He glared up at the Silent Ones, his hand twitching toward the
high-hung pistol holster.

The handmaiden swung to him; threw white arms around his neck; held
her head upon his heart until her sobbing ceased.

"This they--say--the Silent Ones," she gasped and then all the courage
of her came back. "O heart of mine!" she whispered to Larry, gazing
deep into his eyes, his anxious face cupped between her white palms.
"This they say--that should the Shining One come to succour Yolara and
Lugur, should it conquer its fear--and--do this--then is there but one
way left to destroy it--and to save your world."

She swayed; he gripped her tightly.

"But one way--you and I must go--together--into its embrace! Yea, we
must pass within it--loving each other, loving the world, realizing to
the full all that we sacrifice and sacrificing all, our love, our
lives, perhaps even that you call soul, O loved one; must give
ourselves _all_ to the Shining One--gladly, freely, our love for each
other flaming high within us--that this curse shall pass away! For if
we do this, pledge the Three, then shall that power of love we carry
into it weaken for a time all that evil which the Shining One has
become--and in that time the Three can strike and slay!"

The blood rushed from my heart; scientist that I am, essentially, my
reason rejected any such solution as this of the activities of the
Dweller. Was it not, the thought flashed, a propitiation by the Three
out of their own weakness--and as it flashed I looked up to see their
eyes, full of sorrow, on mine--and knew they read the thought. Then