A few minutes passed in silence.

Father and daughter stared into the fire.

So did Cosmo.

But into what different three worlds did the fire stare! The old man rose and went to the window.
"I MUST get away from this abominable place," he said, "if it cost me my life." He looked out and shuddered.

The world seemed impassable as a dead world on which the foot of the living could take no hold, could measure no distance, make no progress.