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Rh arm under him and his body curled up. He did not move, and for a space Dick stared at him without emotion. Then terror smote him in such a blinding, tearing agony that it felt like death itself. He dropped on his knees by Tempest, but he dared not touch him. From somewhere he heard a voice saying:

"Have I broken his back? Have I broken his back? Have I broken his back?"

At first he did not know that voice for his own. Then he traced it to his moving lips and at once began to take a close and curious interest in the individuality of this "I." It did not seem to be really himself, any more than that still thing with the hidden face seemed to be really Tempest. Then why was he afraid? Why was he so sick afraid that his hands were numb and the little pebbles under his knee-bones burnt like fire? Part of his brain was searching for a reason, and presently out of the back of his mind there shaped the memory of a sketch of his pasted on the wall of the bunk-room at Grey Wolf. It was just an eye, gazing indifferently over the edge of the universe into space, and he had drawn it to illustrate the callousness of that Power which, men alleged, controlled creation and all things within it. Now he knew that he had drawn a true thing, only the Eye was not indifferent. It was watching him. It had been watching all the time, taking that close and curious interest in his individuality which he took himself.

In a spasm of uncontrollable fear he hid his face from it, but he knew that it was watching still. It was that Thing which Hindoo, and Buddhist, and Christian and Mahomedan each give their own name to and worship. It was the Thing he had jested about and made a mock of. And now it was making a mock and a jest of him.

He put his fingers out to touch Tempest and pulled them away again.

"If I knew he was dead," he heard his voice saying. "I could stand it if I knew he was dead. But it's such a ghastly thing to break a man's back. He could live quite a while with a broken back."

The sound of his voice steadied him somewhat. It seemed the only human thing in this cold, barren place