* * * * * The brain, and the monstrous metal body, and all that incredible red-lit hall, were whirled away from us, as if upon a silent and resistless wind. There remained only the bright phantom, and myself, alone in a giddy void. Very faintly, however, even in that featureless vertiginous gulf, the brazen voice of Malgarth reached me. Slow, bewildered, stricken, it was saying: "My science lost! A thing so simple--and I did not know! A fluid-tube ruptured--the Stone knew--fear--_fear!_ They are cast into the mirror--Bari and the Stone--gone beyond returning. But I--who could have been eternal--_dying_--" Even that failing voice was swept away. It was lost upon that mighty, soundless wind. And I knew that what seemed a wind was the supernal power of the geodesic mirror. It was the Stone and myself that it carried, not the things that we had left behind. And our destination must be some dark bourn beyond the limits of space. But a deep rejoicing filled me, even in that spinning gulf. And the woman beside me said joyously: "It is done, Bari. Our task of a million years is done. Malgarth is dead." Her warm hand tightened on mine. And then it seemed to relax. I looked for her, in that starless chaos, and saw that once more she was growing dim, phantasmal. "Farewell, Bari," she whispered. "My heart, farewell!" A terrible loneliness smote me. "Dona, Dona, you can't leave me!" I cried into that vacant pit. "If you go, there will be--nothing! I'll be--_beyond_--alone!" That beloved image was fainter than a wraith of mist. But the voice I loved came dimly, thinly, once again: "I must go, Bari. I'm glad to go, after these weary ages of waiting. Even the Stone must die, Bari! And there is one mystery left. One veil that only death can pierce. I hope--I believe--that behind it we shall find what all our incarnations have strived for in vain." I groped after her vanishing shadow. "But, Dona!" I cried. "From where the mirror hurls us, there can be no returning. Malgarth said--" "But Malgarth is dead!" the ghost of her voice came back. "He died before we were thrown outside the universe. Now his New Robots rule the mirror. And they are not evil, Bari, since his dominion is removed--things so beautiful could not be. They respect mankind, as the makers of the robots--and the destroyer of Malgarth! They promise now to be the friends of man, Bari--and the two races, striving in friendship together, can reach a greatness never dreamed of! "They control the mirror, Bari. They can set its focus back in our universe." "If they are friendly--" the question burned away my own concern--"what of the others? Verel and Kel? Is it too late--?" "The science of the New Robots can save their lives," that receding voice told me. "They will be leaders among the survivors of mankind.--They are weeping, now, for you, Bari." "The other two?" I asked anxiously.