I knew that he was appealing to me in the name of Zitu and Azil--in the name of motherhood--that he was calling on me as a brother physician, by the oath of my profession--in the name of all that was highest and holiest in life. I knew that Naia's hour was upon her--and I knew it as clearly as if the thing were taking place somewhere within a neighboring home on earth. I lay and let the knowledge beat in upon me. I recalled in a flash all he had told me concerning medical knowledge on Palos. If some complication in the birth of their child impended, there would be none on that far planet to whom he could turn for aid. He knew more than all the physicians of Palos put together, but-- "Murray!" the voice repeated. "Murray, in the name of God!" * * * * * There was a desperate urge--a desperate plaint about it. I reached a decision. I had never married. There was no one dependent upon me. With a strange thrill I realized the fact. If I failed to return from this strangest of calls to which a medical man was ever bidden, if the body of me were not to be revived, I would be little missed. So what did it matter? A man--or most men--surely could die but once; and how better than in performing the duty of a physician, in an endeavor to save other life? I recall now that such thoughts flitted swiftly through my brain, and left me ready to dare the venture suggested by Croft's voice, if thereby I might render an intimate service to him and Naia of Aphur, in spirit if not in the flesh. "Murray!" Again the agony of a strong man's appeal for all he held dearest in existence. I think the lips of my sleeping material being must have moved at last. Be that as it may, I know I answered: "Yes." And I know Croft sensed my acquiescence, for his response was beating into my consciousness in a flash. "Then--fix your mind on our home in the western mountains, visualize it, Murray, as I have described it to you. Will your conscious presence within it. I shall be waiting for you. Call up the scene and demand that our will be granted. Think of nothing else." Save for the directions for reaching to him, the thing was as real as a telephone message, and the assurance that the husband of your patient would be waiting your arrival at his house. But there was about Croft's promise to await my coming a definite note of conviction in my ability to encompass our mutual purpose that aided me most materially in what followed, as I now confess.