Krag smiled.  “The journey is getting notorious,” he remarked, after a pause.  “There must be ill-wishers about....  Well, do you want to return?”

“I don’t know what I want.  But I thought the thing was curious enough to be mentioned.”

“It is not a bad thing to hear voices,” said Krag, “but you mustn’t for a minute imagine that all is wise that comes to you out of the night world.”

When they had arrived at the open gateway of the tower, he immediately set foot on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and ran nimbly up, bearing the lantern.  Maskull followed him with some trepidation, in view of his previous painful experience on these stairs, but when, after the first half-dozen steps, he discovered that he was still breathing freely, his dread changed to relief and astonishment, and he could have chattered like a girl.

At the lowest window Krag went straight ahead without stepping, but Maskull clambered into the embrasure, in order to renew his acquaintance with the miraculous spectacle of the Arcturian group.  The lens had lost its magic property.  It had become a common sheet of glass, through which the ordinary sky field appeared.

The climb continued, and at the second and third windows he again mounted and stared out, but still the common sights presented themselves.  After that, he gave up and looked through no more windows.

Krag and Nightspore meanwhile had gone on ahead with the light, so that he had to complete the ascent in darkness.  When he was near the top, he saw yellow light shining through the crack of a half-opened door.  His companions were standing just inside a small room, shut off from the staircase by rough wooden planking; it was rudely furnished and contained nothing of astronomical interest.  The lantern was resting on a table.

Maskull walked in and looked around him with curiosity.  “Are we at the top?”

“Except for the platform over our heads,” replied Krag.

“Why didn’t that lowest window magnify, as it did earlier in the evening?”

“Oh, you missed your opportunity,” said Krag, grinning.  “If you had finished your climb then, you would have seen heart-expanding sights.  From the fifth window, for example, you would have seen Tormance like a continent in relief; from the sixth you would have seen it like a landscape....  But now there’s no need.”

“Why not—­and what has need got to do with it?”

“Things are changed, my friend, since that wound of yours.  For the same reason that you have now been able to mount the stairs, there was no necessity to stop and gape at illusions en route.”

“Very well,” said Maskull, not quite understanding what he meant.  “But is this Surtur’s den?”

“He has spent time here.”

“I wish you would describe this mysterious individual, Krag.  We may not get another chance.”

“What I said about the windows also applies to Surtur.  There’s no need to waste time over visualising him, because you are immediately going on to the reality.”