clay and allow it an interval of freedom. Alwyn pleads—even demands—that Heliobas will exercise this power at once; but the monk, amazed and reproachful, declines.
"To-night!—without faith, preparation, or prayer,—you
are willing to be tossed through the realms
of space like a grain of dust in a whirling tempest?
Beyond the glittering gyration of unnumbered stars—through
the sword-like flash of streaming comets—through
darkness—through light—through depths
of profoundest silence—over heights of vibrating
sound—you—you will dare to wander in these
God-invested regions—you, a blasphemer and a
doubter of God!"
Stranger than many of the marvels of the book
is the scene that follows. It is a contest of Will
between Alwyn and Heliobas. The former, concentrating
all the powers of his mind upon the
effort, declares that Heliobas shall release his
soul:
"He felt twice a man and more than half a
God . . . what—what was that dazzling something
in the air that flashed and whirled and shone
like glittering wheels of golden flame? His lips
parted—he stretched out his hands in the uncertain
manner of a blind man feeling his way. 'Oh,God!—God!'
he muttered, as though stricken by some
sudden amazement; then, with a smothered gasping
cry he staggered and fell heavily forward on the
floor—insensible!. . ."
