Around us--beyond Brutar's entangling engulfing whirl of thought--I perceived a dim vision of struggling shapes and confused sound. Far away--very far away--far away in distance--in Space; and in Time as well--Why of course--that struggle in the meeting house was in the Past--We were there no longer, either in Space or Time--That struggle in the meeting house had been, but it was not now.-- Bee was still clinging to me. Like submerged swimmers sucked away in an undertow, we swirled within that enveloping thought-wave. Brutar was near us. I could see him--see the grey hovering shape of him. Darkness was everywhere. Solidity gone, save the press of those hostile thoughts and the blessed tangibility of Bee within the hollow of my protecting arm. A chaos of moving darkness. Or was it that the darkness was immobile and ourselves rushing through it? A chaos of things which I could not see; thoughts which I tried to think, but could not. Thoughts rushing past me; entities invisible, uncapturable. For what length of Time or Space I do not know, Bee and I whirled onward through that dark mental chaos--imprisoned, with our captor leading us. CHAPTER XI THE UNIVERSE OF THOUGHT I shall revert now to Will's experience during that attack upon the meeting house as he later described it to me. He had been crouching near Ala. When the hostile shapes burst in, he clung to her. Will was more alert than I to the conditions of this strange existence. He gave no thought to a physical violence; he knew it was the mental struggle which was to be feared; and he kept his mind alert, aggressive to attack. Ala too, was of help. He heard her murmuring, "Be very careful. Let no evil thought-waves engulf us." A shape whirled up--a leering man. But Will's thoughts were stronger. The waves clashed with a visible front of conflict; a faint glow of luminous black, in a very palpable heat. The shape cowered, retreated, slunk away. Everywhere the struggle was proceeding. Upon the center ball Ala's father stood, and with roaring voice and a will more defiant than any within the globe, he strove to quell the invaders. Beat them back. Some retreated; some fell, lying crumpled and inert. Dead? We may call them so. Bodies unharmed. Minds driven into darkness; driven away, to leave an empty shell behind them. Soon the confusion was over. The amphitheatre was strewn with mindless bodies; the dead--never to move again, and others, injured; minds unhinged--irrationally wandering, to return, some of them, to reach again their accustomed abode.