The mixture in the iron vessel was now giving off such dense fumes that Hamar, Curtis and Kelson felt their senses slowly ebbing away.  The dark, lithe form of Karaver, his swarthy face and gleaming teeth receded farther and farther into the background, whilst his voice appeared to grow fainter and fainter.  They were dimly conscious that he sprayed them all over with some sweet-smelling scent,[20] and that he whispered (in reality he spoke in his normal tones) these words:  “Darkona—­droomer—­doober—­parlar—­poohmer—­perler.  A—­ta-rama—­ skatarinek—­ook—­drooksi—­noomig—­viartikorsa."[21] Then there came a temporary blank, which was broken by a sudden burst of light.  The light, at first, was so blinding that they involuntarily closed their eyes.  It was quite different to any light they had been accustomed to—­it was far more vivid, and was in a perpetual state of vibration.  When they had got sufficiently used to this dazzling effect to keep their eyes open, they became aware that they were standing, apparently on nothing, that the atmosphere was not composed of air such as they knew, but of an indescribable something that rendered the act of breathing wholly unnecessary, and that all around them was no ground, no scenery, but only—­space!

They had barely finished remarking on these facts, when there suddenly glided across their vision, forms—­of every conceivable shape, i.e., those resembling corpses of human beings and animals, with bloodless faces, glassy eyes and stiff limbs—­some apparently just dead and others in an advanced state of decomposition, all possessed and propelled by Impersonating Elementals; phantoms of actual earthbound people—­misers, murderers, etc., several of whom approached the trio and tried to peer into their faces.

“For heaven’s sake keep off!” Kelson shrieked, as the vibrating form of an epileptic imbecile, with protruding blue eyes and pimply cheeks, came up to him, and thrust its face into his.

“This is a bit thick,” Hamar said, vainly attempting to elude the phantom of a short, stout woman with a big head and purple face, who, putting out a large black, swollen tongue, leered at him.

“Curse you! d—­n you!” Curtis screamed, throwing out his hands in a vain endeavour to beat off the phantoms of two idiot boys, who were trying to bite him with their loose, dribbling mouths.  “A little more of this, and I shall go mad!”

Seeing a tall, grey phantom with a man’s body and wolf’s head bounding up to them, Kelson would have run away, had not Hamar, whose presence of mind never quite deserted him, gripped him by the arm.  “If you leave us, Matt,” he said, “we are lost.  I feel our safety depends on our keeping together.  If I’m not mistaken this is a cunning dodge on the part of the Unknown to separate us.  If that happens, I feel we may never get back to our bodies—­and the compact will then be broken.  We must hang on to each other at all costs.”  So saying, he slipped his free arm through that of Curtis, and the three stood linked together.