“Don’t you repent your crimes?” asked Maskull.

“Leave the past alone,” said Spadevil, “it cannot be reshaped.  The future alone is ours.  It starts fresh and clean from this very minute.  Why do you hesitate, Maskull?  Are you afraid?”

“What is the name of, those organs, and what is their function?”

“They are probes, and they are the gates opening into a new world.”

Maskull lingered no longer, but permitted Spadevil to cover his sorb.

While the iron hand was still pressing his forehead, the new law quietly flowed into his consciousness, like a smooth-running stream of clean water which had hitherto been dammed by his obstructive will.  The law was duty.

Chapter 12

SPADEVIL

Maskull found that his new organs had no independent function of their own, but only intensified and altered his other senses.  When he used his eyes, ears, or nostrils, the same objects presented themselves to him, but his judgment concerning them was different.  Previously all external things had existed for him; now he existed for them.  According to whether they served his purpose or were in harmony with his nature, or otherwise, they had been pleasant or painful.  Now these words “pleasure” and “pain” simply had no meaning.

The other two watched him, while he was making himself acquainted with his new mental outlook.  He smiled at them.

“You were quite right, Tydomin,” he said, in a bold, cheerful voice.  “We have been fools.  So near the light all the time, and we never guessed it.  Always buried in the past or future—­systematically ignoring the present—­and now it turns out that apart from the present we have no life at all.”

“Thank Spadevil for it,” she answered, more loudly than usual.

Maskull looked at the man’s dark, concrete form.  “Spadevil, now I mean to follow you to the end.  I can do nothing less.”

The severe face showed no sign of gratification—­not a muscle relaxed.

“Watch that you don’t lose your gift,” he said gruffly.

Tydomin spoke.  “You promised that I should enter Sant with you.”

“Attach yourself to the truth, not to me.  For I may die before you, but the truth will accompany you to your death.  However, now let us journey together, all three of us.”

The words had not left his mouth before he put his face against the fine, driving snow, and pressed onward toward his destination.  He walked with a long stride; Tydomin was obliged to half run in order to keep up with him.  The three travelled abreast; Spadevil in the middle.  The fog was so dense that it was impossible to see a hundred yards ahead.  The ground was covered by the green snow.  The wind blew in gusts from the Sant highlands and was piercingly cold.

“Spadevil, are you a man, or more than a man?” asked Maskull.