Thone said: "He has entrapped them--Brutar has entrapped them--all unwary since they do not know how to use these new minds which are themselves. We must try and get them--Oh, my friend, there is so much that I would tell you--but another time--not now. For if they are in danger we must go to them. That Brutar is a Mind very powerful.--" And out there in the void, Bee and I were being rushed onward. The shape of Brutar with his leering, triumphant face swept ever before us. A dark confusion of mental chaos plunged past. Dismembered, leprous shapes of things, which I thought I saw. Was this insanity? I felt that evil engulfing net around us--pressing us--dragging us through the darkness. Then abruptly the scene clarified. The darkness melted before a luminosity so blessed I could have cried aloud with the relief of it. The leprous shapes were gone. Motion stopped; we were at rest, with the net of Brutar's thoughts dissolving from us. Rationality. Again I could think things which were not diseased-- I murmured: "We're all right, Bee. You--you are well again?" "Yes, Oh, yes, Rob. But I'm so frightened." Brutar stood before us. "I need you--I am fortunate to have you here. You whom they call Rob--with your knowledge of that Earth-place you can be of great help to me." He swung toward Bee. "You whom they call a girl--" His twisted look was horrible. "I am glad to have you. We shall go to your Earth together--I welcome you both to this place where we are preparing for our great Earthly conquest." He led us down a slope, into the strange activities of his encampment. CHAPTER XII THE ENCAMPMENT IN THE VOID Brutar said, "Let us go in here. I want to talk to you." We entered a globe very much like those of the Big-City. And reclined at physical ease. But there was no mental peace here--for us at any rate. A turgid aura of restlessness seemed pervading everything. Brutar rested before us. He seemed always to be regarding Bee; contemplatively, yet with a satisfied triumph. "I am glad to have you with us," he said; not harshly now, rather with an ingratiating note as though he sought our good will. "We are going to your Earth--to live there, and they tell me, these good people of mine, that they are going to make me its ruler." He spoke with a false modesty, as though to impress us with his greatness forced upon him by his adoring followers. "I want you two for my friends--you will be of great help to me." "How?" I demanded. I had recovered from my confusion. I was wary; the thought came to me that I might be able to trick this Brutar--that being here with him--to see and feel what he was doing--was an advantage which later on I could turn to account. I wondered if he could hear or feel that thought. I willed it otherwise; and it seemed that he could not. His eyes were upon me, gauging me. "How could we help you?" I repeated. "And why should we? You mean harm to our world."