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WE WALKED ACROSS the wide, gray plain, sandals scuffing at the hard soil

"There’s no one place called Hell," Albert was telling me "What men have called Hell is a vacuum in which undeveloped souls find themselves after death A level of existence which they cannot rise above because they are unable to think abstractly but can only dwell on teo there then?" I asked "Surely Ann--"

"I can only say, Chris, that the signals, if you will, led through there," Albert said "And, thank God, out of there"

"Are we still following theetting close now"

I looked in all directions, seeing nothing but the lifeless plain "How can we be?" I asked

"Be patient," he told er"

We walked in silence for a while Then, thinking of him, I said, "That man who tricked me"

"A tragic figure," Albert said "He spent the greater part of his life inflicting physical and mental torture on others His crimes, turned back on him, have kept him prisoner in that place for centuries The pity is that, in spite of the fact that the memory of each unspeakable act he ever committed is printed indelibly on his ret his actions in the least" "Why do you call hi the man’s vicious, feral expression

"Because," Albert answered, "in ancient Rome, he did not live the life of a criminal but that of an Administrator of Justice"

I could only shakebut a travesty," Albert said "And, now, he suffers the pain of true justice--an eye for an eye"

He stopped abruptly, looking to our right I turned e of low hills in the distance

"She’s over there," Albert said

I looked at hie joy "Don’t feel happiness," he said "It isn’t cause for celebration Now the hardest part begins"

Strange that, after all I had experienced in the crater, I should feel a greater sense of foreboding at the sight before ly familiar one--the hill which led to our hoone so far afield if she’d never left home? "She’s here?" I asked

"Here?" he replied

"In our home," I said But, even as I spoke, I knehy he had turned my question back on h, from where I stood, it looked virtually identical

"What is it then?" I asked

"You’ll see if you go up there," he answered "If?" I looked at him, astounded

"I’d rather you left," he said "Yes, even here, where you’re only steps away from her"

I shook my head

"Chris" He took my arm and held it firmly; how thick and--earthlike, I suppose the ould be--my flesh now felt "What happened to you in the crater only happened in your mind--and only your mind suffered What happens here could affect your soul"

I knew he spoke the truth Still, I shook ain "I have to see her, Albert," I told hi smile "Remember then," he said, "resist, at all times, the despair you’ll feel Your astral body must enshroud itself evenso, itto which she’s vulnerable You understand that?"