“Now that it’s all arranged so satisfactorily,” said Maskull, with a hard smile, “permit me to say that I don’t desire any society at all at present....  You take too much for granted, Krag.  You have played the false friend once already....  I presume I’m a free agent?”

“To be a free man, one must have a universe of one’s own,” said Krag, with a jeering look.  “What do you say, Gangnet—­is this a free world?”

“Freedom from pain and ugliness should be every man’s privilege,” returned Gangnet tranquilly.  “Maskull is quite within his rights, and if you’ll engage to leave him I’ll do the same.”

“Maskull can change face as often as he likes, but he won’t get rid of me so easily.  Be easy on that point, Maskull.”

“It doesn’t matter,” muttered Maskull.  “Let everyone join in the procession.  In a few hours I shall finally be free, anyhow, if what they say is true.”

“I’ll lead the way,” said Gangnet.  “You don’t know this country, of course, Maskull.  When we get to the flat lands some miles farther down, we shall be able to travel by water, but at present we must walk, I fear.”

“Yes, you fear—­you fear!” broke out Krag, in a highpitched, scraping voice.  “You eternal loller!”

Maskull kept looking from one to the other in amazement.  There seemed to be a determined hostility between the two, which indicated an intimate previous acquaintance.

They set off through a wood, keeping close to its border, so that for a mile or more they were within sight of the long, narrow lake that flowed beside it.  The trees were low and thin; their dolm-coloured leaves were all folded.  There was no underbrush—­they walked on clean, brown earth, A distant waterfall sounded.  They were in shade, but the air was pleasantly warm.  There were no insects to irritate them.  The bright lake outside looked cool and poetic.

Gangnet pressed Maskull’s arm affectionately.  “If the bringing of you from your world had fallen to me, Maskull, it is here I would have brought you, and not to the scarlet desert.  Then you would have escaped the dark spots, and Tormance would have appeared beautiful to you.”

“And what then, Gangnet?  The dark spots would have existed all the same.”

“You could have seen them afterward.  It makes all the difference whether one sees darkness through the light, or brightness through the shadows.”

“A clear eye is the best.  Tormance is an ugly world, and I greatly prefer to know it as it really is.”

“The devil made it ugly, not Crystalman.  These are Crystalman’s thoughts, which you see around you.  He is nothing but Beauty and Pleasantness.  Even Krag won’t have the effrontery to deny that.”

“It’s very nice here,” said Krag, looking around him malignantly.  “One only wants a cushion and half a dozen houris to complete it.”

Maskull disengaged himself from Gangnet.  “Last night, when I was struggling through the mud in the ghastly moonlight—­then I thought the world beautiful.”