.
"Tchai!" she cried. "Tchai! Fat fool there. Tchai—you Cherkis! Toad whose wits have sickened with your years!
"Did you think to catch me, Norhala, in your filthy web? Princess! Queen! 皇后 of Earth! 売春婦—old fox I have outplayed and beaten, what now have you to 貿易（する） with Norhala?"
Mouth sagging open, 注目する，もくろむs glaring, the tyrant slowly raised his 武器 —a suppliant.
"You would have 支援する the bridegroom you gave me?" she laughed. "Take him, then."
負かす／撃墜する swept the metal arm that held Kulun. The arm dropped Cherkis's son at Cherkis's feet; and as though Kulun had been a grape—it 鎮圧するd him!
Before those who had seen could 動かす from their stupor the tentacle hovered over Cherkis, glaring 負かす／撃墜する at the horror that had been his son.
It did not strike him—it drew him up to it as a magnet draws a pin.
And as the pin swings from the magnet when held 一時停止するd by the 長，率いる, so swung the 広大な／多数の／重要な 団体／死体 of Cherkis from the under 味方する of the pyramid that held him. Hanging so he was carried toward us, （機の）カム to a stop not ten feet from us—
Weird, weird beyond all telling was that scene—and would I had the 力／強力にする to make you who read see it as we did.
The animate, living 形態／調整 of metal on which we stood, with its forest of 大打撃を与える-手渡すd 武器 raised menacingly along its mile of spindled length; the 広大な／多数の／重要な 塀で囲むs glistening with the 装甲の hosts; the terraces of that fair and 古代の city, their gardens and green groves and clustering red and yellow-roofed houses and 寺s and palaces; the swinging 甚だしい／１２ダース 団体／死体 of Cherkis in the clutch of the unseen 支配する of the tentacle, his grizzled hair touching the 味方する of the pyramid that held him, his 武器 half outstretched, the gemmed cloak flapping like the wings of a jeweled bat, his white, malignant 直面する in which the evil 注目する，もくろむs were 燃やすing slits 炎上ing hell's own blackest 憎悪; and beyond the city, from which pulsed almost visibly a 広大な and hopeless horror, the watching column—and over all this the palely radiant white sky under whose light the encircling cliffs were tremendous stony palettes splashed with a hundred pigments.
Norhala's laughter had 中止するd. Somberly she looked upon Cherkis, into the devil 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of his 注目する，もくろむs.
"Cherkis!" she half whispered. "Now comes the end for you—and for all that is yours! But until the end's end you shall see."
The hanging 団体／死体 was thrust 今後; was thrust up; was brought 負かす／撃墜する upon its feet on the upper 計画（する） of the prostrate pyramid tipping the metal arm that held him. For an instant he struggled to escape; I think he meant to hurl himself 負かす／撃墜する upon Norhala, to kill her before he himself was 殺害された.
If so, after one frenzied 成果／努力 he realized the futility, for with a 確かな dignity he drew himself upright, turned his 注目する，もくろむs toward the city.
Over that city a dreadful silence hung. It was as though it cowered, hid its 直面する, was afraid to breathe.
"The end!" murmured Norhala.
There was a quick trembling through the Metal Thing. 負かす／撃墜する swung its forest of sledges. Beneath the blow 負かす／撃墜する fell the smitten 塀で囲むs, 粉々にするd, 崩壊するing, and with it glittering like 向こうずねing 飛行機で行くs in a 砂じん嵐 fell the 装甲の men.
Through that mile-wide 違反 and up to the inner 障壁 I glimpsed 混乱 大混乱／混沌とした. And again I say it—they were no cowards, those men of Cherkis. From the inner battlements flew clouds of arrows, of 抱擁する 石／投石するs —as uselessly as before.
Then out from the opened gates 注ぐd 連隊s of horsemen, brandishing javelins and 広大な／多数の／重要な maces, and shouting ひどく as they drove 負かす／撃墜する upon each end of the Metal 形態／調整. Under cover of their attack I saw cloaked riders spurring their ponies across the plain to 避難所 of the cliff 塀で囲むs, to the chance of hiding places within them. Women and men of the rich, the powerful, 飛行機で行くing for safety; after them ran and scattered through the fields of 穀物 a multitude on foot.
The ends of the spindle drew 支援する before the horsemen's 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, broadening as they went—like the 長，率いるs of monstrous cobras 身を引くing into their hoods. 突然の, with a 雷 velocity, these broadenings 拡大するd into 巨大な lunettes, two tremendous curving and crablike claws. Their tips flung themselves past the racing 軍隊／機動隊s; then like gigantic pincers began to 契約.
Of no avail now was it for the horsemen to 停止（させる） dragging their 開始するs on their haunches, or to turn to 飛行機で行く. The ends of the lunettes had met, the pincer tips had の近くにd. The 機動力のある men were 罠にかける within half-mile-wide circles. And in upon man and horse their living 塀で囲むs marched. Within those enclosures of the doomed began a frantic milling—I shut my 注目する，もくろむs—
There was a dreadful 叫び声をあげるing of horses, a shrieking of men. Then silence.
Shuddering, I looked. Where the 機動力のある men had been was— nothing.
Nothing? There were two 広大な／多数の／重要な circular spaces whose 床に打ち倒すs were glistening, wetly red. Fragments of man or horse—there was 非，不，無. They had been 鎮圧するd into—what was it Norhala had 約束d—had been stamped into the 激しく揺する beneath the feet of her—servants.
Sick, I looked away and 星／主役にするd at a Thing that writhed and undulated over the plain; a prodigious serpentine 形態／調整 of cubes and spheres linked and studded 厚い with the spikes of the pyramid. Through the fields, over the plain its coils flashed.
Playfully it sped and 新たな展開d の中で the 逃亡者／はかないものs, 鎮圧するing them, 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing them aside broken, gliding over them. Some there were who 投げつけるd themselves upon it in impotent despair, some who knelt before it, praying. On rolled the metal convolutions, inexorable.
Within my 見通し's 範囲 there were no more 逃亡者／はかないものs. Around a corner of the broken battlements raced the serpent 形態／調整. Where it had writhed was now no waving 穀物, no trees, no green thing. There was only smooth 激しく揺する upon which here and there red smears glistened wetly.
Afar there was a crying, in its wake a rumbling. It was the column, it （機の）カム to me, at work upon the その上の battlements. As though the sound had been a signal the spindle trembled; up we were thrust another hundred feet or more. 支援する dropped the host of brandished 武器, threaded themselves into the parent 本体，大部分／ばら積みの.
権利 and left of us the spindle 分裂（する） into 得点する／非難する／２０s of fissures. Between these fissures the Metal Things that made up each now dissociate and shapeless 集まり geysered; 封鎖する and sphere and tetrahedron spike spun and 渦巻くd. There was an instant of formlessness.
Then 権利 and left of us stood 得点する／非難する／２０s of 巨大（な）, grotesque 軍人s. Their crests were fully fifty feet below our living 壇・綱領・公約. They stood upon six 巨大な, columnar stilts. These sextuple 脚s supported a hundred feet above their bases a 抱擁する and globular 団体／死体 formed of clusters of the spheres. Out from each of these 団体／死体s that were at one and the same time trunks and 長，率いるs, sprang half a 得点する／非難する／２０ of colossal 武器 形態／調整d like flails; like spike-studded girders, Titanic 戦う／戦い maces, Cyclopean sledges.
From 脚s and trunks and 武器 the tiny 注目する，もくろむs of the Metal Hordes flashed, exulting.
There （機の）カム from them, from the Thing we 棒 同様に, a chorus of thin and eager wailings and pulsed through all that 戦う／戦い- line, a jubilant throbbing.
Then with a rhythmic, JOCUND stride they leaped upon the city.
Under the mallets of the smiting 武器 the inner battlements fell as under the 大打撃を与えるs of a thousand metal Thors. Over their fragments and the 装甲の men who fell with them strode the Things, grinding 石／投石する and man together as we passed.
All of the terraced city except the 味方する hidden by the 開始する lay open to my gaze. In that 簡潔な／要約する moment of pause I saw crazed （人が）群がるs 戦う／戦いing in 狭くする streets, trampling over 塚s of the fallen, 殺到するing over バリケードs of 団体／死体s, clawing and 涙／ほころびing at each other in their flight.
There was a wide, stepped street of gleaming white 石／投石する that climbed like an 巨大な stairway straight up the slope to that 幅の広い plaza at the 最高の，を越す where clustered the 広大な／多数の／重要な 寺s and palaces—the Acropolis of the city. Into it the streets of the terraces flowed, each 注ぐing out upon it a living 激流, tumultuous with tuliped, sparkling little waves, the gay coverings and the 武器 and armor of Ruszark's desperate thousands 捜し出すing safety at the 神社s of their gods.
Here 広大な／多数の／重要な carven arches arose; there slender, exquisite towers capped with red gold—there was a street of colossal statues, another over which dozens of graceful, fretted 橋（渡しをする）s threw their （期間が）わたるs from feathery 大波s of flowering trees; there were gardens gay with blossoms in which fountains sparkled, green groves; thousands upon thousands of 有望な multicolored pennants, 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道するs, ぱたぱたするd.
A fair, a lovely city was Cherkis's 要塞／本拠地 of Ruszark.
Its beauty filled the 注目する，もくろむs; out from it streamed the fragrance of its gardens—the 発言する／表明する of its agony was that of the souls in Dis.
The 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of destroying 形態／調整s lengthened, each 抱擁する 軍人 of metal 製図／抽選 far apart from its mates. They flexed their manifold 武器, 影をつくる／尾行する boxed—grotesquely, dreadfully.
負かす／撃墜する struck the flails, the sledges. Beneath the blows the buildings burst like eggshells, their fragments burying the throngs fighting for escape in the thoroughfares that threaded them. Over their 廃虚s we moved.
負かす／撃墜する and ever 負かす／撃墜する 衝突，墜落d the awful sledges. And ever under them the city 崩壊するd.
There was a spider 形態／調整 that はうd up the wide stairway 大打撃を与えるing into the 石／投石する those who tried to 逃げる before it.
Stride by stride the Destroying Things ate up the city.
I felt neither wrath nor pity. Through me （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 a jubilant roaring pulse —as though I were a shouting 血球 of the 急ぐing ハリケーン, as though I were one of the hosts of smiting spirits of the bellowing 台風.
Through this stole another thought—vague, unfamiliar, yet seemingly of truth's own essence. Why, I wondered, had I never 認めるd this before? Why had I never known that these green forms called trees were but ugly, unsymmetrical excrescences? That these high 発射／推定s of towers, these buildings were deformities?
That these four-pronged, moving little 形態／調整s that 叫び声をあげるd and ran were —hideous?
They must be wiped out! All this misshapen, jumbled, inharmonious ugliness must be wiped out! It must be ground 負かす／撃墜する to smooth 無傷の 計画（する）s, harmonious curvings, shapeliness—harmonies of arc and line and angle!
Something 深い within me fought to speak—fought to tell me that this thought was not human thought, not my thought—that it was the 反映するd thought of the Metal Things!
It told me—and ひどく it struggled to make me realize what it was that it told. Its 主張 was borne upon little despairing, rhythmic beatings—throbbings that were like the muffled sobbings of the 派手に宣伝するs of grief. Louder, closer （機の）カム the throbbing; clearer with it my perception of the inhumanness of my thought.
The 派手に宣伝する （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 tapped at my humanity, became a dolorous knocking at my heart.
It was the sobbing of Cherkis!
The 甚だしい／１２ダース 直面する was shrunken, the cheeks sagging in 倍のs of woe; cruelty and wickedness were wiped from it; the evil in the 注目する，もくろむs had been washed out by 涙／ほころびs. 注目する，もくろむs streaming, bull throat and バーレル／樽 chest racked by his sobbing, he watched the passing of his people and his city.
And relentlessly, coldly, Norhala watched him—as though loath to lose the faintest 影をつくる／尾行する of his agony.
Now I saw we were の近くに to the 最高の，を越す of the 開始する. Packed between us and the 巨大な white structures that 栄冠を与えるd it were thousands of the people. They fell on their 膝s before us, prayed to us. They tore at each other, 努力する／競うing to hide themselves from us in the 集まり that was themselves. They （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 against the 閉めだした doors of the 聖域s; they climbed the 中心存在s; they 群れているd over the golden roofs.
There was a moment of 大混乱—a 大混乱 of which we were the heart. Then 寺 and palace 割れ目d, burst; were 粉々にするd; fell. I caught glimpses of gleaming sculptures, glitterings of gold and of silver, flashing of gems, shimmering of gorgeous draperies—under them a weltering of men and women.
We の近くにd 負かす／撃墜する upon them—over them!
The dreadful sobbing 中止するd. I saw the 長，率いる of Cherkis swing ひどく upon a shoulder; the 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd.
The Destroying Things touched. Their flailing 武器 coiled 支援する, withdrew into their 団体／死体s. They joined, forming for an instant a tremendous hollow 中心存在 far 負かす／撃墜する in whose 中心 we stood. They parted; 転換d in 形態／調整? rolled 負かす／撃墜する the 開始する over the 廃虚s like a 広げるing wave—鎮圧するing into the 石／投石する all over which they passed.
Afar away I saw the gleaming serpent still at play—still writhing の中で, still obliterating the few 得点する／非難する／２０ scattered 逃亡者／はかないものs that some way, somehow, had slipped by the Destroying Things.
We 停止（させる）d. For one long moment Norhala looked upon the drooping 団体／死体 of him upon whom she had let 落ちる this mighty vengeance.
Then the metal arm that held Cherkis whirled. Thrown from it, the cloaked form flew like a 広大な／多数の／重要な blue bat. It fell upon the flattened 塚 that had once been the proud 栄冠を与える of his city. A blue blot upon desolation the broken 団体／死体 of Cherkis lay.
A 黒人／ボイコット speck appeared high in the sky; grew 急速な／放蕩な—the lammergeier.
"I have left carrion for you—after all!" cried Norhala.
With an ebon 渦巻くing of wings the vulture dropped beside the blue heap —thrust in it its beak.
Slowly we descended that 開始する of desolation; lingeringly, as though the brooding 注目する，もくろむs of Norhala were not yet 満たすd with 破壊. Of human life, of green life, of life of any 肉親，親類d there was 非，不，無.
Man and tree, woman and flower, babe and bud, palace, 寺 and home —Norhala had stamped flat. She had 鎮圧するd them within the 激しく揺する —even as she had 約束d.
The tremendous 悲劇 had 吸収するd my every faculty; I had had no time to think of my companions; I had forgotten them. Now in the painful 殺到するs of awakening 現実化, of 十分な human understanding of that 残忍な annihilation, I turned to them for strength. Faintly I wondered again at Ruth's scantiness of garb, her more than half nudity; dwelt curiously upon the red brand across Ventnor's forehead.
In his 注目する，もくろむs and in Drake's I saw 反映するd the horror I knew was in my own. But in the 注目する，もくろむs of Ruth was 非，不，無 of this—厳しく, coldly 勝利を得た, indifferent to its piteousness as Norhala herself, she scanned the waste that いっそう少なく than an hour since had been a place of living beauty.
I felt a shock of repulsion. After all, those who had been destroyed so ruthlessly could not ALL have been wholly evil. Yet mother and blossoming maid, 青年 and oldster, all the 野外劇／豪華な行列 of humanity within the 広大な／多数の／重要な 塀で囲むs were now but lines within the 石／投石する. によれば their different lights, it （機の）カム to me, there had been in Ruszark no greater number of the wicked than one could find in any 広大な／多数の／重要な city of our own civilization.
From Norhala, of course, I looked for no perception of any of this. But from Ruth—
My reaction grew; the pity long withheld racing through me linked with a 燃やすing 怒り／怒る, a 憎悪 for this woman who had been the directing soul of that 大災害.
My gaze fell again upon the red brand. I saw that it was a 深い indentation as though a thong had been 新たな展開d around Ventnor's 長，率いる biting the bone. There was 乾燥した，日照りのd 血 on the 辛勝する／優位s, a 二塁打 （犯罪の）一味 of swollen white flesh rimming the cincture. It was the 示す of—拷問!
"ツバメ," I cried. "That （犯罪の）一味? What did they do to you?"
"They waked me with that," he answered 静かに. "I suppose I せねばならない be 感謝する—although their 意向s were not 正確に／まさに— 治療力のある—"
"They 拷問d him," Ruth's 発言する／表明する was 緊張した, bitter; she spoke in Persian —for Norhala's 利益 I thought then, not guessing a deeper 推論する／理由. "They 拷問d him. They gave him agony until he—returned. And they 約束d him other agonies that would make him pray long for death.
"And me—me"—she raised little clenched 手渡すs—"me they stripped like a slave. They led me through the city and the people mocked me. They took me before that swine Norhala has punished—and stripped me before him—like a slave. Before my 注目する，もくろむs they 拷問d my brother. Norhala—they were evil, all evil! Norhala—you did 井戸／弁護士席 to 殺す them!"
She caught the woman's 手渡すs, 圧力（をかける）d の近くに to her. Norhala gazed at her from 広大な／多数の／重要な gray 注目する，もくろむs in which the wrath was dying, into which the old tranquillity, the old serenity was flowing. And when she spoke the golden 発言する／表明する held more than returning echoes of the far-away, faint chimings.
"It is done," she said. "And it was 井戸／弁護士席 done—sister. Now you and I shall dwell together in peace—sister. Or if there be those in the world from which you （機の）カム that you would have 殺害された, then you and I shall go 前へ／外へ with our companies and stamp them out—even as I did these."
My heart stopped （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing—for from the depths of Ruth's 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing 影をつくる／尾行するs were rising, wraiths answering Norhala's calling; and, as they rose, 刻々と they drew life from the （疑いを）晴らす radiance 召喚するing— drew closer to the 外見 of that tranquil spirit which her vengeance had banished but that had now returned to its twin 王位s of Norhala's 注目する，もくろむs.
And at last it was twin sister of Norhala who looked upon her from the 直面する of Ruth!
The white 武器 of the woman encircled her; the glorious 長，率いる bent over her; 炎上ing tresses mingled with tender brown curls.
"Sister!" she whispered. "Little sister! These men you shall have as long as it pleases you—to do with as you will. Or if it is your wish they shall go 支援する to their world and I will guard them to its gates.
"But you and I, little sister, will dwell together—in the vastnesses—in the peace. Shall it not be so?"
With no 滞るing, with no ちらりと見ること toward us three—lover, brother, old friend—Ruth crept closer to her, 残り／休憩（する）d her 長，率いる upon the virginal, 王室の breasts.
"It shall be so!" she murmured. "Sister—it shall be so. Norhala —I am tired. Norhala—I have seen enough of men."
An ecstasy of tenderness, a 炎上 of unearthly rapture, trembled over the woman's wondrous 直面する. Hungrily, defiantly, she 圧力（をかける）d the girl to her; the 星／主役にするs in the lucid heavens of her 注目する，もくろむs were soft and gentle and caressing.
"Ruth!" cried Drake—and sprang toward them. She paid no 注意する; and even as he leaped he was caught, whirled 支援する against us.
"Wait," said Ventnor, and caught him by the arm as wrathfully, blindedly, he strove against the 軍隊 that held him. "Wait. No use—now."
There was a curious understanding in his 発言する／表明する—a curious sympathy, too, in the 患者, untroubled gaze that dwelt upon his sister and this weirdly exquisite woman who held her.
"Wait!" exclaimed Drake. "Wait—hell! The damned witch is stealing her away from us!"
Again he threw himself 今後; recoiled as though swept 支援する by an invisible arm; fell against us and was clasped and held by Ventnor. And as he struggled the Thing we 棒 停止（させる）d. Like metal waves 支援する into it 急ぐd the enigmatic 大波s that had washed over the fragments of the city.
We were 解除するd; between us and the woman and girl a cleft appeared; it 広げるd into a 不和. It was as though Norhala had 法令d it as a symbol of this her second victory—or had 始める，決める it between us as a 障壁.
Wider grew the 不和. Save for the 橋（渡しをする） of our 発言する／表明するs it separated us from Ruth as though she stood upon another world.
Higher we rose; the three of us now upon the flat 最高の，を越す of a tower upon whose 相当するもの fifty feet away and 直面するing the homeward path, Ruth and Norhala stood with white 武器 interlaced.
The serpent 形態／調整 flashed toward us; it 消えるd beneath, 合併するing into the waiting Thing.
Then slowly the Thing began to move; 静かに it glided to the chasm it had 爆破d in the cliff 塀で囲む. The 影をつくる／尾行する of those 塀で囲むs fell upon us. As one we looked 支援する; as one we searched out the patch of blue with the 黒人／ボイコット blot at its breast.
We 設立する it; then the precipices hid it. Silently we streamed through the chasm, through the canyon and the tunnel—speaking no word, Drake's 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd with bitter 憎悪 upon Norhala, Ventnor brooding upon her always with that enigmatic sympathy. We passed between the 塀で囲むs of the その上の cleft; stood for an instant at the brink of the green forest.
There （機の）カム to us as though from immeasurable distances, a faint, 支えるd thrumming—like the （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing of countless muffled 派手に宣伝するs. The Thing that carried us trembled—the sound died away. The Thing 静かなd; it began its 安定した, effortless striding through the （人が）群がるing trees—but now with 非，不，無 of that 速度(を上げる） with which it had come, spurred 今後 by Norhala's awakened hate.
Ventnor stirred; broke the silence. And now I saw how wasted was his 団体／死体, how sharpened his 直面する; almost ethereal; 粛清するd not only by 苦しむing but by, it （機の）カム to me, some strange knowledge.
"No use, Drake," he said dreamily. "All this is now on the 膝s of the gods. And whether those gods are humanity's or whether they are—Gods of Metal—I do not know.
"But this I do know—only one way or another can the balance 落ちる; and if it be one way, then you and we shall have Ruth 支援する. And if it 落ちるs the other way—then there will be little need for us to care. For man will be done!"
"ツバメ! What do you mean?"
"It is the 危機," he answered. "We can do nothing, Goodwin— nothing. Whatever is to be steps 前へ／外へ now from the womb of 運命."
Again there （機の）カム that distant rolling—louder, now. Again the Thing trembled.
"The 派手に宣伝するs," whispered Ventnor. "The 派手に宣伝するs of 運命. What is it they are 先触れ（する）ing? A new birth of Earth and the passing of man? A new child to whom shall be given dominion—nay, to whom has been given dominion? Or is it—taps—for Them?"
The drumming died as I listened—fearfully. About us was only the swishing, the sighing of the 落ちるing trees beneath the tread of the Thing. Motionless stood Norhala; and as motionless Ruth.
"ツバメ," I cried once more, a dreadful 疑問 upon me. "ツバメ— what do you mean?"
"Whence did—They—come?" His 発言する／表明する was （疑いを）晴らす and 静める, the 注目する，もくろむs beneath the red brand （疑いを）晴らす and 静かな, too. "Whence did They come —these Things that carry us? That strode like destroying angels over Cherkis's city? Are they spawn of Earth—as we are? Or are they foster children—changelings from another 星／主役にする?
"These creatures that when many still are one—that when one still are many. Whence did They come? What are They?"
He looked 負かす／撃墜する upon the cubes that held us; their hosts of tiny 注目する，もくろむs shone up at him, enigmatically—as though they heard and understood.
"I do not forget," he said. "At least not all do I forget of what I saw during that time when I seemed an 原子 outside space—as I told you, or think I told you, speaking with 考えられない 成果／努力 through lips that seemed eternities away from me, the 原子, who strove to open them.
"There were three—見通しs, 発覚s—I know not what to call them. And though each seemed 平等に real, of two of them, only one, I think, can be true; and of the third—that may some time be true but surely is not yet."
Through the 空気／公表する （機の）カム a louder 派手に宣伝する roll—in it something ominous, something 悪意のある. It swelled to a 盛り上がり; 突然の 中止するd. And now I saw Norhala raise her 長，率いる; listen.
"I saw a world, a 広大な world, Goodwin, marching stately through space. It was no globe—it was a world of many facets, of smooth and polished 計画（する）s; a 抱擁する blue jewel world, dimly luminous; a 水晶 world 削減（する） out from Aether. A geometric thought of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 原因（となる）, of God, if you will, made 構成要素. It was airless, waterless, sunless.
"I seemed to draw closer to it. And then I saw that over every facet patterns were traced; gigantic symmetrical designs; mathematical hieroglyphs. In them I read 考えられない 計算／見積りs, 決まり文句／製法s of interwoven universes, arithmetical progressions of armies of 星／主役にするs, pandects of the 動議s of the suns. In the patterns was an appalling harmony—as though all the 法律s from those which guide the 原子 to those which direct the cosmos were there 解決するd into completeness—totalled.
"The faceted world was like a cosmic abacist, 一致するing as it marched the errors of the infinite.
"The patterned symbols 絶えず changed form. I drew nearer—the symbols were alive. They were, in untold numbers—These!"
He pointed to the Thing that bore us.
"I was swept 支援する; looked again upon it from afar. And a fantastic notion （機の）カム to me—fantasy it was, of course, yet built I know around a 核 of strange truth. It was"—his トン was half whimsical, half apologetic—"it was that this jeweled world was ridden by some mathematical god, 運動ing it through space, 公式文書，認めるing occasionally with amused 寛容 the very bad arithmetic of another Deity the 逆転する of mathematical—a more or いっそう少なく haphazard Deity, the god, in fact, of us and the things we call living.
"It had no 使節団; it wasn't at all out to do any 改革（する）ing; it wasn't in the least 関心d in 修正するing any of the inaccuracies of the Other. Only now and then it took 公式文書，認める of the deplorable differences between the worlds it saw and its own impeccably ordered and tidy 寺 with its 平等に tidy servitors.
"Just an itinerant demiurge of supergeometry riding along through space on its perfectly summed-up world; master of all celestial mechanics; its people 独立した・無所属 of all that コンビナート／複合体 chemistry and labor for equilibrium by which we live; needing neither 空気／公表する nor water, 注意するing neither heat nor 冷淡な; fed with the magnetism of interstellar space and stopping now and then to 祝宴 off the energy of some 広大な／多数の／重要な sun."
A thrill of amazement passed through me; fantasy all this might be but —how, if so, had he gotten that last thought? He had not seen, as we had, the orgy in the Hall of the 反対／詐欺s, the prodigious feeding of the Metal Monster upon our sun.
"That passed," he went on, unnoticing. "I saw 広大な caverns filled with the Things; working, growing, multiplying. In caverns of our Earth—the fruit of some unguessed womb? I do not know.
"But in those caverns, under countless orbs of many colored lights" —again the thrill of amaze shook me—"they grew. It （機の）カム to me that they were reaching out toward sunlight and the open. They burst into it —into yellow, glowing sunlight. Ours? I do not know. And that picture passed."
His 発言する／表明する 深くするd.
"There （機の）カム a third 見通し. I saw our Earth—I knew, Goodwin, indisputably, unmistakably that it was our earth. But its rolling hills were leveled, its mountains were ground and 形態／調整d into 冷淡な and polished symbols —geometric, fashioned.
"The seas were fettered, gleaming like 巨大な jewels in patterned settings of 水晶 shores. The very Polar ice was chiseled. On the ordered plains were traced the hieroglyphs of the faceted world. And on all Earth, Goodwin, there was no green life, no city, no trace of man. On this Earth that had been ours were only—These.
"見通しing!" he said. "Don't think that I 受託する them in their entirety. Part truth, part illusion—the groping mind dazzled with light of unfamiliar truths and making pictures from half light and half 影をつくる／尾行する to help it understand.
"But still—SOME truth in them. How much I do not know. But this I do know—that last 見通し was of a cataclysm whose beginnings we 直面する now—this very instant."
The picture flashed behind my own 注目する，もくろむs—of the 塀で囲むd city, its thronging people, its groves and gardens, its science and its art; of the Destroying 形態／調整s trampling it flat—and then the dreadful, desolate 開始する.
And suddenly I saw that 開始する as Earth—the city as Earth's cities —its gardens and groves as Earth's fields and forests—and the 消えるd people of Cherkis seemed to 拡大する into all humanity.
"But ツバメ," I stammered, fighting against choking, intolerable terror, "there was something else. Something of the Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s and of our striking through the sun to destroy the Things—something of them 存在 治める／統治するd by the same 法律s that 治める／統治する us and that if they broke them they must 落ちる. A hope—a PROMISE, that they would NOT 征服する／打ち勝つ."
"I remember," he replied, "but not 明確に. There WAS something—a 影をつくる／尾行する upon them, a menace. It was a 影をつくる／尾行する that seemed to be born of our own world—some 脅すing spirit of earth hovering over them.
"I cannot remember; it eludes me. Yet it is because I remember but a little of it that I say those 派手に宣伝するs may not be—taps—for us."
As though his words had been a cue, the sounds again burst 前へ／外へ— no longer muffled nor faint. They roared; they seemed to pelt through 空気／公表する and 減少（する） upon us; they （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 about our ears with thunderous tattoo like covered caverns drummed upon by 巨人s with trunks of 広大な／多数の／重要な trees.
The drumming did not die; it grew louder, more vehement; 反抗的な and deafening. Within the Thing under us a mighty pulse began to throb, 加速するing 速く to the rhythm of that clamorous roll.
I saw Norhala draw herself up, はっきりと; stand listening and 警報. Under me, the throbbing turned to an uneasy churning, a ferment.
"派手に宣伝するs?" muttered Drake. "THEY'RE no 派手に宣伝するs. It's 派手に宣伝する 解雇する／砲火／射撃. It's like a dozen Marnes, a dozen Verduns. But where could 殴打／砲列s like those come from?"
"派手に宣伝するs," whispered Ventnor. "They ARE 派手に宣伝するs. The 派手に宣伝するs of 運命!"
Louder the roaring grew. Now it was a tremendous rhythmic cannonading. The Thing 停止（させる）d. The tower that upheld Ruth and Norhala swayed, bent over the gap between us, touched the 最高の，を越す on which we 棒.
Gently the two were plucked up; 速く they were 始める，決める beside us.
（機の）カム a shrill, keen wailing—louder than ever I had heard before. There was an 地震 trembling; a maelstrom 渦巻くing in which we spun; a swift 沈むing.
The Thing 分裂（する） in two. Up before us rose a stupendous, stepped pyramid; little smaller it was than that which Cheops built to throw its 影をつくる／尾行するs across 宗教上の Nile. Into it streamed, over it clicked, 得点する／非難する／２０ upon 得点する／非難する／２０ of cubes, building it higher and higher. It lurched 今後—away from us.
From Norhala （機の）カム a 選び出す／独身 cry—resonant, blaring like a wrathful, golden trumpet.
The スピード違反 形態／調整 停止（させる）d, hesitated; it seemed about to return. 衝突，墜落d 負かす／撃墜する upon us an abrupt 盛り上がり of the distant drumming; peremptory, 命令（する）ing. The 形態／調整 darted 今後; raced away 鎮圧するing to straw the trees beneath it in a 十分な ４半期/4分の1- mile-wide 列.
広大な／多数の／重要な gray 注目する，もくろむs wide, filled with incredulous wonder, stunned 不信, Norhala for an instant 滞るd. Then out of her white throat, through her red lips pelted a tempest of staccato buglings.
Under them what was left of the Thing leaped, tore on. Norhala's 炎上ing hair crackled and streamed; about her 団体／死体 of milk and pearl—about Ruth's creamy 肌—a radiant nimbus began to glow.
In the distance I saw a sapphire 誘発する; knew it for Norhala's home. Not far from it now was the 急ぐing pyramid—and it （機の）カム to me that within that 形態／調整 was strangely neither globe nor pyramid. Nor except for the trembling cubes that made the 壇・綱領・公約 on which we stood, did the shrunken Thing carrying us 持つ／拘留する any 部隊 of the Metal Monster except its spheres and tetrahedrons—at least within its 明白な 本体，大部分／ばら積みの.
The sapphire 誘発する had grown to a 微光ing azure marble. 刻々と we 伸び（る）d upon the pyramid. Never for an instant 中止するd that 天罰（を下す）ing あられ／賞賛する of 公式文書，認めるs from Norhala—never for an instant 少なくなるd the drumming clamor that seemed to try to smother them.
The sapphire marble became a sapphire ball, a 広大な／多数の／重要な globe. I saw the Thing we sought to join 解除する itself into a prodigious 中心存在; the 中心存在's base thrust 前へ／外へ stilts; upon them the Thing stepped over the blue ドーム of Norhala's house.
The blue 泡 was の近くに; now it curved below us. Gently we were 解除するd 負かす／撃墜する; were 始める，決める before its portal. I looked up at the 本体，大部分／ばら積みの that had carried us.
I had been 権利—built it was only of globe and pyramid; an inconceivably grotesque 形態／調整, it hung over us.
Throughout the 非常に高い 形態／調整 was awful movement; its 部隊s writhed within it. Then it was lost to sight in the もやs through which the Thing we had 追求するd had gone.
In Norhala's 直面する as she watched it go was a 狼狽, a poignant 不確定, that held in it something indescribably pitiful.
"I am afraid!" I heard her whisper.
She 強化するd her しっかり掴む upon dreaming Ruth; 動議d us to go within. We passed, silently; behind us she （機の）カム, followed by three of the 広大な／多数の／重要な globes, by a pair of her tetrahedrons.
Beside a pile of the silken stuffs she 停止（させる）d. The girl's 注目する，もくろむs dwelt upon hers trustingly.
"I am afraid!" whispered Norhala again. "Afraid—for you!"
Tenderly she looked 負かす／撃墜する upon her, the 星雲s of 星／主役にするs in her 注目する，もくろむs soft and tremulous.
"I am afraid, little sister," she whispered for the third time. "Not yet can you go as I do—の中で the 解雇する／砲火／射撃s." She hesitated. "残り／休憩（する） here until I return. I shall leave these to guard you and obey you."
She 動議d to the five 形態／調整s. They 範囲d themselves about Ruth. Norhala kissed her upon both brown 注目する，もくろむs.
"Sleep till I return," she murmured.
She swept from the 議会—with never a ちらりと見ること for us three. I heard a little wailing chorus without, 急速な／放蕩な dying into silence.
Spheres and pyramids twinkled at us, guarding the silken pile whereon Ruth lay asleep—like some enchanted princess.
（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 負かす／撃墜する upon the blue globe like hollow metal worlds, beaten and shrieking.
The 派手に宣伝するs of 運命!
The 派手に宣伝するs of Doom!
（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing taps for the world of men?
For many minutes we stood silent, in the shadowy 議会, listening, each 吸収するd in his own thoughts. The thunderous drumming was continuous; いつかs it faded into a background for clattering 嵐／襲撃するs as of thousands of machine guns, thousands of riveters at work at once upon a thousand metal 枠組みs; いつかs it was nearly 潜水するd beneath splitting 衝突，墜落s as of 会合 meteors of hollow steel.
But always the drumming 固執するd, rhythmic, thunderous. Through it all Ruth slept, undisturbed, cheek pillowed in one 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd arm, the two 広大な／多数の／重要な pyramids 築く behind her, watchful; a globe at her feet, a globe at her 長，率いる, the third sphere 均衡を保った between her and us, and, like the pyramids —watchful.
What was happening out there—over the 辛勝する／優位 of the canyon, beyond the portal of the cliffs, behind the 隠すs, in the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 of the Metal Monster? What was the message of the roaring 派手に宣伝するs? What the rede of their clamorous runes?
Ventnor stepped by the sentinel globe, bent over the tranced girl. Sphere nor pointed pair stirred; only they watched him—like a palpable thing one felt their watchfulness. He listened to her heart, caught up a wrist, took 公式文書，認める of her pulse of life. He drew a 深い breath, stood upright, nodded reassuringly.
突然の Drake turned, walked out through the open portal, his 緊張する and a very 深い 苦悩 written plainly in 深い lines that ran from nostrils to 会社／堅い young mouth.
"Just went out to look for the pony," he muttered when he returned. "It's 安全な. I was afraid it had been stepped on. It's getting dusk. There's a big light 負かす／撃墜する the canyon—over in the valley."
Ventnor drew 支援する past the globe; 再結合させるd us.
The blue bower trembled under a gust of sound. Ruth stirred; her brows knitted; her 手渡すs clenched. The sphere that stood before her spun on its axis, swept up to the globe at her 長，率いる, glided from it to the globe at her feet—as though whispering. Ruth moaned—her 団体／死体 bent upright, swayed rigidly. Her 注目する，もくろむs opened; they 星／主役にするd through us as though upon some dreadful 見通し; and strangely was it as though she were seeing with another's 注目する，もくろむs, were 反映するing another's sufferings.
The globes at her feet and at her 長，率いる 渦巻くd out, clustering against the third sphere—three weird 形態／調整s in silent 協議. On Ventnor's 直面する I saw pity—and a 広大な 救済. With shocked amaze I realized that Ruth's agony—for in agony she 明確に was—was calling 前へ／外へ in him elation. He spoke—and I knew why.
"Norhala!" he whispered. "She is seeing with Norhala's 注目する，もくろむs— feeling what Norhala feels. It's not going 井戸／弁護士席 with—That—out there. If we dared leave Ruth—could only, see—"
Ruth leaped to her feet; cried out—a golden bugling that might have been Norhala's own wrathful trumpet 公式文書，認めるs. 即時に the two pyramids 炎上d open, became two gleaming 星／主役にするs that bathed her in violet radiance. Beneath their upper tips I saw the 爆破ing ovals glitter— menacingly.
The girl glared at us—more brilliant grew the glittering ovals as though their 雷s trembled on their lips.
"Ruth!" called Ventnor softly.
A 影をつくる／尾行する 軟化するd the intolerable, hard brilliancy of the brown 注目する，もくろむs. In them something struggled to arise, fighting its way to the surface like some 溺死するing human thing.
It sank 支援する—upon her 直面する dropped a cloud of heartbreak, appalling woe; the despair of a soul that, having 孤立した all 約束 in its own 肉親，親類d to 残り／休憩（する） all 約束, as it thought, on angels—sees that 約束 betrayed.
There 星／主役にするd upon us a stripped spirit, naked and hopeless and terrible.
Despairing, 激怒（する）ing, she 叫び声をあげるd once more. The central globe swam to her; it raised her upon its 支援する; glided to the doorway. Upon it she stood 均衡を保った like some youthful, anguished Victory—a Victory who 直面するd and knew she 直面するd destroying 敗北・負かす; 均衡を保った upon that enigmatic orb on 明らかにする slender feet, one 甘い breast 明らかにする, 手渡すs upraised, virginally archaic, nothing about her of the Ruth we knew.
"Ruth!" cried Drake; despair as 広大な／多数の／重要な as that upon her 直面する was in his 発言する／表明する. He sprang before the globe that held her; 閉めだした its way.
For an instant the Thing paused—and in that instant the human soul of the girl 急ぐd 支援する.
"No!" she cried. "No!"
A weird call 問題／発行するd from the white lips—つまずくing, uncertain, as though she who sent it 前へ／外へ herself wondered whence it sprang. 突然の the angry 星／主役にするs の近くにd. The three globes spun—疑問ing, puzzled! Again she called—now a tremulous, 停止（させる）ing cadence. She was 解除するd; dropped gently to her feet.
For an instant the globes and pyramids whirled and danced before her —then sped away through the portal.
Ruth swayed, sobbing. Then as though drawn, she ran to the doorway, fled through it. As one we sprang after her. 棒s ahead her white 団体／死体 flashed, スピード違反 toward the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. Like (n)艦隊／(a)素早い- footed Atalanta she fled—and far, far behind us was the blue bower, the misty 障壁 of the 隠すs の近くに, when Drake with a last desperate burst reached her 味方する, gripped her. 負かす／撃墜する the two fell, rolling upon the smooth roadway. Silently she fought, biting, 涙／ほころびing at Drake, struggling to escape.
"Quick!" gasped Ventnor, stretching out to me an arm. "削減（する） off the sleeve. Quick!"
Unquestioningly, I drew my knife, ripped the 衣料品 at the shoulder. He snatched the sleeve, knelt at Ruth's 長，率いる; 速く he crumpled an end, thrust it 概略で into her mouth; tied it 急速な／放蕩な, gagging her.
"持つ／拘留する her!" he ordered Drake; and with a sob of 救済 sprang up. The girl's 注目する，もくろむs 炎d at him, filled with hate.
"削減（する） that other sleeve," he said; and when I had done so, he knelt again, pinned Ruth 負かす／撃墜する with a 膝 at her throat, turned her over and knotted her 手渡すs behind her. She 中止するd struggling; gently now he drew up the curly 長，率いる; swung her upon her 支援する.
"持つ／拘留する her feet." He nodded to Drake, who caught the slender 明らかにする ankles in his 手渡すs.
She lay there, helpless, 存在 unable to use her 手渡すs or feet.
"Too little Ruth, and too much Norhala," said Ventnor, looking up at me. "If she'd only thought to cry out! She could have brought a 連隊 of those Things 負かす／撃墜する to 爆破 us. And would—if she HAD thought. You don't think THAT is Ruth, do you?"
He pointed to the pallid 直面する glaring at him, the 注目する，もくろむs from which 冷淡な 解雇する／砲火／射撃s 炎上d.
"No, you don't!" He caught Drake by the shoulder, sent him spinning a dozen feet away. "Damn it, Drake—don't you understand!"
For suddenly Ruth's 注目する，もくろむs 軟化するd; she had turned them on 刑事 pitifully, appealingly—and he had loosed her ankles, had leaned 今後 as though to draw away the 禁止（する）d that covered her lips.
"Your gun," whispered Ventnor to me; before I had moved he had snatched the (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 from my holster; had covered Drake with it.
"Drake," he said, "stand where you are. If you take another step toward this girl I'll shoot you—by God, I will!"
Drake 停止（させる）d, shocked amazement in his 直面する; I myself felt resentful, wondering at his 爆発.
"But it's 傷つけるing her," he muttered, Ruth's 注目する，もくろむs, soft and pleading, still dwelt upon him.
"傷つけるing her!" exclaimed Ventnor. "Man—she's my sister! I know what I'm doing. Can't you see? Can't you see how little of Ruth is in that 団体／死体 there—how little of the girl you love? How or why I don't know —but that it is so I DO know. Drake—have you forgotten how Norhala beguiled Cherkis? I want my sister 支援する. I'm helping her to get 支援する. Now let be. I know what I'm doing. Look at her!"
We looked. In the 直面する that glared up at Ventnor was nothing of Ruth —even as he had said. There was the same 冷淡な, awesome wrath that had 残り／休憩（する）d upon Norhala's as she watched Cherkis weep over the eating up of his city. 速く （機の）カム a change—like the sudden smoothing out of the 急ぐing waves of a hill-locked, 勝利，勝つd-攻撃するd lake.
The 直面する was again Ruth's 直面する—and Ruth's alone; the 注目する，もくろむs were Ruth's 注目する，もくろむs—supplicating, adjuring.
"Ruth!" Ventnor cried. "While you can hear—am I not 権利?"
She nodded vigorously, 厳しく; she was lost, hidden once more.
"You see." He turned to us grimly.
A 粉々にするing 軸 of light flashed upon the 隠すs; almost pierced them. An 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 of sound passed high above us. Yet now I 公式文書，認めるd that where we stood the clamor was 少なくなるd, muffled. Of course, it （機の）カム to me, it was the 隠すs.
I wondered why—for whatever the 質 of the radiant もやs, their 目的 certainly had to do with 集中 of the 磁石の flux. The deadening of the noise must be 偶発の, could have nothing to do with their actual use; for sound is an 空気／公表する vibration 単独で. No—it must be a 第２位 影響. The Metal Monster was as heedless of clamor as it was of heat or 冷淡な—
"We've got to see," Ventnor broke the chain of thought. "We've got to get through and see what's happening. 勝利，勝つ or lose—we've got to KNOW."
"削減（する） off your sleeve, as I did," he 動議d to Drake. "Tie her ankles. We'll carry her."
Quickly it was done. Ruth's light 団体／死体 swinging between brother and lover, we moved 今後 into the もやs; we crept 慎重に through their dead silences.
Passed out and fell 支援する into them from a searing 大混乱 of light, 大混乱／混沌とした tumult.
From the slackened 支配する of Ventnor and Drake the 団体／死体 of Ruth dropped while we three stood blinded, deafened, fighting for 回復. Ruth 新たな展開d, rolled toward the brink; Ventnor threw himself upon her, held her 急速な／放蕩な.
Dragging her, はうing on our 膝s, we crept 今後; we stopped when the thinning of the もやs permitted us to see through them yet still interposed a curtaining which, though tenuous, dimmed the intolerable brilliancy that filled the 炭坑，オーケストラ席, muffled its din to a degree we could 耐える.
I peered through them—and 神経 and muscle were locked in the 支配する of a 麻ひさせるing awe. I felt then as one would feel 始める，決める の近くに to warring 連隊s of 星／主役にするs, made 証言，証人／目撃する to the death-throes of a universe, or swept through space and held above the whirling coils of Andromeda's 星雲 to watch its birth agonies of nascent suns.
These are no 人物／姿／数字s of speech, no hyperboles—speck as our whole 惑星 would be in Andromeda's 広大な ぼんやり現れる, pinprick as was the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 to the サイクロン 噴火口，クレーターs of our own sun, within the cliff-cupped 塀で囲むs of the valley was a 有形の, struggling living 軍隊 akin to that which dwells within the 星雲 and the 星／主役にする; a cosmic spirit transcending all dimensions and thrusting its 限定するs out into the infinite; a sentient emanation of the infinite itself.
Nor was its 発言する／表明する いっそう少なく unearthly. It used the 爆撃する of the earth valley for its trumpetings, its clangors—but as one hears in the murmurings of the fluted conch the 広大な／多数の／重要な 発言する／表明する of ocean, its whispering and its roarings, so here in the clamorous 爆撃する of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 echoed the tremendous 発言する／表明するs of that illimitable sea which （競技場の）トラック一周s the shores of the countless suns.
I looked upon a mighty whirlpool miles and miles wide. It whirled with 殺到するs whose racing crests were smiting incandescences; it was threaded with a spindrift of 雷s; it was trodden by dervish もやs of molten 炎上 thrust through with forests of lances of living light. It cast a cadent spray high to the heavens.
Over it the heavens glittered as though they were a 保護物，者 held by fearful gods. Through the maelstrom staggered a 山地の 本体，大部分／ばら積みの; a gleaming leviathan of pale blue metal caught in the 渦巻くing tide of some incredible 火山; a 抱擁する ark of metal breasting a deluge of 炎上.
And the drumming we heard as of hollow beaten metal worlds, the shouting tempests of cannonading 星／主役にするs, was the breaking of these incandescent crests, the 落ちるing of the 雷 spindrift, the rhythmic 衝撃 of the lanced rays upon the 微光ing mountain that reeled and trembled as they struck it.
The reeling mountain, the struggling leviathan, was—the City!
It was the 集まり of the Metal Monster itself, guarded by, 嵐／襲撃するd by, its own legions that though separate from it were still as much of it as were the 独房s that formed the 肌 of its 塀で囲むs, its carapace.
It was the Metal Monster 涙／ほころびing, rending, fighting for, 戦う／戦いing against —itself.
Mile high as when I had first beheld it was the inexplicable 団体／死体 that held the 広大な／多数の／重要な heart of the 反対／詐欺s into which had been drawn the 磁石の cataracts from our sun; that held too the smaller hearts of the lesser 反対／詐欺s, the workshops, the birth 議会 and manifold other mysteries unguessed and unseen. By a 十分な fourth had its base been shrunken.
範囲d in 二塁打 line along the 味方する turned toward us were hundreds of dread forms—形態／調整s that in their intensity bore 負かす／撃墜する upon, 抑圧するd with a nightmare 負わせる, the consciousness.
Rectangular, upon their 輪郭（を描く）s no spike of pyramid, no curve of globe showing, uncompromisingly ponderous, they upthrust. Upon the 最高の，を越すs of the first 階級 were enormous 集まりs, sledge- 形態／調整d—like those metal 握りこぶしs that had 乱打するd 負かす／撃墜する the 塀で囲むs of Cherkis's city but to them as the human 手渡す is to the paw of the dinosaur.
Conceive this—conceive these 形態／調整s as animate and 柔軟な; （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing 負かす／撃墜する with the prodigious mallets, 粉砕するing from 味方する to 味方する as though the tremendous 中心存在s that held them were thousand 共同のd upright pistons; that as closely as I can 現在の it in images of things we know is the picture of the 大打撃を与えるing Things.
Behind them stood a second 列／漕ぐ／騒動, high as they and as angular. From them 延長するd 得点する／非難する／２０s of girdered 武器. These were thickly studded with the 炎上ing cruciform 形態／調整s, the opened cubes gleaming with their angry ゆらめくs of reds and smoky yellows. From the tentacles of many swung 巨大な 保護物，者s like those which （犯罪の）一味d the hall of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 反対／詐欺s.
And as the sledges （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域, ever over their bent 長，率いるs 注ぐd from the crosses a flood of crimson 雷s. Out of the concave depths of the 保護物，者s whipped 攻撃するs of blinding 炎上. With ropes of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 they knouted the Things the sledges struck, the sullen crimson levins 爆破d.
Now I could see the 形態／調整s that attacked. Grotesque; spined and tusked, spiked and antlered, wenned and breasted; as chimerically angled, cusped and cornute as though they were the superangled, supercornute gods of the cusped and angled gods of the Javanese, they strove against the sledge-長，率いるd and smiting, the multi-武装した and 爆破ing square towers.
High as them, as 抱擁する as they, incomparably fantastic, in dozens of 転換ing forms they 戦う／戦いd.
More than a mile from the つまずくing City stood 範囲d like sharpshooters a host of solid, bristling-legged towers. Upon their 最高の，を越すs spun gigantic wheels. Out of the 中心s of these wheels 発射 the radiant lances, hosts of spears of intensest violet light. The radiance they ボレーd was not continuous; it was broken, so that the javelin rays 発射 out in rhythmic flights, each 飛行機で行くing 急速な／放蕩な upon the 軸s of the others.
It was their 衝撃 that sent 前へ／外へ the thunderous drumming. They struck and 後援d against the 塀で囲むs, dropping from them in 広大な／多数の／重要な gouts of molten 炎上. It was as though before they broke they pierced the 塀で囲む, the Monster's 味方する, bled 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
With the 衝突，墜落ing of broadsides of 集まりd 殴打／砲列s the sledges 粉砕するd 負かす／撃墜する upon the bristling 攻撃者s. Under the awful 衝撃 globes and pyramids were 粉々にするd into hundreds of fragments, ロケット／急騰する bursts of blue and azure and violet 炎上, 炎上s rainbowed and irised.
The 大打撃を与える ends 分裂（する）, flew apart, were scattered, were 落ちるing にわか雨s of sulphurous yellow and scarlet meteors. But ever other cubes 群れているd out and 修理d the broken smiting tips. And always where a tusked and cornute 形態／調整 had been 乱打するd 負かす／撃墜する, 崩壊するd, another arose as 抱擁する and as formidable 注ぐing 前へ／外へ upon the squared tower its 雷s, 涙／ほころびing at it with colossal spiked and 麻薬中毒の claws, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing it with incredible spiked and globular 握りこぶしs that were like the clenched 手渡すs of some metal Atlas.
As the 努力する／競うing 形態／調整s swayed and 格闘するd, gave way or thrust 今後, staggered or fell, the 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of the Monster つまずくd and swayed, 前進するd and 退却／保養地d—an unearthly 動議 wedded to an amorphous immensity that flooded the watching consciousness with a deathly nausea.
Unceasingly the あられ／賞賛する of radiant lances 注ぐd from the spinning wheels, 落ちるing upon Towered 形態／調整s and City's 塀で囲む alike. There arose a prodigious wailing, an unearthly thin 叫び声をあげるing. About the bases of the defenders flashed blinding bursts of incandescence—like those which had 先触れ（する）d the flight of the 飛行機で行くing Thing dropping before Norhala's house.
Unlike them they held no dazzling sapphire brilliancies; they were ocherous, suffused with 激怒（する）ing vermilion. にもかかわらず they were factors of that same inexplicable 活動／戦闘—for from thousands of 噴出するing lights leaped thousands of gigantic square 中心存在s; unimaginable 発射物s 投げつけるd from the 炎上ing mouths of earth-hidden, titanic 迫撃砲s.
They 急に上がるd high, swerved and 急襲するd upon the lance-投げる人s. Beneath their 猛攻撃 those chimerae tottered, I saw living 発射物s and living 的 fuse where they met—melt and weld in jets of 雷s.
But not all. There were those that tore 広大な／多数の／重要な gaps in the horned 巨大（な）s —負傷させるs that 即時に were 傷をいやす／和解させるd with globes and pyramids seething out from the Cyclopean trunk. Ever the incredible 発射物s flashed and flew as though from some inexhaustible 蓄える／店; ever uprose that prodigious 一斉射撃，（質問などの）連発／ダム against the smiting rays.
Now to check them 急に上がるd from the 階級s of the besiegers clouds of countless horned dragons, 巨大な cylinders of clustered cubes studded with the 粘着するing tetrahedrons. They struck the cubed 発射物s 長，率いる on; 目的（とする）d themselves to 会合，会う them.
Bristling dragon and hurtling 中心存在 stuck and fused or burst with intolerable 炎ing. They fell—cube and sphere and pyramid— some half opened, some fully, in a rain of disks, of 星／主役にするs, 抱擁する 炎上ing crosses; a 嵐／襲撃する of unimaginable pyrotechnics.
Now I became conscious that within the City—within the 団体／死体 of the Metal Monster—there 激怒（する）d a 争い colossal as this without. From it （機の）カム a 広大な 火山の roaring. Up from its 最高の，を越す 発射 拷問d 炎上s, cascades and fountains of frenzied Things that 宙返り飛行d and struggled, writhed over its 辛勝する／優位, 投げつけるd themselves 支援する; 戦う／戦いing chimerae which against the glittering heavens traced luminous symbols of agony.
Shrilled a stronger wailing. Up from behind the ray-投げつけるing Towers 発射 hosts of globes. Thousands of palely azure, metal moons they 急に上がるd; 軍人 moons 非難する in meteor 急ぐ and streaming with ぱたぱたするing 戦う／戦い pennons of violet 炎上. High they flew; they curved over the mile high 支援する of the Monster; they dropped upon it.
Arose to 会合，会う them 巨大な columns of the cubes; 乱打するd against the spheres; swept them over and 負かす／撃墜する into the depths. Hundreds fell, broken —but thousands held their place. I saw them twine about the 中心存在s —writhing columns of interlaced cubes and globes 緊張するing like monstrous serpents while all along their coils the open disks and crosses smote with the scimitars of their 雷s.
In the 塀で囲む of the City appeared a 向こうずねing 割れ目; from 最高の，を越す to 底（に届く） it ran; it 広げるd into a 不和 from which a flood of radiance 噴出するd. Out of this 不和 注ぐd a thousand-foot-high 激流 of horned globes.
Only for an instant they flowed. The 不和 の近くにd upon them, catching those still 現れるing in a colossal vise. It CRUNCHED them. Plain through the 騒動 （機の）カム a dreadful—bursting roar.
負かす／撃墜する from the の近くにing jaws of the vise dripped a stream of fragments that flashed and flickered—and died. And now in the 塀で囲む was no trace of the 違反.
A ハリケーン of radiant lances swept it. Under them a mile wide section of the living scarp 分裂（する） away; dropped like an 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到. Its 落ちる 明らかにする／漏らすd 広大な／多数の／重要な spaces, 抱擁する 丸天井s and 議会s filled with warring 雷s— out from them （機の）カム roaring, bellowing 雷鳴s. 速く from each 味方する of the gap a metal curtaining of the cubes joined. Again the 塀で囲む was whole.
I turned my stunned gaze from the City—swept over the valley. Everywhere, in towers, in writhing coils, in whipping flails, in waves that smote and 衝突，墜落d, in countless forms and combinations the Metal Hordes 戦う／戦いd. Here were 中心存在s against which metal 大波s 急ぐd and were broken; there were metal 惑星s that 衝突，墜落d high above the mad 騒動.
From streaming silent 隠す to 隠す—north and south, east and west the Monster slew itself beneath its racing, 炎上ing 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道するs, the tempests of its 雷s.
The 拷問d hulk of the City lurched; it swept toward us. Before it blotted out from our 注目する，もくろむs the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 I saw that the 水晶 （期間が）わたるs upon the river of jade were gone; that the wondrous jeweled 略章s of its banks were broken.
Closer （機の）カム the reeling City.
I fumbled for my レンズs, focussed them upon it. Now I saw that where the radiant lances struck they—killed the 封鎖するs blackened under them, became lustreless; the sparkling of the tiny 注目する，もくろむs—went out; the metal carapaces 崩壊するd.
Closer to the City—（機の）カム the Monster; shuddering I lowered the glasses that it might not seem so 近づく.
負かす／撃墜する dropped the bristling 形態／調整s that 格闘するd with the squared Towers. They rose again in a 選び出す／独身 monstrous wave that 急ぐd to 圧倒する them. Before they could strike the City swept closer; had hidden them from me.
Again I raised the glasses. They brought the metal scarp not fifty feet away—within it the hosts of tiny 注目する，もくろむs glittered, no longer mocking nor malicious, but insane.
Nearer drew the Monster—nearer.
A thousand feet away it checked its movement, seemed to draw itself together. Then like the roar of a 落ちるing world that whole 味方する 直面するing us slid 負かす／撃墜する to the valley's 床に打ち倒す.
Hundreds of feet through must have been the fallen 集まり—within it who knows what 議会s filled with mysteries? Yes, thousands of feet 厚い it must have been, for the 破片 of it 後援d and 攻撃するd to the very 辛勝する／優位 of the ledge on which we crouched; heaped it with the dimming fragments of the 団体／死体s that had formed it.
We looked into a thousand 丸天井s, a thousand spaces. There （機の）カム another 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 roaring—before us opened the 噴火口，クレーター of the 反対／詐欺s.
Through the torn gap I saw them, clustering undisturbed about the base of that one slender, coroneted and 星／主役にする-pointing spire, rising serene and unshaken from a hell of 雷s. But the 保護物，者s that had rimmed the 噴火口，クレーター were gone.
Ventnor snatched the glasses from my 手渡す, leveled and held them long to his 注目する，もくろむs.
He thrust them 支援する to me. "Look!"
Through the レンズs the 広大な／多数の／重要な hall leaped into 十分な 見解（をとる） 明らかに only a few yards away. It was a cauldron of chameleon 炎上. It seethed with the Hordes 戦う／戦いing over the remaining 塀で囲むs and 床に打ち倒す. But around the 水晶 base of the 反対／詐欺s was an open zone into which 非，不，無 broke.
In that wide （犯罪の）一味, girdling the shimmering fantasy like a circled 聖域, were but three forms. One was the wondrous Disk of jeweled 解雇する／砲火／射撃s I have called the Metal Emperor; the second was the sullen 解雇する／砲火／射撃d cruciform of the Keeper.
The third was Norhala!
She stood at the 味方する of that weird master of hers—or was it after all the servant? Between them and the Keeper's 計画（する）s gleamed the gigantic T-形態／調整d tablet of countless 棒s which controlled the activities of the 反対／詐欺s; that had controlled the 転換ing of the 消えるd 保護物，者s; that manipulated too, perhaps, the energies of whatever 類似の but smaller cornute ganglia were scattered throughout the City and one of which we had beheld when the Emperor's guards had 爆破d Ventnor.
の近くに was Norhala in the レンズs—so の近くに that almost, it seemed, I could reach out and touch her. The 炎上ing hair streamed and 大波d above her glorious 長，率いる like a 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する of molten floss of coppery gold; her 直面する was a mask of wrath and despair; her 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs 炎d upon the Keeper; her exquisite 団体／死体 was 明らかにする, stripped of every shred of silken covering.
From streaming tresses to white feet an oval of pulsing, golden light nimbused her. Maiden Isis, virgin Astarte she stood there, held in the 支配する of the Disk—like a goddess betrayed and hopeless yet かわきing for vengeance.
For all their stillness, their immobility, it （機の）カム to me that Emperor and Keeper were at grapple, locked in death 支配する; the 現実化 was as 限定された as though, like Ruth, I thought with Norhala's mind, saw with her 注目する，もくろむs.
明確に too it （機の）カム to me that in this contest between the two was epitomized all the 広大な 衝突 that 激怒（する）d around them; that in it was 急速な／放蕩な ripening that fruit of 運命 of which Ventnor had spoken, and that here in the Hall of the 反対／詐欺s would be settled—and soon—the 運命／宿命 not only of Disk and Cross, but it might be of humanity.
But with what unknown 力／強力にするs was that duel 存在 fought? They cast no 雷s, they 戦う／戦いd with no 明白な 武器s. Only the 広大な／多数の／重要な 計画（する）s of the inverted cruciform 形態／調整 smoked and smoldered with their sullen ゆらめくs of ochers and of scarlets; while over all the 直面する of the Disk its 冷淡な and irised 解雇する／砲火／射撃s raced and shone, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing with a rhythm incredibly 早い; its 核心 of incandescent ruby 炎d, its sapphire ovals were cabochoned pools of living, lucent radiance.
There was a splitting roar that arose above all the clamor, deafening us even in the 避難所 of the silent 隠すs. On each 味方する of the 噴火口，クレーター whole 集まりs of the City dropped away. Fleetingly I was aware of 得点する／非難する／２０s of smaller 炭坑，オーケストラ席s in which uprose lesser replicas of the 反対／詐欺d 開始する, lesser 貯蔵所s of the Monster's 軍隊.
Neither the Emperor nor the Keeper moved, both seemingly indifferent to the 大災害 急速な／放蕩な developing around them.
Now I 緊張するd 今後 to the very thinnest 辛勝する／優位 of the curtainings. For between the Disk and Cross began to form 罰金 黒人／ボイコット もや. It was transparent. It seemed spun of minute translucent ebon 血球s. It hung like a 黒人／ボイコット shroud 一時停止するd by unseen 手渡すs. It shook and wavered now toward the Disk, now toward the Cross.
I sensed a 重要なing up of 軍隊 within the two; knew that each was 努力する／競うing to cast like a 逮捕する that hanging もや upon the other.
突然の the Emperor flashed 前へ／外へ, blindingly. As though caught upon a 爆破, the 黒人／ボイコット shroud flew toward the Keeper—enveloped it. And as the もや covered and clung I saw the sulphurous and crimson ゆらめくs 薄暗い. They were 消すd out.
The Keeper fell!
Upon Norhala's 直面する 炎上d a wild 勝利, banishing despair. The outstretched 計画（する）s of the Cross swept up as though in torment. For an instant its 解雇する／砲火／射撃s ゆらめくd and licked through the 粘着するing blackness; it writhed half upright, threw itself 今後, 衝突，墜落d 負かす／撃墜する prostrate upon the enigmatic tablet which only its tentacles could manipulate.
From Norhala's 直面する the 勝利 fled. On its heels 急ぐd stark, incredulous horror.
The 開始する of 反対／詐欺s shuddered. From it （機の）カム a 選び出す／独身 mighty throb of 軍隊 —like a prodigious heart-（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域. Under that pulse of 力／強力にする the Emperor staggered, spun—and spinning, swept Norhala from her feet, swung her の近くに to its flashing rose.
A second throb pulsed from the 反対／詐欺s, and mightier.
A spasm shook the Disk—a paroxysm.
Its 解雇する／砲火／射撃s faded; they ゆらめくd out again, bathing the floating, unearthly 人物／姿／数字 of Norhala with their iridescences.
I saw her 団体／死体 writhe—as though it 株d the agony of the 形態／調整 that held her. Her 長，率いる 新たな展開d; the 広大な／多数の／重要な 注目する，もくろむs, pools of uncomprehending, unbelieving horror, 星／主役にするd into 地雷.
With a spasmodic, infinitely dreadful movement the Disk の近くにd—
And の近くにd upon her!
Norhala was gone—was shut within it. 鎮圧するd to the pent 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of its 水晶 heart.
I heard a sobbing, agonized choking—knew it was I who sobbed. Against me I felt Ruth's 団体／死体 strike, bend in convulsive arc, 減少（する） inert.
The slender steeple of the 反対／詐欺s drooped sending its faceted coronet 粉々にするing to the 床に打ち倒す. The 開始する melted. Beneath the flooding radiance sprawled Keeper and the 広大な／多数の／重要な inert Globe that was the Goddess woman's sepulcher.
The 噴火口，クレーター filled with the pallid luminescence. Faster and ever faster it 注ぐd 負かす／撃墜する into the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. And from all the lesser 噴火口，クレーターs of the smaller 反対／詐欺s swept silent cataracts of the same pale radiance.
The City began to 崩壊する—the Monster to 落ちる.
Like pent-up waters 急ぐing through a broken dam the gleaming deluge swept over the valley; 噴出するing in 安定した 激流s from the breaking 集まり. Over the valley fell a 広大な silence. The 雷s 中止するd. The Metal Hordes stood rigid, the 向こうずねing flood lapping at their bases, rising 速く ever higher.
Now from the 沈むing City 群れているd multitudes of its weird luminaries.
Out they 軍隊／機動隊d, 渦巻くing from every rent and gap—orbs scarlet and sapphire, ruby orbs, orbs tuliped and irised—the jocund suns of the birth 議会 and 味方する by 味方する with them hosts of the frozen, pale gilt, stiff rayed suns.
Thousands upon thousands they marched 前へ／外へ and 均衡を保った themselves solemnly over all the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 that now was a 急速な／放蕩な rising lake of yellow froth of sun 炎上.
They swept 前へ／外へ in 騎兵大隊s, in companies, in 連隊s, those mysterious orbs. They floated over all the valley; they separated and swung motionless above it as though they were mysterious 多重の souls of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 brooding over the dying 爆撃する that had held them.
Beneath, thrusting up from the lambent lake like grotesque towers of some 溺死するd fantastic metropolis, the 広大な／多数の／重要な 形態／調整s stood, 黒人／ボイコット against its glowing.
What had been the City—that which had been the 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of the Monster —was now only a 広大な and shapeless hill from which streamed the silent 激流s of that 解放（する）d, unknown 軍隊 which, concentrate and bound, had been the 反対／詐欺s.
As though it was the Monster's 向こうずねing life-血 it 注ぐd, raising ever higher in its swift flooding the level radiant lake.
Lower and lower sank the 巨大な 本体，大部分／ばら積みの; 無断占拠者d and spread, ever lowering—about its helpless, 患者 crouching something ineffably piteous, something indescribably, COSMICALLY 悲劇の.
突然の the watching orbs shook under a あられ／賞賛する of sparkling 原子s streaming 負かす／撃墜する from the glittering sky; raining upon the lambent lake. So 厚い they fell that now the brooding luminaries were 薄暗い aureoles within them.
From the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 （機の）カム a blinding, insupportable brilliancy. From every rigid tower gleamed out jeweled 解雇する／砲火／射撃s; their 粘着するing 部隊s opened into 炎ing 星／主役にする and disk and cross. The City was a hill of living gems over which flowed 激流s of pale molten gold.
The 炭坑，オーケストラ席 炎d.
There followed an appalling tensity; a prodigious 集会 of 軍隊; a panic stirring 集中 of energy. 厚い fell the clouds of sparkling 原子s—higher rose the yellow flood.
Ventnor cried out. I could not hear him, but I read his 目的— and so did Drake. Up on his 幅の広い shoulders he swung Ruth as though she had been a child. 支援する through the throbbing 隠すs we ran; passed out of them.
"支援する!" shouted Ventnor. "支援する as far as you can!"
On we raced; we reached the gateway of the cliffs; we dashed on and on —up the 向こうずねing roadway toward the blue globe now a scant mile before us; ran sobbing, panting—ran, we knew, for our lives.
Out of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 （機の）カム a sound—I cannot 述べる it!
An unutterably desolate, dreadful wail of despair, it shuddered past us like the groaning of a broken-hearted 星／主役にする—anguished and awesome.
It died. There 急ぐd upon us a sea of that incredible loneliness, that longing for 絶滅 that had 攻撃する，非難するd us in the haunted hollow where first we had seen Norhala. But its 大波s were resistless, invincible. Beneath them we fell; were torn by 願望（する） for swift death.
Dimly, through fainting 注目する，もくろむs, I saw a dazzling brilliancy fill the sky; heard with dying ears a 大混乱／混沌とした, 爆破ing roar. A wave of 空気／公表する 厚い than water caught us up, 投げつけるd us hundreds of yards 今後. It dropped us; in its wake 急ぐd another wave, withering, scorching.
It raced over us. Scorching though it was, within its heat was energizing, revivifying 軍隊; something that slew the deadly despair and fed the fading 解雇する／砲火／射撃s of life.
I staggered to my feet; looked 支援する. The 隠すs were gone. The precipice 塀で囲むd gateway they had curtained was filled with a Plutonic glare as though it opened into the incandescent heart of a 火山.
Ventnor clutched my shoulder, spun me around. He pointed to the sapphire house, started to run to it. Far ahead I saw Drake, the 団体／死体 of the girl clasped to his breast. The heat became 爆破ing, insupportable; my 肺s 燃やすd.
Over the sky above the canyon streaked a serpentine chain of 雷s. A sudden cyclonic gust swept the cleft, whirling us like leaves toward the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
I threw myself upon my 直面する, clutching at the smooth 激しく揺する. A ボレー of 雷鳴 burst—but not the 雷鳴 of the Metal Monster or its Hordes; no, the bellowing of the levins of our own earth.
And the 勝利，勝つd was 冷淡な; it bathed the 燃やすing 肌; laved the fevered 肺s.
Again the sky was 分裂（する） by the 雷s. And roaring 負かす／撃墜する from it in solid sheets （機の）カム the rain.
From the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 arose a hissing as though within it 激怒（する）d Babylonian Tiamat, Mother of 大混乱, serpent dweller in the 無効の; Midgard-snake of the 古代の Norse 持つ／拘留するing in her coils the world.
Buffeted by 勝利，勝つd, beaten 負かす／撃墜する by rain, 粘着するing to each other like 溺死するing men, Ventnor and I 押し進めるd on to the elfin globe. The light was dying 急速な／放蕩な. By it we saw Drake pass within the portal with his 重荷（を負わせる）. The light became embers; it went out; blackness clasped us. Guided by the 雷s, we （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 our way to the door; passed through it.
In the electric glare we saw Drake bending over Ruth. In it I saw a slide draw over the open portal through which shrieked the 勝利，勝つd, streamed the rain.
As though its 水晶 パネル盤 was moved by unseen, gentle 手渡すs, the portal の近くにd; the tempest shut out.
We dropped beside Ruth upon a pile of silken stuffs—awed, marveling, trembling with pity and—thanksgiving.
For we knew—each of us knew with an 絶対の definiteness as we crouched there の中で the racing, dancing 黒人／ボイコット and silver 影をつくる／尾行するs with which the 雷s filled the blue globe—that the Metal Monster was dead.
殺害された by itself!
Ruth sighed and stirred. By the glare of the 雷s, now almost continuous, we saw that her rigidity, and in fact all the puzzling cataleptic symptoms, had disappeared. Her 四肢s relaxed, her 肌 faintly 紅潮／摘発するd, she lay in deepest but natural slumber undisturbed by the incessant cannonading of the 雷鳴 under which the 塀で囲むs of the blue globe shuddered. Ventnor passed through the curtains of the central hall; he returned with one of Norhala's cloaks; covered the girl with it.
An 圧倒的な sleepiness took 所有／入手 of me, a weariness ineffable. 神経 and brain and muscle suddenly relaxed, went slack and numb. Without a struggle I 降伏するd to an overpowering stupor and cradled 深い in its heart 中止するd consciously to be.
When my 注目する，もくろむs unclosed the 議会 of the moonstone 塀で囲むs was filled with a silvery, crepuscular light. I heard the murmuring and laughing of running water, the play, I lazily realized, of the fountained pool.
I lay for whole minutes unthinking, luxuriating in the sense of 緊張 gone and of 安全; lay 法外なd in the 影響 of 完全にする 残り／休憩（する）. Memory flooded me.
静かに I sat up; Ruth still slept, breathing 平和的に beneath the cloak, one white arm stretched over the shoulder of Drake—as though in her sleep she had drawn の近くに to him.
At her feet lay Ventnor, as 深い in slumber as they. I arose and tip-toed over to the の近くにd door.
Searching, I 設立する its 重要な; a cupped indentation upon which I 圧力（をかける）d.
The crystalline パネル盤 slipped 支援する; it was moved, I suppose, by some 機械装置 of counterbalances 答える／応じるing to the 負わせる of the 手渡す. It must have been some vibration of the 雷鳴 which had loosed that 機械装置 and had の近くにd the パネル盤 upon the heels of our 入り口—so I thought —then seeing again in memory that uncanny, 審議する／熟考する shutting was not at all 納得させるd that it had been the 雷鳴.
I looked out. How many hours the sun had been up there was no means of knowing.
The sky was low and slaty gray; a 罰金 rain was 落ちるing. I stepped out.
The garden of Norhala was a 難破 of uprooted and 後援d trees and torn 集まりs of what had been blossoming verdure.
The gateway of the precipices beyond which lay the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 was hidden in the webs of the rain. Long I gazed 負かす／撃墜する the canyon—and longingly; 努力する／競うing to picture what the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 now held; eager to read the riddles of the night.
There （機の）カム from the valley no sound, no movement, no light.
I reentered the blue globe and paused on the threshold—星／主役にするing into the wide and wondering 注目する，もくろむs of Ruth bolt upright in her silken bed with Norhala's cloak clutched to her chin like a suddenly awakened and startled child. As she glimpsed me she stretched out her 手渡す. Drake, wide awake on the instant, leaped to his feet, his 手渡す jumping to his ピストル.
"刑事!" called Ruth, her 発言する／表明する tremulous, 甘い.
He swung about, looked 深い into the （疑いを）晴らす and fearless brown 注目する，もくろむs in which—with leaping heart I realized it—was 王位d only that spirit which was Ruth's and Ruth's alone; Ruth's （疑いを）晴らす unshadowed 注目する，もくろむs glad and shy and soft with love.
"刑事!" she whispered, and held soft 武器 out to him. The cloak fell from her. He swung her up. Their lips met.
Upon them, embraced, the wakening 注目する，もくろむs of Ventnor dwelt; they filled with 救済 and joy, nor was there 欠如（する）ing in them a 確かな amusement.
She drew from Drake's 武器, 押し進めるd him from her, stood for a moment shakily, with covered 注目する，もくろむs.
"Ruth," called Ventnor softly.
"Oh!" she cried. "Oh, ツバメ—I forgot—" She ran to him, held him tight, 直面する hidden in his breast. His 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）d on the clustering brown curls, tenderly.
"ツバメ." She raised her 直面する to him. "ツバメ, it's GONE! I'm—ME again! All ME! What happened? Where's Norhala?"
I started. Did she not know? Of course, lying bound as she had in the 消えるd 隠すs, she could have seen nothing of the stupendous 悲劇 制定するd beyond them—but had not Ventnor said that 所有するd by the inexplicable obsession evoked by the weird woman Ruth had seen with her 注目する，もくろむs, thought with her mind?
And had there not been 証拠 that in her 団体／死体 had been echoed the torments of Norhala's? Had she forgotten? I started to speak—was checked by Ventnor's swift, 警告 ちらりと見ること.
"She's—over in the 炭坑，オーケストラ席," he answered her 静かに. "But do you remember nothing, little sister?"
"There's something in my mind that's been rubbed out," she replied. "I remember the City of Cherkis—and your 拷問, ツバメ—and my 拷問—"
Her 直面する whitened; Ventnor's brow 契約d anxiously. I knew for what he watched—but Ruth's shamed 直面する was all human; on it was no 影をつくる／尾行する nor trace of that 外国人 soul which so few hours since had 脅すd us.
"Yes," she nodded, "I remember that. And I remember how Norhala repaid them. I remember that I was glad, ひどく glad, and then I was tired— so tired. And then—I come to the rubbed-out place," she ended perplexedly.
Deliberately, almost banally had I not realized his 目的, he changed the 支配する. He held her from him at arm's length.
"Ruth!" he exclaimed, half mockingly, half reprovingly. "Don't you think your morning negligee is just a little scanty even for this Godforsaken corner of the earth?"
Lips parted in sheer astonishment, she looked at him. Then her 注目する，もくろむs dropped to her 明らかにする feet, her dimpled 膝s. She clasped her 武器 across her breasts; rosy red turned all her fair 肌.
"Oh!" she gasped. "Oh!" And hid from Drake and me behind the tall 人物／姿／数字 of her brother.
I walked over to the pile of silken stuffs, took the cloak and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd it to her. Ventnor pointed to the saddlebags.
"You've another outfit there, Ruth," he said. "We'll take a turn through the place. Call us when you're ready. We'll get something to eat and go see what's happening—out there."
She nodded. We passed through the curtains and out of the hall into the 議会 that had been Norhala's. There we 停止（させる）d, Drake 注目する，もくろむing ツバメ with a 確かな 当惑. The older man thrust out his 手渡す to him.
"I knew it, Drake," he said. "Ruth told me all about it when Cherkis had us. And I'm very glad. It's time she was having a home of her own and not running around the lost places with me. I'll 行方不明になる her—行方不明になる her damnably, of course. But I'm glad, boy—glad!"
There was a little silence while each looked 深い into each other's hearts. Then Ventnor dropped 刑事's 手渡す.
"And that's all of THAT," he said. "The problem before us is—how are we going to get 支援する home?"
"The—THING—is dead." I spoke from an 絶対の 有罪の判決 that surprised me, based as it was upon no really 有形の, known 証拠.
"I think so," he said. "No—I KNOW so. Yet even if we can pass over its 団体／死体, how can we climb out of its lair? That slide 負かす／撃墜する which we 棒 with Norhala is unclimbable. The 塀で囲むs are unscalable. And there is that chasm—she—spanned for us. How can we cross THAT? The tunnel to the 廃虚s was 調印（する）d. There remains of possible roads the way through the forest to what was the City of Cherkis. 率直に I am loathe to take it.
"I am not at all sure that all the 装甲の men were 殺害された—that some few may not have escaped and be lurking there. It would be short shrift for us if we fell into their 手渡すs now."
"And I'm not sure of THAT," 反対するd Drake. "I think their pep and 押し進める must be pretty 完全に knocked out—if any do remain. I think if they saw us coming they'd （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it so 急速な／放蕩な that they'd smoke with the 摩擦."
"There's something to that," Ventnor smiled. "Still I'm not keen on taking the chance. At any 率, the first thing to do is to see what happened 負かす／撃墜する there in the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. Maybe we'll have some other idea after that."
"I know what happened there," 発表するd Drake, surprisingly. "It was a short 回路・連盟!"
We gaped at him, mystified.
"燃やすd out!" said Drake. "Every damned one of them—燃やすd out. What were they, after all? A lot of living dynamos. Dynamotors— rather. And all of a sudden they had too much juice turned on. Bang went their insulations—whatever they were.
"Bang went they. 燃やすd out—short 回路・連盟d. I don't pretend to know why or how. Nonsense! I do know. The 反対／詐欺s were some 肉親，親類d of immensely concentrated 軍隊—electric, 磁石の; either or both or more. I myself believe that they were probably solid—in a way of speaking —coronium.
"If about twenty of the greatest scientists the world has ever known are 権利, coronium is—井戸／弁護士席, call it curdled energy. The electric potentiality of Niagara in a pin point of dust of yellow 解雇する／砲火／射撃. All 権利 —they or IT lost 支配（する）／統制する. Every pin point swelled out into a Niagara. And as it did so, it 拡大するd from a controlled dust dot to an uncontrolled cataract—in other words, its energy was 抑えるのをやめるd and undammed.
"Very 井戸／弁護士席—what followed? What HAD to follow? Every living 殴打／砲列 of 封鎖する and globe and spike was supercharged and went—blooey. The valley must have been some 甘い little 火山 while that short 回路・連盟ing was going on. All 権利—let's go 負かす／撃墜する and see what it did to your unclimbable slide and unscalable 塀で囲むs, Ventnor. I'm not sure we won't be able to get out that way."
"Come on; everything's ready," Ruth was calling; her 召喚するing 封鎖するd any 反対 we might have raised to Drake's argument.
It was no dryad, no 苦しめるd pagan 覆う？ maid we saw as we passed 支援する into the room of the pool. In knickerbockers and short skirt, prim and self-所有するd, 反抗的な curls held 厳しく in place by の近くに-fitting cap and slender feet stoutly shod, Ruth hovered over the steaming kettle swung above the spirit lamp.
And she was very silent as we あわてて broke 急速な／放蕩な. Nor when we had finished did she go to Drake. She clung の近くに to her brother and beside him as we 始める，決める 前へ／外へ 負かす／撃墜する the roadway, through the rain, toward the ledge between the cliffs where the 隠すs had shimmered.
Hotter and hotter it grew as we 前進するd; the 空気／公表する steamed like a Turkish bath. The もやs clustered so thickly that at last we groped 今後 step by step, 持つ／拘留するing to each other.
"No use," gasped Ventnor. "We couldn't see. We'll have to turn 支援する."
"燃やすd out!" said 刑事. "Didn't I tell you? The whole valley was a 火山. And with that deluge 落ちるing in it—why wouldn't there be a 霧? It's why there IS a 霧. We'll have to wait until it （疑いを）晴らすs."
We trudged 支援する to the blue globe.
All that day the rain fell. Throughout the few remaining hours of daylight we wandered over the house of Norhala, 診察するing its most 利益／興味ing contents, or sat theorizing, discussing all 段階s of the phenomena we had 証言，証人／目撃するd.
We told Ruth what had occurred after she had thrown in her lot with Norhala; and of the enigmatic struggle between the glorious Disk and the sullenly 炎上ing Thing I have called the Keeper.
We told her of the entombment of Norhala.
When she heard that she wept.
"She was 甘い," she sobbed; "she was lovely. And she was beautiful. Dearly she loved me. I KNOW she loved me. Oh, I know that we and ours and that which was hers could not 株 the world together. But it comes to me that Earth would have been far いっそう少なく poisonous with those that were Norhala's than it is with us and ours!"
Weeping, she passed through the curtainings, going we knew to Norhala's 議会.
It was a strange thing indeed that she had said, I thought, watching her go. That the garden of the world would be far いっそう少なく poisonous blossoming with those Things of wedded 水晶 and metal and 磁石の 解雇する／砲火／射撃s than fertile as now with us of flesh and 血 and bone. To me （機の）カム 評価s of their harmonies, and mingled with those perceptions were others of humanity— disharmonious, incoordinate, ever struggling, ever 努力する／競うing to destroy itself—
There was a plaintive whinnying at the open door. A long and hairy 直面する, a pair of 患者, 問い合わせing 注目する，もくろむs looked in. It was a pony. For a moment it regarded us—and then trotted trustfully through; ambled up to us; poked its 長，率いる against my 味方する.
It had been ridden by one of the Persians whom Ruth had killed, for under it, slipped from the girths, a saddle dangled. And its owner must have been 肉親，親類d to it—we knew that from its 欠如（する） of 恐れる for us. Driven by the tempest of the night before, it had been led 支援する by instinct to the 保護 of man.
"Some luck!" breathed Drake.
He busied himself with the pony, stripping away the hanging saddle, grooming it.
That night we slept 井戸／弁護士席. Awakening, we 設立する that the 嵐／襲撃する had grown violent again; the 勝利，勝つd roaring and the rain 落ちるing in such 容積／容量 that it was impossible to make our way to the 炭坑，オーケストラ席. Twice, as a 事柄 of fact, we tried; but the smooth roadway was a 激流, and, drenched even through our oils to the 肌, we at last abandoned the 試みる／企てる. Ruth and Drake drifted away together の中で the other 議会s of the globe; they were 吸収するd in themselves, and we did not thrust ourselves upon them. All the day the 激流s fell.
We sat 負かす／撃墜する that night to what was 井戸／弁護士席-nigh the last of Ventnor's 蓄える／店s. Seemingly Ruth had forgotten Norhala; at least, she spoke no more of her.
"ツバメ," she said, "can't we start 支援する tomorrow? I want to get away. I want to get 支援する to our own world."
"As soon as the 嵐／襲撃する 中止するs, Ruth," he answered, "we start. Little sister —I too want you to get 支援する quickly."
The next morning the 嵐／襲撃する had gone. We awakened soon after 夜明け into （疑いを）晴らす and brilliant light. We had a silent and hurried breakfast. The saddlebags were packed and strapped upon the pony. Within them were what we could carry of souvenirs from Norhala's home—a 控訴 of lacquered armor, a pair of cloaks and sandals, the jeweled 徹底的に捜すs. Ruth and Drake at the 味方する of the pony, Ventnor and I 主要な, we 始める，決める 前へ／外へ toward the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
"We'll probably have to come 支援する, Walter," he said. "I don't believe the place is passable."
I pointed—we were then just over the threshold of the elfin globe. Where the 隠すs had stretched between the perpendicular 中心存在s of the cliffs was now a wide and ragged- 辛勝する／優位d 開始.
The roadway which had run so 滑らかに through the scarps was 封鎖するd by a thousand foot 障壁. Over it, beyond it, I could see through the crystalline clarity of the 空気／公表する the …に反対するing 塀で囲むs.
"We can climb it," Ventnor said. We passed on and reached the base of the 障壁. An 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 had dropped there; the バリケード was the 破片 of the torn cliffs, their dust, their pebbles, their 玉石s. We toiled up; we reached the crest; we looked 負かす／撃墜する upon the valley.
When first we had seen it we had gazed upon a sea of radiance pierced with lanced forests, swept with gigantic gonfalons of 炎上; we had seen it emptied of its fiery もやs—a 広大な 予定する covered with the chirography of a mathematical god; we had seen it filled with the symboling of the Metal Hordes and 支配するd by the colossal 統合する hieroglyph of the living City; we had seen it as a radiant lake over which brooded weird suns; a lake of yellow 炎上 froth upon which a sparkling あられ／賞賛する fell, within which 後部d islanded towers and a 溺死するing 開始する running with cataracts of sun 解雇する／砲火／射撃s; here we had watched a goddess woman, a 存在 half of earth, half of the unknown immured within a living tomb—a dying tomb—of 炎上ing mysteries; had seen a cross-形態／調整d metal Satan, a sullen 炎上ing 水晶 Judas betray—itself.
Where we had peered into the unfathomable, had glimpsed the infinite, had heard and had seen the inexplicable, now was—
Slag!
The amethystine （犯罪の）一味 from which had been streamed the circling 隠すs was 割れ目d and blackened; like a seam of coal it had stretched around the 炭坑，オーケストラ席 —a 栄冠を与える of 嘆く／悼むing. The 隠すs were gone. The 床に打ち倒す of the valley was fissured and blackened; its patterns, its writings 燃やすd away. As far as we could see stretched a sea of slag—coal 黒人／ボイコット, ガラスにするd and dead.
Here and there 黒人／ボイコット hillocks sprawled; 抱擁する 中心存在s arose, bent and 新たな展開d as though they had been jettings of 溶岩 冷静な／正味のd into rigidity before they could 沈む 支援する or break. These 形態／調整s clustered most thickly around an 巨大な calcified 塚. They were what were left of the 戦う／戦いing Hordes, and the 塚 was what had been the Metal Monster.
Somewhere there were the ashes of Norhala, 調印（する）d by 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the urn of the Metal Emperor!
From 味方する to 味方する of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席, in broken beaches and waves and hummocks, in blackened, distorted tusks and warped 非常に高いs, reaching with hideous pathos in thousands of forms toward the charred 塚, was only slag.
From 不和s and hollows still filled with water little 花冠s of steam drifted. In those futile wraiths of vapor was all that remained of the might of the Metal Monster.
大災害 I had 推定する／予想するd, 悲劇 I knew we would find—but I had looked for nothing so filled with the abomination of desolation, so frightful as was this.
"燃やすd out!" muttered Drake. "Short-回路・連盟d and 燃やすd out! Like a dynamo—like an electric light!"
"運命!" said Ventnor. "運命! Not yet was the hour struck for man to 放棄する his 主権，独立 over the world. 運命!"
We began to 選ぶ our way 負かす／撃墜する the heaped 破片 and out upon the plain. For all that day and part of another we searched for an 開始 out of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席.
Everywhere was the incredible calcification. The surfaces that had been the smooth metallic carapaces with the tiny 注目する，もくろむs 深い within them, 崩壊するd beneath the lightest blow. Not long would it be until under 勝利，勝つd and rain they 解散させるd into dust and mud.
And it grew ますます obvious that Drake's theory of the 破壊 was 訂正する. The Monster had been one prodigious magnet—or, rather, a prodigious dynamo. By magnetism, by electricity, it had lived and had been 活動させる／戦時編成するd.
Whatever the 軍隊 of which the 反対／詐欺s were built and that I have に例えるd to energy-made 構成要素, it was certainly akin to electromagnetic energies.
When, in the cataclysm, that 軍隊 was diffused there had been created a 磁石の field of incredible intensity; had been concentrated an electric 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 of 信じられない magnitude.
発射する／解雇するing, it had 爆破d the Monster—short-回路・連盟d it, and 燃やすd it out.
But what was it that had led up to the cataclysm? What was it that had turned the Metal Monster upon itself? What disharmony had crept into that supernal order to 始める，決める in 動議 the 機械／機構 of disintegration?
We could only conjecture. The cruciform 形態／調整 I have 指名するd the Keeper was the スパイ／執行官 of 破壊—of that there could be no 疑問. In the enigmatic organism which while many still was one and which, 保持するing its 正直さ as a whole could dissociate manifold parts yet still as a whole 持続する an unseen 接触する and direction over them through miles of space, the Keeper had its place, its work, its 義務s.
So too had that wondrous Disk whose 明白な and concentrate 力／強力にする, whose manifest leadership, had made us 指名する it emperor.
And had not Norhala called the Disk—支配者?
What were the 責任／義務s of these twain to the 集まり of the organism of which they were such important 部隊s? What were the 法律s they 治めるd, the 法律s they must obey?
Something certainly of that mysterious 法律 which Maeterlinck has called the spirit of the 蜂の巣—and something infinitely greater, like that which 治める／統治するs the 群れているing sun bees of Hercules' clustered orbs.
Had there 発展させるd within the Keeper of the 反対／詐欺s—後見人 and engineer as it seemed to have been—ambition?
Had there risen within it a 決意 to ひったくる 力／強力にする from the Disk, to take its place as 支配者?
How else explain that 衝突 I had sensed when the Emperor had plucked Drake and me from the Keeper's 支配する that night に引き続いて the orgy of the feeding?
How else explain that duel in the 粉々にするd Hall of the 反対／詐欺s whose end had been the signal for the final cataclysm?
How else explain the alignment of the cubes behind the Keeper against the globes and pyramids remaining loyal to the will of the Disk?
We discussed this, Ventnor and I.
"This world," he mused, "is a place of struggle. 空気／公表する and sea and land and all things that dwell within and on them must 戦う／戦い for life. Earth not 火星 is the 惑星 of war. I have a theory"—he hesitated—"that the 磁石の 現在のs which are the 神経 軍隊 of this globe of ours were what fed the Metal Things.
"Within those 現在のs is the spirit of earth. And always they have been supercharged with 争い, with 憎悪s, 戦争. Were these drawn in by the Things as they fed? Did it happen that the Keeper became—TUNED —to them? That it 吸収するd and 答える／応じるd to them, growing even more 極度の慎重さを要する to these 軍隊s—until it 反映するd humanity?"
"Who knows, Goodwin—who can tell?"
Enigma, unless the explanations I have hazarded be 受託するd, must remain that monstrous 自殺. Enigma, save for 十分な説得力のない theories, must remain the question of the Monster's origin.
If answers there were, they were lost forever in the slag we trod.
It was afternoon of the second day that we 設立する a 不和 in the 爆破d 塀で囲む of the valley. We decided to try it. We had not dared to take the road by which Norhala had led us into the City.
The 巨大（な） slide was broken and climbable. But even if we could have passed 安全に through the tunnel of the abyss there still was left the chasm over which we could have thrown no 橋（渡しをする）. And if we could have 橋（渡しをする）d it still at that road's end was the cliff whose 軸 Norhala had 調印（する）d with her 雷s.
So we entered the 不和.
Of our wanderings thereafter I need not 令状. From the 不和 we 現れるd into a maze of the valleys, and after a month in that wilderness, living upon what game we could shoot, we 設立する a road that led us into Gyantse.
In another six weeks we were home in America.
My story is finished.
There in the Trans-Himalayan wilderness is the blue globe that was the weird home of the 雷 witch—and looking 支援する I feel now she could not have been all woman.
There is the 広大な 炭坑，オーケストラ席 with its coronet of fantastic 頂点（に達する）s; its symboled, calcined 床に打ち倒す and the 崩壊するing 団体／死体 of the inexplicable, the incredible Thing which, alive, was the 影をつくる／尾行する of 絶滅, annihilation, hovering to hurl itself upon humanity. That 影をつくる／尾行する is gone; that 棺／かげり 孤立した.
But to me—to each of us four who saw those phenomena—their lesson remains, ineradicable; giving a new strength and 目的 to us, teaching us a new humility.
For in that 広大な crucible of life of which we are so small a part, what other 形態／調整s may even now be rising to 潜水する us?
In that 広大な 貯蔵所 of 軍隊 that is the mystery-filled infinite through which we roll, what other 影をつくる／尾行するs may be スピード違反 upon us?
Who knows?
The Metal Monster, Avon 調書をとる／予約する Company, New York, 1946
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