A Voyage to Arcturus Part 33

Spadevil gazed at him sternly. "Do you renounce my teaching?"

Maskull, however, returned the gaze without dismay. Spadevil's image-like clearness of form had departed for him; his frowning face he knew to be the deceptive portico of a weak and confused intellect.

"It is false."

"Is it false to sacrifice oneself for another?" demanded Tydomin.

"I can't argue as yet," said Maskull. "At this moment the world with its sweetness seems to me a sort of charnel house. I feel a loathing for everything in it, including myself. I know no more."

"Is there no duty?" asked Spadevil, in a harsh tone.

"It appears to me but a cloak under which we share the pleasure of other people."

Tydomin pulled at Spadevil's arm. "Maskull has betrayed you, as he has so many others. Let us go."

He stood fast. "You have changed quickly, Maskull."

Maskull, without answering him, turned to Catice. "Why do men go on living in this soft, shameful world, when they can kill themselves?"

"Pain is the native air of Surtur's children. To what other air do you wish to escape?"

"Surtur's children? Is not Surtur Shaping?"

"It is the greatest of lies. It is Shaping's masterpiece."

"Answer, Maskull!" said Spadevil. "Do you repudiate right action?"

"Leave me alone. Go back! I am not thinking of you, and your ideas. I wish you no harm."

The darkness came on fast. There was another prolonged silence.

Catice threw away the flint, and picked up his staff. "The woman must return home," he said.

"She was persuaded here, and did not come freely. You, Spadevil, must die--backslider as you are!"

Tydomin said quietly, "He has no power to enforce this. Are you going to allow the truth to fall to the ground, Spadevil?"

"It will not perish by my death, but by my efforts to escape from death.

Catice, I accept your judgment."

Tydomin smiled. "For my part, I am too tired to walk farther today, so I shall die with him."

Catice said to Maskull, "Prove your sincerity. Kill this man and his mistress, according to the laws of Hator."

"I can't do that. I have travelled in friends.h.i.+p with them."

"You denied duty; and now you must do your duty," said Spadevil, calmly stroking his beard. "Whatever law you accept, You must obey, without turning to right or left. Your law commands that we must be stoned; and it will soon be dark."

"Have you not even this amount of manhood?" exclaimed Tydomin.

Maskull moved heavily. "Be my witness, Catice, that the thing was forced on me."

"Hator is looking on, and approving," replied Catice.

Maskull then went apart to the pile of boulders scattered by the side of the pool. He glanced about him, and selected two large fragments of rock, the heaviest that he thought he could carry. With these in his arms, he staggered back.

He dropped them on the ground, and stood, recovering his breath. When he could speak again, he said, "I have a bad heart for the business. Is there no alternative? Sleep here tonight, Spadevil, and in the morning go back to where you have come from. No one shall harm you."

Spadevil's ironic smile was lost in the gloom.

"Shall I brood again, Maskull, for still another year, and after that come back to Sant with other truths? Come, waste no time, but choose the heavier stone for me, for I am stronger than Tydomin."

Maskull lifted one of the rocks, and stepped out four full paces.

Spadevil confronted him, erect, and waited tranquilly.

The huge stone hurtled through the air. Its flight looked like a dark shadow. It struck Spadevil full in the face, crus.h.i.+ng his features, and breaking his neck. He died instantaneously.

Tydomin looked away from the fallen man.

"Be very quick, Maskull, and don't let me keep him waiting."

He panted, and raised the second stone. She placed herself in front of Spadevil's body, and stood there, unsmiling and cold.

The blow caught her between breast and chin, and she fell. Maskull went to her, and, kneeling on the ground, half-raised her in his arms. There she breathed out her last sighs.

After that, he laid her down again, and rested heavily on his hands, while he peered into the dead face. The transition from its heroic, spiritual expression to the vulgar and grinning mask of Crystalman came like a flash; but he saw it.

He stood up in the darkness, and pulled Catice toward him.

"Is that the true likeness of Shaping?"

"It is Shaping stripped of illusion."

"How comes this horrible world to exist?"

Catice did not answer.

"Who is Surtur?"

"You will get nearer to him tomorrow; but not here."

"I am wading through too much blood," said Maskull. "Nothing good can come of it."

"Do not fear change and destruction; but laughter and joy."

Maskull meditated.

"Tell me, Catice. If I had elected to follow Spadevil, would you really have accepted his faith?"