He was fully occupied with the conflict between his resolution not to trust these men, never again to be lured by any bait into a real cooperation, and the terrible strength—like a tide sucking at the shingle as it goes out—of an opposite emotion. For here, here surely at last (so his desire whispered to him) was the true inner circle of all, the circle whose center was outside the human race—the ultimate secret, the supreme power, the last initiation. The fact that it was almost completely horrible did not in the least diminish its attraction.
