And out there in the void, Bee and I were being rushed onward. The shape of Brutar with his leering, triumphant face swept ever before us. A dark confusion of mental chaos plunged past. Dismembered, leprous shapes of things, which I thought I saw.
Was this insanity? I felt that evil engulfing net around us—pressing us—dragging us through the darkness.
Then abruptly the scene clarified. The darkness melted before a luminosity so blessed I could have cried aloud with the relief of it. The leprous shapes were gone. Motion stopped; we were at rest, with the net of Brutar's thoughts dissolving from us. Rationality. Again I could think things which were not diseased—
I murmured: "We're all right, Bee. You—you are well again?"
"Yes, Oh, yes, Rob. But I'm so frightened."
Brutar stood before us. "I need you—I am fortunate to have you here. You whom they call Rob—with your knowledge of that Earth-place you can be of great help to me."
He swung toward Bee. "You whom they call a girl—" His twisted look was horrible. "I am glad to have you. We shall go to your Earth together—I welcome you both to this place where we are preparing for our great Earthly conquest."
He led us down a slope, into the strange activities of his encampment.
CHAPTER XII
THE ENCAMPMENT IN THE VOID