The sky was low and slaty gray; a fine rain was falling. I stepped out. The garden of Norhala was a wreckage of uprooted and splintered trees and torn masses of what had been blossoming verdure. The gateway of the precipices beyond which lay the Pit was hidden in the webs of the rain. Long I gazed down the canyon--and longingly; striving to picture what the Pit now held; eager to read the riddles of the night. There came from the valley no sound, no movement, no light. I reentered the blue globe and paused on the threshold--staring into the wide and wondering eyes of Ruth bolt upright in her silken bed with Norhala's cloak clutched to her chin like a suddenly awakened and startled child. As she glimpsed me she stretched out her hand. Drake, wide awake on the instant, leaped to his feet, his hand jumping to his pistol. “Dick!” called Ruth, her voice tremulous, sweet. He swung about, looked deep into the clear and fearless brown eyes in which--with leaping heart I realized it--was throned only that spirit which was Ruth's and Ruth's alone; Ruth's clear unshadowed eyes glad and shy and soft with love. “Dick!” she whispered, and held soft arms out to him. The cloak fell from her. He swung her up. Their lips met. Upon them, embraced, the wakening eyes of Ventnor dwelt; they filled with relief and joy, nor was there lacking in them a certain amusement. She drew from Drake's arms, pushed him from her, stood for a moment shakily, with covered eyes. “Ruth,” called Ventnor softly. “Oh!” she cried. “Oh, Martin--I forgot--” She ran to him, held him tight, face hidden in his breast. His hand rested on the clustering brown curls, tenderly. “Martin.” She raised her face to him. “Martin, it's GONE! I'm--ME again! All ME! What happened? Where's Norhala?” I started. Did she not know? Of course, lying bound as she had in the vanished veils, she could have seen nothing of the stupendous tragedy enacted beyond them--but had not Ventnor said that possessed by the inexplicable obsession evoked by the weird woman Ruth had seen with her eyes, thought with her mind? And had there not been evidence that in her body had been echoed the torments of Norhala's? Had she forgotten? I started to speak--was checked by Ventnor's swift, warning glance. “She's--over in the Pit,” he answered her quietly. “But do you remember nothing, little sister?” “There's something in my mind that's been rubbed out,” she replied. “I remember the City of Cherkis--and your torture, Martin--and my torture--” Her face whitened; Ventnor's brow contracted anxiously. I knew for what he watched--but Ruth's shamed face was all human; on it was no shadow nor trace of that alien soul which so few hours since had threatened us. “Yes,” she nodded, “I remember that. And I remember how Norhala repaid them. I remember that I was glad, fiercely glad, and then I was tired--so tired. And then--I come to the rubbed-out place,” she ended perplexedly.