Watson asked no more questions for a while. He wanted to think. How could this man Rhamda Geos, if indeed he were a man, accept him, Watson, as a spirit? Solid flesh was not exactly in line with his idea of the unearthly. How to explain it? He had to go back to Holcomb again. The doctor had accepted without question Avec's naturalness, his body, his appetite. Reasonably enough, Geos, with some smattering of his superior's wisdom, should accept Watson in the same way. And then, the Jarados: at every moment his name had cropped up. Who was he? So far he had heard no word that might be construed as a clue. The great point, just now, was that the Rhamda Geos accepted him as a spirit, as the fact and substance promised by Avec. But--where was the doctor? Chick ventured this question: “My coming was foretold by the Rhamda Avec, I understand. Is this in accord with the words of the Jarados?” The Rhamda looked up expectantly and spoke with evident anxiety. “Can you tell me anything about the Jarados?” “Let us forgo that,” side-stepped Watson. “Possibly I can tell you much that you would like to know. What I want to know is, just how well prepared you are to receive me?” “Then you come from the Jarados!” “Perhaps.” “What do you know about him?” “This: someone should have preceded me! The fact and the substance-you were to have it inside three days! It has been several hundred times the space allotted! Is it not so?” The Rhamda's eyes were pin-pointed with eagerness. “Then it IS true! You are from the Jarados! You know the great Rhamda Avec--you have seen him!” “I have,” declared Watson. “In the other world? You can remember?” “Yes,” again committing himself. “I have seen Avec--in another world. But tell me, before we go on I would have an answer to my question: did anyone precede me?” “No.” Watson was nonplussed, but he concealed the fact. “Are you sure?” “Quite, my dear sir. The Spot of Life was watched continually from the moment the Rhamda left us.” “You mean, he and the Nervina?” “Quite so; she followed him after an interval of a few hours.” “I know. But you say that no one came out ahead of me. Who was it that guarded this--this Spot of Life? The Rhamdas?” “They and the Bars.” “Ah! And who are the Bars?” “The military priesthood. They are the Mahovisal, and of the Temple of the Bell. They are led by the great Bar Senestro.” “And there were times when these Bars, led by this Senestro, held guard over the Spot of Life?” To this Geos nodded; and Watson went on: “And who is this great Senestro?” “He is the chief of the Bars, and a prince of D'Hartia. He is the affianced of the two queens, the Aradna and the Nervina.” “The TWO of them?”