In a while, my thoughts turned to other things.  I came more into the present, and began to look about me, seeingly.  For the first time, I perceived that innumerable rays, of a subtle, violet hue, pierced the strange semi-darkness, in all directions.  They radiated from the fiery rim of the Green Sun.  They seemed to grow upon my vision, so that, in a little, I saw that they were countless.  The night was filled with them—­spreading outward from the Green Sun, fan-wise.  I concluded that I was enabled to see them, by reason of the Sun’s glory being cut off by the eclipse.  They reached right out into space, and vanished.

Gradually, as I looked, I became aware that fine points of intensely brilliant light, traversed the rays.  Many of them seemed to travel from the Green Sun, into distance.  Others came out of the void, toward the Sun; but one and all, each kept strictly to the ray in which it traveled.  Their speed was inconceivably great; and it was only when they neared the Green Sun, or as they left it, that I could see them as separate specks of light.  Further from the sun, they became thin lines of vivid fire within the violet.

The discovery of these rays, and the moving sparks, interested me, extraordinarily.  To where did they lead, in such countless profusion?  I thought of the worlds in space....  And those sparks!  Messengers!  Possibly, the idea was fantastic; but I was not conscious of its being so.  Messengers!  Messengers from the Central Sun!

An idea evolved itself, slowly.  Was the Green Sun the abode of some vast Intelligence?  The thought was bewildering.  Visions of the Unnameable rose, vaguely.  Had I, indeed, come upon the dwelling-place of the Eternal?  For a time, I repelled the thought, dumbly.  It was too stupendous.  Yet....

Huge, vague thoughts had birth within me.  I felt, suddenly, terribly naked.  And an awful Nearness, shook me.

And Heaven ...!  Was that an illusion?

My thoughts came and went, erratically.  The Sea of Sleep—­and she!  Heaven....  I came back, with a bound, to the present.  Somewhere, out of the void behind me, there rushed an immense, dark body—­huge and silent.  It was a dead star, hurling onward to the burying place of the stars.  It drove between me and the Central Suns—­blotting them out from my vision, and plunging me into an impenetrable night.

An age, and I saw again the violet rays.  A great while later—­aeons it must have been—­a circular glow grew in the sky, ahead, and I saw the edge of the receding star, show darkly against it.  Thus, I knew that it was nearing the Central Suns.  Presently, I saw the bright ring of the Green Sun, show plainly against the night The star had passed into the shadow of the Dead Sun.  After that, I just waited.  The strange years went slowly, and ever, I watched, intently.