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the crab warren,” said the Han. “And yourself. Fifteen.”
    Kelly said with a shaky bravado, “You’re taking a lot on yourself—these murders—”
    “I am not acquainted with your idiom,” said the priest, “but it seems as if you convey a foolish note of menace. What can you few Earth-things do against Great God Han, who has just now taken our planet across the galaxy?”
    Kelly said stupidly, “Your god Han—moved the planet?”
    “Certainly. He has taken us far and forever distant from Earth to this mellow sun; such is his gratitude for our prayers and for the tribute of the Eye.”
    Kelly said with studied carelessness, “You have your jewel back; I don’t see why you’re so indignant—”
    The priest said, “Look here.” Kelly followed his gesture, saw a square black hole edged with a coping of polished stone. “This shaft is eighteen miles deep. Every priest of Han descends to the coomb oncea week and carries back to the surface a basket of crystallized stellite. On rare occasions the matrix of the Eye is found, and then there is gratification in the city…Such a jewel did you steal.”
    Kelly took his eyes away from the shaft. Eighteen miles…“I naturally wasn’t aware of the—”
    “No matter; the deed is done. And now the planet has been moved, and Earth power is unable to prevent such punishments as we wish to visit upon you.”
    Kelly tried to keep his voice firm. “Punish? What do you mean?”
    Behind him he heard a rustling, the shuffle of movement. He looked over his shoulder. The black cloaks merged with the drapes of the temple, and the Han faces floated in mid-air.
    “You will be killed,” said the priest. Kelly stared into the white face. “If the manner of your going is of any interest to you—” The priest conveyed details which froze Kelly’s flesh, clabbered the moisture in his mouth. “Your death will thereby deter other Earth-things from like crimes.”
    Kelly protested in spite of himself. “You have your jewel; there it is…If you insist on killing me—kill me, but—”
    “Strange,” said the Han priest. “You Earth-things fear pain more than anything else you can conceive. This fear is your deadliest enemy. We Han now, we fear nothing—” he looked up at the tall black mirror, bowed slightly “—nothing but our Great God Han.”
    Kelly stared at the shimmering black surface. “What’s that mirror to do with your god Han?”
    “That is no mirror; that is the portal to the place of the gods, and every seven years a priest goes through to convey the consecrated Eyeto Han.”
    Kelly tried to plumb the dark depths of the mirror. “What lies beyond? What kind of land?”
    The priest made no answer.
    Kelly laughed in a shrill voice he did not recognize. He lurched forward, threw up his fist in a blow which carried every ounce of his strength and weight. He struck the priest at a point where a man’s jaw would be, felt a brittle crunch. The priest spun around, fell in the tangle of his cloak.
    Kelly turned on the priests in the nave, and they sighed infury. Kelly was desperate, fearless now. He laughed again, reached down, scooped both jewels from the cushion. “Great God Han lives behind the mirror, and moves planets for jewels. I have two jewels; maybe Han will move a planet for me…”
    He jumped close to the black mirror. He put out his hand and felt a soft surface like a curtain of air. He paused in sudden trepidation. Beyond was the unknown…
    Pushing at him came the first rank of the Han priests. Here was the known.
    Kelly could not delay. Death was death. Ifhe died passing through the black curtain, if he suffocated in airless space—it was clean fast death.
    He leaned forward, closed his eyes, held his breath, stepped through the curtain.
     

     
    Kellyhad come a tremendous distance. It was a distance not to be reckoned in miles or hours, but in quantities like abstract, irrational ideas.
    He opened his eyes. They functioned; he could see.