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 clay and allow it an interval of freedom. Alwyn pleads—even demands—that Heliobas will exercise this power at once; but the monk, amazed and reproachful, declines.

"To-night!—without faith, preparation, or prayer,—you are willing to be tossed through the realms of space like a grain of dust in a whirling tempest? Beyond the glittering gyration of unnumbered stars—through the sword-like flash of streaming comets—through darkness—through light—through depths of profoundest silence—over heights of vibrating sound—you—you will dare to wander in these God-invested regions—you, a blasphemer and a doubter of God!"

Stranger than many of the marvels of the book is the scene that follows. It is a contest of Will between Alwyn and Heliobas. The former, concentrating all the powers of his mind upon the effort, declares that Heliobas shall release his soul:

"He felt twice a man and more than half a God what—what was that dazzling something in the air that flashed and whirled and shone like glittering wheels of golden flame? His lips parted—he stretched out his hands in the uncertain manner of a blind man feeling his way. 'Oh,God!—God!' he muttered, as though stricken by some sudden amazement; then, with a smothered gasping cry he staggered and fell heavily forward on the floor—insensible!"