?" SEABURY QUINN Asks . . • ‘Us the Devil a Gentleman —Enthralling Witchcraft Novelette!

The Gates of Hell Are Open COVEN

Menacing Drama a I

ALL STORIES NEW— NO REPRINTS

JULY, 1942 Cover by

NOVELETTES COVEN 4 They Had a Belief — a Terrible, Travestied Worship!— That Claimed Them Even More Completely than the Fervor of True Religion Claims Saints and Martyrs . . . IS THE DEVIL A GENTLEMAN? Seabury Quinn 102 Is It Possible, Is It WISE, To Compromise With Evil? Read This Tale and Decide for Yourself!

SHORT STORIES LANSING’S LUXURY August W. Derleth 25 Whatever You Do — Don^t Lose Your Imagination. It Can

Be Very, Very Dangerous . . . THE GUN Frank Gruber 31

An Astounding Transformation . . . Bookkeeper to "The Most Dangerous Killer in the Annals of Police History”! FOR TOMORROW WE DIE Frank Owen 42 You Seek the Golden Pill of Immortality? Perhaps

You'll Find It. Perhaps . . . DEAD SILENCE Leonard Lee Chariot 50

Listen! And You Will Hear from Afar Off the Very Sound of Death , . .

• THE HIGH TOWER • Everil Worrell 60

The Lord of Chaos . . . a Formless Something Going Far Through Emptiness — and Moaning as It Goes! POOR LITTLE TAMPICO Hannes Bok 75

She’d Found a Really Novel Way of Telling Fortunes. Too Novel . . . HERBERT WEST — REANIMATOR ...... H. P. Lovecraft 86 Episode the Second in this Gruesome Series of the Scientist Who Sought to Snap the Chains of Death!

THE REDOUBTABLE HORACE GOPPENDYKE ...... John Broome 91 Meet the Man Who Is a Human Heating Plant — a Physical Refrigerator! VERSE MOONLIGHT Timeus Gaylord 49 A MANGROVE SWAMP William de Lisle 120

SUPERSTITIONS AND TABOOS Irwin J. Weill 58 THE EYRIE AND CLUB 121

Except for personal experiences the contents of this magazine is fiction. Any use of the name of any living person or reference to actual events is purely coincidental.

I>ablished bi-monthly by Weird Tales, 9 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N. Y. Reentered as second-class matter January 26, 1940, at the Post OfiBce at New York, N. Y. under the act of March 3, 1879. Single copies, 15 cents. Subscription rates: One year In the United States and possessions, 90c. Foreign and Canadian postage extra. English Office: Charles Lavell, Limited, 4 Clements Inn, Strand, London, W.C.2. England. The publishers are not responsible for the loss of unsolieited manuscripts although every care will be taken of such matenal while in their possession. Copyrigdit, 1942, ty Weird Tales. Copyrighted in Great Britain. ..rfgHRb.. US Title registered in U. S. Patent Office. PBINTSD IS THB C. S. A. VOl. 36, NO. 6

O. MclLWRAlTH. Emor, HENRY AVEUNE PERKINS, Associate Editor. —

Tower

BY EVERIL WORRELL

.New York's towers are grounded in granite—mighty crystal sets that can contact powers beyond our little earth!

As DUSK came on, the fog deepened. He looked across the mahogany desk

White-dark, it pressed against the benevolently. L windows. New York was a skele- "Elin is a lovely name,” he said gently. ton city wrapped in its shroud. Gaunt "Well— Here we are, cut off from the shadows were tlie buildings, ghost-lights world—I and a lovely girl bearing a lovely the neon and electric signs, and the room old name—high above the city in a fog in which Elin faced the old gentleman like the one that veils the Styx.” across a double mahogany desk was a lost He fell silent. Somewhere a vk±rola tower in a medieaval fortress which thrust played softly the Song of India. Elin knew against the sky in no real land. Life is be- the words: "Somewhere —in our islands ginning again, and I am favored and for- Pearls and rubies laden ” More than tunate, Elin told herself; but she felt like ever she felt as though she were dreaming one caught in a strange spell and moving a strange dream in which she had passed toward some unhappy doom. beyond the limits of the world. Tlie old gentleman’s eyes were pale and "My dear, I want to talk to you. An a little foggy too, and the heaviness of his agent of the F.B.I. recommended you to eyeglasses gave them the effect of being me—a highly trusted man. Wilii the very large and of pressing against the United States at war, with our Fifth Col- glasses as he looked at Elin, somewhat as umn here, with the need of our planes the pale fog pressed against the windows aaoss the ocean, our work is highly con- of the room. Dr. Crunch—master of many fidential. I believe you yourself have a sciences. strong motivation, an imusual patriotism Trail-blazer in astronomy and radio and devotion to the cause of our defense. and chemistry—an impossibly compre- There was something, too, about suspicions hensive combination. Elin had gotten which you held in regard to your husband’s the position of secretary to Dr. Crunch death, and some plan of investigation and through high favor and influence. The vengeance on your part. In connection with doctor had gone into business some years this I may be able to help you; also it may back, had become a minor executive and be that our roads run parallel or even cross. then a more important one in the office of I will recite to you my understanding of an airplane factory—and finally this posi- your case, and my dictograph will record tion of great trust at the headquarters of my recital and your answers—for reference the greatest airplane manufacturing com- and convenience, as a correct record of a pany of America in war time. He was statement of fact. Is this agreeable to you.^” greatly trusted in Washington; greatly Elin’s consent was eager. trusted by men high in the Department of "Richard had some strange theories Justice. about the underlying cause of world condi- 60 /

tions. Vampire-like aggression, sadism; "Richard believed the earth—the whole bleak inhumanity—loss of human charac- earth—to have come under some ruthless teristics by sound psychological standards. coldly-cruel domination from afar. The Richard said the parallel developments on Scriptures foretell an Anti-Christ. Richard both sides of the wide oceans and under believed some darkly evil Power from afar every sky had a reason that had been had establi^ed contact—and empirage neither grasped nor guessed at by our over—a part of our world. Over the statesmen, our investigators or defense minds of certain groups of peoples in a agencies. sort of mass hypnosis; over the minds of

61 — ” — —

62 WEIRD TALES

their leaders, most of all—using these run down the writer—some day, some- leading minds as burning glasses through how—

which rays of distilled evil focussed upon Again Elin’s voice trailed into silence. our planet.” Again she listened for a moment to the There was a pause in the girl’s recital. music which underran her story like the It had been impassioned; she was coming sweeping grandeur of an operatic musical now to the blacker part of her own per- theme behind a story of stark tragedy. sonal tragedy—to that which was harder "You said you wanted to question me. I to tell. And in the short time she took to am sure, though, you want my account of gather courage, she heard the muted strains what happened when Richard was alone at of majestic music which she knew well our cottage. Rubinstein’s Kaminow Ostroev. "'The cottage burned to the ground with

Her spoken story was being recorded. Richard in it. I have always believed some-

Dr. Crunch had said. A second victrola, one came in at night and killed him first. then, was playing the music—or a radio. There was a man we had seen hanging

She was glad for the music; from such around—^but we thought he was a tramp. I music as this she had alwa)rs drawn —^would know him again. It—^Richard’s strength. And now she was ready to go on. death came too soon after the failure of the plot to involve him in the theft of the dia- ^^DICHARD and I had a summer cot- mond ring. It was not coincidence— I tage on the south shore of Long would know that man again, though I saw Island—the place was isolated, other camp- him at dusk and with his face half con- ers few and not very near. I spent a week- cealed. I’d give my life to unravel the plot end in town. —^which I believe concerns the country, our

"Richard had been having strange an- country; as much as it did Richard and me. noyances. A very valuable ring was charged I’d give my life.” to him at an expensive jewellers’ on Fifth The strains of Kaminow Ostroev were Avenue. Someone had taken the ring 'on nearing their soaring climax. Dr. Crunch approval’ in his name, having furnished leaned forward across his mahogany desk, some sort of forged identification. Richard and spoke with unusual clearness and pre- would have been seriously embarrassed but cision. for the fact that he could prove he hadn’t "You, Elin Kingsley, returned to your been in New York on the day or during the summer camp and found it burned to the week when the ring was taken from the ground, your husband dead in the embers?” store. Shuddering, Elin answered as concisely, "Richard believed this was one of a as though she were on a witness stand. series of attempts to discredit him because "That is right.” he was trying to interest the Department of "And you state your willingness to bend Justice in certain lines of investigation he your efforts to bring the murderer to had been following alone. The jewellers’ justice?” firm never recovered the stolen ring; but They seemed, both of them, to be speak- Richard obtained a copy of a letter the firm ing in a balanced rhythm; to be following had from the man who took the ring. the music. Richard’s name was forged on the letter, "Yes, I do. 'With all my heart.” which was partly in longhand, in hand- "Thb statement is given freely and of writing which was a close imitation of his. your own accord?” I have the letter now, and I am going to Odd phrasing: but — —

THE HIGH TOWER 63

"Quite freely. Yes.” • induced him to drink, and, when he was Soft—high—pure were the last notes as unconscious, you set fire to the cottage, the music ended. Dr. Crunch pressed a burning it to the ground. You had pre- button on his desk and spoke into the dicto- viously registered at a New York hotel, and graph. you were not accused. "Send me Donald Almaric." "You, Elin Kingsley, confess that you During this next pause, Dr. Crunch thus murdered your husband?” whistled softly: something from "Martha”. Elin held her breath. That music— It Most unwelcomely, Elin thought of men in had been playing just this part when he high position and of great cruelty who had began to interrogate her a while ago! She been strangely addicted to beauties of line listened, in an agony. And her own voice and color and harmony: dilletante artists unmistakably her voice—came back in who meted out judgment and death in time nightmare horror to her ears: to music "That is right.” Her imagination was feverish, she told "And in view of evidence which I hold herself; yet there was a brutal heaviness of against you, to persuade me for the present jaw to Dr. Crunch that affected her oddly, to silence—you testify the foregoing state- and which she had not before noticed. ment is true?”

Quick steps entered and crossed the room "Yes, I do. With all my heart.” —stopped, somehow jerkily, by the double "This statement is given freely and of mahogany desk, as a deep voice said your own accord?” quietly: "You wanted me?” Elin’s heartbeats dmmmed in her ears. "As a witness, first. Listen to this re- These were the words Dr. Crunch had cording.” really spoken to her, to which she had an- Still without leaving his seat—he was a swered— And again she listened to her large, heavy man—Dr. Crunch pressed a own voice: button which started the hidden victrola "Quite freely. Yes.” again. Made, the record was to be played She was sick, and the floor—was rising back at once. Super-equipment, Elin crookedly before her darkening eyes. From thought. Listened, then: with horror un- a distance she heard once more Dr. utterable, which grew moment by moment Crunch’s voice, and now it was rather tired until it reached the unendurable which still and very old, very gentle: must be endured. "Catch her, my boy!” Arms held her, though she tried to rally, he strains of Kaminow Ostroev were to struggle, as though they were the arms T there, and against them, in narrative, a of an executioner—which, she knew as voice. The voice was that of Dr. Crunch. knowledge failed, they might well enough The words—a devil might have concocted be. But they did not feel evil; only them. strong. "You were camping with your husband Then she gave up consciousness gladly, in a cottage on the south shore, in a lonely, escaping from shock and hurt beyond en- isolated place. Your husband devoted him- durance. self to investigations prompted by patriotic It seemed long afterward when Elin’s concern over the national emergency, and senses returned to her, and perhaps it was, these investigations and his patriotism though outside the high window above wearied you unspeakably. You put a sleep- New York the night was unchanged and ing potion in a highball which you then the fog still pressed. — —

64 WEIRD TALES *

"She’ll be all right. Take her home for its course toward her apartment. It stopped, me, Don.” after a while, before a brownstone house She struggled to a sitting posture. She in the East Eighties, and she yielded herself had been lain on a divan. to the guiding arm of her companion, who "What—are you going to do to me?” helped her out into the dark, murky air. she pleaded with dry lips. And then she drew back, wearily resentful, "Now— Now, don’t excite yourself. nervously apprehensive. Naturally, you were quite shocked. I might "I gave you my address— You’ve

be forcing your resignation; I might have brought me somewhere else!” designs on your life, and wanted this rec- ord to make your death appear suicide. I nger and weakness struggled for pos- might be motivated in many ways. A session of her, and her voice trembled,

"Let it be left for now at this. further unnerving her. But the tall man at "You are my subordinate here. I have her side turned to her in a sudden eager- the jx)licy of acquiring absolute control ness that cut through her misgivings, tak- over those who work close to me. For vari- ing his hand from her arm as though to

ous reasons, such is the case with you. You leave her a free agent even while he, com- are, for the present, to go on as you ex- manded her presence with him. pected to do. Forget your husband’s work, "Mrs. Kingsley—Elin—^You’ve got to however, and his theories, and your listen to me. This is where I live, and you schemes for revenge. You will be busy are quite safe with me. You must come in witli your work here, and we do not want for a while—an hour—^half an hour. There you to endanger yourself—or to be other- are things I must say to you. Things you wise active independent of your official must know.” duties. And that is all. Come tomorrow Reassured, yet not entirely, Elin bent her but not early, if you are too tired. Now head. After all she was going it blind. Good night.” Caught in a net; playing a game of which It was dismissal. Thank God for that. she did not even know the name—if there For the rest? Still nightmare and uncer- was here a chance to learn, it must be tainty. And this stranger Don AJmaric was taken. She had been near to death tonight, to take her home? She would have pre- she had thought. The openness of Dr. ferred to go alone, felt more reassured to Grunch’s treachery told her he would stop go alone; but she dared not even speak. at nothing. To be afraid would not help Silently she nodded a sort of mute acqui- her. There was no escape from fear, which escence to Dr. Grunch’s orders and went would walk beside her, work with her, with the man to whom he had consigned accompany her - home in the dark winter her. He was tall and strong, and wore, she evenings. The only hope was to learn now saw, the clothes of an aviator, having something that might help—if there was on dark sun glasses as though he suffered anything that could help some eye injury. The house was a private one remodeled Silently and together, the two of them into a rooming house. Donald Almaric’s went out into the night. room was on the second floor, and at the In the taxicab, Elin again felt faint. back. Dizzy and a little sick after the strain and "This is quiet, and more or less my own shock of a while ago. Holding on to her- place. I fixed it over a little. But I may not self to combat the feeling of weakness and be here so very long—almost anything malaise, she was unaware when the cab left would have done.” — —

THE HIGH TOWER 65

The silence after this little speech seemed and to read the answers to those questions

to speak. And the language it spoke was without need of words. 'They were dark; sinister. Service under Dr. Crunch might but there was something unusual about be short and perilous. Elin feared him, and their darkness; a hint of clear gray depths he held' her in a vise. She had thought she that changed almost to black from an en- also feared Donald Almaric; but perhaps largement of the pupils. And, keen as the he was as innocently well meaning a person eyes were, there was in them a look of as she herself had been when she walked strain, almost of pain. The dark glasses into Dr. Crunch’s set-up. Two well-mean- were worn, then, for grave reason. ing flies, thoroughly enmeshed in a web When Almaric spoke again, Elin’s from which release perhaps could come shrinking turned to trembling.

only through death. One false step in a "There’s no way to say what I must, but ma2e where pitfalls waited for unwary feet the shortest. I know where to begin, now;

that did not know where they were going it must be with you and me; and you must She shuddered, and Almaric seated her trust me—beyond all possibility you must in a chair before the fireplace, in which a trust me. You see, there is no time; we are

fire was laid. He bent over it, striking a like two who might have met during the match; and Elin studied him—his tall, well French revolution under the shadow of the set up body, and the shape of his head, guillotine. The need of haste sweeps away

•and the way it was set on his shoulders. the need of censorship, of delay, of weigh- There was something about him that was ing this and measuring that.

very pleasing. Likable in a way in which "Life is a broken song, and love another,

one does not think of a stranger. and I love you; and when we part tonight it

She felt herself blush, and it was rather may be forever, because I go on a journey a pleasant feeling. It had been long since that may take me out of your life—^and out she had done that. The strain, the shock of of life. Now there is no time for any more this evening, had made her come alive. It of this, any more tlian we would have time must have been that. for the things people have time for to

Then she shrank back into the depths of whom life is a long, slow, aimless softness.

her chair. For Almaric had moved swiftly And I would not exchange with them, if

as the flames leaped up in the dark fire- tonight is my last night on earth. Only place, so that now he knelt before her. He Only I wish my going—if I must go did not touch her—^but she felt the power were not to accomplish what it must. I go of his thought, of his will, as though they on a mission which means, I think, that I

were tangible things. shall locate something it is vital I must "You and I must work together, and you locate. But to return with that knowledge must trust me. I don’t know where to is another thing.’’

begin. 'There is much you have to learn, if As his voice faltered at the beginning of you are to help me against such foes as you the last sentence, it seemed close to break- have not imaged in your wildest night- ing, and Elin was strangely touched. But mares. Foes of ours, because they are foes then he went on strongly, and as he fin- of this land we love. Foes of Cod’s world, ished his eyes grew compelling and tender. that should be fair and peaceful.’’ "I have only one more thing to say Elin stared back in utter silence into the about you and me—or rather, about you,’’ eyes searching hers. The dark glasses laid he resumed. "Something I want to hear aside, those eyes were deep set and deeply Elin—with your heart. burning, and they seemed to ask questions. "Your eyes are two blue lakes, your — — — —

66 WEIRD TALES

mouth a rose. In your eyes is the wisdom need that, for I need your help in a cause of a beautiful soul, and your lips are a that is both yours and mine. And yet I promise that should be kept. But you are a wish— I could have uttered tliat little bit creature of the spring rather than of sum- of descriptive blank verse as though it mer, and you are a lovely moon that is al- were my thought only—not mentioning ways crescent, and it is so I carry your any other man. People love once, and sel- image with me and think of you. dom twice, and you have the advantage of

"Now that is a prose poem about you, me, for I’ve never loved until I saw your Elin, and perhaps I’ve read too many poets, face. And I ask you to love a third time, from Omar Khayyam to Tagore. Anyway, it even while I say there is no time for love. fits, and those words have been said to you If by a happy chance there should be time —almost like that—by another, whom you for love, we’ll speak of this again. But —’’ trusted. Elin—Elin now "I am familiar with Dr. Crunch’s "I^OR the second time in her life, and for method of superimposing one recording the second time in one night, Elin upon another where blank spaces have been fainted. For the words, or words very like left, which is the method he used for forg- them, that Almaric had used, had been ing your spoken confession. 'The music spoken to her twice before—by two men fumis'hed the timing. He does those things she had loved. Derek first—he had loved sometimes with a deadly object; sometimes her very deeply, and he had written them merely for practice. He is a mechanical into a sort of poem, half in prose. Richard wizard—and, unfortvmately, a great scien- had seen that poem, after her parting in tist. And the purposes and ends he serves anger with Derek—a senseless anger over "I have another record of the doctor’s nothing of importance; Richard had made making, and I want you to listen to it. her forget the pain of it. Richard had loved You’ll find it beyond belief, beyond ex- her so much he had loved that poem Derek planation. Any explanation should come had written to her, had said it fitted her, after you heard it, and after hearing it you had said the words over sometimes, a little will be able to believe what I shall tell whimsically you.” And tonight, to hear them from a In the corner of the room stood a radio- stranger victrola, and Almaric crossed over to it. There was the taste of brandy on her Elin leaned back in her chair again, not in lips, and Almaric stood at a little distance weakness, now, but with a feeling of ease from her as she opened her eyes. that was both new and unreasonable. Peace "You must be—have been—a friend of in the face of peril, and a feeling of having Richard’s—or of Derek Lance, to have reached home after a long journey, just at heard those words. I suppose men do share the outset of monstrous and terrifying ad- their dreams sometimes, as women do; venture. Strange alchemy. But no need to though it seems unlike either of them. To fight it. People weren’t blamed for their —’’ hear those words this way, after so long thoughts or feelings if they stood on the Almaric’s smile was quizzical, a little deck of a sinking ship—or if they were cast remote. away on an island inhabited by headhunt- "There’s humor in all things;' even love; ers. Elin thought of Dr. Crunch and shiv- even death,’’ he said. "I said we have no ered; headhunters who were frankly more time for personal conversation, and it savages would be so infinitely preferable is true. I think you trust me now, and I to smooth old gentlemen of impeccable ” —

THE HIGH TOWER 67 manners who plotted to destroy you and blame the aggressors, and haste the evil all you thought worth living for. But that, day to them in their turn? of course, w'as the Fifth Column they had "In cowardice they cringe before the talked and written about at the beginning whip. But the whip is a whip of scorpions, of the Great War; before they had come to and those who dare not stand together shall calling it the black cancer, because of the be scourged in separateness until all their way it ate at the heart of a nation, and then blood is shed. And brother shall turn the nation died—or functioned. Zombie- against brother, arguing and blaming, as in like, an animated corpse. no other civil war ever. They shall blame There came the little sound a record each other for any warlike word^ and yet makes when it begins to play. Then words, for lack of preparing weapons at the same in a voice that brought Dr. Crunch uncom- time, and in their confusion their minds

fortably near, since it was his: shall grow dark as night. "Conditions are as good as I can bring "And the aggressor nations, those whose about. Will you come in? Will you speak?” hearts we have won to us, shall conquer; Another pause. And Elin knew that Dr. till afterward, WE come. We, from space. Crunch’s voice had held one quality, at We who kill more coldly than any; more least, which she had not heard in it before. insatiably; more utterly. And who reward Was that quality fear, or was it—awe? such as you. Now another voice. And this was the "Keep the way open to me, night and

voice of the person the doctor was afraid day, for the time is near. Increase the of. mighty arsenal under the wings of the

The voice of a person who spoke desert mirage. Make sure it is enough to strangely, indistinctly. There was a distor- account for your country which boasts so tion that suggested distance and trans- greatly. Guard that arsenal and the hidden mution through more than one medium of place thereof. And fear always the danger conductance. There was a suggestion of of the encroachment of that rare telepathy something organically strange—as though which is the only threat to our secret plans. a deformed, or strangely formed throat ac- If there is one capable of utter heights of complished with difficulty sounds which pure devotion impersonal and selfless—^yet necessitated painful effort. A phrasing that pointed by personal love and loyalty was foreign—but that was a secondary guided on the hidden path by light from effect. Slow syllables that at first meant more than one world—rarely is there man little, because it was hard for the ear to as- or woman like that, and—such a one must similate then. Slow syllables: be destroyed. And now The strange words turned into gibberish.

COME in. Conditions well. You ac- After it was over, after a little silence,

complish much, and it goes fast on- Elin asked: ward. We will see the race of men go mad, "A doctrine of utter terror—spread by and the resisters utterly destroyed. They whom, or—^what? Is there a clue?” quarrel; when a nation takes up brutal arms Almaric’s right hand moved slightly. of aggression, those who love peace most "This is a reproduction of a record 1 accuse the victims—not the aggressors. borrowed—^stole—from Dr. Crunch’s files. That is because tliey fear to raise the cur- I turned it off, but there is more. Listen to tains of their windows and look out on the the end.” horror that waits; so because of their fear The guttural gibberish recommenced. they blame the sufferers. For dare they Assumed, slowly, again resemblance to — — ” —

68 WEIRD TALES human words in a tongue unknown, or Outside a man stood who seemed to little known, to Elin. Put on the cloak Elin vaguely familiar. Something she again of difficulty 'Spoken English, at the could not place—but something remem- end—which was in few words. These bered were: "Mrs. Kingsley? Excuse my following "Now I sign off. Sending from Saturn. you here—but I have so little time. I fotind I, the Lord of Chaos, spoke to Earth.” you had been employed in Dr. Crunch’s Lightly, Almaric crossed the room to the office, and that you had left there last night deep chair where Elin sat like one lost in with Donald Almaric. Not finding you at nightmare. Lightly he lifted her and car- home, I came here— But what does that ried her to the divan. matter? Though I think you were told to "I won’t take you home tonight. You go to your home. are so tired. And if you are safe anywhere, "I have a message for you, Mrs. Kings- it is here. We are together, I’d live for you ley, from a former friend of yours—and of —die for you. That means something, even your husband’s. I come from Derek Lance. in this darkened world. He went as a volunteer, you doubtless

"Sleep. I’ll lie down in the next room. knew, in foreign service against the 'Aggres- In the morning we’ll talk again, but briefly, sor Gebund’. I happen to be a foreign cor- for I leave very early.” respondent of a newspaper here. When the electric lights were snapped "I was allowed a few words with Derek off, the room was soft in firelight and Lance in hospital—just—before his death. shadow. Elin felt encompassed by a white He had— Ah, I regret magic that would turn away the evil that Elin, who had risen, felt herself sway lurked—so heavily. against Almaric’s arm. She heard Almaric’s "Sending from Saturn— I, the Lord of deep, bitter curse, and that, more than the Chaos.” Some madman. Madness was touch of his arm, seemed strangely chaos, and the world was mad, and its mad- strengthening. ness was spreading. What if "Derek was a dear, dear friend—of mine and Richard,” she heard herself say. ike tender, soothing fingers the soft "Go on. I am ready to hear any message L lights and shadows slipped across he sent, of course.” Elin’s white lids, closed now in utter weari- "He had won spectacular fame as an ness. Elin slept. aviator, in the defense of Britain, and so I Somewhere, with great insistence, a bell sought him out. He spoke of you just be- rang. Footsteps then, that hurried; and an fore he died. He said: 'Tell her, and all of insistent knocking at the door. them, to lay down their arms. The aggres- Dressed in the clothes he had worn, last sor nations cannot be defeated. Once sub- night, which he undoubtedly had slept in mission is complete, the world will be as had Elin in hers, Almaric strode across reborn. Tell Elin Kingsley to xmite herself the room where Elin lay. The dark glasses with those who come to conquer her coun- were before his eyes, and he seemed alert try, for her country is weak and divided and ready to be gone. decadent. She may find safety thus. I’ve "Those who serve as we serve earn a heard she and Kingsley were carrying on night’s deviation at the price of upsetting inquiries of a dangerous nature. Tell Elin,

the spy system, and must pay for it in one convince the destroyers of he.r loyalty to way or another,” he muttered as he threw them, before too late. Tell her I died in open the door. torture—let her live in safety. Safety is —

THE HIGH TOWER 69

better than loyalty, and those who fight the "I leave on Dr. Grunch’s mission. Elin, ” irresistible conqueror are fools.’ good-by until I come again.” Elin stared at the man who had spoken. The two men left together. She hoped Nothing outstanding in feature or bearing; their ways lay apart; but that was a detail. a very average man in appearance. Bold This mission was one from which there eyes that met her own—it was not the eyes might be no return, and Almaric had that she almost remembered. Something in spoken casually of returning because of the the set of the shoulders? Not the eyes, but hateful presence of the messenger. they were so bold, so china-blue that any- She must go to the office today, fearful one who knew this man should remember or brave; then better go as bravely as pos- them, and she did not. sible. Besides, she couldn’t rest. There That awful message from Derek. Mes- might be clues—a clue—to the nature of sage of utter defeat. Of a brave spirit Almaric’s journey. He might have told her broken. Message of twofold death, that of more. Perhaps he would have done so, but the body and of the high heart she had for the arrival of China-Blue Eyes. She known well. must try to find out something more for She must thank this man who bore the herself, at the risk of her life—^which was message. Her dry lips parted and she heard no great risk since it was already forfeit as no sound. And then they spoke—of their price of knowing too much. own volition, for she had not intended the But as she turned in the street, a taxicab words they uttered. swerved close to her, so close that she

"You lie. Derek Lance may have died. winced away from it. The door opened, He never sent that message. They could and she felt as though a cavern yawned be- kill his body, but not his soul. He’d fight fore her. what is devilish and vile and cruel till he "Get in, my dear!” Ah, it was Dr. died—and after he died. As I will.’’ Crunch. She would not even be allowed She was never to forget the look of the respite of a return to the office and its hatred that came into those bold, china- fears— blue eyes then. But Almaric swung her "We are also going on the journey Al- around by the arms so that they faced each maric and the man you saw are taking,” other. She could not see his eyes behind said Dr. Crunch. the dark glasses; but something passed be- "This is a crisis of international affairs-— tween them that was deeper than a look, of affairs reaching beyond this planet, did something for which there were no words. you but know. They are on their way to the The china-blue eyes were on Almaric air field. Almaric will fly our plane, but we when a sharp word from their owner re- go as passengers—we others. What is to called Elin’s attention. be done must be well done—and thor- "Mr. Almaric, I stopped by Dr. oughly!” Grunch’s office, as you will have gathered.

Beside the message to Mrs. Kingsley, I IGH'TMARE. Waiting, delay, the bear his sealed orders to you. You leave at N commonplace, the unbelievable. The once.” taxi crawling through traffic; and Elin won- Only for a moment more his hands dered if she could have escaped. She would touched her, his eyes held her, though she not try. She longed to be with Almaric. could not see them. Then he spoke quickly: 'This deck of cards from which they were "I told you I was vmder orders and they playing with the issues of more than life have come. I was waiting for them and death was stacked against them—but — —

70 WEIRD TALES they would be together. Her heart hastened The mesa-land looked like desert pictures, ahead, to be with him. And there must be a bare, rocky, shining with shim.mering chance; some chance, any chance. She and dawn-colors although the sun had passed Almaric trusted each other, were true. This the zenith now. meant, then, more than doubling forces; Then there was a charm for good in the alle- Elin caught her breath, half unbelieving. giance of two who were honest and brave. Down there ahead a red light flashed a

They reached the airport, found the signal. Its beam was pencil-shaped, and it waiting plane and took off. Elin saw the glared against the full noonday radiance glint of steel at the edge of Dr. Crunch’s of sunlight on barren ground, sand and coat pocket, in which he hid his right hand; rock. The power of light which could show the other man, still nameless to her, like- itself distinctly to an airplane against that wise kept his right hand in his pocket, reflected sunglare was beyond belief.

which showed no gleam of metal, but But something stranger still: which bulged. And so they enplaned and Around the spot from which that red left the, earth. No one interfered with Al- pencil of light proceeded was empty desert. maric in the handling of the plane. He had Yes, but was it empty desert? A ghostly, his orders; he would certainly have to carry mirage-like picture seemed to shimmer them out. through the light— Elin’s eyeballs ached Dr. Crunch was preoccupied, much of as she stared down. They drew nearer. It the time, after the first few moments. He was like one picture superimposed upon took from a huge briefcase which he car- another. Nearer and lower: and the desert ried two boxes with sliding covers, and was no longer there. Instead, a walled into these he frequently peered. city, not small, grimly significant, appeared. And the plane’s course was westward, It had factories, many of them. A huge its speed beyond any Elin had known to be field full of bombing planes, row on ro"?^ possible. Still, there were those new bomb- of them; another field, like a fantastic ers from California, that disappeared from giant’s parking lot, was full of tanks. sight before their sound reaped watchers Nearby, cannons and anti-aircraft guns. on the earth, and this plane was not more And all of this was an arsenal-city under powerfully motored than that. But it glass. From a reasonable distance a flier hurled itself through the air—ever west- saw only the continued reflection-picture of ward, and the topography over which they desert that surrounded those glass walls, passed in the far upper distance changed because of the slant and thickness of them. the Eastern mountains were crossed, the No painting made with opaque paints Midwestern farmlands, the broad Missis- could have been safe from detection as this sippi a thin ribbon—then the Western was safe; the light would play tricks with prairies and the mesa country. such a painting, it could be detected. But And here the plane shot downward. this shimmery, mirror effect—it had the "Lower, Almaric. Pretty low. And when verisimilitude of mirage, which is detect-

you see something, glide lower and slower, able only because it is seen in an unex- and drop the parachuted parcel—and rest pected place. The mirage-like picture of easy about damaging what is beneath its continued desert would never be suspected

fall. Its damage is not intended for our in a million years by a flier at ordinary own center of armament, our arsenal.” cross-country flight altitudes; because he Silently, then, the four of them stared would see, of course, only what he ex- earthward. The plane sloped downward. pected to see—^must see: the desert country. — — —

THE HIGH TOWER 71

The paradiute was launched, went flut- isting governments of the democracies. We tering down. Dr. Crunch went to speak to w'ho war from within have great advan- Almaric. The plane changed the direction tages, indeed. Why dissemble longer? All of its flight, and continued away for per- of us know the situation. Well—tonight haps a quarter of an hour. Then it slanted we sleep. Soundly, I hope. I myself can do down and glided to a landing. Dr. Crunch with a few hours of sound slumber; last took Elin’s arm to lead her from the plane, night I was busy with the germ-container. holding it possessively. She stepped out Tomorrow—you will know all you wonder and looked about her. about—and will have forgotten all that you This was still unbroken desert. But on know— Will have forgotten. the other side of the plane from which she He looked at Elin, and sighed a little. stood now, there was a poor sort of road And the sigh seemed like a seal set on her leading up to an unpainted, dingy desert doom, and Almaric’s. He knew what would habitation; a farm house where there was be done to make them sleep soundly nothing to farm. Elin shuddered a little. enough to forget They had landed here, at a place that She felt a scream rising in iKr throat, showed no reason for its existence. Why? and choked it down vehemently. Hysterics Almaric had set the plane down because of would be worse than fainting, because they those two automatic revolvers which the would hurt Almaric now. She’d walk other men carried. But why had he been bravely to meet what came so stealthily ordered to do so? She walked, in fact, across the road and

toward the dingy little house with no HE felt her heart grow sick, and the prompting. And, his step sounding springy S fainting of her faculties against which and firm beside her, Almaric overtook and she had fought and lost yesterday in Dr. walked with her. Crunch’s office. But now she was harder, The door sagged open, and they entered she would not faint. Besides, so long as the dark, ill-smelling room beyond it. And one was conscious, there might be more of behind them, following, came the footsteps a chance. This place resembled a kidnaping of the other two. And brief words, mut- hideout, as much as anything. Here where tered low in Dr. Crunch’s suave tones:

no farm was or could ever be, it might have "Almaric never learned that the explo- been used for just that purpose. Well, in sion that almost blinded him was an at- that was a little hope, not much. But men tempt at my order, to get him out of the and women and children have been kid- way. This girl—I have a recording in her naped and never seen alive, and also they voice which will impute her disappearance have been kidnaped and returned to their to suicide. We can make good time on this own homes and lives. Only—this was trip and be back in New York tomorrow. hardly a case of holding for ransom. One move from either of them—eacb of She knew too much. Almaric knew too us knows what to do with his revolver, my much. It was perhaps some protection that lad!” no one would believe them if they told The westering sun slipped behind the what they knew. Yet mesa rim, and when that door closed be- "Tonight we rest here and sleep,” Dr. hind the three men and Elin, it was as Crunch said in a very oily tone. though night entered the dirty room with "That parcel we dropped contained them. A night that would know murder, germs. They are making up some new but not another dawn for her and Almaric poison-bombs for our total war against ex- Dr. Crunch looked significantly at his ” ”

72 WEIRD TALES assistant and nodded; and the latter went give us any warning we need while we are into an adjoining room and lit a lamp in here, there. It cast a dingy yellow light, which "If Almaric stays quiet, then a blow on streamed out through the doorway, lessen- the head when we are ready. In the un- ing the darkness in the room where Elin likely event these ruins are ever searched, and Almaric stood -vyith Dr. Crunch. It a bullet hole sometimes shows on the threw the shadow of that man in the next charred skeleton. Take the girl after Al- room who still was nameless on the wall maric. I myself will give her an injection opposite the doorway. before we fire the house. I am a little sorry Elin’s heart seemed to burst outward and for the girl. upward, almost to stop her breathing; "Then fire the shack and we leave. But checking the scream upon her lips because first I will report progress, that we are here, she was suffocating with an unexpected, that we are about to eliminate these two twisting terror. For she knew that shadow, who understand too much of things others that silhouette. She had seen it near the would laugh at, and so never— believe till all camp where Richard was killed. She had is over. The space-radio felt there was some ugly association con- Into a short silence broke the aackling nected with China-Blue Eyes—^now she sound of heavy static Elin had listened to knew. This was one of the killers of the on the record Almaric had run for her in international organization that would de- his room in New York. She shrank in- stroy humanity, as the earth had known wardly again, her heart and stomach seem- humanity. Every one of the vulture-nations ing to leave their positions in her body, as had boasted numbers of these professional the onset of an acute seasickness sometimes killers, as they had boasted of their in- makes them seem to do. For she expected filtration of professional trouble makers. now, in this horrible place and in the face And she and Almaric were to meet their of certain and sordid death, to listen to the end at the hand of this man to whom kill- obscene croakings of whatever monstrosity ing was a job. she had listened to back in the comparative "Ready, Doctor!” safety of Almaric’s room. She moved close to Almaric. For this Pressing her handkerchief against her was the voice of that other, the killer in mouth, forcing a semi-control of her nerve the adjoining room. But Dr. Crunch turned reactions, she crept close to Almaric, heavily toward the doorway and passed pressed silently against him. His arms

through it. There was to be a respite—at closed around her—drew her close—closer. least of moments. And in the horrible little room a miracle happened. r. CRUNCH’S footsteps sounded What had Almaric told her, back in the D heavy and ponderous in the next comparative haven of New York? — room. Then he spoke—in a tone low, but "No time for delay, for play at love not low enough to make his words inaudi- Something like that! ble to the two who listened. And Elin There was time only for the real, the thought—the unspeakable cruelty of letting true, he had said. them hear! He was right. The past was very far "You will have to subdue Almaric. One away, and death was very near, and here in shot from either of our guns if he shows the room in which she would shortly be fight or makes a move to escape. The door murdered, Elin knew again and most unex- and window locks will hold well enough to pectedly the lost rapture of love. Almaric — ” — — ” — — — —

THE HIGH TOWER 73

a stranger? Not that, since both of them Into no intelligible syllables the great

had given their lives to one gallant cause, voice died. If it had been a voice?

and for it were losing them. Rather, two Something horrible that had pressed late met, but bearing each in the inmost very near was going away. The noise was hidden place of heart and soul a secret code fading as into distances illimitable, and or signal—an open seasame by which they now it was not like the sound any voice must recognize each other. Late met, but could ever have made. It was a sound like not too late, since before death they the rushing of something formless going knew far through emptiness, and sucking and The world with its imminent horror moaning as it went—reaching out for noth- seemed for a moment utterly to vanish. ing into nothingness

Because it did not matter. It was perhaps half an hour before any- It was surprise that brought them back thing more happened after merciful silence to the world around them, made them lis- fell. Then Dr. Crunch came in. ten again as they had never listened before. "The man in there has lived by murder Surprise—and the dawn of an utterly im- and would hire himself to someone else, possible thing. A hint that here, at the end and go on living by murder,’’ he said. His of the road, instead voice was very old and very tired. "I warned you, fool! Against bringing "He was not expecting me to turn into contact with the earth-space radio vi- against him. I slipped a hypodermic into brations, fatal things. We found our em- his arm, and he will not wake again. pire on hate and darkness. Love is a "In New York there is a high tower mystery, but we— know it radiates something the highest of all the skyscrapers. You —destructive know the one I mean. We used it to It was the ugly, awe-inducing voice of establish a space-radio system beyond the

the space monster. But it was broken wildest dreams. Something of this you fading, and swelling, seeming to choke know. The towers of New York grounded damply and to restore itself to a semblance in granite were like a mighty crystal set of coherency by the most impossible and always potentially the means of contacting painful efforts. powers beyond our little earth. They might "You opened the circuit between me and have been used for good, perhaps earth before those two were killed, in the "You know how I used them. The high next room. And they have fused suddenly tower must be inspected and our apparatus their beings into a thing rare on earth or removed and destroyed. You, Almaric, will

any planet—into that kind of love which see to it. Without the New York station to kills things built on hate and darkness draw down to earth the farthest radio and that can disintegrate me— waves, no other station can receive or send. "No— Do not kill them now\ The cir- "There is, it seems, a higher tower that cuit is made— They are too near to me overtopped the one we used so successfully Would find me out and direct the forces on —the impregnable fortress of an unquench- which the universe has been upheld, against able soul. When two like that meet a spark me— I, the indestructible, would be de- is kindled— Well, you heard. It is a spark stroyed! of the divine fire that built the universe "Into dark, cold recesses of lost parts of and gave it life, perhaps. It has been fatal unused space I go— You have lost your to the one I served—has driven him out, — — emperor from space—and your— empire on away ^bq^ond returning? Well, you heard. earth— Fool! Fool!— Ah! "Without a leader from outside, the evil — —; . — ” —

74 WEIRD TALES in men’s hearts will no longer reach to drawn her in the dark hut a while ago. heights of madness. The world cijn be re- "Those words I quoted about your stored, policed mouth and eyes and—^you "The arsenal in the desert can be used "They were given me by Lance Derek, for that. Almaric, you will know what to as he was dying. He knew that you and do—to whom to report Richard, he and I, all served a common "I shall stay here. If you send for me, cause. He did not guess of course—unless you will not find me. Take the plane, Al- with the strange prescience of the dying maric. Get it into the air with Elin—and that you could love me ever—though he leave this place. Elin is very tired. might have felt, knowing you, that I must "Take her home for me, my boy!” love you. Besides, then there was Richard. "But he gave me those words to repeat he plane loomed black against the soft to you if time was pressing and danger T diffusion of starlight on desert, and near, and I must compel your trust. If I against the night sky with its brilliant must work with you and help you. desert stars. Just beyond hand-reach seemed "When I first said them to you, they the stars. Elin realized that for a long time made you listen and believe me.—Even then she had not looked into the sky with any I meant them— And till I die feeling of uplift. Now, even had she stood They climbed into the plane, that lifted alone under the starry spaces, she would to the skyway. The stars were nearer then have known a joyful serenity. —much nearer; and all around them, as But Almaric drew her close, as he had they flew toward the dawn.

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