At first content to view the scene as an all-observant uncorporeal presence, I now desired to define my relation to it, and to speak my mind amongst the grave men who conversed each day in the public squares. I said to myself, "This is no dream, for by what means can I prove the greater reality of that other life in the house of stone and brick south of the sin- ister swamp and the cemetery on the low hillock, where the Pole Star peeps into my north window each night?"

One night as I listened to the dis- course in the large square contain- ing many statues, I felt a change; and per- ceived that I had at last a bodily form. Nor was I a stranger in the streets of Olathoe, which lies on the plateau of Sar- kia, betwixt the peaks of Noton and Kadiphonck. It was my friend Alos who spoke, and his speech was one that pleased my soul, for it was the speech of a true man and patriot. That night had the news come of Daikos' fall, and of the advance of the Inutos; squat, hellish yel- low fiends who five years ago had ap- peared out of the unknown west to ravage the confines of our kingdom, and many to besiege our towns. Having taken the fortified places at the foot of the moun- tains, their way now lay open to the pla- teau, unless every citizen could resist with the strength of ten men. For the squat creatures were mighty in the arts of war, and knew not the scruples of honor which held back our tall, gray-eyed men of Lo- mar from ruthless conquest. Alos, my friend, was commander of all the forces on the plateau, and in him lay the last hope of our country. On this oc- casion he spoke of the perils to be faced, and exhorted the men of Olathoe, bravest of the Lomarians, to sustain the traditions of their ancestors, who when forced to move southward from Zobna before the advance of the great ice sheet (even as our descendants must some day flee from the land of Lomar), valiantly and victori- ously swept aside the hairy, long-armed, cannibal Gnophkehs that stood in their way. To me Alos denied a warrior's part, for I was feeble and given to strange faintings when subjected to stress and hardships. But my eyes were the keenest in the city, despite the long hours I gave each day to the study of the Pnakotic manuscripts and the wisdom of the Zob- narian Fathers; so my friend, desiring not to doom me to inaction, rewarded me with that duty which was second to noth- ing in importance. To the watch-tower of Thapnen he sent me, there to serve as the eyes of our army. Should the Inutos at- tempt to gain the citadel by the narrow pass behind the peak Noton and thereby surprize the garrison, I was to give the signal of fire which would warn the wait- ing soldiers and save the town from im- mediate disaster. Alone I mounted the tower, for every man of stout body was needed in the passes below. My brain was sore dazed with excitement and fatigue, for I had not slept in many days; yet was my pur- pose firm, for I loved my native land of Lomar, and the marble city Olathoe that lies betwixt the peaks of Noton and Kadi- phonek. But as I stood in the tower's topmost chamber, I beheld the horned waning moon, red and sinister, quivering through the vapors that hovered over the distant valley of Banof. And through an open- ing in the roof glittered the pale Pole Star, fluttering as if alive, and leering like a fiend and tempter. Methought its spirit whispered evil counsel, soothing me to traitorous somnolence with a damnable rhythmical promise which it repeated over and over: