"A sylvan landscape, with an air of quiet peace upon it. I felt a sense of surprize. This was not modernity; nor a civilization more advanced than our own--nor yet was it barbarism. Later I knew it was decadence. A people who once had been far up the slope of civilization, over the peak, and now were coming down upon the other side. The peaceful, restful ease of decadence, which to complete the inevitable cycle of all human life ultimately would again bring them to barbarism. "We saw these details as we fell gently toward the crescent lake. You will notice I have not mentioned color in the scheme, nor movement. Our Time-mechanism was operating. The scene beneath us was stricken motionless, since always we were holding to the same instant of its Time. An unreality lay upon it; a flat, shadowy grayness of aspect. An unnatural stillness. We dropped closer. A shadowy boat seemed on the lake--a boat with a sail. It lay there, immobile. The water was rippled by a breeze; but they were frozen ripples. And in the streets now we saw people and curious vehicles--all standing like waxen figures. "The grove of trees--the woodland dell wherein the girl was lying--was a short distance down the lake shore from the city. A single house was near it; but in the other direction was unbroken forest. An open space was there--a few hundred feet from the girl and her assailants. We decided to land there. We knew we were invisible as yet--a ghost of a vehicle, all in this same instant coming from Space to land upon the lake shore. "We had not yet decided just what we would do. But it was necessary to land first. And necessary also for the vehicle to assume the Time-rate of this realm before we could leave it. When that was done we would be normal humans, to rescue the girl as best we might. "We dropped into the little clearing at the edge of the lake, and gently came to rest--and upon the surface of the ground, since to us it would have had no substance; but within a foot of it, where, like a ghost hovering, I held us level. The unreality of us, I must repeat, was not to us apparent; we seemed solid--it was the ground, the forest about us which was unreal. Spectral trees; a gray twilight. I made sure that nothing was touching us. We were a few inches only above a soft-looking gray ground. We were ready to cut off our Time-change--to take our places normal to this new realm." _CHAPTER 8_ THE ENCOUNTER IN THE FOREST GLADE Martt said, "I would have thrown off the Time-switch and rushed out at once. But Brett wanted to talk about it."