I could not hear him, but I read his purpose--and so did Drake.

Up on his broad shoulders he swung Ruth as though she had been a child.

Back through the throbbing veils we ran; passed out of them.
"Back!" shouted Ventnor.

"Back as far as you can!" On we raced; we reached the gateway of the cliffs; we dashed on and on--up the shining roadway toward the blue globe now a scant mile before us; ran sobbing, panting--ran, we knew, for our lives.
Out of the Pit came a sound--I cannot describe it! An unutterably desolate, dreadful wail of despair, it shuddered past us like the groaning of a broken-hearted star--anguished and awesome.
It died.

There rushed upon us a sea of that incredible loneliness, that longing for extinction that had assailed us in the haunted hollow where first we had seen Norhala.