When the deadly gas fumes reached the youth on the cot he turned over
on his back, threw his arms out, and breathed long and deeply of the
poisoned air.
His head throbbed and pounded; his heart pumped madly; his eyes started
from their sockets. Yet still he lay with outstretched arms, inhaling
evenly and steadily.
Then everything within him seemed to warp and become distorted and
askew. His veins tied themselves in knots. His blood choked and
clogged. An awful weight crushed and crunched his breast.
But he set his teeth and clenched his fists, and continued to gulp in
the murderous air.
Then he felt himself dropping, gently, gently--down, down, down--as
though invisible hands were lowering him into some bottomless, pitch
black cavern.
But suddenly there burst upon his vision a dazzling golden light, and
far above him he saw a blazing throne, sparkling and flashing with a
strange brilliancy, and on the throne a girl, her hair undone, her body
clothed in a virginal robe. And she gazed down upon him with eyes full
of sadness and reproach. And he tried to call out to her, and tried to
lift his arms to her....
And the fiendish darkness swept all away and closed in upon him and
crushed him, and he knew no more.