Slowly the picture moved down the magnificent room. It approached a bronze platform, and paused. There upon the bronze dais, standing erect, was the golden image of a man, or demigod. The image was about seven feet tall. The details were perfectly wrought, and every muscle and fiber of that magnificent nude statue was the embodiment of the perfect development of masculinity. Yet it was a sensual development, eliminating all that might be good, and emphasizing all that is base and carnal. The face was cruel beyond any conception of men. The features were sharply brutal. Silent and motionless it stood, but the eyes were alive; and from them burned a dull, blue-black light that chilled Carl's blood as he watched. "That is the image of the God of Sudre," explained Pierre. "Tonight, when the rays from Sudre become most intense, Sudre's spirit will enter it, and it will become imbued with life, the evil life of Sudre. Tonight it will indulge in an orgy of lust at which even the most dissolute of ancient Romans would have shuddered. Your bride-to-be is to give herself for ever to Sudre, and for ever she will be lost to you. No mortal man will ever possess her." "No! No!" Carl cried out in tortured frustration. "You will see on the night of the sacrifice," Pierre said calmly. "But what are you going to do to save her? You haven't told me yet how this monster can be stopped." "Everything I have and know, I will use. If I fail"--Pierre's shoulders shrugged--"there is no one to carry out my work. If I win, Moonere will be destroyed; the tortured souls, who have given all for beauty, will at last be free. We have only a few hours more. As we have talked, this night has passed. Another day is upon us; with its end comes the night when the evil rays will be fully focussed. Moonere will again send the hellish light that I have fought. Tonight I will use everything to combat her--telepathy, advanced knowledge of science, and secrets that will die with me." "But what shall I be doing?" "You will be helping me. Within these all too short hours, you will be learning the operation of the many machines. Follow me." Pierre led him to another corner of the room, where an instrument, not unlike a telescope, was placed. He handed Carl a pair of glasses with very thick, colored lenses. "Look through these. Look into the instrument, and tell me what you see." "It looks like a beam of light, but it seems to stop in the sky; it is like a highway of white marble that ends abruptly," Carl said. "You see the ray from the fire on Sudre, traveling at a faster speed than light, bringing with it the secret of beauty and death that only the star-glass of Moonere can transmute to potency. Now watch this!"