"I saw them walk out of the ship into space—but as though they walked on something, something invisible. And they walked into that ghost-ship, the hell-ship from nowhere—"
"I do. You aren't," Kinnison said, calmly.
"Well, and here comes the worst of it, they walked around just as though they were in a ship, growing fainter all the time. Then some of them lay down and something began to skin one of them—skin him alive, sir—but there was nothing there at all. I ran, then. I got into the fastest lifeboat on the far side and gave her all the oof she'd take. That's all, sir."
"Not quite all, Xylpic, unless I'm badly mistaken. Why didn't you tell the rest of it while you were at it?"
"I didn't dare to, sir. If I'd told any more they would have known I was crazy instead of just thinking so—" He broke sharply, his voice altering strangely as he went on: "What makes you think there was anything more, sir? Do you—" The question trailed off into silence.
"I do. If what I think happened really did happen, there was more—quite a lot more—and worse. Wasn't there?"
"I'll say there was!" The navigator almost exploded in relief. "Or rather, I think now that there was. But I can't describe any of it very well—everything was getting fainter all the time, and I thought that I must be imagining most of it."
"You weren't imagining a thing—" the Lensman began, only to be interrupted by Haynes.
"Hell's jingling bells!" that worthy almost shouted. "If you know what it was, tell me!"