Once more she turned her head and looked at me. I met the eyes that saw me and remembered. And, though I would have screened myself from their tremendous gaze, there was no remnant of power in me that could do so.... She smiled, then slowly withdrew her eyes.... I passed, with these two beside me, back into the womb of pre-existence. We were upon the Earth--at the very time and place where we had used the knowledge brought from a still earlier globe. * * * * * “What do you see?” came in those quiet tones that rolled up time and distance like a scroll. “Tell me now!” It was the scene of the lost experiment he sought. We were close upon it. She spread her arms; her hands waved slowly through the air to indicate these immense enclosing walls of stone about us. The voice reverberated as in great hollow space. “Darkness ... and the Vacated Bodies,” was the reply. I knew that we stood in the Hall of Silence where the bodies lay entranced while their spirits went forth upon the three days’ quest. And one of these, I knew, was mine. “What besides?” “The Guardians--who protect.” “Who are they? Who are these Guardians?” An expression of shrinking passed across her face, and disappeared again. The eyes stared fixedly before her into space. “Myself,” she answered slowly, “you--Concerighé ... and ...” “There was another?” he asked. “Another who was with us?” She hesitated. At first no answer came. She seemed to search the darkness to discover it. “He is not near enough to see,” she murmured presently. “Somewhere beyond ... he stands ... he lies ... I cannot see him clearly.” Julius touched my hand, and with the contact the expression on her face grew clear. She smiled. “You see him now,” he said with decision. She turned her face towards me with a tender, stately movement. The sterner aspect deepened into softness on the features. Great joy for an instant passed into the strange sea-green eyes. “Silvatela,” she whispered, slightly lowering the head. “He offered himself--for me. He lies now--empty at our feet.” And the utterance of the name passed through me with a thrill of nameless sweetness. An infinite desire woke, yet desire not for myself alone. “The time...?” asked Julius in that calm, reverent tone. She rose with a suddenness that made me start, though, somehow, I had expected it. At her full height she stood between us. Then, spreading her hands from both the temples outwards, she bowed her head to the level of the breast. Julius, I saw, did likewise, and before I realised it, the same deep, instinctive awe had brought me to my feet in a similar obeisance. A breath of air from the night outside passed sensibly between us, enough to stir the hair upon my head and increase the fire on the hearth behind. It ceased, and a wave of comforting heat moved in, paused a moment, settled like a great invisible presence, and held the atmosphere.