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and to save her from Destruction, if such did truly threaten.
And I was soon gone over to sleep, and waked not for seven hours, being much
wearied by the fight and the soreness of my body, the which did put me into a
great pain as I did rise upward from my slumber. But this was presently
something less, and I eat two of the tablets and drank some of the water, and
afterward did put my gear upon me, and went forward into the Night, having the
Diskos in my hand. And my heart was glad that I had come safe through the time
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of my sleep.
Now I walked six hours, and did stop a little to eat and drink, and went on
again. And it was in this second
Third of the day that I saw afar to my right, two strange and wondrous men,
and they did shine, as they had been made of a pale mist. And they came anigh,
going very swift, and did seem as that they were maybe forty feet high, yet
having no thickness; and I hid downward into the mossbushes. And they past me,
so quiet as a cloud of this day might go, and did appear to be, if I did
guess, but an hundred fathoms off; yet was this no sure thing; for their
position had no more surety than shall a rainbow have in this age. And so they
were gone onward into the Night, and did seem to come out of the North. And
they did appear not to wot of me; and whether they were harmful, I know not,
for they harmed not me.
The Night Land
VII. THE NIGHT LAND
73
And I lay there in the mossbushes, until they were well gone away; and I had
belief that they must be those same mistmen that were told of in certain of
the olden Records; but were never seen anigh to the Pyramid;
though I had thought, odd times, to see men, as of mist, through the Great
SpyGlass, when I was within the
Tower of Observation. But they were always a mighty way off; and some would
say it was but a bright vapour that did move; yet would others be in doubt,
and so is it ever in such matters.
And here let me take chance to say how that it is a hard thing to speak of
such happenings to men of this age, and to make the truth proper unto them;
and because of this, oft am I tempted to say no word upon many things that I
did see; yet must I tell my tale, or suffer from the weight of it within me.
And so shall you hark to me and give me your sympathy and human understanding.
And concerning these mistmen, I have wondered oft whether they were the
visible shape of some of those many Forces that were abroad in the Night Land;
for they did truly seem to me as that a thing of Strange Life were half shown
to my human eyes; yet I do not know, and am but telling of my natural thoughts
and ponderings.
Now, as I did say, those mistmen were never seen nigh unto the Pyramid, and
were, as I did hint, always so far off that they were half given over to the
fables of the olden days, in the beliefs of the Peoples of the
Mighty Redoubt; and set about with an halo of unrealness, for none within the
Great Pyramid had ever beheld them with surety.
And because that now I saw them anigh to me, it was borne in afresh upon my
spirit how greatly I had wandered away, and how that I stood afar in the
lonesomeness of that Land of Night; as it had been that a man of this Age did
wander amid the stars, and perceive a great comet to go by him very close; for
then he should know in his heart how that he was far off in the Void. And this
I do say to you, that you may know somewhat of the emotions of my heart in
that moment.
Yet, presently I shook free of my melancholy and lonesomeness and rose up out
of the mossbushes, and went onward. And, as ever, I thought much upon the Maid
that I did search for; yet strove to think quietly concerning her state; else
should I have turned to running, and wrecked my body before that I had gone
any great way.
And that day, I passed seven large fireholes, and two that were small; and
always I came softly unto them;
for there were oft living things about the warmth. And at the sixth firehole,
I did see that which I did think to be a great man, that did sit to the fire,
with monstrous knees drawn upward unto his chin. And the nose was great and
bent downward; and the eyes very large, and did shine with the light from the
firehole, and moved, watching, always this way and that, so that the white
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parts did show, now this side and now that. But it was not properly a man.
And I went away very quiet from that place, and looked oft backward, until
that I was sure of safety; for it was a very horrid Monster, and had that
place to be for a Lair, as I did judge from the smell thereof.
And when the eighteenth hour was come, I looked about for a safe place to my
sleep; and I kept away now from the fireholes; for I did always find the more
life there. Yet, when I came to my rest, I was lacking of warmth, by reason of
this care; and could scarce sleep at all, because that I was so cold. Yet
managed something of slumber after a while; but woke very stiff, and was glad
to beat my hands and bestir myself that
I should come to some warmth of life.
And after that I had eat and drunk, I put my gear upon me, and took the Diskos
in my hand, and went forward again upon my journey. And here I should tell
that I was come soon unto the NorthWest border of the Plain of Blue Fire. And
presently, I was but a little way off from it, and did go direct to the North;
so that the Plain was always upon my right.
The Night Land
VII. THE NIGHT LAND
74
Now this Plain was a strange and fearsome place, as you shall see; for it was
as that a blue void did rise upward from the earth in all the country of that
Plain. For, surely, the Plain did not lumber with flame; but was hid with a
strange and inburning light, as of a shining atmosphere of a cold blue colour.
And it did throw no sure light upon the Night Land, as had seemed proper; but
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