But he held! Slowly--I writhed back into the passage, dragging up his almost dead weight.

His head appeared, his shoulders; there was a convulsion of the long body and he lay before me.
For a minute or two we lay, flat upon our backs resting.

I sat up.

The passage was broad, silent; apparently as endless as that from which we had just escaped.
Along it, above us, under us, the crystalline eyes were dim.

It showed no sign of movement--yet had it done so there was nothing we could do save drop down the annihilating slant.