The teller of the tale presses so close to the strange vessel, in irresistible attraction, that he is drawn into some sort of trans-dimensional vortex created by its departure, and seems to fall into the sky, losing consciousness. He comes to himself with the sensations of a person recovering from terrible frost-bite, and finds that he is being immersed in a river of rosy flame, flowing through a strange city of semi-crystalline buildings, by people such as he had seen in the vessel. He is in a new world, and his equilibrium, when he is taken out of the river, is so thoroughly upset that he seems to see everything upside-down. In spite of the ministrations of his hosts, he becomes violently ill, and again loses consciousness, to find on recovering that he has returned to the neighborhood of the cairn.
^xxx^ xxx was added by Smith.
[xxx] xxx was deleted by Smith.