“She did die for you,” said Tydomin, in a quiet, emphatic voice.

“That would be a second blunder of yours,” returned Maskull, just as firmly.  “I was not in love with Oceaxe, and I’m not in love with life.”

“Your life is not required.”

“Then I don’t understand what you want, or what you are speaking about.”

“It’s not for me to ask a sacrifice from you, Maskull.  That would be compliance on your part, but not sacrifice.  You must wait until you feel there’s nothing else for you to do.”

“It’s all very mysterious.”

The conversation was abruptly cut short by a prolonged and frightful crashing, roaring sound, coming from a short distance ahead.  It was accompanied by a violent oscillation of the ground on which they stood.  They looked up, startled, just in time to witness the final disappearance of a huge mass of forest land, not two hundred yards in front of them.  Several acres of trees, plants, rocks, and soil, with all its teeming animal life, vanished before their eyes, like a magic story.  The new chasm was cut, as if by a knife.  Beyond its farther edge the Alppain glow burned blue just over the horizon.

“Now we shall have to make a detour,” said Tydomin, halting.

Maskull caught hold of her with his third hand.  “Listen to me, while I try to describe what I’m feeling.  When I saw that landslip, everything I have heard about the last destruction of the world came into my mind.  It seemed to me as if I were actually witnessing it, and that the world were really falling to pieces.  Then, where the land was, we now have this empty, awful gulf—­that’s to say, nothing—­and it seems to me as if our life will come to the same condition, where there was something there will be nothing.  But that terrible blue glare on the opposite side is exactly like the eye of fate.  It accuses us, and demands what we have made of our life, which is no more.  At the same time, it is grand and joyful.  The joy consists in this—­that it is in our power to give freely what will later on be taken from us by force.”

Tydomin watched him attentively.  “Then your feeling is that your life is worthless, and you make a present of it to the first one who asks?”

“No, it goes beyond that.  I feel that the only thing worth living for is to be so magnanimous that fate itself will be astonished at us.  Understand me.  It isn’t cynicism, or bitterness, or despair, but heroism....  It’s hard to explain.”

“Now you shall hear what sacrifice I offer you, Maskull.  It’s a heavy one, but that’s what you seem to wish.”

“That is so.  In my present mood it can’t be too heavy.”

“Then, if you are in earnest, resign your body to me.  Now that Crimtyphon’s dead, I’m tired of being a woman.”

“I fail to comprehend.”

“Listen, then.  I wish to start a new existence in your body.  I wish to be a male.  I see it isn’t worth while being a woman.  I mean to dedicate my own body to Crimtyphon.  I shall tie his body and mine together, and give them a common funeral in the burning lake.  That’s the sacrifice I offer you.  As I said, it’s a hard one.”