"I can't believe it," Carl cried out against the madness of his thoughts. "How can you expect me to believe that this woman has been able to destroy you like this? What fiendish power, even of the supernatural, could do this to a man?" "The crystal of Sudre in Moonere's temple. Like the light-collecting principle of our modern telescopes and reflectors, it draws together the beams of Sudre into one hellish and destructive fire. "Sudre is a world, a satellite of the outermost planet of our solar system. Astronomers have not discovered this moon, Sudre, for it is not of sufficient size or density to enter into their calculations; and its discovery would disclose none of its power of evil, even if it were charted. Nor do they realize that upon it burns a fire that is controlled by the evil magic of the God of Sudre. Upon certain nights of the month, when it is on the side of that outer planet which is facing earth, the power of that fiery creation is directed upon me. Even when it is on the other side of that planet--and it revolves about it once every twenty-seven of our days--those rays come down to earth with sufficient power to keep me living in the painful realization of my certain death. "And there is life there; a life of eternal evil, like nothing science has ever yet discovered or ever will discover--life that would strike horror in the strongest hearts of the most coldly impersonal scientific explorer. The life of the undead, of which you have heard in your tales of earth horror, is nothing compared with its evilness." * * * * * The old man's voice droned on. "I will not dwell upon a description of them, for it is this threat to your own fiancée's life that prompts me to even mention this to you. This evil beyond hell, which is the Countess Moonard's power--the crystal of Sudre----" He broke off a short moment, then resumed: "You have seen the sun's powerful rays burning paper under a magnifying lens? Upon almost the same principle, yet using the crystal of Sudre instead of glass, Moonere burns her lovely offerings upon the altar of the God of Sudre. Few men are ever sacrificed to Sudre; it is almost always women, for the God of Sudre is a carnal fiend, delighting in despoiling chastity and ravishing virginity. "Each convert to Moonerism is given a super-thrill in the discovery of how beautiful she can become. Ah, that is the way Moonere first enslaves her victims. They come to her seeking beauty. She promises them eternal loveliness, beyond even their dreams; and when they do as she decrees, they always receive this precious desire of every woman. That is why no one ever reveals the secret of Moonere. They do not dare, for she not only holds their lives in her hands, once they come to her, but she also holds woman's most priceless treasure--beauty. Every year, lovely women sink into the depths of despair and torture because they seek the unnatural grant of beauty from the God of Sudre."