I hastily drew Isabella away from him. The other one, Rondah, looking at him, fell back from the door and cried: “This is the day! Let us go, Regan, let us go!” Before I could comprehend, I saw Father Renaudin move toward Regan, who, like a flash, opened the door and cast into the terrible, lurid night the girl Rondah, after which he bolted the door and steadied himself as if for a death-struggle with Father Renaudin. Then I heard the jar of the steps of two powerful combatants, but everything was dark. There were no words until Regan cried: “Too late! You must all go!” A window crashed open above us. It gave us a view of a world, black with storm, ringed in by a halo of electric fire, dashing down at us—falling, falling! The struggle ceased. We held our weak human hands above our heads to ward off the stroke of a world! There was a smothering jar! CHAPTER II. WHERE? This was death! There really was a river for souls to cross! I felt its cold! I heard its roar! Its chill waves lapped on an invisible shore! This was the darkness of the grave! Earth had not such! Where was the phantom boatman? He should be—— Where was Isabella? Where were they all? The dead could remember all they loved on Earth! “But then,” I thought, “could the dead soul think in such an earthly fashion? Could dead hands reach out in damp, hot darkness and touch rough, jagged rocks? It seemed that spirits followed human modes!” Then I touched a cold, still, human face, some one who moved and hoarsely whispered: “Rondah!” “Regan, awake. We are not dead!” I shrieked the words into a gloom so incomprehensible that I had believed it was the grave. Regan answered in a riddle, but I thought he had not collected his senses: “It is done! Triumph! Fate has been merciful!” He added instantly: “Don’t move! There are chasms and waters! Don’t you hear the sea surging?” He did not think he was dead! He did not dream of a river! The meaning of his words startled me. “Where is Isabella?” he asked. “Pray God she may be dead!” I answered, as I realized what had probably happened. “She is here, alive but senseless.” The voice was Father Renaudin’s. We found her. After a time she revived. “Regan! Regan!” (Always his name first by everyone!) she called, in a subdued voice. “Hush! The star is chained!” answered Regan. Then they were both silent, both as strange to each other as if those words had had no deep meaning. But could I ever forget?—some secret they kept, something so great that a change of spheres did not affect it! And I loved her! I, Roy Lee!