He paused and drew a long, shuddering breath, like one who has narrowly escaped imminent destruction.

“Darkness!” he went on in low accents that thrilled with the memory of a past feat—­“dense, horrible, frightful darkness!—­ darkness that palpitated heavily with the labored motion of unseen things!—­darkness that clung and closed about me in masses of clammy, tangible thickness,—­its advancing and resistless weight rolled over me like a huge waveless ocean—­and, absorbed within it, I was drawn down—­down—­down toward some hidden, impalpable but All Supreme Agony, the dull unceasing throbs of which I felt, yet could not name.  ‘O god!’ I cried aloud, abandoning myself to wild despair, ‘O god!  Where are thou?’ Then I heard a great rushing sound as of a strong wind beaten through with wings, and a Voice, grand and sweet as a golden trumpet blown suddenly in the silence of night, answered:  ‘Here! ...  And everywhere!’ With that, a slanting stream of opaline radiance cleft the gloom with the sweep of a sword-blade, and I was caught up quickly ...  I know not how ... for I saw nothing!”

Again he pushed and looked wistfully at Heliobas, who in turn regarded him with gentle steadfastness.

“It was wonderful—­terrible!” ... he continued slowly—­“yet beautiful! ... that Invisible Strength that rescued, surrounded, and uplifted me; and—­” here he hesitated, and a faint flush colored his cheeks and stole up to the roots of his clustering hair—­ “dream or no dream, I feel I cannot now altogether reject the idea of an existing Divinity.  In brief ...  I believe in God!”

“Why?” asked Heliobas quietly.

Alwyn met his gaze frankly and with a soft brightening of his handsome features.

“I cannot give you any logical reasons,” he said.  “Moreover, logical reasoning would not now affect me in a matter which seems to me more full of conviction than any logic.  I believe, ... simply because I believe!”

Heliobas smiled—­a very warm and kindly smile—­but said nothing, and Alwyn resumed his narrative.

“As I tell you, I was caught up,—­snatched out of that black profundity with inconceivable swiftness,—­and when the ascending movement ceased, I found myself floating lightly like a wind-blown leaf through twining arches of amber mist, colored here and there with rays of living flame ...  I heard whispers, and fragments of song and speech, all sweeter than the sweetest of our known music, ... and still I saw nothing.  Presently some one called me by name —­’Theos! ...  Theos!’ I strove to answer, but I had no words wherewith to match that silver-toned, far-reaching utterance; and once again the rich vibrating notes pealed through the vaporous fire-tinted air—­’Theos, my beloved!  Higher! ...  Higher! ...  All my being thrilled and quivered to that call.  I yearned to obey, ...  I struggled to rise—­my efforts were in vain; when, to my joy and wonder, a small, invisible hand, delicate yet strong, clasped mine, and I was borne aloft with breathless, indescribable, lightning-like rapidity—­on ... on ... and ever upward, till at last, alighting on a smooth, fair turf, thick-grown with fragrant blossoms of strange loveliness and soft hues, I beheld Her! ... and she bade me welcome.”