Thone was standing with the others. No delay now. He was ready. He said to Will, "It is the nameless power. Those only whom you call women have it." "Intuition," Will supplied. "We say, the nameless.... You may try, Ala. And, if once you take me there--" A restrained, grave triumph was upon him. "Once I have been there, with perfect sureness I can lead our Thinkers to the attack." Again in the void.... The power of woman's mentality--the nameless power; illogical, against all reason, all science; not to be explained.... But it was leading them.... A rush through the darkness of vague, unreasoning woman's thought; a distance, a time felt, but unmeasurable; a direction not to be fathomed.... And then, ahead of them as in a clinging group they followed Ala, the glow of a poised realm became visible. They neared it; hovered in the void regarding it. And knew and saw that it was Brutar's realm--that great, tenuous globe hanging there like a gigantic bubble. They could see within it; see details as though by some magnification the details were close at hand. The encampment was deserted! Abandoned! The lolos field was uprooted; its plants gone. The globes, the workshops, the streets, fields--all were deserted. And more than that, with the removal of all conscious, constructive, replenishing mentality, disintegration already was taking place. A leprous realm. Holes of Nothingness were visibly eating their way into everything. Rotting walls ... rotting habitations.... Under the gaze of the watchers the whole realm was melting. Dissolving into slow-flowing viscosity; cesspools of putridity, rising into mists, vapors--a puff of Nothingness.... The realm was vanished. The void was black, empty and silent. The little group of apprehensive watchers turned away. Brutar--presumably taking me with him--had already started his invasion of Earth! CHAPTER XVI THE MARCH OF THE GHOSTS I remained a captive of Brutar; and at length the time came when he was ready to start his conquest of Earth. His army, his followers, quietly had departed from the encampment, and were waiting for him in the Borderland. He stood before me--we two the last living minds remaining in his self-created realm. Around me I could see it even then beginning to rot and crumble. He said, "The blood of the lolos is ready for us, Rob. But before we start I will warn you--if once more you try to escape you will be killed." I could not doubt but that he spoke his true intent.