"
"What do you know about him?"
"This: someone should have preceded me! The fact and the
substance-you were to have it inside three days! It has been
several hundred times the space allotted! Is it not so?"
The Rhamda's eyes were pin-pointed with eagerness.
"Then it IS true! You are from the Jarados! You know the great
Rhamda Avec--you have seen him!"
"I have," declared Watson.
"In the other world? You can remember?"
"Yes," again committing himself. "I have seen Avec--in another
world. But tell me, before we go on I would have an answer to my
question: did anyone precede me?"
"No."
Watson was nonplussed, but he concealed the fact.
"Are you sure?"
"Quite, my dear sir. The Spot of Life was watched continually from
the moment the Rhamda left us."
"You mean, he and the Nervina?"
"Quite so; she followed him after an interval of a few hours."
"I know. But you say that no one came out ahead of me. Who was it
that guarded this--this Spot of Life? The Rhamdas?"
"They and the Bars."
"Ah! And who are the Bars?"
"The military priesthood. They are the Mahovisal, and of the
Temple of the Bell. They are led by the great Bar Senestro."
"And there were times when these Bars, led by this Senestro, held
guard over the Spot of Life?" To this Geos nodded; and Watson went
on: "And who is this great Senestro?"
"He is the chief of the Bars, and a prince of D'Hartia.
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