Meanwhile, Hal has literally found his "final encyclopedia." His third lap around life's circuit of instruction is to be his last. The long initiation hastens to its close. The child is nearly a man; the childe is almost a knight. "Darkness within darkness," says the Tao Te Ching: "the gate to all mystery." But the pilgrim bold enough to brave rebirth finds the Door into Darkness a passageway to boundless Light.